μισθός του, ὁ μανυτὰς γέρας ἕξει, τὸ φίλαμα τὸ Κύπριδος· ἦν δ', ἀγάγης οὐ γυμνὸν τὸ φίλαμα, τὺ δ ̓, ὦ ξένε, καὶ πλέον ἕξεις. On him, who the haunts of my Cupid can show, Subjoined to this ode, we find in the Vatican MS. the following lines, which appear to me to boast as little sense as metre, and which are most probably the interpolation of the transcriber: ἡδυμελὴς ̓Ανακρέων καὶ αὐτὸς Ερως κἂν ἐπίειν. 2 Those critics who have endeavored to throw the chains of precision over the spirit of this beautiful trifle, require too much from Anacreontic philosophy. Among others, Gail very sapiently thinks that the poet uses the epithet μελαίνη, because black earth absorbs moisture more quickly than any other; and accordingly he indulges us with an experimental disquisition on the subject. See Gail's Notes. One of the Capilupi has imitated this ode, in an epitaph on a drunkard: Dum vixi sine fine bibi, sic imbrifer arcus While life was mine, the little hour Or flushing sun inhales the sea: And Bacchus was outdone by me! And then the dewy cordial gives ODE XXII. THE Phrygian rock, that braves the storm, I cannot omit citing those remarkable lines of Shakspeare, where the thoughts of the ode before us are preserved with such striking similitude: "I'll example you with thievery. The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction "Timon of Athens," act iv. sc. 3. 3 a weeping matron's form. Niobe. Ogilvie, in his "Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients," in remarking upon the Odes of Anacreon, says, " In some of his pieces there is exuberance and even wildness of imagination; in that particularly, which is addressed to a young girl, where he wishes alternately to be transformed to a mirror, a coat, a stream, a bracelet, and a pair of shoes, for the different purposes which he recites; this is mere sport and wantonness." It is the wantonness, however, of a very graceful Muse; ludit amabiliter. The compliment of this ode is exquisitely delicate, and so singular for the period in which Anacreon lived, when the scale of love had not yet been graduated into all its little progressive refinements, that if we were inclined to question the authenticity of the poem, we should find a much more plausible argument in the features of modern gallantry which it bears, than in any of those fastidious conjectures upon which some commentators have presumed so far. Degen thinks it spurious, and De Pauw pronounces it to be miserable. Longepierre and Barnes refer us to several imitations of this ode, from which I Or could I be the robe which holds shall only select the following epigram of Dionysius: εἶθ' ἄνεμος γενόμην, σὺ δέ γε στείχουσα παρ' avyás, στήθεα γυμνώσαις, καί με πνέοντα λάβοις. εἶθε ῥόδον γενόμην υποπόρφυεον, ὄφρα με χερσὶν ἀραμένη, κομίσαις στέθεσι χιονέοις. εἶθε κρίνον γενόμην λευκόχροον, ὄφρα με χερσὶν ἀραμένη, μάλλον σῆς χροτίης κορέσης. I wish I could like zephyr steal I wish I might a rose-bud grow, And thou wouldst cull me from the bower, To place me on that breast of snow, Where I should bloom, a wintry flower. I wish I were the lily's leaf, To fade upon that bosom warm; The trophy of thy fairer form! I may add, that Plato has expressed as fanciful a wish in a distich preserved by Laertius: — ἀστέρας εἰσαθρεῖς, ̓Αστηρ ἐμός. είθε γενοίμην οὐρανὸς, ὡς πολλοῖς ὄμμασιν εἰς σὲ βλέπω, TO STELLA. Why dost thou gaze upon the sky? Oh! that I were that spangled sphere, To wonder on thy beauties here! Apuleius quotes this epigram of the divine philosopher, to justify himself for his verses on Critias and Charinus. See his "Apology," where he also adduces the example of Anacreon: "Fecere tamen et alii talia, et si vos ignoratis, apud Græcos Teius quidam," etc. 1 Or, better still, the zone, that lies Close to thy breast, and feels its sighs! This Tauvin was a riband, or band, called by the Romans fascia and strophium, which the women wore for the purpose of restraining the exuberance of the bosom. Vide" Polluc. Onomast." Thus Martial: Fascia crescentes domina compesce papillas. The women of Greece not only wore this zone, but condemned themselves to fasting, and made use of certain drugs and powders for the same purpose. To these expedients they were compelled, in consequence of their inelegant fashion of compressing the waist into a very narrow compass, which necessarily caused an excessive tumidity in the bosom. See "Dioscorides," lib. v. 3 According to the order in which the odes are usually placed, this (Θέλω λέγειν ̓Ατρείδας) forms the first of the series; and is thought to be peculiarly designed as an introduction to the rest. It however characterizes the genius of the Teian but very inadequately, as wine, the burden of his lays, is not even mentioned in it: -cum multo Venerem confundere mero precepit Lyrici Teia Musa senis. - OVID. The twenty-sixth Ode, Σὺ μὲν λέγεις τὰ Θήβης, might, with just as much propriety, be placed at the head of his songs. We find the sentiments of the ode before us expressed by Bion with much simplicity in his fourth idyl. The above translation is, perhaps, too paraphrastical; but the ode has been so frequently translated, that I could not otherwise avoid triteness and repetition. Attuned them to a nobler swell, ODE XXIV.3 To all that breathe the air of heaven, She fenced with wreathed horns his skull; 1 In all the glow of epic fire, To Hercules I wake the lyre. Madame Dacier generally translates λúpη into a lute, which I believe is inaccurate. "D'expliquer la lyre des anciens [says M. Sorel] par un luth, c'est ignorer la différence qu'il y a entre ces deux instrumens de musique." -"Bibliothèque Françoise." 2 But still its fainting sighs repeat, "The tale of love alone is sweet!" The word ȧvredove in the original, may im. ply that kind of musical dialogue practised by the ancients, in which the lyre was made to respond to the questions proposed by the singer. This was a method which Sappho used, as we are told by Hermogenes; ὅταν τὴν λύραν ερωτά Σάπφω, καὶ ὅταν αὐτὴ ἀποκρίνηται.” Περί 3 Henry Stephen has imitated the idea of this ode in the following lines of one of his poems: Provida dat cunctis Natura animantibus arma, et sua fæmineum possidet arma genus, ungulâque ut defendit equum, atque ut cornua taurum, armata est formâ fœmina pulchra suâ. And the same thought occurs in those lines spoken by Corisca in "Pastor Fido: Cosi noi la bellezza Ch'è vertù nostra cosi propria, come La forza del leone, E l'ingegno de l'huomo. The lion boasts his savage powers, And lordly man his strength of mind; But beauty's charm is solely ours, Peculiar boon, by Heav'n assigned. While for the umbrage of the grove, To man she gave, in that proud hour, ODE XXV.7 ONCE in each revolving year, 4 To man she gave, in that proud hour, In my first attempt to translate this ode, I had interpreted opóvnua, with Baxter and Barnes, as implying courage and military virtue; but I do not think that the gallantry of the idea suffers by the import which I have now given to it. For, why need we consider this possession of wisdom as exclusive? and in truth, as the design of Anacreon is to estimate the treasure of beauty, above all the rest which Nature has distributed, it is perhaps even refining upon the delicacy of the compliment, to prefer the radiance of female charms to the cold illumination of wisdom and prudence; and to think that women's eyes are — the books, the academies, From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. 5 She gave thee beauty - mightier far Than all the pomp and power of war. Thus Achilles Tatius : κάλλος οξύτερον τιτρώ σκει βέλους, καὶ διὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν εἰς τὴν ψυχὴν καταρρεῖ. Οφθαλμὸς γὰρ ὁδὸς ἐρωτικῷ τραύματι. "Beauty wounds more swiftly than the arrow, and passes through the eye to the very soul; for the eye is the inlet to the wounds of love." 6 Be thou but fair, mankind adore thee, Smile, and a world is weak before thee! Longepierre's remark here is ingenious: "The Romans," says he, "were so convinced of the power of beauty, that they used a word implying strength in the place of the epithet beautiful. Thus Plautus, act 2. scene 2. 'Bacchid.' Sed Bacchis etiam fortis tibi visa. Fortis, id est formosa,' say Servius and Nonius." 7 We have here another ode addressed to the swallow. Alberti has imitated both in one poem, beginning Perch' io pianga al tuo canto, Thou comest to weave thy simple nest; ODE XXVI.2 THY harp may sing of Troy's alarms, 1 Alas! unlike the swarm of Loves, . That brood within this hapless breast, And never, never change their nest! Thus Love is represented as a bird, in an epigram cited by Longepierre from the Anthologia: αἰεί μοι δύνει μὲν ἐν οὔασιν ἦχος ἔρωτος, ὄμμα δὲ σιγα πόθοις τὸ γλυκὺ δάκρυ φέρει. οὐδ ̓ ἡ νύξ, οὐ φέγγος ἐκοίμισεν, ἀλλ ̓ ὑπὸ φίλτρων ἠδέ που κραδίη γνωστὸς ἔνεστι τύπος. ὦ πτανοί, μὴ καί ποτ' ἐφίπτασθαι μὲν ἔρωτες 'Tis Love that murmurs in my breast, A wound within my heart I find, And oh! 't is plain where Love has been; Oh, bird of Love! with song so drear, 2 "The German poet Uz has imitated this ode. Compare also Weisse Scherz. Lieder, lib. iii., 'Der Soldat."" GAIL, DEGEN. With other wars my song shall burn, ODE XXVII.4 WE read the flying courser's name Where Love has dropt his burning spark! 3 No-'t was from eyes of liquid blue, A host of quivered Cupids flew. Longepierre has quoted part of an epigram from the seventh book of the Anthologia, which has a fancy something like this: οὐ μὲ λέληθας, τόξοτα, Ζηνοφίλας όμμασι κρυπτόμενος. The poets abound with conceits on the archery of the eyes, but few have turned the thought so naturally as Anacreon. Ronsard gives to the eyes of his mistress un petit camp d'amours. 4 This ode forms a part of the preceding in the Vatican MS., but I have conformed to the editions in translating them separately. 5 But in the lover's glowing eyes, "We cannot see into the heart," says Madame Dacier. But the lover answers Il cor ne gli occhi et ne la fronte ho scritto. M. La Fosse has given the following lines, as enlarging on the thought of Anacreon: Lorsque je vois un amant, Il cache en vain son tourment, In vain the lover tries to veil The flame that in his bosom lies; We read it in his languid eyes: ODE XXVIII. As, by his Lemnian forge's flame, 'T was from the ranks of war he rushed, Here, hold this little dart awhile, And thou wilt find, though swift of flight, My bolts are not so feathery light." Mars took the shaft and, oh, thy Sweet Venus, when the shaft he took! 1 While Love, at hand, to finish all, Tipped every arrow's point with gall. Thus Claudian : Labuntur gemini fontes, hic dulcis, amarus alter, et infusis corrumpit mella venenis, unde Cupidineas armavit fama sagittas. In Cyprus' isle two rippling fountains fall, And one with honey flows, and one with gall; In these, if we may take the tale from fame, The son of Venus dips his darts of flame. See Alciatus, emblem 91., on the close connection which subsists between sweets and bitterness. "Apes ideo pungunt [says Petronius], quia ubi dulce, ibi et acidum invenies." The allegorical description of Cupid's employment, in Horace, may vie with this before us in fancy, though not in delicacy: — ODE XXIX. YES-loving is a painful thrill, 2 Yes-loving is a painful thrill, And not to love more painful still; etc. The following Anacreontic, addressed by Menage to Daniel Huet, enforces, with much grace, the "necessity of loving."- περὶ τοῦ δεῖν φιλῆσαι. πρὸς Πέτρον Δανιήλα Χεττον. TO PETER DANIEL HUET. Thou! of tuneful bards the first, Thou! by all the Graces nurst; Friend! each other friend above, Come with me, and learn to love. Loving is a simple lore, Sophroniscus' Graver men have learned before; |