Her bosom, like the dew-washed rose, 1 Beneath their queen's inspiring glance, ODE LVIII.3 WHEN Gold, as fleet as zephyr's pinion, Escapes like any faithless minion,+ 1 Her bosom, like the dew-washed rose, etc. "Podéwv [says an anonymous annotator] is a whimsical epithet for the bosom." Neither Catullus nor Gray have been of his opinion. The former has the expression, En hic in roeis latet papillis. And the latter, Lo! where the rosy-bosomed hours, etc. Crottus, a modern Latinist, might indeed be censured for too vague a use of the epithet 46 'rosy," when he applies it to the eyes, roseis oculis." 2 young Desire, etc. In the original "Iuepos, who was the same deity with Jocus among the Romans. Aurelius Augurellus has a poem beginning: Invitat olim Bacchus ad cœnam suos Which Parnell has closely imitated: Gay Bacchus, liking Estcourt's wine, Brought Comus, Love, and Jocus, etc. 3 I have followed Barnes's arrangement of this ode, which, though deviating somewhat from the Vatican MS., appears to me the more natural order. 4 When Gold, as fleet as zephyr's pinion, Escapes like any faithless minion, etc. In the original Ο δραπέτης ὁ χρυσός. There is a kind of pun in these words, as Madame Dacier has already remarked; for Chrysos, which signifies gold, was also a frequent name for a slave. In one of Lucian's dialogues, there is, I think, a similar play upon the word, where the followers of Chrysippus are called golden fishes. And flies me (as he flies me ever),5 For who would court his direst foe? While love dissolves along the strings! But, scarcely has my heart been taught How little Gold deserves a thought, When, lo! the slave returns once more, And with him wafts delicious store Of racy wine, whose genial art In slumber seals the anxious heart. Again he tries my soul to sever From love and song, perhaps for ever! Away, deceiver! why pursuing Ceaseless thus my heart's undoing? Sweet is the song of amorous fire, Sweet the sighs that thrill the lyre; Oh! sweeter far than all the gold Thy wings can waft, thy mines can hold. Well do I know thy arts, thy wiles They withered Love's. 's young wreathed smiles; And o'er his lyre such darkness shed, The puns of the ancients are, in general, even more vapid than our own; some of the best are those recorded of Diogenes. 5 And flies me (as he flies me ever), etc. ̓Αεὶ δ ̓, ἀεί με φεύγει. This grace of iteration has already been taken notice of. Though sometimes merely a playful beauty, it is peculiarly expressive of impassioned sentiment, and we may easily believe that it was one of the many sources of that energetic sensibility which breathed through the style of Sappho. See Gyrald. Vet. Poet. Dial. 9. It will not be said that this is a mechanical ornament by any one who can feel its charm in those lines of Catullus, where he com plains of the infidelity of his mistress, Lesbia: — Cali, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa, nunc, etc. Si sic omnia dixisset! - but the rest does not bear citation. Was filled with kisses to the brim.1 When my full soul, in Fancy's stream, RIPENED by the solar beam, φιλημάτων δε κεδνῶν, πόθων κύπελλα κίρνης. Horace has Desiderique temperare poculum, not figuratively, however, like Anacreon, but importing the love-philtres of the witches. By cups of kisses" our poet may allude to a favorite gallantry among the ancients, of drinking when the lips of their mistresses had touched the brim: "Or leave a kiss within the cup, As in Ben Jonson's translation from Philostratus; and Lucian has a conceit upon the same idea, “Ινα καὶ πίνῃς ἅμα καὶ φιλῇς, that you may at once both drink and kiss." 99 66 2 The title 'Emiλnvios üμvos, which Barnes has given to this ode, is by no means appropriate. We have already had one of those hymns (ode 56), but this is a description of the vintage; and the title eis olvov, which it bears in the Vatican MS., is more correct than any that have been suggested. Degen, in the true spirit of literary scepticism, doubts that this ode is genuine, without assigning any reason for such a suspicion; -non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare. this is far from satisfactory criticism. But Mark, how they drink, with all their eyes, When he, whose verging years decline And as he dances, the fresh air To joys even rivalling wine's delights, ODE LX.4 AWAKE to life, my sleeping shell, To him who gathers wisdom's flower. Then wake thee from thy voiceless slumbers, And to the soft and Phrygian numbers, Muse of the Lyre! illume my dream, Thy Phoebus is my fancy's theme; 3 Those well acquainted with the original need hardly be reminded that, in these few concluding verses, I have thought right to give only the general meaning of my author, leaving the details untouched. 4 This hymn to Apollo is supposed not to have been written by Anacreon; and it is undoubtedly rather a sublimer flight than the Teian wing is accustomed to soar. But, in a poet of whose works so small a proportion has reached us, diversity of style is by no means a safe criterion. If we knew Horace but as a satirist, should we easily believe there could dwell such animation in his lyre? Suidas says that our poet wrote hymns, and this perhaps is one of them. We can perceive in what an altered and imperfect state his works are at present, when we find a scholiast And hallowed is the harp I bear, τὸ μὲν ἐκπέφευγε κέντρον, φύσεως δ ̓ ἄμειψε μορφήν. I find the word Kévτρоv here has a double force, as it also signifies that omnium parentem, quam sanctus Numa, etc. (See Martial.) In order to confirm this import of the word here, those who are curious in new readings may place the stop after dúoews, thus: τὸ μὲν ἐκπέφευγε κέντρον 2 Still be Anacreon, still inspire The original is τὸν ̓Ανακρέοντα μίμου. I have translated it under the supposition that the hymn is by Anacreon; though, I fear, from this very line, that his claim to it can scarcely be supported. Tov 'Avaкpéovтa μípov, "Imitate Anacreon." Such is the lesson given us by the lyrist; and if, Still let the nectared numbers float, And when some youth, whose glowing soul Has felt the Paphian star's control, When he the liquid lays shall hear, His heart will flutter to his ear, And drinking there of song divine, Banquet on intellectual wine! 8 ODE LXI.4 YOUTH'S endearing charms are fled; Hoary locks deform my head; in poetry, a simple elegance of sentiment, enriched by the most playful felicities of fancy, be a charm which invites or deserves imitation, where shall we find such a guide as Anacreon? In morality, too, with some little reserve, we need not blush, I think, to follow in his footsteps. For if his song be the language of his heart, though luxurious and relaxed, he was artless and benevolent; and who would not forgive a few irregularities, when atoned for by virtues so rare and so endearing? When we think of the sentiment in those lines: Away! I hate the slanderous dart, how many are there in the world, to whom we would wish to say, τὸν ̓Ανακρέοντα μίμου ! 3 Here ends the last of the odes in the Vatican MS., whose authority helps to confirm the genuine antiquity of them all, though a few have stolen among the number, which we may hesitate in attributing to Anacreon. In the little essay prefixed to this translation, I observed that Barnes has quoted this manuscript incorrectly, relying upon an imperfect copy of it, which Isaac Vossius had taken. I shall just mention two or three instances of this inaccuracy - the first which occur to me. In the ode of the Dove, on the words πτέροισι συγκαλύψω, he says, "Vatican MS. ovoкiálov, etiam Prisciano invito:" but the MS. reads σvvкaλúw, with ovokiάow interlined. Degen too, on the same line, is somewhat in error. In the twenty-second ode of this series, line thirteenth, the MS. has Tevin with ai interlined, and Barnes imputes to it the reading of τένδη. In the fifty-seventh, line twelfth, he professes to have preserved the reading of the MS. ἀλαλημένη δ' επ' αὐτή, while the latter has ἀλαλημένος δ ̓ ἐπ ̓ αὐτά. Almost all the other annotators have transplanted these errors from Barnes. 4 The intrusion of this melancholy ode, among the careless levities of our poet, reminds us of the skeletons which the Egyptians used to hang up in their banquet-rooms, to inculcate a thought of mortality even amidst the dissipations of mirth. If it were not for the beauty of its numbers, the Teian Muse should disown this ode. "Quid habet illius, illius quæ spirabat amores?" To Stobæus we are indebted for it. Bloomy graces, dalliance gay, ODE LXII.4 FILL me, boy, as deep a draught, 1 Bloomy graces, dalliance gay, All the flowers of life decay. Horace often, with feeling and elegance, deplores the fugacity of human enjoyments. See book ii. ode 11.; and thus in the second epistle, book ii. : Singula de nobis anni prædantur euntes; eripuere jocos, venerem, convivia, ludum. The wing of every passing day Withers some blooming joy away; And wafts from our enamoured arms The banquet's mirth, the virgin's charms. 2 Dreary is the thought of dying! etc. Regnier, a libertine French poet, has written some sonnets on the approach of death, full of gloomy and trembling repentance. Chaulieu, however, supports more consistently the spirit of the Epicurean philosopher. See his poem, addressed to the Marquis de Lafare — Plus j'approche du terme et moins je le redoute, etc. 3 And, when once the journey 's o'er, Scaliger, upon Catullus's well-known lines, qui nunc it per iter," etc. remarks, that Acheron, with the same idea, is called ávétodos by Theocritus, and dvσéκdpoμos by Nicander. 4 This ode consists of two fragments, which are to be found in Athenæus, book x., and which Barnes, from the similarity of their tendency, has combined into one. I think this a very justifiable liberty, and have adopted it in some other fragments of our poet. Degen refers us here to verses of Uz, lib. iv., "Der Trinker." 5 But let the water amply flow, To cool the grape's intemperate glow; etc. It was Amphictyon who first taught the Greeks to mix water with their wine; in commemoration of which circumstance they erected altars to Bacchus and the nymphs. On this mythological allegory the following epigram is founded: -- Which is, non verbum verbo,· Seeks the cool waters of the fountain-nymph. 6"This fragment is preserved in Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. lib. vi. and in Arsenius, Collect. Græc." - BARNES. It appears to have been the opening of a hymn in praise of Love. 7 This hymn to Diana is extant in Hephaestion. There is an anecdote of our poet, which has led some to doubt whether he ever wrote any odes of this kind. It is related by the Scholiast upon Pindar (Isthmionic. od. ii. v. 1. as cited by Barnes) that Anacreon being asked why he addressed all his hymns to women, and none to the deities? answered, Because women are my deities." I have assumed, it will be seen, in reporting this anecdote, the same liberty which I have thought it right to take in translating some of the odes; and it were to be wished that these little infidelities were always allowable in interpreting LIKE Some wanton filly sporting, Thou trip'st away, with scornful eye, Thou 'lt find this skilful hand can throw ODE LXVI.3 To thee, the Queen of nymphs divine, Fairest of all that fairest shine; the writings of the ancients; thus, when nature is forgotten in the original, in the translation tamen usque recurret. 1 Turn, to Lethe's river turn, There thy vanquished people mourn! Lethe, a river of Ionia, according to Strabo, falling into the Meander. In its neighborhood was the city called Magnesia, in favor of whose inhabitants our poet is supposed to have addressed this supplication to Diana. It was written (as Madame Dacier conjectures) on the occasion of some battle, in which the Magnesians had been defeated. 2 This ode, which is addressed to some Thracian girl, exists in Heraclides, and has been imitated very frequently by Horace, as all the annotators have remarked. Madame Dacier rejects the allegory, which runs so obviously through the poem, and supposes it to have been addressed to a young mare belonging to Polycrates. Pierius, in the fourth book of his "Hieroglyphics," cites this ode, and informs us that the horse was the hieroglyphical emblem of pride. 3 This ode is introduced in the Romance of Theodorus Prodromus, and is that kind of epi To thee, who rulest with darts of fire Look on thy bride, too happy boy, |