See, in yonder flowery braid, In bowls he makes my senses swim, ODE LII ODE LI. ODE LIII. When I behold the festive train Of dancing youth, I 'm young again! See in yonder flowery braid, Culld for thee, my blushing maid!] "In the same man. Or this: ner that Anacreon pleads for the whiteness of his locks, from the beauty of the colvur in garlands, a shepherd, in TheocriIndi mi mena tus, endeavours to recommend his black hair : Και το ιον μελαν εστι, και αι και γραπτα υακινθος Αλλ' εμπας εν τοις στεφανους τα πρώτα λεγονται." Longepierre, Barnes, etc, When youthful revellers, round the borol, Dilating, mingle soul with soul!] Suljoined 10 Gail's 1 This is doubtless the work of a more modern poet than edition of Anacreon, there are some curious liters upon the Anacreon; for at the period when he lived, rhetoricians 011901 of the ancients, which appeared in the F.enci Jour- were not known."-Degen. nals. At the opening of the Odeon, in Paris, the managers of Though the antiquity of this ode is confirmed by the Vathe spectacle requested Professor Gail to give them some un- tican manuscript, I am very much inclined to greg .n this common name for the fetes of this institution. He suggest argument against its authenticity; for, though the dawnings ed the word " Thiase," which was adopted ; but the literati of rhetoric might already have appeared, the first who gave of Paris questioned the propriety of it, and addressed their it any celebrity was Corax of Syracuse, and he flourished in criticisms to Gail , through the medium of the public prints. the century afer Anacreon. Two or three of the letters he has inserted in his ellition, Our poet anticipated the ideas of Epicurus, in his averand they have elicited from him some learned research on sion to the labours of learning, as well as his devotion to the subject. voluptuousness. Πασαν παιδεαν μακαριοι φευγετι, said 1 Alberti has imitated this ode; and Capilapus, in the the philosopher of ihe garden in a letter to Pythocles following epigram, has given a version of it: Trach me this, and let me erine My arms around the nymph dirine!) By %Putus Aspoo Cur, Lalage, mca vita, meos contemnis amores ? pazus here, I understand some beautiful girl; in the same Cur fugis e nostra pulchra puella sinu? manner that Auxins is often used for wine. 1. Golden" is Ne fugias, sint sparsa licet mea tempora canis, frequently an epithet of beauty. Thus in Virgil, " Venus Inque luo roseus fulgeat ore color. aurea ;" 'and in Propertius, "Cynthia aurea." Tibullus, Aspice ut intextas deceant quoque flore corollas bowever, calls an old woman "golden." Candida purpureis lilia mixta rosis. The translation d'Autori Anonimi, as usual, wantons Oh! why repel my soul's impassion d vow, on this passuge of Anacreon: And fly, beloved maid, these longing arins ? Em'insegni con piu raro L it, that wintry time has strew'd my brow, Forme accorte d' involare And ibine are all the suinmer's roscate charms ? Ad amabile beltado Il bel cinto d' oncstade. Where the young rosebud with the lily glows; And there's an end-for ah! you know, They drink but little wine below !) Thus the wités And I will be the lily, thou the rose ! Mainard : Memory wakes her tragic trance, No: he descends from climes above, He looks the God, he breathes of Jove! ODE LV.: While we invoke the wreathed spring, Resplendent rose! to thee we 'll sing ; Resplendent rose ! the flower of flowers, Whose breath perfumes Olympus' bowers; Whose virgin blush, of chasten'd dye, Enchants so much our mortal eye. When Pleasure's bloomy season glows, The Graces love to twine the rose ; The rose is warm Dione's bliss, And flushes like Dione's kiss ! Oft has the poet's magic tongue The rose's fair luxuriance sung; there is mention of this coin, and of a temple dedicated by ed with Europa. ODE LIV. Moschus has written a very beautiful idyl on the story of METHINKS, the pictured bull we see Europa. No: he descends from climes above, He looks the God, he breathes of Jode.) Thus Moschus : That fairest of Phænician fair! Κρυψε θιον και τρεψε δε μας και γινετο ταυρος. How proud he breasts the foamy tide, The God forgot himself, his heaven for love, And a bull's form belied the almighty Jove. 1 This ode is a brilliant panegyric on the rose. “Allan tiquity (says Barnes) has produced nothing more beautiful." Undaunted thus defy the main ? From the idea of peculiar excellence which the ancienta attached to this flower, arose a pretty proverbial expression, used by Aristophanes, according to Suidas, posa pel **as, La Mort nous guette; et quand ses lois “You have spoken roses," a phrase somewhat similar to Nous ont enfermés une fois the " dire des fleurettes" of the French. In the same idea Au sein d'une fosse profonde, Adieu bons vins et bons repas, of excellence originated, I doubt not, a very curious appli cation of the word podov, for which the inquisitive reader Ma science ne trouve pas may consult Gaulminus upon the epithalamium of our poet, Des cabarets en l'autre monde. where it is introduced in the romance of Theodorus. Mure From Mainard, Gombauld, and De Cailly, old French tus, in one of his elegies, calls his mistress his rose: poets, some of the best epigrams of the English language Jam te igitur rursus teneo, formosula, jam to are borrowed. (Quid trepidas ?) teneo; jam, rosa, te teneo. Bid the blush of summer's rose Eleg. 8. Burn upon my broro of snows, etc.) Licetus, in his Hie Now I again embrace thee, dearest, roglyphica, quoting two of our poet's odes, where he calls for garlands, remarks, "Constat igitur floreas coronas poetis (Tell me, wanton, why thou fearesi ?) Again my longing arms infold thee, et potantibus in symposio convenire, non autem sapientibus et philosophiam affectantibus.” “It appears that wreaths Again, my rose, again I hold thee. of flowers were adapted for poets and revellers at banquets, This, like most of the terms of endearment in the modern but by no means became those who had pretensions to Latin poets, is taken from Plautur ; they were vulgar and wisdom and philosophy." On this principle, in his 1520 colloquial in his time, and they are among the elegancies chapter, he discovers a refinement in Virgil, describing the of the modern Latinists. garland of the poet Silenus as fallen off; which distin Passeratius alludes to the ode before us, ia the beginning guishes, he thinks, the divine intoxication of Silenus from of his poem on tho Rose : that of common drunkards, who always wear their crowns while they drink. This, indeed, is the “labor ineptiarum" Carmine digna rosa est ; vellem caneretur ut illam of commentators. Teius arguta cecinit testudino vatos. He still can kiss the goblet's brim, etc.) Wine is pre- over the line cuv oTaipei aus May; it is corrupt in this Resplendent rose! to thee we'll sing.). I have passed scribed by Gaten as an excellent medicine for old, men : original reading, and has been very little improved by the " Quod frigidos et humoribus expletos calefaciat," etc.; annotators. I should suppose it to be an interpolation, if it but Nature was Anacreon's physician. were not for a line which occurs afterwards : pepe din curi There is a proverb in Eriphus, as quoted by Athenæus, Legepsv. which says, that wine makes an old inan dance, whether he will or not." The rose is warm Dione's bliss, etc.) Belleau, in a noto upon an old French poet, quoting the original here nepodoΛογος εστ’ αρχαιος, ου κακως εχων, Jiwt' buplex, translates it, “comme les délices et mignar- dises de Vénus." oft has the poet's magic tongue 1 "This ode is written upon a picture which represonted The rose's fair luxuriance sung, etc.). The following is the rape of Europa."-Madame Dacier. a fragment of the Lesbian poetess. It is cited in the roIt may perhaps be considered as a description of one of mance of Achilles Tatius, who appears to have resolved those coins, which the Sidonians struck off in honour of the numbers into prose. E. Tous vosowy Gry o Zous Europa, representing a woman carried across the sea by a επιθειναι βασιλεα, το ροδον αν των ανθεων βασιλευε, γης bull. Thus Natalis Cormes, lib. viii. cap. 23. “ Sidonii ou- ιστι κοσμος, φυτων αγλαισμα, οφθαλμος ανθεων, λιμωνος Γmistnata cum foemina auri dorso insidente ac mare trans- ερυθημα, καλλος αστραπτον. Ερατος τνει, Αφροδιτης tretante, cuderunt in sus honorem.” In the little treatise pogovii, rusidson Quars Xous, so yoratois Hitam upon the goddess of Sria, attributed very falsely to Lucian, Irpu¢*, TO FITILOV To Zifupa yold. And long the Muses, heavenly maids, And when, at length, in pale decline, Have rear'd it in their tuneful shades. Its florid beauties fade and pine, When, at the early glance of morn, Sweet as in youth, its balmy breath It sleeps upon the glittering thorn, Diffuses odour e'en in death! 'Tis sweet to dare the tangled fence, Oh! whence could such a plant have sprung? To cull the timid flow'ret thence, Attend—for thus the tale is sung. And wipe, with tender hand, away When, humid, from the silvery stream, The tear that on its blushes lay! Effusing beauty's warmest beam, 'Tis sweet to hold the infant stems, Venus appear'd, in flushing hues, Yet dropping with Aurora's gems, Mellow'd by Ocean's briny dews; And fresh inhale the spicy sighs When, in the starry courts above, That from the weeping buds arise. The pregnant brain of mighty Jove When revel reigns, when mirth is high, Disclosed the nymph of azure glance, And Bacchus beams in every eye, The nymph who shakes the martial lance! Our rosy fillets scent exhale, Then, then, in strange eventful hour, And fill with balm the fainting gale! The earth produced an infant flower, Oh, there is nought in nature bright, Which sprung, with blushing tinctures dress'd, Where roses do not shed their light! And wanton'd o'er its parent breast. When morning paints the orient skies, The gods beheld this brilliant birth, Her fingers burn with roseate dyes; And hail'd the Rose, the boon of earth! The nymphs display the rose's charms, With nectar drops, a ruby tide, It mantles o'er their graceful arms; The sweetly orient buds they dyed, Through Cytherea's form it glows, And bade them bloom, the flowers divine And mingles with the living snows. of him who sheds the teeming vine; The rose distils a healing balm, And bade them on the spangled thorn Expand their bosoms to the morn. ODE LVI.' HE, who instructs the youthful crew To bathe them in the brimmer's dew, Sweet as in youth, its balmy breath Diffuses odour e'en in death.) Thus Caspar Barlæus, ir his Ritus Nuptiarum: Ambrosium late rosa tunc quoque spargit odorem, Cum fluit, aut multo languida sole jacet. Nor then the rose its odour loses, When all its flushing beauties die; Nor less ambrosial balm ditluses, Her fingers burn with roseat dyes, etc.) In the original When wither'd by the solar eye! here, he enumerates the many epithets of beauty, borrowed from roses, which were used by the poets, * *px Twv powy. With nectar drops, a ruby tide, We see that poets were dignified in Greece with the title of The sweetly orient buds they dyed, etc.) The author of sages; even the careless Anacreon, who lived but for love the “Pervigilium Veneris" (a poem attributed to Catullus, and voluptuousness, was called by Plato the wise Anacreon. the style of which appears to me to have all the laboured Fuit hæc sapientia quondam. luxuriance of a much later period) ascribes the tincture of tho rose to the blood from the wound of Adonis Preserves the cold inurned clay, etc.) He here alludes to the use of the rose in embalming; and, perhaps (as Barnes Fuse aprino de cruorethinks,) to the rosy unguent with which Venus anointed the corpse" of Hector. Homer's Iliad. *. It may likewise according to the emendation of Lipsius. In the following regard the ancient practice of putting garlands of roses on epigram this hue is differently accounted for : the dead, as in Statius, Theb. lib. x. 782. Illa quidem studiosa suum defendere Adonim, hi sertis, hi veris honore soluto Gradivus stricto quem petit ense ferox, Accumulant artus patriaque in sede reponunt Affixit duris vestigia cæca rosetis, Corpus odoratun. Albaque divino picta cruore rosa est. Where " veris honor," though it niean every kind of flowers, may seem more particularly to refer to the rose, which While the enamour'd queen of joy our poet, in another ode, calls isepos Meht. We read, in Flies to protect her lovely boy, the Hieroglyphics of Pierius, lib. lv. that some of the an- On whom the jealous war-god rushes ; cients used to order in their wills, that roses should be an She treads upon a thorned rose, nually scattered on their tombs; and he has adduced some And while the wound with crimson flows, sepulchral inscriptions to this purpose. The snowy flowret feels her blood, and blushes! And mocks the vestige of decay.) When he says that 1 “Compare with this elegant ode the verses of Uz, lib this flower prevails over time itself, he still alludes to its i. die Weinlese."- Degen. efficacy in embalment (tenera poneret ossa rosa. Propert. This appears to be one of the hymns which were sung at lib. i. eleg. 17,) or perhaps to the subsequent idea of its the anniversary festival of the vintage; one of the sea VOOR fragrance surviving its beauty; for he can scarcely mean to wywoo, as our poet himself terms them in the fisy-ninth ode. praise for duration tbe "nimium breves flores" of the rose. We cannot help feeling a peculiar veneration for these relics Philostratus compares this flower with love, and says, that of the religion of antiquity. Horace may be supposed to they both defy the influence of time; xporoll do outi Epæs, have written the nineteenth ode of his second book, and whe Outi pedas ordsv. Unfortunately the similitude lios not in twenty-fifth of the third, for some bacchanalian celebration their duration, but their transience. of this kind. - rose And taste, uncloy'd by rich excesses, Lie faintly glowing, half-conceal'd, ODE LVII.' ODE LVIII.'. WIEN gold, as fleet as Zephyr's pinion, And, in a frenzied flight of soul, Escapes like any faithless minion, Sublime as Heaven's eternal pole, And Mies me (as he flies me ever,) Do I pursue him? never, never ! sion ought to be; glowing but through a veil, and stealing upon the heart from concealment. Few of the ancienta In beauty's naked majesty ? have attained this modesty of description, which is like the Oh! he has given the raptured sight golden cloud that hung over Jupiter and Juno, impervious A witching banquet of delight; to every beam but that of fancy. And all those sacred scenes of Love, Her bosom, like the humid rose, etc.). "P«&** (saya an Where only hallowed eyes may rove, anonymous annotator) is a whimsical epithet for the bosom." Neither Catullus nor Gray have been of his opinion. The former has the expression, Which, sparkling in the cup of mirth, En bic in roseis latet papillis. Illuminaie the sons of earth!). In the original cotox And the latter, αστoνoν κομιξων. Madame Dacier thinks that the poet bere had the nepenthé of Homer in his mind. Odyssey, Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd hours, etc. lib. iv. This nepenthe was a something of exquisite charm, infused by Helen into the wine of her guests, which had the too vague an use of the epithet "rosy," when he applies in Croitus, a modern Latinist, might indeed be censured for power of dispelling every anxiety. A French writer, with to the "e roseis oculis." young Desire, etc. In the original 'Theepos, versation. Seo de Meré, quoted by Bayle, art. Helène. who was the same deity with Jocus among the Romanis, Aurelius Augurellus has a poem beginning 1 This ode is a very animated description of a picture of Venus on a discus, which presented the goddess in her first Invitat olim Bacchus ad cænam suos emergence from the waves. About two centuries after our Comon, Jocum, Cupidinem. poet wrote, the pencil of the artist Apelles embellished this subject, in his famous painting of the Venus Anadvomene, Which Parnell has closely imitated : the model of which, as Pliny informs us, was the beautiful Gay Bacchus, liking Esicourt's wine, Campaspe, given to bim by Alexander; though, 3ccording Á noble meal bespoko us: to Natalis Comer, lib. vii. cap. 16, it was Phryne who sat to And, for the guests that were to dine, Apelles for the face and breast of this Venus. Brought Comus, Love, and Jocus, etc. There are a few blemishes in the reading of the ode be- I have followed Barnes's arrangement of this ode; it defore us, which have influenced Faber, Heyne, Brunck, etc. viates somewhat from the Vatican Ms. but it appeared to to denounce the whole poem as spurious. Non ego paucis me the more natural order. offendar maculis. I think it is beautiful enough to be authentic. When gold, as flect as Zephyr's pinion, Escapes like any faithless, minion, etc.) In the original And whose immortal hand could shed ο δραπετας ο χρυσος. There is a kind of pun in these Upon this disk the ocean's brd?) The abruptness of words, as Madame Dacier has already remarked; for Chryapre roş TOPSUTS HOYTON, is finely expressive of sudden sos, which signifies gold, was also a frequent name for admiration, and is one of those beauties which we cannot slave. In one of Lucian's dialogues, there is, I think, , but admire in their source, though, by frequent imitation, similar play upon the word, where the followers of Chry they are now become languid and unimpressive. sippus are called golden fishes. The puns of the ancients And all those sacred scenes of love, are, in general, even more vapid than our own some of here has all the delicate character of the semi-reducta VeWhere only hallow'd eyes may rore, etc.] The picture the best are those recorded of Diogenes. And flies me (as he flies me ever,) etc.) A:* $, set peu Bus, and is the sweetest emblem of what the poetry of pae- course This grace of iteration has already been taken a No, let the false deserter go, ODE LIX. SABLED by the solar beam, No more by ties of gold confined, Now the fiery clusters teem, I loosen all my clinging cares, In osier baskets, borne along And cast them to the vagrant airs. By all the festal vintage throng Then, then I feel the Muse's spell, Of rosy youths and virgins fair, And wake to life the dulcet shell; Ripe as the melting fruits they bear. The dulcet shell to beauty sings, Now, now they press the pregnant grapes, And love dissolves along the strings ! And now the captive stream escapes, Thus, when my heart is sweetly taught In fervid tide of nectar gushing, How little gold deserves a thought, And for its bondage proudly blushing ! The winged slave returns once more, While, round the vat's impurpled brim, And with him wafts delicious store The choral song, the vintage hymn Of racy wine, whose balmy art Of rosy youths, and virgins fair, In slumber seals the anxious heart! Steals on the cloy'd and panting air. Again he tries my soul to sever Mark, how they drink, with all their eyes, From love and song, perhaps for ever! The orient tide that sparkling flies; Away, deceiver! why pursuing The infant balm of all their fears, Ceaseless thus my heart's undoing ? The infant Bacchus, born in tears! Sweet is the song of amorous fire ; When he, whose verging years decline Sweet are the sighis that thrill the lyre; As deep into the vale as mine, Oh! sweeter far than all the gold When he inhales the vintage-spring, The waftage of thy wings can hold, His heart is fire, his foot 's a wingi I well remember all thy wiles; And, as he flies, his hoary hair Thy wither'd Cupid's flowery smiles, Plays truant with the wanton air! And o'er his harp such garbage shed, While the warm youth, whose wishing soul I thought its angel breath was fled ! Has kindled o'er the inspiring bowl, They tainted all his bowl of blisses, Impassion'd seeks the shadowy grove, His bland desires and hallow'd kisses. Where, in the tempting guise of love, Oh! fly to haunts of sordid men, Reclining sleeps some witching maid, Whose sunny charms, but half display'd, Blush through the bower, that, closely twined, Scares Com her bower the tuneful maid; Excludes the kisses of the wind ! And not for worlds would I forego The virgin wakes, the glowing boy Allures her to the embrace of joy; Swears that the herbage Heaven had spread Was sacred as the nuptial bed; That Jaws should never bind desire, And love was nature's holiest fire! The virgin weeps, the virgin sighs; He kiss'd her lips, he kiss'd her eyes ; The sigh was balm, the tear was dew, notice of. Though sometimes merely a playful beauty, it is They only raised his flame anew. peculiarly expressive of impassioned sentiment, and we may And, oh! he stole the sweetest flower easily believe that it was one of the many sources of that That ever bloom'd in any bower! 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 Such is the madness wine imparts, feel its charm in those lines of Catullus, where he complains Whene'er it steals on youthful hearts. of the infidelity of his mistress, Lesbia. Cæli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa, 1 The title Ezonos wuvos, which Barnes has given 10 Illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam, this ode, is by no means appropriate. We have already Plus quam se atque suos aravit omnes, had one of those hymns (ode 56, but this is a description of Nunc, etc. the vintage; ond the title oas oivot, which it bears in the VatiSi sic omnia dixisset! but the rest does not bear citation can MS., is more correct than any that have been suggested. Degen, in the true spirit of literary serpticism, doubts that They tatted all his bowl of blisses, this ode is genuine, without assigning any reason for such a His bland desires and hallow'd kisses.] Original: suspicion. "Non amo te, Sabidi, nec poszum dicere quare;" Φιλη ματων δε κεδνων, but this is far from satisfactory criticism. Ποθων κυπελλα κιρνης. Sweats that the herbage Heaven had spread, Horace has “ Desiderique temperare poculum," not figu- Was sacred as the nuptial bed, etc.). The original here ratively, however, like Anacreon, but importing the love- has been variously interpreted. Some, in their zeal for our philtres of the itches. By “cups of kisses” our poet may author's purity, bave supposed that the youth only persuades Others understand from the allude to a 4 Jurite gallantry among the ancients, of drink- her to a premature marriage. ing when the lips of their mistresses had touched the brim: words opodomov g2uwv govegbzı, that he seduces ber to a violation of the nuptial vow. The turn which I have given " Or leave a kiss within the cup, it is somewhat like the sentiment of Heloisa," amorem conAnd I 'll not ask for wine," jugio, libertatem vinculo præferre." (See her original Letas in Ben Jonson's translation from Philostratus; and Lucian ters.) The Italian translations have almost all wantoned has a conceit upon the same idea, “Ivanut siin xu* *** upon this description : but that of Marchetti js indeed "pi @IAMS "" that you may at once both drink and kiss." mium lubricus aspici." |