I give are imputed to Antipater Sidonius. They are rendered, perhaps, with too much freedom; but, designing a translation of all that are on the subject, I imagined it was necessary to enliven their uniformity by sometimes indulging in the liberties of paraphrase. Αντιπάτρου Σιδωνίου, εις Ανακρέοντα. ΘΑΛΛΟΙ τετρακορύμβος, Ανακρέον, αμφι σε κισσος φρα κε τοι σποδίη τε και οξέα τερψιν αρηται, And Summer pour her waste of roses! And many a fount shall there distil, And every fount be milky showers. Thus, shade of him whom Nature taught Thus, after death, if spirits feel, Thou may'st, from odours round thee streaming, A pulse of past enjoyment steal, And live again in blissful dreaming! Του αυτού, εις τον αυτόν. ΤΥΜΒΟΣ Ανακρείοντος. ὁ Τηῖος ενθάδε κύκνος Ουδ' Αίδης σοι ερωτας απέσβεσεν εν δ' Αχεροντος HERE sleeps Anacreon, in this ivied shade; And yet, oh bard! thou art not mute in death, Του αυτού, εις τον αυτον. ΞΕΙΝΕ, τάφον παρα λιτον Ανακρείοντος αμείβων Ως ὁ Διονύσου μεμελημένος ουασε κώμος Ως ὁ φιλάκρητου συντροφος ἁρμονίης, 'OH stranger! if Anacreon's shell -the Teian swan is laid.] Thus Horace of Pindar: Multa Dircæum levat aura cycnum. A swan was the hieroglyphical emblem of a poet. Anacreon has been called the swan of Teos by another of his eulogists. Εν τοις μελιχροις ίμερούσε συντροφος God of the grape! thou hast betray'd, Along the Muse's stream! The Teian, nursed with all those honied boys, Μολπης δ' ου λήθη μελιτερπεος, αλλ' ετι κεινο Nor yet are all his numbers mute, With sleepless animation sighs! This is the famous Simonides, whom Plato styled "divine," though Le Fevre, in his Poètes Grecs, supposes that the epigrams under his name are all falsely imputed. The most considerable of his remains is a satirical poem upon women, preserved by Stobæus, Voyos yuvaixov. 1 Antipater Sidonius, the author of this epigram, lived, according to Vossius, de Poctis Græcis, in the second year of the 169th Olympiad. He appears, from what Cicero and Quintilian have said of him, to have been a kind of improvisatore. See Institut. Orat. lib. x. cap. 7. There is nothing more known respecting this poet, except some particulars about his illness and death, which are mentioned as curious by Pliny and others; and there remain of his works but a few epigrams in the Anthologia, among which are those I have selected, upon Anacreon. Those remains have been sometimes imputed to another poet (a) of the same name, of whom Vossius gives us the following account: "Antipater Thessalonicensis vixit tempore Augusti Cæsaris, ut qui saltantem viderit Pyladem, sicut constat ex quodam ejus epigrammate Avas, lib. 4. tit. 5 Op-import of the epigram before us, that the works of Anacreon xnoτpidas. At eum ac Bathyllum primos fuisse pantomimos, ac sub Augusto claruisse, satis notum ex Dione," etc. The reader, who thinks it worth observing, may find a strange oversight in Hoffman's quotation of this article from Vossius, Lexic. Univers. By the omission of a sentence he has made Vossius assert that the poet Antipater was one of the first pantomime dancers in Rome. Barnes, upon the epigram before us, mentions a version of it by Brodeus, which is not to be found in that commentator; but he more than once confounds Brodeus with another annotator on the Anthologia, Vincentius Obsopaus, who has given a translation of the epigram. We may judge from the lines I have just quoted, and the were perfect in the times of Simonides and Antipater. Obsopous, the commentator, here appears to exult in their destruction, and telling us they were burned by the bishops and patriarchs, he adds, "nec sane id necquicquam fecerunt," attributing to this outrage an effect which it could never produce. 1 The spirit of Anacreon utters these verses from the tomb, somewhat "mutatus ab illo," at least in simplicity of expression. -If Anacreon's shell Has ever taught thy heart to swell, etc.] We may guess from the words in Biokov pov, that Anacreon was not merely a writer of billets-doux, as some French critics have Brunck. Lectiones et Emendat. I called him. Amongst these, M. Le Fevre, with all his pro (a) Pleraque tamen Thessalonicensi tribuenda videntur. With passion's throb or pleasure's sigh, So shall my sleeping ashes thrill The festal joys that once were mine, Του αυτού, εις τον αυτου. ΕΥΔΕΙΣ εν φθιμενοισιν, Ανακρεον, εσθλα πονήσας, είδει δ ̓ ἡ γλυκερη νυκτίλαλος κιθαρα, εύδει και Σκερδις, το Ποθων εαρ, ω συ μελισδων βαρβιτ', ανεκρονου νεκταρ εναρμόνιον. ηΐθεου γαρ Ερωτος έφυς σκοπος" ες δε σε μουνον τοξα τε και σκολιας είχεν ἑκηβολιας. Ar length thy golden hours have wing'd their flight, And drowsy death that eyelid steepeth; fessed admiration, has given our poet a character by no means of an elevated cast: Aussi c'est pour cela que la postérité L'a toujours justement d'âge en âge chanté Long may the nymph around thee play, Basking her beauties in the ray That lights thine eyes' dissolving fire! Sing of her smile's bewitching power, Her every grace that warms and blesses, The expression here, av Sos xouns, "the flower of the hair," is borrowed from Anacreon himself, as appears by a fragment See the verses prefixed to his Poètes Grecs. This is un- of the poet preserved in Stobæus: Axsipas d' axaang like the language of Theocritus, to whom Anacreon is in-μov avto6. debted for the following simple eulogium: Εις Ανακρέοντος ανδριάντα. Θάσαι τον ανδριάντα τουτον, ω Eave, των προσήει τι περίσσον ωδοποίων. Upon the Statue of Anacreon. Stranger! who near this statue chance to roam, The simplicity of this inscription has always delighted me; I have given it, I believe, as literally as a verse translation will allow. And drop thy goblet's richest tear, etc.] Thus Simonides, in another of his epitaphs on our poet: Και μιν αει τεγγοι νοτερη δρόσος, ης ο γερανος And Bacchus wanton'd to my lays, etc.] The original here is corrupted; the line so vrou, is unintelligible. Brunck's emendation improves the sense, but I doubt if it can be commended for elegance. He reads the line thus: ως ο Διονυσοιο λελασμένος ούποτε κώμων. See Brunck, Analecta Veter. Poet Græc. vol. ii. Thy harp, that whisper'd through each lingering night, etc.] In another of these poems, "the nightly-speaking The purest nectar of its numbers, etc.] Thus, says Brunck, in the prologue to the Satires of Persius: Cantare credas Pegaseium nectar. "Melos" is the usual reading in this line, and Casaubon has defended it; but "nectar," I think, is much more spirited. Farewell! thou hadst a pulse for every dart, etc.] us scopus eras natura," not "speculator," as Barnes very falsely interprets it. σκοπος, Vincentius Obsopous, upon this passage, contrives to indulge us with a little astrological wisdom, and talks in a style of learned scandal about Venus, "male posita cum Marte in domo Saturni." And every woman found in thee a heart, etc.] This couplet is not otherwise warranted by the original, than as it dilates the thought which Anupater has figuratively expressed. Τον δε γυνακειων μελέων πλέξαντα ποτ' ωδας, Ηδων Ανακρείοντα, (δ) Τέως εἰς Ελλάδ' ανηγεν, Συμποσιων ερεθισμα, γυναικών ήπεροπευμα. Critias, of Athens, pays a tribute to the legitimate gallantry of Anacreon, calling him, with elegant conciseness, γυναικων ηπεροπευμα. Teos gave to Greece her treasure, Where's the nymph could e'er deny him? (a) Brunck has xpower; but xpovos, the common reading better suits a detached quotation. (b) Thus Scaliger, in his dedicatory verses to Ronsard: Blandus, suaviloquus, dulcis Anacreon. LITTLE'S POEMS. LUSISSE PUDET.-Hor. Τωδ' εστ' ονειρων νεοτέρων φαντασματα, οιον λήρος. PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. preferred him to the pathetic Tibullus; but I believe the defects which a common reader condemns have been looked upon rather as beauties by those erudite nen, the commentators, who find a field for their ingenuity and research in his Grecian learning and quaint obscurities. THE Poems which I take the liberty of publishing were never intended by the Author to pass beyond he circle of his friends. He thought, with some Tibullus abounds with touches of fine and natural ustice, that what are called Occasional Poems must feeling. The idea of his unexpected return to Delia, be always insipid and uninteresting to the greater "Tunc veniam subito," etc. is imagined with all the part of their readers. The particular situations in delicate ardour of a lover; and the sentiment of which they were written; the character of the author "nec te posse carere velim," however colloquial the and of his associates; all these peculiarities must be expression may have been, is natural and from the known and felt before we can enter into the spirit of heart. But, in my opinion, the poet of Verona possuch compositions. This consideration would have sessed more genuine feeling than any of them. His always, I believe, prevented Mr. LITTLE from sub- life was, I believe, unfortunate; his associates were mitting these trifles of the moment to the eye of dis-wild and abandoned; and the warmth of his nature passionate criticism; and, if their posthumous intro- took too much advantage of the latitude which the duction to the world be injustice to his memory, or intrusion on the public, the error must be imputed to the injudicious partiality of friendship. morals of those times so criminally allowed to the passions. All this depraved his imagination, and made it the slave of his senses: but still a native Mr. LITTLE died in his one-and-twentieth year; sensibility is often very warmly perceptible; and and most of these Poems were written at so early a when he touches on pathos, he reaches the heart imperiod, that their errors may claim some indulgence mediately. They who have felt the sweets of return from the critic: their author, as unambitious as indo-to a home, from which they have long been absent, lent, scarce ever looked beyond the moment of com- will confess the beauty of those simple unaffected position; he wrote as he pleased, careless whether lines: he pleased as he wrote. It may likewise be remembered, that they were all the productions of an age when the passions very often give a colouring too warm to the imagination; and this may palliate, if it cannot excuse, that air of levity which pervades so many of them. The "aurea legge, s' ei piace ei lice," he too much pursued, and too much inculcates. Few can regret this more sincerely than myself; and if my friend had lived, the judgment of riper years would have chastened his mind, and tempered the luxuriance of his fancy. O quid solutis est beatius curis ? CARM. XXXii. His sorrows on the death of his brother are the very tears of poesy; and when he complains of the ingratitude of mankind, even the inexperienced cannot but sympathize with him. I wish I were a poet; I should endeavour to catch, by translation, the spirit of those beauties which I admire2 so warmly. Mr. LITTLE gave much of his time to the study of It seems to have been peculiarly the fate of Catulthe amatory writers. If ever he expected to find in lus, that the better and more valuable part of his the ancients that delicacy of sentiment and variety of poetry has not reached us; for there is confessedly fancy which are so necessary to refine and animate nothing in his extant works to authorize the epithet the poetry of love, he was much disappointed. I" doctus," so universally bestowed upon him by the know not any one of them who can be regarded as ancients. If time had suffered the rest to escape, we a model in that style; Ovid made love like a rake, perhaps should have found among them some more and Propertius like a schoolmaster. The mytholo- purely amatory; but of those we possess, can there gical allusions of the latter are called erudition by his commentators; but such ostentatious display, upon a subject so simple as love, would be now esteemed vague and puerile, and was, even in his own times, pedantic. It is astonishing that so many critics have 1 Lib. i. eleg. 3. 2 In the following Poems, there is a translation of one of his finest Carmina: but I fancy it is only a school-boy's essay, and deserves to be praised for little more than the attempt. be a sweeter specimen of warm, yet chastened de-once revised them for that purpose; but, I know not scription, than his loves of Acme and Septimius? why, I distrusted either my heart or my judgment; and the few little songs of dalliance to Lesbia are and the consequence is, you have them in their oridistinguished by such an exquisite playfulness, that ginal form: they have always been assumed as models by the most elegant modern Latinists. Still, I must confess, in the midst of these beauties, -Medio de fonte leporum Non possunt nostros multæ, Faustine, lituræ Believe me, my dear friend, I am convinced, however, that though not quite a casuiste relache, you have charity enough to forgive Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis floribus angat.1 such inoffensive follies: you know the pious Beza It has often been remarked, that the ancients knew was not the less revered for those sportive juvenilia nothing of gallantry; and we are told there was too which he published under a fictitious name; nor much sincerity in their love to allow them to trifle did the levity of Bembo's poems prevent him from with the semblance of passion. But I cannot per- making a very good cardinal. ceive that they were any thing more constant than the moderns: they felt all the same dissipation of the heart, though they knew not those seductive graces by which gallantry almost teaches it to be amiable. Watton, the learned advocate for the moderns, deserts them in considering this point of comparison, and praises the ancients for their ignorance of such. a refinement; but he seems to have collected his notions of gallantry from the insipid fadeurs of the French romances, which are very unlike the sentimental levity, the "grata protervitas," of a Rochester or a Sedley. From what I have had an opportunity of observing, the early poets of our own language were the models which Mr. LITTLE selected for imitation. To attain their simplicity (ævo rarissima nostro simplicitas) was his fondest ambition. He could not have aimed at a grace more difficult of attainment; and his life was of too short a date to allow him to perfect such a taste; but how far he was likely to have succeeded, the critic may judge from his productions. I have found among his papers a novel, in rather an imperfect state, which, as soon as I have arranged and collected it, shall be submitted to the public eye. Where Mr. LITTLE was born, or what is the genealogy of his parents, are points in which very few readers can be interested. His life was one of those humble streams which have scarcely a name in the map of life, and the traveller may pass it by without inquiring its source or direction. His character was well known to all who were acquainted with him; for he had too much vanity to hide its virtues, and not enough of art to conceal its defects. The lighter traits of his mind may be traced perhaps in his writings; but the few for which he was valued live only in the remembrance of his friends. T. M. April 19, 1802. POEMS, ETC. TO JULIA. T. M. IN ALLUSION TO SOME ILLIBERAL CRITICISMS. TO A LADY, WITH SOME MANUSCRIPT POEMS. WHEN, casting many a look behind, Which votive thus I've traced for thee, May now and then a look engage, Whose hearts are not of gentle mould, For, trust me, they who never melt But if, perhaps, some gentler mind, Which rather loves to praise than blame, Should in my page an interest find, And linger kindly on my name; Tell him,-or, oh! if gentler still, By female lips my name be blest: Ah! where do all affections thrill So sweetly as in woman's breast?Tell her, that he whose loving themes Her eye indulgent wanders o'er, Could sometimes wake from idle dreams, And bolder flights of fancy soar; That glory oft would claim the lay, And friendship oft his numbers move; But whisper then, that," sooth to say, His sweetest song was given to LOVE!" TO MRS. IF, in the dream that hovers Sure thou'lt forgive me this; For he who wakes to sorrow At least may dream of bliss! Oh! if thou art, in seeming, All that I've e'er required: Wilt thou forgive my taking If ever, by Fortune's indulgent decree, To me such a ticket should roll, A sixteenth, Heaven knows! were sufficient for me; For what could I do with the whole? TO JULIA. WELL, Julia, if to love, and live In heaven the least salvation! And yet, I think, did Heaven design That blisses dear, like yours and mine, Should be our own undoing; It had not made my soul so warm, Then wipe away that timid tear; INCONSTANCY. AND do I then wonder that Julia deceives me, mon? She vows to be true, and while vowing she leaves me But could I expect any more from a woman? Oh, woman! your heart is a pitiful treasure ; And Mahomet's doctrine was not too severe, When he thought you were only materials of pleasure, And reason and thinking were out of your sphere. By your heart, when the fond sighing lover can win it, He thinks that an age of anxiety's paid; But, oh! while he's blest, let him die on the minuteIf he live but a day, he'll be surely betray'd. TO THE LARGE AND BEAUTIFUL MISS IN ALLUSION TO SOME PARTNERSHIP IN A LOTTERY SHARE. IMPROMPTU. -Ego pars-Virg. IN wedlock a species of lottery lies, Where in blanks and in prizes we deal; But how comes it that you, such a capital prize, Should so long have remain'd in the wheel? IMITATION OF CATULLUS.' TO HIMSELF. Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire, etc. CEASE the sighing fool to play; Nor vainly think those joys thine own, 1 Few poets knew better than Catullus, what a French writer calls la délicatesse D'un voluptueux sentiment; but his passions too often obscured his imagination-E |