ON A SWALLOW. ODE XII. Chattering swallow! that art heard And dost round my cottage fritter, Tell me, tell me, how shall I Punish now thine infamy? Shall I, seizing, clip thy pinions, Sailing through the heaven's dominions; And thus stay thy rapid flight Through the blue cerulean height? I should clip away thy tongue This should be thy punishment For, oh! why from bliss supreme, That I was about to prove, In the arms of yielding love? In regard of this ode we may safely say with Horace, Olim lusit Anacreon. Agathias has an epigram, which is an elegant imitation of the piece (Anthol., lib. vii., p. 461), of which the following is a close translation All night my eyes their amorous vigils keep; And soon as morn indulges balmy sleep, These chattering swallows in rude notes complain, And wake me from my joys to grief again. Hence, envious praters! why to me this wrong? I robbed not Philomela of her tongue. On desert hills unhappy Itys mourn, Leave me in peace to woo soft sleep's return. Perchance some gentle dream, profuse of charms, May bring the fair Rhodanthe to my arms! The swallow is proverbially noisy: thus Nicostratus, trans lated by Mr. Moore If in prating from morning till night, A sign of our wisdom there be; The swallows are wiser by right, For they prattle much faster than we. Virgil also says—Garrulam hirundinem.—Geor. iv., v. 307. From thy throat, as Tereus did. ANACREON endeavours to terrify the swallow by the mention of Tereus, who is said to have robbed it of its tongue. The ancients remark that these birds carefully avoided his palace: thus Pliny-Arx regum Thraciæ, a Terei nefasto crimine invisa herundibus. For, oh! why from bliss supreme, &c. On the latter part of this ode Mad. D'Acier, in her Remarques, cites Horace Nocturnis te ego somniis Jam captum teneo: jam volucrem sequor Te per gramina Martii Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles. Lib. iv., Ode i. ON HIMSELF. ODE XIII. "Tis said that through the mountain groves, Invoking Cybebe the fair, The unmanned Attis madly roves, And with his cries divides the air. Those quaffing Claros' hallowed wave, Such as inspires the poet's dream! Unlike to these shall be my fate: Supinely underneath some vine, In easy luxury and state, I'll lie and drink the generous wine. Then, to becoming madness fired, My girl shall bring the flowery spoil; And o'er my head, with youth inspired, Pour out the rich Assyrian oil! The various significations of the verb mainomai, according to Moebius, gave rise to this ode. His note is as follows:-Procul dubio varius significatus tou mainesthai ansam dedit hujus odarii pangendi; etenim hoc verbum de quovis animi motu ut de amore, hilaritate, ira, insania, furore, imprimis poetico, &c., reperitur adhibitum, ut fere Latinorum furere, insanire. Quare magnopere errant, qui censeant, Horatium ex hoc loco duxisse colorem in carmine, lib. i., od. 2, ver. 5--8; lib. ii., od. vii., ver. 8; et lib. iv., od. xii., ver. 28. The unmanned Attis madly roves. Attis was a young Phrygian of great beauty, loved of Cybebe, the mother of the gods, who made him her priest. But he broke his vow of chastity, and was by her afflicted with a madness, in which he deprived himself of manhood. Those quaffing Claros' hallowed wave. Claros was a small village near Colophon, in which was a fountain dedicated to Apollo, having the power to madden those drinking its waters. See Tacitus Ann., lib, ii.; also Macrobius' Saturnal, lib. i., cap. 18. From this Apollo obtained the name Apollo Clarius, and Clarius Deus. Pour out the rich Assyrian oil. The ancients used ointments and perfumes at their banquets. See Odes IV. and XXXIX. In the 23rd Psalm we haveThou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. See also on this subject Lanzonius de Coronis et Unguentis veterum. Ferariæ, 4to., 1715. |