means uncongenial with that language.' The Anacreontics of Scaliger, however, scarcely deserve the name; as they glitter all over with conceits, and, though often elegant, are always labored. The beautiful fictions of Angerianus preserve more happily than any others the delicate turn of those allegorical fables, which, passing so frequently through the mediums of version and imitation, have generally lost their finest rays in the transmission. Many of the Italian poets have indulged their fancies upon the subjects, and in the manner of Anacreon. Bernardo Tasso first introduced the metre, which was afterwards polished and enriched by Chabriera and others.3 To judge by the references of Degen, the German language abounds in Anacreontic imitations; and Hagedorn is one among many who have assumed him as a model. La Farre, Chaulieu, and the other light poets of France, have also professed to cultivate the muse of Téos; but they have attained all her negligence with little of the simple grace that embellishes it. In the delicate bard of Schiras we find the kindred spirit of Anacreon: some of his gazelles, or songs, possess all the character of our poet.

We come now to a retrospect of the editions of Anacreon. To Henry Stephen we are indebted for having first recovered his remains from the obscurity in which, so singularly, they had for many ages reposed. He found the seventh ode, as we are told, on the cover of an old book, and communicated it to Victorius, who mentions the circumstance in his "Various Readings." Stephen was then very young; and this discovery was considered by some critics of that day as a literary imposition. In 1554, however, he gave Anacreon to the world,' accompanied

with annotations and a Latin version of the greater part of the odes. The learned still hesitated to receive them as the relics of the Teian bard, and suspected them to be the fabrication of some monks of the sixteenth century. This was an idea from which the classic muse recoiled; and the Vatican manuscript, consulted by Scaliger and Salmasius, confirmed the antiquity of most of the poems. A very inaccurate copy of this MS. was taken by Isaac Vossius, and this is the authority which Barnes has followed in his collation. Accordingly he misrepresents almost as often as he quotes; and the subsequent editors, relying upon his authority, have spoken of the manuscript with not less confidence than ignorance. The literary world, however, bas at length been gratified with this curious memorial s the poet, by the industry of the Abbé Spaletti, who published at Rome, in 1781, a fac-simile of those pages of the Vatican manuscript which contained the odes of Anacreon.

A catalogue has been given by Gail of all the different editions and translations of Anacreon. Finding their number to be much greater than I could possibly have had an opportunity of consulting, I shall here content myself with enumerating only those editions and versions which it has been in my power to collect; and which, though very few, are, I believe, the most important.

The edition by Henry Stephen, 1554, at Paris— the Latin version is attributed by Colomesius to John Dorat.

The old French translations, by Ronsard and Belleau-the former published in 1555, the latter in 1556. It appears from a note of Muretus upon one of the sonnets of Ronsard, that Henry Stephen com

Thus too Albertus, a Danish poet:-

Fidii t ninister
Gaudebo semper esse,
Gaudebo semper illi

Litare thure mulso;

Gaudebo semper illum

Laudare pumilillis
Anacreonticillis.

See the Danish Poets collected by Rotsgaard.

These pretty littlenesses defy translation. A beautiful Anacreontic by Hugo Grotius, may be found Lib. i. Farraginis. • To Angerianus Prior is indebted for some of his happies! mythological subjects.

1 See Crescimbeni, Historia della Volg. Poes.

4 "L'aimable Hagedorn vaut quelquefois Anacréon."Derat, Idée de la Poësie Allemande.

* See Toderini on the learning of the Turks, as translated by de Cournard. Prince Cantemir has made the Russians acquainted with Anacreon. See his Life, prefixed to a translation of his Satires, by the Abbé de Guasco,

• Robortellus, in his work "De Ratione corrigendi," prosonaces these verses to be the triflings of some insipid Græcist.

8 This manuscript, which Spaletti thinks as old as the tenth century, was brought from the Palatine into the Vatican library; it is a kind of anthology of Greek epigrams, and in the 676th page of it are found the 'Happßia Evμmoσiaka of Anacreon.

"Le même (M. Vossius) m'a dit qu'il avoit possédé un Anacreon, où Scaliger avoit marqué de sa main, qu'Henri Etienne n'étoit pas l'auteur de la version Latine des odes de ce poëte, mais Jean Dorat."-Paulus Colomesius, Particularités.

Colomesius, however, seems to have relied too implicitly on Vossius-almost all these Particularités begin with "M. Vossius m'a dit."

municated to this poet his manuscript of Anacreon, before he promulgated it to the world.'

The edition by Le Fevre, 1660.

The edition by Madame Dacier, 1681, with a prose translation.2

The edition by Longepierre, 1684, with a translation in verse.

The edition by Baxter; London, 1695. A French translation by la Fosse, 1704. "L'Histoire des Odes d'Anacreon," by Gaçon; Rotterdam, 1712.

A translation in English verse, by several hands, 1713, in which the odes by Cowley are inserted.

The edition by Barnes; London, 1721.

The edition by Dr. Trapp, 1733, with a Latin version in elegiac metre.

A translation in English verse, by John Addison, 1735.

A collection of Italian translations of Anacreon, published at Venice, 1736, consisting of those by Corsini, Regnier, Salvini, Marchetti, and one by several anonymous authors."

A translation in English verse, by Fawkes and Doctor Broome, 1760.*

Another, anonymous, 1768.

The edition by Spaletti, at Rome, 1781; with the fac-simile of the Vatican MS.

The edition by Degen, 1786, who published also a German translation of Anacreon, esteemed the best.

A translation in English verse, by Urquhart, 1787.

1 "La fiction de ce sonnet, comme l'auteur même m'a dit, est prise d'une ode d'Anacréon, encore non imprimée, qu'il❘ a depuis traduit, Συ μεν φιλη χελίδων.”

2 The author of Nouvelles de la Répub. des Lett. bestows on this translation much more praise than its merits appear | to me to justify.

3 The notes of Regnier are not inserted in this edition; but they must be interesting, as they were for the most part communicated by the ingenious Menage, who, we may perceive, from a passage in the Menagiana, bestowed some research on the subject. "C'est aussi lui (M. Bigot) qui s'est donné la peine de conférer des manuscrits en Italie dans le tems que je travaillois sur Anacréon.”—Menagiana, seconde partie.

4 I find in Haym's Notizia de' Libri rari, Venice, 1670, an Italian translation by Cappone, mentioned.

5 This is the most complete of the English translations.

This ode is the first of the series in the Vatican manuscript, which attributes it to no other poet than Anacreon. They who assert that the manuscript imputes it to Basilius, have been misled by the words Του αυτού βασιλικώς in the margin, which are merely intended as a title to the following ode. Whether it be the production of Anacreon or not, it has all the features of ancient simplicity, and is a beautiful imitation of the poet's happiest manner.

Sparkled in his eyes of fire,

Through the mist of soft desire.] "How could he know

The edition by Gail, at Paris, 1799, with translation.

ODES OF ANACREON."

JDE I.

I SAW the smiling bard of pleasure,
The minstrel of the Teian measure;
"Twas in a vision of the night,
He beam'd upon my wondering sight
I heard his voice, and warmly press'
The dear enthusiast to my breast.
His tresses wore a silvery dye,
But beauty sparkled in his eye;
Sparkled in his eyes of fire,
Through the mist of soft desire."
His lip exhaled, whene'er he sigh'd,
The fragrance of the racy tide;
And, as with weak and reeling feet
He came my cordial kiss to meet,
An infant, of the Cyprian band,
Guided him on with tender hand.
Quick from his glowing brows he dre
His braid, of many a wanton hue;
I took the wreath, whose inmost twi
Breathed of him and blush'd with w

at the first look (says Baxter) that the poet was There are surely many tell-tales of this propensity following are the indices, which the physiognom describing a disposition perhaps not unlike that of A Οφθαλμοι κλυζόμενοι, κυμαινοντες εν αύτοις, εις αφρ ευπάθειαν επτοηνται ούτε δε αδικοι, ούτε κακουρ voews pavλns, ovre aμovooi.—Adamantius. that are humid and fluctuating show a propensity t and love; they bespeak too a mind of integrity a cence, a generosity of disposition, and a genius for

Baptista Porta tells us some strange opinions o cient physiognomists on this subject, their reasons were curious, and perhaps not altogether fancif Physiognom. Johan. Baptist. Porta.

8 I took the wreath, whose inmost twine

Breathed of him, &c.] Philostratus has the sam in one of his Eprika, where he speaks of the garla he had sent to his mistress. Ει δε βούλει τι φιλα θαι,τα λείψανα αντιπέμψον, μηκετι πνεοντα ῥόδων με και σου. "If thou art inclined to gratify thy lover, back the remains of the garland, no longer breathin only, but of thee!" Which pretty conceit is bor the author of the Observer remarks) in a well-kn song of Ben Jonson's:

"But thou thereon didst only breathe
And sent it back to me;

Since when it looks and smells, I swea
Not of itself, but thee!"

I hung it o'er my thoughtless brow
And ah! I feel its magic now:1
I feel that even his garland's touch
Can make the bosom love too much.

ODE II.

GIVE me the harp of epic song,
Which Homer's finger thrill'd along;
But tear away the sanguine string,
For war is not the theme I sing.
Proclaim the laws of festal rite,"
I'm monarch of the board to-night;
And all around shall brim as high,
And quaff the tide as deep as I.

And when the cluster's mellowing dews
Their warm enchanting balm infuse,
Our feet shall catch th' elastic bound,
And reel us through the dance's round.
Great Bacchus! we shall sing to thee,
In wild but sweet ebriety;

Flashing around such sparks of thought, As Bacchus could alone have taught.

Then, give the harp of epic song, Which Homer's finger thrill'd along; But tear away the sanguine string, For war is not the theme I sing.

ODE III.3

LITEN to the Muse's lyre,
Master of the pencil's fire!

Sketch'd in painting's bold display,
Many a city first portray;

1 And ah! I feel its magic now :] This idea, as Longepierre remarks, occurs in an epigram of the seventh book of the Anthologia.

Έξοτε μοι πίνοντι συνεσταουσα Χαρικλώ
Διαθρη τους ίδιους αμφέβαλε στεφανους,
Περ ολοον δαπτει με.

While I unconscious quaff'd my wine,
'Twas then thy fingers slyly stole
Upon my brow that wreath of thine,

Which since has madden'd all my soul.

* Proclaim the laws of festal rite.] The ancients prescribed cerata laws of drinking at their festivals, for an account of which see the commentators. Anacreon here acts the symarch, or master of the festival. I have translated accordto three who consider væ¿Àλa Sεopov as an inversion of δημος κυπελλων.

La Fosse has thought proper to lengthen this poem by

VULCAN! hear your glorious task;

I do not from your labors ask
In gorgeous panoply to shine,
For war was ne'er a sport of mine.
No-let me have a silver bowl,
Where I may cradle all my soul;
But mind that, o'er its simple frame
No mimic constellations flame;
Nor grave upon the swelling side,
Orion, scowling o'er the tide.

I care not for the glitt'ring wain,
Nor yet the weeping sister train.
But let the vine luxuriant roll

Its blushing tendrils round the bowl,
While many a rose-lipp'd bacchant maid
Is culling clusters in their shade.
Let sylvan gods, in antic shapes,
Wildly press the gushing grapes,

And flights of Loves, in wanton play,

Wing through the air their winding way;

While Venus from her harbor green,

Looks laughing at the joyous scene,
And young Lyæus by her side
Sits, worthy of so bright a bride.

considerable interpolations of his own, which he thinks are indispensably necessary to the completion of the description. 4 This ode, Aulus Gellius tells us, was performed at an entertainment where he was present.

While many a rose-lipp'd bacchant maid, &c.] I have availed myself here of the additional lines given in the Vatican manuscript, which have not been accurately inserted in any of the ordinary editions:

Ποιησον αμπελους μοι
Και βοτρυας κατ' αὐτων
Και μαινάδας τρυγώσας.
Ποιει δε ληνον οίνου,
Ληνοβατας πατούντας,
Τουςσ ατυρους γελωντάς,
Και χρυσούς τους έρωτας,
Και Κυθέρην γελωσαν,
Όμου καλω Λυαίω,
Ερωτα κ' 'Αφροδίτην.

ODE V.1

SCULPTOR, wouldst thou glad my soul,
Grave for me an ample bowl,
Worthy to shine in hall or bower,
When spring-time brings the reveller's hour.
Grave it with themes of chaste design,
Fit for a simple board like mine.
Display not there the barbarous rites
In which religious zeal delights;
Nor any tale of tragic fate
Which History shudders to relate.
No-cull thy fancies from above,

Themes of heav'n and themes of love.
Let Bacchus, Jove's ambrosial boy,
Distil the grape in drops of joy,
And while he smiles at every tear,
Let warm-eyed Venus, dancing near,
With spirits of the genial bed,
The dewy herbage deftly tread.

Let Love be there, without his arms,"
In timid nakedness of charms;
And all the Graces, link'd with Love,
Stray, laughing, through the shadowy grove;

Vegnan li vaghi Amori

Senza fiammelle, ò strali,
Scherzando insieme pargoletti e nudi.
Fluttering on the busy wing,

A train of naked Cupids came,
Sporting around in harmless ring,
Without a dart, without a flame.

And thus in the Pervigilium Veneris :

Ite nymphæ, posuit arma, feriatus est amor.
Love is disarm'd-ye nymphs, in safety stray,
Your bosoms now may boast a holiday!

But ah! if there Apollo toys,

1 tremble for the rosy boys.] An allusion to the fable, that Apollo had killed his beloved boy Hyacinth, while playing with him at quoits. "This (says M. La Fosse) is assuredly the sense of the text, and it cannot admit of any other."

The Italian translators, to save themselves the trouble of a note, have taken the liberty of making Anacreon himself explain this fable. Thus Salvini, the most literal of any of them :

Ma con lor non giuochi Apollo;

Che in fiero risco

Col duro disco

A Giacinto fiaccò il collo.

4 This beautiful fiction, which the commentators have attributed to Julian, a royal poet, the Vatican MS. pronounces to be the genuine offspring of Anacreon. It has, indeed, all the features of the parent:

While rosy boys disporting round,
In circlets trip the velvet ground.
But ah! if there Apollo toys,
I tremble for the rosy boys.

ODE VI.4

As late I sought the spangled bower
To cull a wreath of matin flowers,
Where many an early rose was we
found the urchin Cupid sleeping."
caught the boy, a goblet's tide
Was richly mantling by my side,
I caught him by his downy wing,
And whelm'd him in the racy sprin
Then drank I down the poison'd bo
And Love now nestles in my soul
Oh yes, my soul is Cupid's nest,
I feel him fluttering in my breast.

et facile insciis Noscitetur ab omnibus.

Where many an early rose was weeping,

1 found the urchin Cupid sleeping.] This id imitated in the following epigram by Andreas

Florentes dum forte vagans mea Hyella p
Texit odoratis lilia cana rosis,
Ecce rosas inter latitantem invenit Amore
Et simul annexis floribus implicuit.
Luctatur primo, et contra nitentibus alis
Indomitus tentat solvere vincla puer:
Mox ubi lacteolas et dignas matre papillas
Vidit et ora ipsos nata movere Deos,
Impositosque comæ ambrosios ut sentit od
Quosque legit diti messe beatus Arabs;
"I (dixit) mea, quære novum tibi, mater,
Imperio sedes hæc erit apta meo."

As fair Hyella, through the bloomy grove
A wreath of many mingled flow'rets wov
Within a rose a sleeping Love she found,
And in the twisted wreaths the baby bou
Awhile he struggled, and impatient tried
To break the rosy bonds the virgin tied;
But when he saw her bosom's radiant sw
Her features, where the eye of Jove migl
And caught th' ambrosial odors of her ha
Rich as the breathings of Arabian air;
"Oh! mother Venus," (said the raptured
By charms, of more than mortal bloom, b
"Go, seek another boy, thou'st lost thine
"Hyella's arms shall now be Cupid's thr
This epigram of Naugerius is imitated by L
in a poem, beginning

Mentre raccoglie hor uno, hor altro
Vicina a un rio di chiare et lucid' d
Lidia, &c. &c.

ODE VII.1

THE women tell me every day

That all my bloom has pass'd away.

Behold," the pretty wantons cry,

"Behold this mirror with a sigh;

The locks upon thy brow are few,

And, like the rest, they're withering too!"
Whether decline has thinn'd my hair,
I'm sure I neither know nor care;2
But this I know, and this I feel,
As onward to the tomb I steal,
That still as death approaches nearer,
The joys of life are sweeter, dearer ;
And had I but an hour to live,
That little hour to bliss I'd give.

But oh! be mine the rosy wreath,
Its freshness o'er my brow to breathe;
Be mine the rich perfumes that flow,
To cool and scent my locks of snow.
To-day I'll haste to quaff my wine,
As if to-morrow ne'er would shine;
But if to-morrow comes, why then-
I'll haste to quaff my wine again.
And thus while all our days are bright,
Nor time has dimm'd their bloomy light,
Let us the festal hours beguile

With mantling cup and cordial smile;
And shed from each new bowl of wine
The richest drop on Bacchus' shrine.

For Death may come, with brow unpleasant,
May come, when least we wish him present,
And beckon to the sable shore,
And grimly bid us-drink no more!

ODE VIII.4

I CARE not for the idle state

Of Persia's king, the rich, the great:

I envy not the monarch's throne,
Nor wish the treasured gold my own.

1 Alberti has imitated this ode in a poem, beginning

Nisa mi dice e Clori

Tirsi, tu se' pur veglio.

Whether decline has thinn'd my hair,

I'm sure I neither know nor care;] Henry Stephen very jastly remarks the elegant negligence of expression in the original here:

Εγω δε τας κόμας μεν, Ειτ εισιν, είτ' απήλθον, Ουκ οίδα.

And Longepierre has adduced from Catullus, what he thinks a similar instance of this simplicity of manner:

Ipse quis sit, utrum sit, an non sit, id quoque nescit. Longepierre was a good critic; but perhaps the line which be has selected is a specimen of a carelessness not very commendable. At the same time I confess, that none of the Latin poets have ever appeared to me so capable of imitating the graces of Anacreon as Catullus, if he had not allowed a depraved imagination to hurry him so often into mere vulgar

Dicentiousness.

"That still as death approaches nearer,

The joys of life are sweeter, dearer ;] Pontanus has a very delicate thought upon the subject of old age:

Quid rides, Matrona? senem quid temnis amantem?
Quisquis amat nullâ est conditione senex.

Why do you scorn my want of youth,
And with a smile my brow behold?
Lady dear! believe this truth,

That he who loves cannot be old.

"The German poet Lessing has imitated this ode. Vol.

p. 24" Degen. Gail de Editionibus.

Barter conjectures that this was written upon the occasion of our poet's returning the money to Polycrates, according to the anecdote in Stobæus.

⚫ Itare not for the idle state

Of Persia's king, &c.] "There is a fragment of Archilodin Plutarch, De tranquillitate animi,' which our poet has very closely imitated here; it begins,

ψυχην εμην ερωτω,
Γι σοι θελεις γενεσθαι ;
Θελεις Γύγεω τα και τα;

Be mine the rich perfumes that flow,

To cool and scent my locks of snow.] In the original, pvpotσε καταβρέχειν ύπηνην. On account of this idea of perfuming the beard, Cornelius de Pauw pronounces the whole ode to be the spurious production of some lascivious monk, who was nursing his beard with unguents. But he should have known, that this was an ancient eastern custom, which, if we may believe Savary, still exists: "Vous voyez, Monsieur, (says this traveller,) que l'usage antique de se parfumer la tête et la barbe,* célébré par le prophète Roi, subsiste encore de nos jours." Lettre 12. Savary likewise cites this very ode of Anacreon. Angerianus has not thought the idea inconsistent, having introduced it in the following lines: Hæc mihi cura, rosis et cingere tempora myrto, Et curas multo delapidare mero.

Hæc mihi cura, comas et barbam tingere succo
Assyrio et dulces continuare jocos.

This be my care, to wreathe my brow with flowers,
To drench my sorrows in the ample bowl;
To pour rich perfumes o'er my beard in showers,
And give full loose to mirth and joy of soul!

7 The poet is here in a phrensy of enjoyment, and it is, indeed, "amabilis insania;"

Furor di poesia,

Di lascivia, e di vino,

Triplicato furore,

Baccho, Apollo, et Amore.

Ritratti del Cavalier Marino.

This is truly, as Scaliger expresses it,

-Insanire dulce

Et sapidum furere furorem

"Sicut unguentum in capite quod descendit in barbam Aaronia, Pseaume cxxxiii."