with that language.1 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 2 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. To judge by the references of Degen, the German language abounds in Anacreontic imitations; and Hagedorn 3 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 Teos; but they have attained all her negligence, with little of the simple grace that embellishes it. In the delicate bard of Schiras 4 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.5 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 1 Thus too Albertus, a Danish poet : Fidii tui minister gaudebo semper illum laudare pumilillis anacreonticillis. See the "Danish Poets" collected by Rostgaard. These pretty diminutives defy translation. A beautiful Anacreontic by Hugo Grotius, may be found Lib. i. " Farraginis." 2 To Angerianus Prior is indebted for some of his happiest mythological subjects. 3 "L'aimable Hagedorn vaut quelquefois Anacreon." Allemande." DORAT "Idée de la Poësie 4 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. 5 Robertullus, in his work "De Ratione corrigendi," pronounces these verses to be the triflings of some insipid Græcist. 6 Ronsard commemorates this event: 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, has at length been gratified with this curious memorial of the poet, by the industry of the Abbé Spaletti, who published at Rome, in 1781, a facsimile of those pages of the Vatican manuscript which contained the odes of Anacreon.1 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.2 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 communicated to this poet his manuscript of Anacreon, before he promulgated it to the world.3 The edition by Le Fèvre, 1660. The edition by Madame Dacier, 1681, with a prose translation.4 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.5 A translation in English verse, by Fawkes and Doctor Broome, 1760.6 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. The edition by Gail, at Paris, 1799, with a prose translation. 1 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. 2 "Le même (M. Vossius) m'a dit qu'il avoit possédé un Anacreon, où Scaliger avoit marqué de sa main, qu' Henri Etienne n'était pas l'auteur de la version latine des odes de ce poète, 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." 3 "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, Zù pèv píàn xedidwv." 4 The author of "Nouvelles de la Répub. des Lett." bestows on this translation much more praise than its merits appear to me to justify. 5 I find in Haym's "Notizia de' Libri rari," Venice, 1670, an Italian translation by Cappone, mentioned. 6 This is the most complete of the English translations. ODES OF ANACREON. ODE I.1 I SAW the smiling bard of pleasure, He beamed upon my wondering sight. 1 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 mislead by the words Τοῦ αὐτοῦ βασιλικῶς 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. 2 Sparkled in his eyes of fire, Through the mist of soft desire. "How could he know at the first look (says Baxter) that the poet was piλevvos [fond of the marriage-bed]?”* There are surely many telltales of this propensity; and the following are the indices which the physiognomist gives, describing a disposition perhaps not unlike that of Anacreon : Οφθαλμοὶ κλυζόμενοι, κυμαίνοντες ἐν αὐτοῖς, εἰς ἀφροδίσια καὶ εὐπάθειαν ἐπτόηνται, οὔτε δὲ ἀδικοὶ οὔτε κακοῦργοι, οὔτε φύσεως φαύλης, οὔτε ἄμουσοι. — ADAMANTIUS. "The eyes that are humid and fluctuating show a propensity to pleasure and love; they bespeak, too, a mind of integrity and beneficence, a generosity of disposition, and a genius for poetry.' Baptista Porta tells us some strange opinions of the ancient physiognomists on this subject, their reasons for which were curious, and perhaps not altogether fanciful. Vide Physiognom. Johan. Baptist. Porta." Quick from his glowing brows he drew I feel that even his garland's touch ODE II. GIVE me the harp of epic song, Which Homer's finger thrilled along; But tear away the sanguine string, For war is not the theme I sing. Proclaim the laws of festal right,5 3 I took the wreath whose inmost twine Breathed of him, etc. "If Philostratus has the same thought in one of his 'Epwτiká, where he speaks of the garland which he had sent to his mistress. Εἰ δὲ βούλει τι φίλῳ χαρίζεσθαι, τὰ λείψανα ἀντιπέμψον, μηκέτι πνέοντα ῥόδων μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ σοῦ. thou art inclined to gratify thy lover, send him back the remains of the garland, no longer breathing of roses only, but also of thee!" Which pretty conceit is borrowed (as the author of the "Observer" remarks) in a well-known little song of Ben Jonson's: "But thou thereon didst only breathe, Since when it looks and smells, I swear, 4 And ah! I feel its magic now: This idea, as Longepierre remarks, occurs in an epigram of the seventh book of the "Anthologia' : Ἐξότε μοι πίνοντι συνεστάουσα Χαρίκλῳ πῦρ ὀλοὸν δάπτει με. While I unconscious quaffed my wine, 5 Proclaim the laws of festal rite. The ancients prescribed certain laws of drinking at their festivals, for an account of which see the commentators. Anacreon here acts the sym I'm monarch of the board to-night; Flashing around such sparks of thought, Then, give the harp of epic song, Which Homer's finger thrilled along; But tear away the sanguine string, For war is not the theme I sing. ODE III.1 LISTEN to the Muse's lyre, Sketched in painting's bold display, ODE IV.2 VULCAN! hear your glorious task; posiarch, or master of the festival. I have translated according to those who consider κúmeλλa θεσμῶν as an inversion of θεσμοὺς κυπέλλων. 1 La Fosse has thought proper to lengthen this poem by considerable interpolations of his own, which he thinks are indispensably necessary to the completion of the description. 2 This ode, Aulus Gellius tells us, was performed at an entertainment where he was present. I care not for the glittering wain, ODE V.4 SCULPTOR, wouldst thou glad my soul, Grave it with themes of chaste design, 3 While many a rose-lipped bacchant maid, etc. 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: Ποίησον ἀμπέλους μοι 4 Degen thinks that this ode is a more modern imitation of the preceding. There is a poem by Cælius Calcagninus, in the manner of both, where he gives instructions about the making of a ring: Tornabis annulum mihi et fabre, et apte, et commode, etc., etc. Vegnan li vaghi Amori Senza fiammelle, ò strali, A train of naked Cupids came, 2 But ah! if there Apollo toys, 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. 3 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: et facile insciis Noscitetur ab omnibus. 4 Where many an early rose was weeping, I found the urchin Cupid sleeping. This idea is prettily imitated in the following pigram by Andreas Naugerius: Florentes dum forte vagans mea Hyella per hortos I caught the boy, a goblet's tide ODE VII.5 THE women tell me every day texit odoratis lilia cana rosis, ecce rosas inter latitantem invenit Amorem (dixit) mea, quære novum tibi, mater, Amorem, imperio sedes hæc erit apta meo." As fair Hyella, through the bloomy grove, This epigram of Naugerius is imitated by Lodovico Dolce in a poem, beginning Mentre raccoglie hor uno, hor altro fiore 5 Alberti has imitated this ode in a poem, beginning Nisa mi dice e Clori Tirsi, tu se' pur veglio. 6 Whether decline has thinned my hair, I'm sure I neither know nor care; Henry Stephen very justly remarks the elegant negligence of the expression in the original here: Ἐγὼ δὲ τὰς κόμας μέν, εἶτ ̓ εἴσὶν, εἴτ ̓ ἀπῆλθον, οὐκ οἶδα. And Longepierre has adduced from Catullus |