Thus he spoke, and she the while ODE XXXVI.' Ir hoarded gold possess'd a power That when the Fates would send their minion, To waft me off on shadowy pinion, I might some hours of life obtain, And why should I then pant for treasures? ODE XXXVII.' "T WAS night, and many a circling bowl Had deeply warm'd my swimming soul; Monsieur Fontenelle has translated this ode. in his dialogue between Anacreon and Aristotle in the shades, where he bestows the prize of wisdom upon the poet. . The German imitators of it are, Lessing, in his poem Gestern Brüder, etc. Gleim, in the ode An den Tod, and Schmidt, in der Poet Blumenl. Goting, 1783, p. 7.--Degen. That when the Fates would send their minion, To waft me off on shadowy pinion, etc.] The commentators, who are so fond of disputing de lana caprioa, have been very busy on the authority of the phrase t'avvenλy. The reading of iv'av Gavaros Eney, which De Medenbach' proposes in his Amonitates Litteraria, was already hinted by Le Fevre, who seldom suggests any thing worth notice. The goblet rich, the board of friends, Whose flowing souls the goblet blends! This communion of friendship, which sweetened the bowl of Anac.eon, has not been forgotten by the author of the following scholium, where the blessings of life are caumerated with proverbial simplicity. Tycarved pets apt50v avôpe Jvyrą. Asutepov de, zahov punu yeye5921. Το τρίτον δε, πλουτείν αδόλως. Nat TO TETASTO, συνήβαν μετα των φίλων. Of mortal blessings here, the first is health, And next, those charms by which the eye we move; 1. Compare with this ode the beautiful poem, 'der Traum of U'z.'» Degen. Monsieur Le Fevre. in a note upon this ode, enters into an elabo¦rate and learned justification of drunkenness; and this is probably As lull'd in slumber I was laid, . All were gone! Alas! I said, Sighing for the illusions fled, LET us drain the nectar'd bowl, the cause of the severe reprehension which I believe he suffered for his Anacreon. Fuit olim fateor (says he, in a note upon Longions), cum Sapphonem amabam. Sed ex quo illa me perditissima fœmina pene miserum perdidit cum sceleratissimo suo congerrone (Anacreontem dico, si nescis Lector), noli sperare, etc. etc. He adduces on this ode the authority of Plato, who allowed ebriety, at the Dionysian festivals, to men arrived at their fortieth year. He likewise quotes the following line from Alexis, which he says no one, who is not totally ignorant of the world, can besitate to confess the truth of: Ουδείς φιλοπότης εςιν άνθρωπος κακός. No lover of drinking was ever a vicious man. when all my dream of joys, Dimpled girls and ruddy boys, All were gone! Nonnus says of Bacchus, almost in the same words that Anacreon uses, Oh! let me dream them o'er and o'er!] Dr Johnson, in his preface to Shakspeare, animadverting upon the commentators of that poet, who pretende, in every little coincidence of thought to detect an imitation of some ancient poet, alludes in the following words to the line of Anacreon before us: I have been told that when Caliban, after a pleasing dream, says, I tried to sleep again, the author imitates Anacreon, who had, like any other man, the same wish on the same occasion. Compare with this beautiful ode the verses of Hagedorn, lib. v, das Gesellschaftliche; and of Borger, p. 51, etc. etc. Degen. Him, that the snowy Queen of Charms Has fond'el in her twining arms.] Robertellus, upon the epithaJamiam of Catalius, mentions an ingenions derivation of Cytheria, the name of Venus, Tapa тO XEJÕID) TOUS EpWTxf, which seems to bint that Love's fairy favours are lost, when not concealed, From him that dream of transport flows, ODE XXXIX. How I love the festive boy, No, no, the walk of life is dark, 'Tis wine alone can strike a spark!] The brevity of life allows arguments for the voluptuary as well as the moralist. Among many parallel passages which Longepierre has adduced, I shall content myself with this epigram from the Anthologia: Λουσάμενοι, Προδική, πυκασώμεθα, και τον ακρατου Of which the following is a loose paraphrase: Fly, my beloved, to yonder stream, We'll plunge us from the noontide beam! And dip it in our goblet's flood. Come, while you may, of rapture sip.» Age is on his temples hung, But his heart-his heart is young Saint Pavin makes the same distinction in a sonnet to a young girl. Je sais bien que les destinées Ont mal compassé nos années; ODE XL. I KNOW that Heaven ordains me here I neither know nor ask to know. ODE XLI. WHEN Spring beg,ems the dewy scene, How sweet to walk the velvet green, And hear the Zephyr's languid sighs, As o'er the scented mead he flies! How sweet to mark the pouting vine, Ready to fall in tears of wine; Ne regardez que mon amour. Fair and young, thoa bloomest now, And I full many a year have told; But read the heart and not the brow, Thou shalt not find my love is old, My love's a child; and thou canst say How much his little age may be, For he was born the very day That first I set my eyes on thee! No, no, the heart that feels with me, Can never be a slave to thee !] Longepierre quotes an epigram here from the Anthologia, on account of the similarity of a particular phrase; it is by no means Anacreontic, but bas an interesting simplicity which induced me to paraphrase it, and may atone for its intrusion. Ελπες, και συ, τυχη, μεγα χαίρετε τον λιμεν εὗρον. At length to Fortune, and to you, Away, away, your flattering arts Bacchus shall bid my winter bloom, And Venus dance me to the tomb!] The same commentator has quoted an epitaph, written upon our poet by Julian, where he makes him give the precepts of good-fellowship even from the tomb. Πολλάκι μεν τοῦ' αείσα, και εκ τυμβου δε βοήσω Πίνετε, πριν ταυτην αμφιβάλησθε κονιν. This lesson oft in life I sung, And from my grave I still shall cry, WLI MITT 3 up and many a smie The stafy Barthazılan wisd W- ch, as the treping wanton fes A youth, the while, with joosen'd har Sings, to the wild hary s tender some, A tale of woes, alas las can. And then, what mectar in his sughh, As o er his ps the marmurs die So divine, so blest a scene! Has Capa eft the starry sphere, The gall that Envy's tongue can shed. ODE XLIII. WHILE our rosy fillets shed Blushes o'er each fervid head, And with the maid, whore every sigh Is love and bliss, etc. Thus Horace: Quid habes illias, illias Que spirabat amores, Que me surpuerat mihi. And does there then remain but this, And hast thou lost each rosy ray 1 The character of Anacreon is here very strikingly depicte1. His lov: of secial, harmonizel pleasures is expressed with a warmib, amiable and endearing. Among the epigrams imputed to Ana reon is the following; it is the only one worth translation, and it breathes the same sentiments with this ode: Ου φίλος, ὃς κρητήρι παρα πλέω οινοποτάζων, Αλλ' όςις Μουσεων τε, και αγλαά δωρ' Αφροδίτης When to the lip the brimming cup is press'd, But bring the man, who o'er his goblet wreathes And while the harp, imparsion d, fings Tune al rupture (rom the strings, etc.) On the barb son a host of authorities may be conected, wilch after all leave us ignorant of the nature of the instrument. There is scarcely any point upon which we are so tocally us informed as the music of the ancients. The athors (a) extant upon the subject are, I imag ne, liitle understood, bat certainly if one of their moods was a progression by quartertones, which we are told was the nature of the enharmonit kzie, simplicity was by no means the characteristic of their melody, for this is a nicety of progression of which modern music is not suscep title. The invention of the barbiton is, by Athenres, artributed to Anacreon. See his fourth book, where it is called to ORUZ TOU Avantcovros. Neanthes of Cyricas, as quoted by Gyraldus, asserts Vide Chabot, în Horat. on the words - Lesboum barbiton, in the first ode. the same. And then, what nectar in kis vigh, As o'er his lip the murmurs die Longepierre has quoted bere an epigram from the Anthologia: Κουρη τις μ' εφίλησε ποθέστερα χείλεσιν ύγροις. Nextap egy to piqua. To yap 50μz VENTapos ERVEL. Νυν κεθυωτό φίλημα, πολύν τον έρωτα πεπωκώς. Of which the following may give some idea: The kiss that she left on my lip Like a dew-drop sball lingering lie; 'T was nectar she gave me to sip, The dew that distill'd in that kiss, To my soul was voluptuous wine; Has Cupid left the starry sphere, To ware his golden tresses here?” The Introduction of these deities ty the festival is merely allegorical, Madame Dasier thinks that the poet describes a masquerade, where these deities were personated by the company in masks. The translation will conform with either idea. All, all are here, to hail with me The Genius of Festivity!) Nopos, the deity or genius of mirth. Philostratus, in the third of his pictures (as all the annotators have observed) gives a very beautiful description of this god, (a) Collected by Meibomius. ODE XLIV. ' Buds of roses, virgin flowers, Till with crimson drops they weep! Drink and smile, and learn to think Of dimpled Spring, the wood-nymph wild! When, with the blushing naked Graces, ODE XLV. WITHIN this goblet, rich and deep, Why should we breathe the sigh of fear, In search of thorns, from pleasure's way; This spirited poem is a eulogy on the rose; and again, in the fifty-fifth ode, we shall find our author rich in the praises of that flower. In a fragment of Sappho, in the romance of Achilles Tatias, to which Barnes refers us, the rose is very elegantly styled the eye of flowers; and the same poetess, in another fragment, calls the favours of the Muse the roses of Pieria. See the notes on the fifty fifth ode. Compare with this forty-fourth ode (says the German annotator) the beautiful ode of Uz die Rose." When with the blushing, naked Graces, The wanton winding dance he traces.] This sweet idea of Love dancing with the Graces, is almost peculiar to Anacreon.»-DEGEN. SEE, the ODE XLVI. ' young, the rosy Spring, Gives to the breeze her spangled wing; And cultured field, and winding stream, ODE XLVII. 'T is true, my fading years decline, Yet I can quaff the brimming wine The fastidious affectation of some commentators has denounced this ode as spurious. Degen pronounces the four last lines to be the patch-work of some miserable versificator, and Brunck condemns the whole ode. It appears to me to be elegantly graphical; full of delicate expressions and luxuriant imagery. The abruptness of 16ε πως έαρος φανέντος is striking and spirited, and has been imitated rather languidly by Horace: Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Soracte The imperative de is infinitely more impressive, as in Shak speare, But look, the morn, în russet mantle clad, There is a simple and poetical description of Spring, in Catullus's beautiful farewell to Bithynia. Carm. 44. Barnes conjectures, in his life of our poet, that this ode was written after he had returned from Athens, to settle in his paternal seat at Teos; there, in a little villa at some distance from the city, which commanded a view of the Egean Sea and the islands, he contemplated the beauties of nature, and enjoyed the felicities of retirement. Vide Barnes, in Anac. vita, sect. xxxv. This supposition, however unauthenticated, forms a pleasant association, which makes the poem more interesting. Monsieur Chevreau says that Gregory Nazianzenus has paraphrased somewhere this description of Spring: I cannot find it. See Chevreau, OEuvres Mélées. Compare with this ode (says Degen) the verses of Hagedorn, book fourth der Frübling, and book fifth der Mai.. While virgin Graces, warm with May, Fling roses o'er her dewy way!] De Pauw reads, Xapitas poda With some celestial glowing maid, etc.] The epithet 3x0uxoros, spousty, the roses display their graces. This is not uninge which he gives to the nymph, is literally full-bosomed: if this was really Anacreon's taste, the heaven of Mahomet would suit him in every particular. See the Koran, cap. 72. Then let us never vainly stray, In search of thorns, from Pleasure's way, etc.] I have thus endea nious; but we lose by it the beauty of the personification, to the boldness of which Regnier has objected very frivolously. The murmuring billows of the deep Have languir h'd into silent sleep, etc.] It has been justly remarked voured to convey the meaning of τι δε τον βιον πλανωμαι; that the liquid now of the line απαλυνεται γαληνη is perfectly according to Regnier's paraphrase of the line: E che val, fuor della strada expressive of the tranquillity which it describes. And cultured field, and winding stream, etc.] By Spotwy spy, the works of men, (says Baxter,) he means cities, temples, and towns, which are then illuminated by the beams of the sun. As deep as any stripling fair Whose cheeks the flush of morning wear; Let those who pant for Glory's charms ODE XLIX. WHEN Bacchus, Jove's immortal boy, Who, with the sunshine of the bowl, A flow of joy, a lively heat, Fires my brain, and wings my feet! ODE XLVIII. WHEN my thirsty soul I steep, But brandishing a rosy flask, etc.] Acx25 was a kind of leathern vessel for wine, very much in use; as should seem by the proverb aoxos xat Judazos, which was applied to those who were intemperate in eating and drinking. This proverb is mentioned in some verses quoted by Athenæus, from the Hesione of Alexis. The only thyrsus e'er I'll ask! Phornutus assigns as a reason for the consecration of the thyrsus to Bacchus, that inebriety often renders the support of a stick very necessary. Ivy leaves my brow entwining, etc.] The ivy was consecrated to Bacchus (says Montfaucon), because he formerly lay hid under that tree, or, as others will have it, because its leaves resemble those of the vine. Other reasons for its consecration, and the use of it in garlands at banquets, may be found in Longepierre, Barnes, etc. etc. Arm you, arm you, men of might, Hasten to the sanguine fight.] I have adopted the interpretation of Regnier and others: Altri segua Marte fero; Cbe sol Bacco è mio conforto. ODE L.' WHEN I drink, I feel, I feel Visions of poetic zeal! Warm with the goblet's freshening dews, I think of doubts and fears no more; This, the preceding ode, and a few more of the same character, are merely chansons à boire. Most likely they were the effusions of the moment of conviviality, and were sung, we imagine, with rapture in Greece; but that interesting association by which they always recalled the convivial emotions that produced them, can be very little felt by the most enthusiastic reader; and much less by a phlegmatic grammarian, who sees nothing in them but dialects and particles. Who, with the sunshine of the bowl, Thaws the winter of our soul.] Avxtos is the title which he gives to Bacchus in the original. It is a curious circumstance, that Plutarch mistook the name of Levi among the Jews for Aut (one of the bacchanal cries), and accordingly supposed that they worshipped Bacchus. 2 Faber thinks this spurious; but, I believe, he is singular in his opinion. It has all the spirit of our author. Like the wreath which he presented in the dream, it smells of Anacreon. The form of this ode, in the original, is remarkable. It is a kind of song of seven quatrain stanzas, each beginning with the line |