POETICAL WORKS

THOMAS
Τ Η Ο Μ Α S M 0 OR E.

BARXES.

63. 48. 49. 17. 18. 59. 11. 15. 31. 12. 10. 13. 14. 32.

9. 28. 29. 21. 22. 30. 19. 20.

23.

8
41.
47.
2Α.
66.
42.
6.
5.
25.
37.
38.
26.
27.
39.
34.
36.
54.
35.
53.
50.
51.
65,
52.
64.

1. πορφυρίοις νοκ trisyllabica. Anacr. Fragm. xxix. 3. | Αλιπορφύροις ταπησι dixit Psend-Anacreon, Od. viii. 2. ed. Fischer. Topoupén and 'Appooien. Anacr. Fragm. xxxvi. Theocr. Ιd. . 125. πορφύρεοι δε τάπητες άνω, μαλακώτεροι 1. σφαίρη δεύτέ με πορφυρέ η, ut legenduro plane ex AthentO.

περί δ' αυτόν αμφ' "Έρωτες Αμφι αυτον οι δ' Ερωτες τρομερούς ποσίν χόρευον.

Απαλοι συνέχoρευσαν τα βέλεμν' ο μεν Κυθήρης επoίει καλής, δίστους

Εποιει, ψυχης οϊστους πυρόεντας, εκ κεραυνού 9 και δε λευκά καλλιφύλλοις κρίνα συν ρόδoισι πλέξας, εφίλει στέφων γέροντα. κατα δ' ευθύς εξ 'Ολύμπου

Η δε θεαων ανασσα Σοφίη θέαινα βάσα, έσορώσ’ 'Ανακρέοντα, 15 έσορώσα τους *Ερωτας, υπομειδιώσά φησι:

Υπομειδιασσάς ειπε Σόφ',-επει βροτών σε τούτο Τον σοφωτατών άπαντων καλέoυσι φύλα πάντα,

19 καλέoυσιν οι σοφισται,τι, γέρων, μάτην οδεύεις βιότου τρίβων τεού μεν μετά των καλών 'Ερώτων, μετά του καλού Λυαίου Τοις Ερωσι, το Λυαιη εμέ δ' ώδε λαξ ατίζεις; 25 Κ' ουκ εμοι κρατειν εδωκας τι φίλημα της Κυθήρης, τί κύπελλα του Λυαίου, εσαεί τρυφών λείδεις, Αίει γ' ετρυφησας αδων έμα θέσμι' ου διδάσκων, Ούκ εμους νομους διδασκων εμόν ου λαχών άωτον και 30 Ούκ εμον λαχων αυτον ο δε Τήλος μελωδός, Συ παρέκ νόον γε μη μου

ήτε δυσχεραίνε, φησι χαλέπαινε, φήσ', άνευθε ότι σε σοφός καλούμαι

Οτι, θία, σου γ' ανευ μεν παρά των σφρων απάντων. “Ο σοφωτατος απαντων φιλίω, τίω, λυρίζω, 36 μετά των καλών γυναικών, αφελώς δε τερπνά παίζω κιθάρη γαρ, ώς κέαρ μεϋ, Ως λυρη γαρ, εμον ητορ αναπνεί μόνους 'Ερωτας. βιότου δε την γαλήνην

41 'Ωδε βίοτου γαληνην φιλίων μάλιστα πάντων, σοφός ου μελωδός είμι ; Ου σοφος μελωδος ειμι

There is but little known with certainty of the life of Anacreon. Chameleon Heracleotes," who wrote upon the subject, has been lost in the general wreck of ancient literature. The editors of the poet have collected the few trifling anecdotes which are scattered through the extant authors of antiquity, and, supplying the deficiency of materials by fictions of their own imagination, have arranged, what they call, a life of Anacreon. These specious fabrications are intended to indulge that interest which we naturally feel in the biography of illustrious men ; but it is rather a dangerous kind of

5 illusion, as it confounds the limits of history and romance, and is too often supported by unfaithful citation.3

Our poet was born in the city of Téos,' in the delicious region of Ionia, and the time of his birth appears to have been in the sixth century before Christ. He flourished at that remarkablo period, when, under the polished tyrants Hipparchus and Polycrates, Athens and Samos were become the rival asylums of genius. There is nothing certain known about his family, and those who pretend to discover in Plato that he was a descendant of the monarch Codrus, show much more of zeal than of either accuracy or judgment.

5. Timesis pro αμφεχόρευον. Τheocr. Ιd. νιι. 142. πωτών- Mademoiselle Scuderi, from whom he borrowed the idea, το ξoυθαι περί πίδακας αμφί μέλισσαι, h. e. αμφεπωτώντο. pretend to historical veracity in her account of Anacreon

6. Pseud-Anacr. Οd. LΙΙ. 12. τρομερούς ποσίν χορεύει. and Sappho. These, then, are allowable. But how can 7, 10. ο μεν, Ric-δε, ille. Bion. Id. 1. 82. χώ μεν δίστώς, | Barnes be forgiven, who, with all the confidence of a bio| δς δ' επί τόξον έβαιν', κ. τ. λ. itidem de Amoribus. grapher, traces every wandering of the poet, and settles him

8. 9. επoίει-έκ κεραυνού. Pseud-Anacr. Οd. ΧΧνιιι. 18. το at last, in his old age, at a country villa near Teos ? δε βλέμμα νύν αληθώς | από του πυρός ποίησον.

3 The learned Bayle has detected some infidelities of quo10, 11. καλλιφύλλους-ράδοισι. Pseud-Anacr. Οd. ν. 3. το tation in Le Fevre. (Dictionnaire Historique, &c.) Madame ρόδον το καλλίφυλλον.

Dacier is not more accnrate than her father: they have 13. Timesis pro καταβάσα. Pseud-Anacr. Οd. 11. 15. ανά almost made Anacreon prime minister to the monarch of δ' ευθυ λύχνον άψας, h. e. ανάψας.

Samos. 18. Supple όνομα, quo τούτο τeferatur. Eurip. Phen. 12. 4 The Asiatics were as remarkable for genius as for luxury. τούτο γάρ πατήρ | έθετο. h. θ. τούτο δνομα. βροτών φύλα “Ingenia Asiatica inclyta per gentes fecere Poeta, Anacreon, πάντα adumbratum ex Pseud-Anacr. Οd. ΙΙ. 4. μερόπων δε inde Mimnermus et Antimachus," &c.-Solinus. φύλα πάντα.

6 I have not attempted to define the particular Olympiad, 21. Pseud-Anacr. Οd. XXIV. 2. βιότου τρίβος οδεύειν. but have adopted the idea of Bayle, who says, “Je n'ai

25. Esch. Εumen. 538. μηδέ νιν, | κέρδος ιδών, αθέω ποδι | point marquo d'Olympiade; car pour un homme qui a vécu λάξ ατί- σης.

85 ans, il me semble que l'on ne doit point s'enfermer dans 32. παρίκ νόον γε μη μοι χαλέπαινε, ne prater rationem in des bornes si étroites.” me εαυί. ΙΙ. Υ. 133. "Ηρη, μή χαλέπαινε παρέκ νδον. Similem 6 This mistake is founded on a false interpretation of a positionem particularum un uot exhibe: Pseud-Anacr. Od. very obvious passage in Plato's Dialogue on Temperance; it ΧΧVΙΙΙ. 13.

originated with Madame Dacier, and has been received im1 He is quoted by Atheneus εν τω περι του Ανακρέοντος. plicitly by many. Gail, a late editor of Anacreon, seems to

: The History of Anacreon, by Gacon (le Poète sans fard, claim to himself the merit of detecting this error; but Bayle as he styles himself,) is professedly a romance; nor does had observed it before him.

The disposition and talents of Anacreon recom- We are told that in the eighty-fifth year of his age mended him to the monarch of Samos, and he was he was choked by a grape-stone;" and, however formed to be the friend of such a prince as Poly- wo may smile at their enthusiastic partiality, who crates. Susceptible only to the pleasures, he felt see in this easy and characteristic death a peculiar not the corruptions of the court ; and, while Pythag- indulgence of Heaven, we cannot help admiring oras fled from the tyrant, Anacreon was celebrating that his fate should have been so emblematic of a's praises on the lyre. We are told too by Maxi- his disposition. Cælius Calcagninus alludes to this mus Tyrius, that, by the influence of his amatory catastrophe in the following epitaph on our poet :songs, he softened the mind of Polycrates into a

Those lips, then, hallow'd sage, which pour'd along spirit of benevolence towards his subjects.'

A music sweet as ang iygnet's song, The amours of the poet, and the rivalship of The grape hath closed forever! the tyrant," I shall pass over in silence; and there Here let the ivy kiss the poet's tomb, are few, I presume, who will regret the omission

Here let the rose he loved with laurels tcm,

In bands that ne'er shall sever of most of those anecdotes, which the industry of

But far be thon, oh! far, unholy vine, some editors has not only promulged, but dis

By whom the favorite minstrel of the Nine cussed. Whatever is repugnant to modesty and

Lost his sweet vital breath ; virtue is considered in ethical science, by a suppo

Thy God himself now blushes to confess,

Once hallow'd vine! he feels he loves thee less sition very favorable to humanity, as impossible;

Since poor Anacreon's death. and this amiable persuasion should be much more strongly entertained, where the transgression wars It has been supposed by some writers that Anac. with nature as well as virtue. But why are we reon and Sappho were contemporaries; and the not allowed to indulge in the presumption? Why very thought of an intercourse between persons so are we officiously reminded that there have been congenial, both in warmth of passion and delicacy really such instances of depravity?

of genius, gives such play to the imagination, that Hipparchus, who now maintained at Athens the the mind loves to indulge in it. But the vision power which his father Pisistratus had usurped, dissolves before historical truth; and Chamæleon was one of those princes who may be said to have and Hermesianax, who are the source of the suppolished the fetters of their subjects. He was the position, are considered as having merely indulged first, according to Plato, who edited the poems of in a poetical anachronism. Homer, and commanded them to be sung by the To infer the moral dispositions of a poet frorn rhapsodists at the celebration of the Panathenea. the tone of sentiment which pervades his works, From his court, which was a sort of galaxy of is sometimes a very fallacious analogy; but the genius, Anacreon could not long be absent. Hip- soul of Anacreon speaks so unequivocally through parchus sent a barge for him ; the poet readily his odes, that we may safely consult them as the embraced the invitation, and the Muses and the faithful mirrors of his heart." We find him there Loves were wasted with him to Athens.

the elegant voluptuary, diffusing the seductive The manner of Anacreon's death was singular. charm of sentiment over passions and propensities

1 Ανακρεων Σαμιοις Πολυκρα την ημερωσε. Maxim. Tyr. $ 21. O At te, sancte senex, acinus sub Tartara misit; Maximus Tyrius mentions this among other instances of the Cygneæ clausit qui tibi vocis iter. influence of poetry. If Gail had read Maximus Tyrius, how Vos, hederæ, tumulum, tumulum vos cingite, lauri, could he ridicule this idea in Moutonnet, as unauthenticated ? Hoc rosa perpetuo vernet odora loco; ? In the romance of Clelia, the anecdote to which I allnde

At vitis procul hinc, procul hinc odiosa facessat, is told of a young girl, with whom Anacreon fell in love while Quæ causam dira protulit, uva, necis, she personated the god Apollo in a mask. But here Made- Crechoir ipse minus vitem jam Bacchus amare, moiselle Scuderi consulted nature more than truth.

In valem tantum quæ fuit ausa nefas. 3 There is a very interesting French poem founded upon The author of this epitaph, Cælius Calcagninus, has this arecdote, imputed to Desyvetaux, and called “ Anacreon

translated or imitated the epigrams εις την Μυρωνος βουν, Citoyen."

which are given under the name of Anacreon. 4 Fabricius appears not to trust very implicitly in this 6 Barnes is convinced (but very gratuitously) of the synstory. "Uvæ passæ acino tandem suffocatus, si credimus

chronism of Anacreon and Sappho. In citing his authorities, Suidæ in OIVOTTOTIS ; alii enim hoc mortis genere periise tra- he has strangely neglected the line quoted by Fulvius Ursidunt Sophoclem."-- Fabricii Bibliothec. Græc. lib. ji. cap. 15.

nus, as from Anacreon, among the testimonies to Sappho :It must be confessed that Lucian, who tells us that Sophocles was choked by a grape-stone, in the very same treatise men

Ειμι λαβων εισαρας Σαπφω παρθενον αδυφωνον. tions the longevity of Anacreon, and yet is silent on the Fabricius thinks that they might have been contemporary, manner of his death. Could he have been ignorant of such but considers their amour as a tale of imagination. Vossius a remarkable coincidence, or, knowing, could he have nego rejects the idea entirely; as do also Olaus Borrichius and lected to remark it? See Regnier's introduction to his others. Anacreon.

; An Italian poet, in some verses on Belleau's translation