I KNOW that Heaven hath sent me here Snows may o'er his head be flung, I'll gather Joy's luxuriant flowers, ODE XLI. WHEN Spring adorns the dewy scene, ODE XLII.S YES, be the glorious revel mine, in which he makes him promulgate the precepts of good fel But his heart-his heart is young.] Saint Pavin makes lowship even from the tomb. the same distinction in a sonnet to a young girl. Je sais bien que les destinées And I full many a year have told; When first I set my eyes on thee! 2 Never can heart that feels with me Descend to be a slave to thee!] Longepierre quotes here At length to Fortune, and to you, The charm that once beguiled is o'er, And they shall weep at your deceiving! 3 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, Πολλακι μεν του αεισα, και εκ τυμβου δε βοήσω, This lesson oft in life I sung, And from my grave I still shall cry, "Drink, mortal, drink, while time is young, Ere death has made thee cold as I." 4 And with some maid, who breathes but love, To walk, at noontide, through the grove.] Thus Horace: Quid habes illins, illius Quæ spirabat amores, Quæ me surpuerat mihi. Lib. iv. Carm. 13. And does there then remain but this, The character of Anacreon is here very strikingly depicted. His love of social, harmonized pleasures, is expressed with a warmth, amiable and endearing. Among the epigrams imputed to Anacreon is the following; it is the only one worth translation, and it breathes the same sentiments with this ode: Ου φίλος, ός κρητήρι παρα πλέω οινοποτάζων, Αλλ' όστις Μουσεων τε, και αγλαα δωρ' Αφροδίτης When to the lip the brimming cup is press'd, And while the red cup foams along, Then, while I sit, with flow'rets crown'd, Let but the nymph, our banquet's pride, Touch the gay hearts met here to-night. Come, let us hear the harp's gay nets Young maidens through the light dance move. Some airy nymph, with graceful bound, The leafy Bacchanalian wand, A youth the while, with loosen'd hair, ODE XLIIL WHILE our rosy fillets shed And while the harp, impassion'd, flings Tuneful rapture from its strings, &c.] Respecting the barbiton a host of authorities may be collected, which, after all, leave us ignorant of the nature of the instrument. There is scarcely any point upon which we are so totally uninformed as the music of the ancients. The authors* extant upon the subject are, I agine, little understood; and certainly if one of their moods was a progression by quarter-tones, which we are told was the nature of the enharmonic scale, simplicity was by no means the characteristic of their melody; for this is a nicety of progression of which modern music is not susceptible. The invention of the barbiton is, by Athenæus, attributed to Anacreon. See his fourth book, where it is called ro Ebonμa rov AvaxрEOVTUS. Neanthes of Cyzicus, as quoted by Gyraldus, asserts the same. Vide Chabot, in Horat. on the words "Lesboum barbiton," in the first ode. And oh, the sadness in his sigh, ODE XLIV.S BUDS of roses, virgin flowers, Drink and smile, and learn to think The kiss that she left on my lip, Like a dewdrop shall lingering lie; "Twas nectar I drank in her sigh. 3 It seems as Love himself had come To make this spot his chosen home;-] The introduction of these deities to the festival is merely allegorical. Madame Dacier 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!) Kapos, the deity or genius of mirth. Philostratus, in the third of his pictures, gives a very As o'er his lip the accents die!] Longepierre has quoted lively description of this god. here an epigram from the Anthologia : Κούρη τις μ' εφίλησε ποθέσπερα χείλεσιν ύγροις. Of which the following paraphrase may give some idea : • Collected by Meibomius. 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 Tatius, to which Barnes refers us, the rose is fancifully styled "the eye of flowers;" and the same poetess, in another fragment, calls the favors of the Muse "the roses of Pieria." See the notes on the fifty-fifth ode. "Compare with this ode (says the German annotator) the beautiful ode of Uz, die Rose.'" · Rose, thou art the sweetest flower That ever drank the amber shower; Of dimpled Spring, the wood-nymph wild. ODE XLV. WITHIN this goblet, rich and deep, Why should we breathe the sigh of fear, For death will never heed the sigh, And eyes that sparkle, eyes that weep, Then let us never vainly stray, In search of thorns, from pleasure's way;3 When with the blushing, sister Graces, The wanton winding dance he traces.] "This sweet idea of Love dancing with the Graces, is almost peculiar to Anacreon."-Degen. 2 I lead some bright nymph through the dance, &c.] The epithet Ba0vкoλños, which he gives to the nymph, is literally "full-bosomed." 3 Then let us never vainly stray, In search of thorns, from pleasure's way; &c.] I have thus endeavored to convey the meaning of rt de rov Biov λavwμat; according to Regnier's paraphrase of the line: E che val, fuor della strada Del piacere alma e gradita, Vaneggiare in questa vita? 4 The fastidious affectation of some commentators has denounced this ode as spurious. Degen pronounces the four last lines to be the patchwork of some miserable versificator, and Brunck condemns the whole ode. It appears to me, on the contrary, to be elegantly graphical; full of delicate expressions and luxuriant imagery. The abruptness of Ide ws ɛapos pavevros is striking and spirited, and has been imitated rather languidly by Horace : Vides ut alta stet nive candidum The imperative d is infinitely more impressive;-as in Shakspeare, But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, But wisely quaff the rosy wave, ODE XLVI.A BEHOLD, the young, the rosy Spring, Now the earth prolific swells 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; where, in a little villa at some distance from the city, commanding a view of the Ægean Sea and the islands, he contemplated the beauties of nature and enjoyed the felicities of retirement. Vide Barnes, in Anac. Vita, xxxv. This supposition, however unauthenticated, forms a pleasing association, which renders the poem more interesting. Chevreau says, that Gregory Nazianzenus has paraphrased somewhere this description of Spring; but I cannot meet with it. See Chevreau, Œuvres Mêlées. "Compare with this ode (says Degen) the verses of Hagedorn, book fourth, der Frühling,' and book fifth, 'der Mai.'" While virgin Graces, warm with May, Fling roses o'er her dewy way.] De Pauw reads, Xapıras foda Bpvovoiv, “the roses display their graces." This is not uningenious; but we lose by it the beauty of the personification, to the boldness of which Regnier has rather frivolously objected. The murmuring billows of the deep Have languish'd into silent sleep; &c.] It has been justly remarked, that the liquid flow of the line απαλύνεται γαλήνη is perfectly expressive of the tranquillity which it describes. *And cultured field, and winding stream, &c.] By ẞporov Epya, "the works of men," (says Baxter,) he means cities, temples, and towns, which are then illuminated by the beams of the sun. 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. Ioy leaves my brow entwining, &c.] "The ivy was con On my velvet couch reclining, While my soul expands with glee, I would spurn them all away! ODE XLIX.5 WHEN Bacchus, Jove's immortal boy, The rosy harbinger of joy, Who, with the sunshine of the bowl, Thaws the winter of our soul- Sing, sing of love, let music's sound In melting cadence float around, While, my young Venus, thou and I Responsive to its murmurs sigh. Then, waking from our blissful trance, Again we'll sport, again we'll dance. Altri segua Marte fero; Che sol Bacco è 'l mio conforto. • This, the preceding ode, and a few more of the same character, are merely chansons à boire :-the effusions probably of the moment of conviviality, and afterwards sung, we may imagine, with rapture throughout Greece. But that interesting association, by which they always recalled the convivial emotions that produced them, can now be little felt even by the most enthusiastic reader; and much less by a lects and particles. secrated to Bacchus, (says Montfaucon,) because he formerly phlegmatic grammarian, who sees nothing in them but dia 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, &c. &c. ▲ Arm ye, arm ye, men of might, Hasten to the sanguine fight;] I have adopted the Interpretation of Regnier and others: Who, with the sunshine of the bowl, Thaws the winter of our soul-&c.] Avatos 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 Act, (one of the bacchanal cries,) and accordingly supposed that they worshipped Bacchus. ODE L.1 WHEN Wine I quaff, before my eyes And while we dance through vernal bowers, Again I drink, and, lo, there seems A calmer light to fill my dreams; The lately ruffled wreath I spread With steadier hand around my head; Then take the lyre, and sing "how blest The life of him who lives at rest!" But then comes witching wine again, With glorious woman in its train; And, while rich perfumes round me rise, That seem the breath of woman's sighs, 1 Faber thinks this ode 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 the original is remarkable. It is a kind of song of seven quatrain stanzas, each beginning with the line Ότ' εγω πιω τον οίνον. The first stanza alone is incomplete, consisting but of three lines. "Compare with this poem (says Degen) the verses of Hagedorn, lib. v., der Wein,' where that divine poet has wantoned in the praises of wine." 2 When wine I quaff, before my eyes Dreams of poetic glory rise;] "Anacreon is not the only one (says Longepierre) whom wine has inspired with poetry. We find an epigram in the first book of the Anthologia, which begins thus: Οίνος του χαριεντι μέγας πέλει ἵππος αοιδῳ, If with water you fill up your glasses, You'll never write any thing wise; 3 And while we dance through vernal bowers, &c.] If some of the translators had observed Doctor Trapp's caution, with regard to πολυανθεσιν μ' εν αύραις, “Cave ne calum intelligas," they would not have spoiled the simplicity of Anacreon's fancy, by such extravagant conceptions as the following: Quand je bois, mon œil s'imagine Que, dans un tourbillon plein de parfums divers, Rempli de sa liqueur divine. Bright shapes, of every hue and form, That none but social spirits know, ODE LI. FLY not thus my brow of snow, Or this: Indi mi mena Mentre lieto ebro, deliro, Per la vaga aura serena. 4 When, with young revellers, round the bowl, The old themselves grow young in soul!] Subjoined to Gail's edition of Anacreon, we find some curious letters upon the tarot of the ancients, which appeared in the French Journals. At the opening of the Odéon in Paris, the managers of that spectacle requested Professor Gail to give them some uncommon name for their fêtes. He suggested the word "Thiase," which was adopted; but the literati of Paris questioned the propriety of the term, and addressed their criticisms to Gail through the medium of the public prints. 5 Alberti has imitated this ode; and Capilupus, in the following epigram, has given a version of it: Cur, Lalage, mea vita, meos contemnis amores? Oh! why repel my soul's impassion'd vow, And fly, beloved maid, these longing arms? |