And, while we dance through breathing bowers, Till the gale breathes of nought but him! That none but social spirits know, When youthful revellers, round the bowl, ODE LI.' FLY not thus, my brow of snow, Lovely wanton! fly not so. Though the wane of age is mine, ODE LII. ' AWAY, away, you men of rules! My soul upon the goblet's brim; I've time for nought but pleasure now. At yonder fountain's gelid flow; I'll quaff, my boy, and calmly sink This soul to slumber as I drink! Soon, too soon, my jocund slave, Is it, that wintry time has strew'd my brow, And, while we dance through breathing bowers, etc.] If some of the translators had observed Doctor Trapp's caution, with regard to πολυανθεσιν μ' εν αύραις, Cave ne cœlum intelligas, they would not have spoiled the simplicity of Anacreon's fancy, by such extravagant conceptions of the passage. Could our poet imagine Anacreon pleads for the whiteness of his locks, from the beauty of such bombast as the following: Quand je bois, mon œil s'imagine Que, dans un tourbillon plein de parfums divers, Or this: Rempli de sa liqueur divine. Indi mi mena Mentre lieto ebro deliro Baccho in giro Per la vaga aura serena. When youthful revellers, round the bowl, Dilating, mingle soul with soul!] Subjoined to Gail's edition of Anacreon, there are some curious letters upon the tarot of the ancients, which appeared in the French Journals. At the opening of the Odeon, in Paris, the managers of the spectacle requested Professor Gail to give them some uncommon name for the fêtes of this institution. He suggested the word Thiase, which was adopted but the literati of Paris questioned the propriety of it, and addressed their criticisms to Gail, through the medium of the public prints. Two or three of the letters he has inserted in his edition, and they have elicited from him some learned research on the subject. Alberti has imitated this ode; and Capilupus, in the following epigram, has given a version of it: Cur, Lalage, mea vita, meos contemnis amores? Ne fugias, sint sparsa licet mea tempora canis, Oh why repel my soul's impassion'd vow, See, in yonder flowery braid, a In the same manner that Cull'd for thee, my blushing maid !] the colour in garlands, a shepherd, in Theocritus, endeavours to recommend his black hair: Και το ιον μελαν εςι, και ά γραπτα ύακινθος This is doubtless the work of a more modern poet than Anacreon, for at the period when he lived rhetoricians were not known. »—Dı GEN. Though the antiquity of this ode is confirmed by the Vatican manuscript, I am very much inclined to agree in this argument against its authenticity: for, though the dawnings of rhetoric might already have appeared, the first who gave it any celebrity was Corax of Syracuse, and he flourished in the century after Anacreon. Our poet anticipated the ideas of Epicurus, in his aversion to the labours of learning, as well as his devotion to voluptuousness.— a delay μaxaploi pevуete, said the philosopher of the garden in a letter to Pythocles. And there's an end-for ah! you know, They drink but little wine below! ODE LIII. WHEN I behold the festive train And wings me lightly through the dance. Cull the flower and twine the braid; Bid the blush of summer's rose . It Burn upon my brow of snows, etc.] Licetus, in his Hieroglyphica, quoting two of our poet's odes, where he calls for garlands, remarks, Constat igitur floreas coronas poetis et potantibus in symposio convenire, non autem sapientibus et philosophiam affectantibus." appears that wreaths of flowers were adapted for poets and revellers at banquets, but by no means became those who had pretensions to wisdom and philosophy. On this principle, in bis 152d chapter, he discovers a refinement in Virgil, describing the garland of the poet Silenus as fallen off; which distinguishes, he thinks, the divine intoxication of Silenus from that of common drunkards, who always wear their crowns while they drink. This, indeed, is the labor ineptiarum of commentators. How fondly blest he seems to bear ODE LV.' WHILE we invoke the wreathed spring, woman carried across the sea by a bull. Thus Natalis Comes, lib. viii, cap. 23. Sidonii numismata cum fœmina tauri dorso insidente ac mare transfretante, cuderunt in ejus honorem. In the little treatise upon the goddess of Syria, attributed very falsely to Lucian, there is mention of this coin, and of a temple dedicated by the Sidonians to Astarte, whom some, it appears, confounded with Europa. Moschus has written a very beautiful idyl on the story of Europa. No: he descends from climes above, He looks the God, he breathes of Jove.] Thus Moschus: Κρυψε θεον και τρεψε δεμας· και γινετο ταύρος. The God forgot himself, his heaven, for love, 1 This ode is a brilliant panegyric on the rose. From the idea of peculiar excellence which the ancients attached to this flower, arose a pretty proverbial expression, used by Aristophanes, according to Suidas, poox etprxxs, You have spoken roses, a phrase somewhat similar to the dire des fleurettes of the French. In the same idea of excellence originated, I doubt not, a very curious application of the word podoy, for which the inquisitive reader may consult Gaulminus upon the epithalamium of our poet, where it is introduced in the romance of Theodorus. Muretus, in one of his elegies, calls his mistress his rose. Jam te igitur rursus teneo, formosula, jam te Now I again embrace thee, dearest, Eleg. 8. This, like most of the terms of endearment in the modern Latin poets, is taken from Plautus; they were vulgar and colloquial in his He still can kiss the goblet's brim, etc.] Wine is prescribed by time, and they are among the elegancies of the modern Latinists. Galen as an excellent medicine for old men: « Quod frigidos et hamoribus expletos calefaciat, etc.; but Nature was Anacreon's physician. There is a proverb in Eriphus, as quoted by Athenæus, which says Λόγος ες αρχαιος, ου κακως έχων, 1 This ode is written upon a picture which represented the rape of Europa. Madame Dacier, It may perhaps be considered as a description of one of those coins which the Sidonians struck off in honour of Europa, representing a Passeratius alludes to the ode before us, in the beginning of his poem on the Rose: Carmine digna rosa est; vellem caneretur ut illam Resplendent rose! to thee we'll sing.] I have passed over the line συν εταιρει αύξει μέλπην; it is corrupt in this original reading, and has been very little improved by the annotators. I should suppose it to be an interpolation, if it were not for a line which occurs afterwards: φέρε δή φυσιν λεγωμεν. The rose is warm Dione's bliss, etc.] Belleau, in a note upon an old French poet, quoting the original here appodtotov talupμa, translates it, comme les délices et mignardises de Vénus. Oft has the poet's magic tongue Oft has the poet's magic tongue, The rose's fair luxuriance sung, etc.] The following is a fragment of the Lesbian poetess. It is cited in the romance of Achilles Tatius, who appears to have resolved the numbers iuto prose. Ev Tots avθεσιν ηθελεν ὁ Ζευς επιθείναι βασιλεα, το ροδον αν των ανθέων εβασιλευε· γης εςι κόσμος, φυτων αγλαίσμα, οφθαλμος ανθέων, λειμωνος ερύθημα, καλλος αςραπτον. Ερωτος πνει, Αφροδίτην προξενει, ευει δεσι φύλλοις κομα, ευκίνητοις πεταλοις τρυφα το πε ταλον το Ζεφυρῳ γελα. If Jove would give the leafy howers Soft the soul of love it breathes, Till, glowing with the wanton's play, When morning paints the orient skies, Her fingers burn with roseate dyes, etc.] In the original here, he enumerates the many epithets of beauty, borrowed from roses, which were used by the poets, παρά των σοφών. We see that poets were dignified in Greece with the title of sages; even the careless Anacreon, who lived but for love and voluptuousness, was called by Plato the wise Anacreon. Fuit hæc sapientia quondam. Preserves the cold inurned clay, etc.] He here alludes to the use of the rose in embalming; and, perhaps (as Barnes thinks), to the rosy unguent with which Venus anointed the corpse of Hector. Homer's Iliad,. It may likewise regard the ancient practice of putting garlands of roses on the dead, as in Statius, Theb. lib. x, 782. ――hi sertis, hi veris honore soluto Accumulant artus patriaque in sede reponunt Where veris honor, though it mean every kind of flowers, may And when, at length, in pale decline, Oh! whenee could such a plant have sprung? When, humid, from the silvery stream, The sweetly orient buds they dyed, seem more particularly to refer to the rose, which our poet, in another ode, calls Expos μednux. We read, in the Hieroglyphics of Pierius, lib. Iv, that some of the ancients used to order, in their wills, that roses should be annually scattered on their tombs; and he has adduced some sepulchral inscriptions to this purpose. And mocks the vestige of decay.] When he says that this flower prevails over time itself, be still alludes to its efficacy in embalment (tenera poneret ossa rosa. Propert. lib. i, eleg. 17), or perhaps to the subsequent idea of its fragrance surviving its beauty; for he can scarcely mean to praise for duration the - nimium breves fores » of the rose. Philostratus compares this flower with love, and says that they both defy the influence of time; χρονον δὲ οὔτε Ερως, OUTE poda otoy. Unfortunately the similitude lies, not in their duration, but their transience. Sweet as in youth, its balmy breath Diffuses odour e'en in death.] Thus Caspar Barlæus, in his Ritus Nuptiarum : Ambrosium late rosa tunc quoque spargit odorem, Nor then the rose its odour loses, With nectar drops, a ruby tide, The sweetly orient buds they dyed, etc.] The author of the Pervigilium Veneris (a poem attributed to Catullus, the style of which appears to me to have all the laboured luxuriance of a much later period) ascribes the tincture of the rose to the blood from the wound of Adonis: rosæ Fuse aprino de cruore according to the emendation of Lipsius. In the following epigram this hue is differently accounted for: Illa quidem studiosa suum defendere Adonim, While the enamour'd queen of joy On whom the jealous war-god rushes; And while the wound with crimson flows, The snowy flow'ret feels her blood, and blushes! ODE LVI. HE, who instructs the youthful crew The heavenly stream shall mantling flow, No youth shall then be wan or weak, ODE LVII.2 AND whose immortal hand could shed 1 Compare with this elegant ode the verses of Uz, lib. i, die Weinlese. Degen. This appears to be one of the hymns which were sung at the anniversary festival of the vintage; one of the emidiot spot, as our poet himself terms them in the fifty-ninth ode. We cannot help feeling a peculiar veneration for these relics of the religion of antiquity. Horace may be supposed to bave written the nineteenth ode of his second book, and the twenty-fifth of the third, for some bacchanalian celebration of this kind, Which, sparkling in the cup of mirth, Illuminate the sons of earth!] In the original TOTOY AÇOVOV XI5. Madame Dacier thinks that the poet here had the nepenthe of Homer in his mind. Odyssey, lib. iv. This nepenthe was a something of exquisite charm, infused by Helen into the wine of her guests, which had the power of dispelling every anxiety. A French writer, with very elegant gallantry, conjectures that this spell, which made the bowl so beguiling, was the charm of Helen's conversation. See de Meré, quoted by Bayle, art. Helène. This ode is a very animated description of a picture of Venus on a discus, which represented the goddess in her first emergence from the waves. About two centuries after our poet wrote, the pencil of the artist Apelles embellished this subject, in his famous painting of the Venus Anadyomené, the model of which, as Pliny informs us, was the beautiful Campaspe, given to him by Alexander; though, according to Natalis Comes, lib. vii, cap. 16, it was Phryne who sat to Apelles for the face and breast of this Venus. There are a few blemishes in the reading of the ode before us, which have influenced Faber, Heyne, Brunck, etc. to denounce the whole poem as spurious. Non ego paucis offendar maculis. I think it is beautiful enough to be authentic. And whose immortal hand could shed Upon this disk the ocean's bed?] The abruptness of apa Tis ToPEUGE TOYTOY, is finely expressive of sudden admiration, and is one of those beauties which we cannot but admire in their source, though, by frequent imitation, they are now become languid and unimpressive. Floating along the silvery sea ODE LVIII.' WHEN gold, as fleet as Zephyr's pinion, And all those sacred scenes of love, Where only hallow'd eyes may rove, etc.] The picture here has all the delicate character of the semi-reducta Venus, and is the sweetest emblem of what the poetry of passion ought to be,-glowing but through a veil, and stealing upon the heart from concealment. Few of the ancients have attained this modesty of description, which is like the golden cloud that hung over Jupiter and Juno, impervious to every beam but that of fancy. Her bosom like the humid rose, etc.] 'Pods (says an anonymous annotator) is a whimsical epithet for the bosom. Neither Catullus nor Gray have been of his opinion. The former has the expression, En hic in rosèis latet papillis. — young Desire, etc.] In the original 'Iuepos, who was the same deity with Jocus among the Romans. Aurelius Augurellus has a poem beginning Invitat olim Bacchus ad coenam suos Which Parnell has closely imitated: Gay Bacchus, liking Estcourt's wine, I have followed Barnes's arrangement of this ode; it deviates somewhat from the Vatican MS., but it appeared to me the more natural order. When gold, as fleet as Zephyr's pinion, Escapes like any faithless minion, etc.) In the original Odpαπετας ò xpucos. There is a kind of pun in these words, as And flies me (as he flies me ever), And cast them to the vagrant airs. From love and song, perhaps for ever! But rove not near the bard again; Madame Dacier has already remarked; for Chrysos, which signifies gold, was also a frequent name for a slave. In one of Lucian's dialogues, there is, I think, a similar play upon the word, where the followers of Chrysippus are called golden fishes. The puns of the ancients are, in general, even more vapid than our own; some of the best are those recorded of Diogenes. And flies me (as he flies me ever), etc.] Aɛt d', aɛl μe pevyel. This grace of iteration has already been taken notice of. Though sometimes merely a playful beauty, it is peculiarly expressive of impassioned sentiment, and we may easily believe that it was one of the many sources of that energetic sensibility which breathed through the style of Sappho. See Gyrald. Vet. Poet. Dial. 9. It will not be said that this is a mechanical ornament by any one who can feel its charm in these lines of Catullus, where he complains of the infidelity of bis mistress, Lesbia. Coli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa, Illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam, Plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes, Si sic omnia dixisset! but the rest does not bear citation. They tainted all his bowl of blisses, His bland desires and hallow'd kisses.] Original: Φιληματων δε κείνων, Ποθων κυπελλα κερνης. SABLED by the solar beam, The virgin wakes, the glowing boy Swears that the herbage Heaven had spread 1 The title Επιλήνιος ύμνος, which Barnes has given to this ode, is by no means appropriate. We have already had one of those bymns (ode 56), but this is a description of the vintage; and the title Ets otvov, which it bears in the Vatican MS., is more correct than any that have been suggested. Degen, in the true spirit of literary scepticism, doubts that this ode is genuine, without assigning any reason for such a suspicion. Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possam dicere quare; but this is far from satisfactory criticism. Swears that the herbage Heaven had spread, as sacred as the nuptial bed, etc.] The original here has been va Horace has Desiderique temperare poculum, not figuratively, however, like Anacreon, but importing the love-philtres of the witches. By cups of kisses our poet may allude to a favourite gallantry among the ancients, of drinking when the lips of their mis-riously interpreted. Some, in their zeal for our author's purity, bave tresses had touched the brim: Or leave a kiss within the cup, And I'll not ask for wine, as in Ben Jonson's translation from Philostratus; and Lucian has a conceit upon the same idea, Tx za vys apa xal pians, that you may at once both drink and kiss.." supposed that the youth only persuades her to a premature marriage; others understand from the words προδοτιν γάμων γενεσθαι, that he seduces her to a violation of the nuptial vow. The turn which I have given it is somewhat like the sentiment of Heloisa, amorem conjugio, libertatem vinculo præferre. (See her original Letters.) The Italian translations have almost all wantoned upon this description: but that of Marchetti is indeed nimium lubricus aspici. |