Thus the sprightly music warms, ODE XXVIII. FROM THE GUARDIAN. BEST and happiest artisan, Describe the charms you hear from me, First draw her easy-flowing hair, That the fair space, which lies between The flames, unseen, must yet be felt, Let her lips Persuasion wear, Below her chin be sure to deck With every grace her polish'd neck; 10 10 20 30 Draw her as she shines away Let her cap be mighty small, Be her shining locks confin'd In a threefold braid behind; Let an artificial flower Set the fissure off before; Here and there weave ribbon pat in, Ribbon of the finest satin. Circling round her ivory neck Frizzle out the smart vandyke; Like the ruff that heretofore Good queen Bess's maidens wore; Happy maidens, as we read, Maids of honour, maids indeed. Let her breast look rich and bold Here a knot, and there a flower, Flowing loosely down her back Draw with art the graceful sacque; Ornament it well with gimping, Flounces, furbelows, and crimping. esteemed one particular colour of the hair more than another; for we find both black and light colour equally admired. 19, 20. The eye must be uncommon fire, Sparkle, languish, and desire.] Baxter, Barnes, and Stephens, trifle ridiculously on this passage. The Greek, ygov, is humid. Madame Dacier judiciously observes, "That eyes, in which there is the least degree of humidity, are uncommonly vivid and full of fire." 25. Let her lips Persuasion wear,] The ancients, to give us an idea of a mouth perfectly agreeable, generally represented it by the lips of Persuasion. Anthol. b. 7. Καλλος έχεις Κυπριδος, Πειθώς σομα, σώμα και Ille liquor docuit voces infleetere cantu; Movit et ad certos nescia membra modos. L. 1. eleg. 7. This as swains quaff'd, spontaneous numbers [name; came, They prais'd the festal cask, and hymn'd thy All ecstacy! to certain time they bound, And beat in measur'd awkwardness the ground. Grainger. Ode XXVIII.-10. Soft and black as she is fair;] Neither the Greeks nor Romans seem to have [tos; laudat digitosque manusque, Brachiaque, et nudos mediâ plus parte lacerSi qua latent meliora putat. He view'd Her taper fingers, and her panting breast; He praises all he sces, and for the rest, Believes the beauties yet unseen are best. Dryden. Let of ruffles many a row Let her hoop, extended wide, Let a pair of velvet shoes Gently press her petty-toes, Gently press, and softly squeeze, Tottering like the fair Chinese, Mounted high, and buckled low, Tott'ring every step they go. Take these hints, and do thy duty, Fashions are the tests of beauty; Features vary and perplex, Mode's the woman and the sex. ODE XXIX. BATHYLLUS. Now, illustrious artisan, Draw his tresses soft and black, Let his bright cerulean brow Let his eyes, that glow with fire, Gentlest, mildest love inspire; Steal from Mars the radiant mien, Softness from th' Idalian queen; This, with hope the heart to bless, That, with terrour to depress. Next, his cheeks with roses crown, And the peach's dubious down; 10 And, if art can this bestow, But description would be faint, Now you've finish'd high the face, Let me, next, the bosom see I the price you ask will give, ODE XXX. CUPID TAKEN PRISONER. LATE the Muses Cupid found And with wreaths of roses bound, Bound him fast, as soon as caught, And to blooming Beauty brought. 9, 10. Let them negligently fall, Easy, free, and artless all.] 30 40 Patronius says, Crines, ingenio suo flexi, per totos se humeros effuderant: "Her hair, negligently 20 floating where it pleased, diffused itself over her shoulders." Ode XXIX.-7, 8. Auburn be the curl'd extremes, Glowing like the solar beams;] Anacreon describes the hair of Bathyllus black towards the head, but lower down gradually inclining to a yellow. Horace calls this colour myrrheus, Myrrheum nodo cohibere crinem, b. 3, ode 14. On which an ancient critic remarks, Colorein myrrheum in crinibus hodie quoque dicunt, qui medius est inter flavum et nigrum; "Even at this day they call that hair of a myrrh colour, which is between black and yellow." Ovid describes the colour of his mistress's hair thus, Amor. 1. 1. Eleg. 14. Nec tamen ater erat, nec erat color aureus illis; Ardua, direpto cortice, cedrus habet. 25. There let fair Persuasion dwell,] Meleager as Longepierre observes, calls his mistress, nav godev wess, The sweet rose of persuasion. Anthologia. 43, 44. This divine Apollo take, The poet could not give us a more perfect idea of And from this Bathyllus make.] the beauty of this young Samian: he tells the painter, "If he would draw a good likeness of the most beautiful of the gods; and if he would Bathyllus, he must copy the portrait of Apollo, make a good picture of Apollo, he must paint Bathyllus." a celebrated statue erected to his honour at Sa45. When to Samos you repair,] Bathyllus had mos by Polycrates. See Apuleius. Ode XXX.-This ode is very fine; and the fiction extremely ingenious. I believe, Anacreon would inculcate that beauty alone cannot long secure a conquest; but that when wit and beauty meet, it is impossible for a lover to disengage himself. Madame Dacier. Venus with large ransom strove To release the god of love. Vain is ransom, vain is fee, Love refuses to be free. Happy in his rosy chain, Love with Beauty will remain. 10 ODE XXXI. THE PLEASING FRENZY. Alemæon and Orestes grew Quite mad when they their mothers slew: No blood but that of Bacchus spill'd, When Hercules was mad, we know, 5, 6. Venus with large ransom strove To release the god of love] 10 Moschus, in his Runaway Love, makes Venus offer a reward to any one who should only discover where he was. Ο μανυτας γέρας έξει Μισθος τοι το φίλαμα το Κυπριδος.. Whoe'er shall bring the news, his fee is this, 1 Venus will reward him with a kiss. Ode XXXI.-5. Alemæon and Orestes] Alcmæon was the son of Amphiaraüs and Eriphyle. His father had been put to death by the contrivance of his mother, whom on that account he slew. Orestes slew his mother Clytemnestra, to revenge the death of his father Agamemnon, who, at his return from the Trojan war, had been murdered by her and her lover Ægisthus. They were both tormented by the Furies. 12. The Iphitean bow] Iphitus was the son of Eurytus king of Oechalia, and slain by Hercules, who carried off his bow. 15. Mad Ajax with his sevenfold shield] When the armour of Achilles was adjudged to Ulysses, Ajax was so enraged at the affront, that he ran mad; and falling upon a flock of sheep, which he took for so many Grecians, first slew them, and then himself. Homer celebrates his shield for its extraordinary size. Iliad, book 7. 17. Hector's sword] Hector and Ajax made an exchange of presents (see Iliad 7.) which gave birth to a proverb, "That the presents of enemies are generally fatal:" for Ajax with this sword afterwards killed himself; and Hector was dragged, VOL. XX. But I with no such fury glow, In this bright bowl my cares I'll drown, ODE XXXII. THE NUMBER OF HIS MISTRESSES. WHEN thou can'st fairly number all At Athens, flames that still survive, Then Carian and Ionian dames, Write me at least two thousand flames. 20 10 What! think'st thou this too large a sum? Egypt and Syria are to come. And Crete where Love his sway maintains, And o'er a hundred cities reigns. 20 by the belt which Ajax gave him, at the chariot of Achilles. There is an epigram to this purpose, Anthol. b. 3. c. 14. Εκτωρ Αίαντι ξιφος ώπασεν Έκτορι δ' Αίας Ζωσης, αμφοτέρων ή χάρις εις θάνατον. Hector bestow'd on Telamon the brave A sword; the Greek to god-like Hector gave A radiant belt: each gift was stamp'd with woe, And prov'd alike destructive to the foe. Ode XXXII.-9. At Corinth next tell o'er the fair] Corinth, the metropolis of Achaia, was so famous for rich courtezans, who would only entertain the wealthy, that it occasioned the proverb, Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum, "Every man cannot go to Corinth." Lais asked Demosthenes a thousand drachms for one favour; to which he replied, I will not buy repentance Longepierre. at so dear a rate." 19. And Crete] Anacreon says of Crete, anav X, abounding with all things, to express its fertility. Virgil says, it had a hundred cities: Creta Jovis magni medio jacet insula ponto, Centum urbes habitant magnas, uberrima regna. Fair Crete sublimely towers amid the floods, Proud nurse of Jove the sovereign of the gods; A hundred cities the blest isle contains, And boasts a vast extent of fruitful plains. Pitt. Homer, in the Iliad, gives Crete a hundred cities, b. 2. Crete's hundred cities pour forth all her sons. But in the Odyssey, only ninety; Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil; And ninety cities crown the sea-born isle. B. 19. Therefore it is probable, that in the time of the Trojan way it had no more than ninety cities, but a hundred in the days of Homer. A a Yet still unnumber'd, still remain Dreadful torment I sustain, 20 ODE XXXIII. THE SWALLOW. LOVELY swallow, once a year, And, when bright days cease to smile, Some unhatch'd, some form'd in part, Some, quite fledg'd and fully grown, Nurse the younglings as their own; These, when feather'd, others feed, And thus propagate their breed. 10 Ode XXXIII.-5. And, when, &c.] It was an opinion generally received among the ancients, that swallows, and several other birds, crossed the sea, on the approach of winter, in search of warmer climates. Thus Virgil, Æneid 6. ver. $11. Quam multæ glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus Trans pontum fugat, et terris immittit apricis. Thick as the feather'd flocks, in close array, O'er the wide fields of ocean wing their way, When from the rage of winter they repair To warmer suns and more indulgent air. Pitt. Others thought they hid themselves in the clefts of rocks. Thus Ovid, Cum glaciantur aquæ, scopulis se condit hirundo. Pecklinius, in his book De Aeris et Elementi defectu, et vitâ sub aquis, assures us, that swallows retire to the bottom of the water during the winter; and that it is common for the fishermen on the coasts of the Baltic to take them in their nets in large knots, clinging together by their bills and claws; and that, upon their being brought into a warm room, they will separate, and begin to flutter about as in spring. Kercher, in his book De mundo subterraneo, affirms the same, and that in the northern countries they hide themselves under ground in the winter, whence they are often dug out. Longepierre. 6. Memphis, or the Nile] Memphis was a city situated on the Nile, a little below Delta, and the residence of the kings of Egypt. By the Nile, Anacreon means Ethiopia, whence that river derives its source. 8. Love for ever makes his nest] Anacreon is not singular in representing Cupid as a bird, and with propriety, because he is furnished with wings, and his flight is surprisingly rapid. Bion speaks of Love as a bird: See his second Idyllium. And sailing float to warmer air; 10 20 18. And dream of love and wine no more] Horace says, in the same sense, Jam te premet nox, fabulæque manes, Et domus exilis Plutonia.- Too soon cut off from cheerful light, Ode XXXVII.-5. The raging seas forget to roar, &c.] The expression in Greek is extremely delicate and happy, The waves of the sea are mollified into tranquillity: Απαλυνεται γαληνη. Every letter, every syllable, is as liquid and smooth as the calm he describes. A famous old Scotch bishop, Gawin Douglas, in his description of May, seems to have had this passage in view. For to behald it was ane glore to se How calm! how still! how pleasing to behold ODE XXXVIII. ON HIMSELF. YES, I'm old, I'm old, 'tis true; Should some mettled blade delight Mix the grape's rich blood, my page, We in drinking will engage. Yes, I'm old; yet with the gay I can be as brisk as they; 1 can dance along the plain. ODE XXXIX. ON HIMSELF. · WHEN I drain the rosy bowl, 10 Ode XXXVIII.-7. What's my sceptre, &c.] In the Bacchanalian dances among the ancients, the leader of them bore a rod or sceptre. 17. Like Silenus, &c.] Silenus was the fosterfather and tutor of Bacchus, represented by a little, flat-nosed, bald, fat, tun-bellied, old, drunken feilow, riding on an ass. Ovid draws his picture thus: Baccha Satyrique sequuntur, Quique senex ferulâ titubantes ebrius artus Sustinet, et pando non fortiter hæret asello. Metamorph. 1. 4. Around the Bacche and the Satyrs throng;. Behind, Silenus drunk lags slow along; On bis duli ass he nods from side to side, Forbears to fall, yet half forgets to ride. Eusden. Ole XXXIX-3. To the Nine I raise my song] Anacreon is not the only one who asserts, that Bacchus is the best friend to the Muses, If, as Horace Greek poet, Nulla placere diu, nec vivere carmina says, you give credit to old Cratinus, the comic possunt, Quæ scribuntur aquæ potoribus. verses long can please, or long can live, which water-drinkers write." There is an epigram in thus: the first book of the Anthologia, which begins Οίνος του χαριεντι μέγας πέλει ἱππος αρίδω, "No Aristophanes, in his comedy called Peace, humorously tells us, that, when the Lacedæmonians came to besiege Athens, Cratinus died of grief on seeing a hogshead broken, and the wine running out. |