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Thus the sprightly music warms,
Song delights, and beauty charms:
Debonair, and light, and gay,
Thus I dance the hours away.

ODE XXVIII.

FROM THE GUARDIAN.
HIS MISTRESS'S PICTURE.

BEST and happiest artisan,
Best of painters, if you can,
With your many-colour'd art
Paint the mistress of my heart.

Describe the charms you hear from me,
(Her charms you could not paint and see)
And make the absent nymph appear
As if her lovely self were here.

First draw her easy-flowing hair,
As soft and black as she is fair;
And, if your heart can rise so high,
Let breathing odours round her fly.
Beneath the shade of flowing jet,
The ivory forehead smoothly set,
With care the sable brows extend,
And in two arches nicely bend;

That the fair space, which lies between
The meeting shade, may scarce be seen.
The eye must be uncommon fire,
Sparkle, languish, and desire;

The flames, unseen, must yet be felt,
Like Pallas kill, like Venus melt.
The rosy cheeks must seem to glow
Amidst the white of new-fall'n snow.

Let her lips Persuasion wear,
In silence elegantly fair;
As if the blushing rivals strove,
Breathing and inviting love.

Below her chin be sure to deck

With every grace her polish'd neck;
While all that's pretty, soft, and sweet,
In the swelling bosom meet.
The rest in purple garments veil,
Her body, not her shape, conceal.
Enough! the lovely work is done,
The breathing paint will speak anon.

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Draw her as she shines away
At the rout, or at the play:
Carefully each mode express,
Woman's better part is dress.

Let her cap be mighty small,
Bigger just than none at all,
Pretty, like her sense, and little,
Like her beauty, frail and brittle.

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
With a stomacher of gold;
Let it keep her bosom warm,
Amply stretch'd from arm to arm;
Whimsically travers'd o'er,

Here a knot, and there a flower,
Like her little heart that dances,
Full of maggots, full of fancies.

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

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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
Guard her elbows, white as ow;
Knots below, and knots above,
Emblems of the ties of love.

Let her hoop, extended wide,
Show what petticoats should hide,
Garters of the softest silk,
Stockings whiter than the milk;
Charming part of female dress,
Did it show us more or less.

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,
Paint the well-proportion'd man;
Once again the tints prepare,
Paint Bathyllus young and fair.

Draw his tresses soft and black,
Flowing graceful down his back,
Auburn be the curl'd extremes,
Glowing like the solar beams;
Let them negligently fall,
Easy, free, and artless all.

Let his bright cerulean brow
Grace his forehead white as snow.

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;

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And, if art can this bestow,
Let the blush ingenuous glow.

But description would be faint,
Teaching you his lips to paint:
There let fair Persuasion dwell,
Let them gently, softly swell,
Seem in sweetest sounds to break
Willing air, and silent speak.

Now you've finish'd high the face,
Draw his ivory neck with grace;
All the charms and beauty add,
Such as fair Adonis had.

Let me, next, the bosom see
And the hands of Mercury.
But I'll not presume to tell,
Artist, you who paint so well,
How the foot should be exprest,
How to finish all the rest.

I the price you ask will give,
For the picture seems to live:
Gold's too little, view this piece,
'Tis the pictur'd pride of Greece:
This divine Apollo take,
And from this Bathyllus make.
When to Samos you repair,
Ask for young Bathyllus there,
Finest figure eye e'er saw,
From Bathyllus Phoebus draw.

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.]

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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;
Sed quamvis neuter, mistus uterque color:
Qualem clivosæ madidis in vallibus Idæ

Ardua, direpto cortice, cedrus habet.
Nor of a black, nor of a golden hue
They were, but of a dye between the two:
Such as in rindless cedar we behold,
The black confounded with the dusky gold.

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.

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ODE XXXI.

THE PLEASING FRENZY.
INDULGE me, Stoics, with the bowl,
And let me gratify my soul;
Your precepts to the schools confine,
For I'll be nobly mad with wine.

Alemæon and Orestes grew

Quite mad when they their mothers slew:
But I, no man, no inother kill'd,

No blood but that of Bacchus spill'd,
Will prove the virtues of the vine,
And be immensely mad with wine.

When Hercules was mad, we know,
He grasp'd the Iphitean bow;
The rattling of his quiver spread
Astonishment around and dread.
Mad Ajax, with his sevenfold shield,
Tremendous stalk'd along the field,
Great Hector's flaming sword he drew,
And hosts of Greeks in fancy slew.

5, 6. Venus with large ransom strove To release the god of love]

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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.
Huge was its orb, with seven thick folds o'ercast
Of tough bull-hides; of solid brass the last.
Pope.

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,
No sword I wave, nor bend the bow:
My helmet is a flowery crown;

In this bright bowl my cares I'll drown,
And rant in ecstacies divine,
Heroically mad with wine.

ODE XXXII.

THE NUMBER OF HIS MISTRESSES.

WHEN thou can'st fairly number all
The leaves on trees that fade and fall,
Or count the foaming waves that roar,
Or tell the pebbles on the shore;
Then may'st thou reckon up the names
Of all my beauties, all my flames.

At Athens, flames that still survive,
First count me only thirty-five.
At Corinth next tell o'er the fair,
Tell me a whole battalion there.
In Greece the fairest nymphs abound,
And worse than banner'd armies wound.
Count all that make their sweet abodes
At Lesbos, or delightful Rhodes.

Then Carian and Ionian dames,

Write me at least two thousand flames.

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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.

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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."

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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
The nymphs of Persia and of Spain,
And Indians, scorch'd by Titan's ray,
Whose charms have burnt my heart away.

Dreadful torment I sustain,
What, alas! can ease my pain:
The vast flocks of Loves that dwell
In my breast no tongue can tell.

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ODE XXXIII.

THE SWALLOW.

LOVELY swallow, once a year,
Pleas'd you pay your visit here;
When our clime the sun-beams gild,
Here your airy nest you build;

And, when bright days cease to smile,
Fly to Memphis or the Nile:
But, alas! within my breast
Love for ever makes his nest;
There the little Cupids lie,
Some prepare their wings to fly,

Some unhatch'd, some form'd in part,
Lie close nestling at my heart,
Chirping loud; their ceaseless noise
All my golden peace destroys:

Some, quite fledg'd and fully grown, Nurse the younglings as their own; These, when feather'd, others feed, And thus propagate their breed.

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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.

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And sailing float to warmer air;
Th' enlivening suns in glory rise,
And gaily dance along the skies;
The clouds disperse, or, if in showers
They fall, it is to wake the flowers.
See! verdure clothes the teeming earth;
The olive struggles into birth;
The swelling grapes adorn the vine,
And kindly promise future wine:
Blest juice! already 1 in thought
Quaff an imaginary draught.

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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,
We must descend to sullen night,
And, in the realms of fabled shades below,
Thy pining ghost no joy shall know.
Duncombe.

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
The stabyllit wyndys, and the calmyt se,
The soft sessoun, the firmament serene,
The loune illuminate are, and firth amene.
Or, as it is translated by Mr. Fawkes,

How calm! how still! how pleasing to behold
The sea's broad bosom where no billows roll'd!
The season soft, the firmament serene,
Th' illumin'd landscape, and the watry scene!

ODE XXXVIII.

ON HIMSELF.

YES, I'm old, I'm old, 'tis true;
What have I with time to do?
With the young and with the gay,
I can drink as much as they.
Let the jovial band advance,
Still I'm ready for the dance:
What's my sceptre? if you ask,
Lo! I sway a mighty flask.

Should some mettled blade delight
In the bloody scenes of fight,
Let him to this stage ascend,
Still I'm ready to contend-

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;
Like Silenus 'midst his train,

1 can dance along the plain.

ODE XXXIX.

ON HIMSELF. ·

WHEN I drain the rosy bowl,
Joy exhilarates my soul;
To the Nine I raise my song.
Ever fair and ever young.

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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,
Ύδωρ δε πίνων, καλον ο τέκοις επος.
Wine is the poet's generous horse;
But water-drinkers works of course
Are languid, cold, and void of force.

"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.

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