THE LIVES OF BION AND MOSCHUS. We know little relating to these two celebrated pastoral poets: and therefore their history may be comprised in few words. Bion was born at Smyrna, a famous city of Asia Minor, which also has the fairest title to the birth of Homer: for this father of poets is said to have been the son of the river Meles, which flows not far from its walls; and therefore he is called Melesigenes. To this river Moschus, in his Idyllium on the death of Bion, addresses himself; and makes that fine comparison between these two poets: Τότο τοί, ω ποταμων λιγυρωτάτε, κ. τ. λ. Meles! of streams in melody the chief, This drank of Arethuse, that Helicon. He sung Atrides' and Achilles' ire, And the fair dame that set the world on fire: This form'd his numbers on a softer plan, And chanted shepherds loves, and peaceful Pan. We are not informed in what part of the world he lived, though it is evident that he spent much of his time in Sicily; and there it was, probably, that the wonderful sweetness of his compositions drew together great numbers of admirers and disciples; among whom was Moschus, as may be deduced from the above-mentioned poem : I too, with tears, from Italy have brought These two last verses prove, that he was not in necessitous circumstances. From the same idyllium it appears, that he died by poison, not accidentally, but by the appointment of some great man. O hapless Bion! poison was thy fate; The baneful potion circumscrib'd thy date. Which probably was not unpunished: But soon just vengeance will the wretch pursue. It is likewise evident from the above-mentioned authority, that he was contemporary with Theocritus: and this famous Syracusan flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus, who began his reign in the fourth year of the 123d Olympiad, that is, about 285 years before Christ. Moschus was born at Syracuse, and was the disciple of Bion, as was before observed. Suidas will have him to have been a professor of grammar at Syracuse: but it is certain, that when he wrote his beautiful elegy on the death of his master, his residence was among the Italians (though perhaps in those parts that lie over against Sicily, called Great Greece); and probably he succeeded him in governing the poetic school. Some critics have formerly asserted, that Moschus and Theocritus are the same person; but they are sufficiently confuted by a passage in the elegy, where Moschus introduces Theocritus bewailing the same misfortune in another country which he was lamenting in Italy. "The few remains of these two poets," says Kennet, "are reckoned among the sweetest pieces of the ancient delicacy. They seem, in a great measure, to have neglected that blunt rusticity and plainness, which was so admired an art of their great rival Theocritus: for they always aim at something more polite and genteel, though equally natural, in their compositions." Mr. Longepierre observes, that "the beauty of these Idylliums can never be sufficiently admired. If I dare not," says he," affirm, that these two poets are superior to Theocritus himself; yet I may safely aver, that in general they are more correspondent to the taste of the present age; which can never be brought to relish that extreme simplicity, which abounds in Theocritus. Bion and Moschus are not less natural than he is; but though their simplicity is pure Nature, it is less rustic, and more elegant; and their poems, having a more pleasing and agreeable air, one may with justice affirm, that Bion has more grace, sweetness, and delicacy, and less rusticity (if I may be allowed the expression) than Theocritus; and that Moschus keeps the middle track between them both. However, if their works are not admitted among some for such true pastorals, they will certainly pass, among the best judges, for better poems." There is a remarkable paper in the Guardian, No. 40, containing a parallel between the Pastorals of Mr. Pope and Mr. Phillips (by the way written by Pope himself, though the former papers on pastoral poetry were composed by Mr. Tickell). It abounds with the finest sarcastic irony, which Phillips not having penetration enough to see through, made an apology to Pope on the occasion, declaring that he had no hand in it, nor knew the author. It concludes thus: "After all that has been said, I hope none can think it any injustice to Mr. Pope that I forbore to mention him as a pastoral writer; since, upon the whole, he is of the same class with Moschus and Bion, whom we have excluded that rank; and on whose Eclogues, as well as some of Virgil's it may be said, that they are by no means pastorals, but something better." 40 50 With piercing cries Adonis she bewails, 60 43. The mountains mourn, the waving woods bewail] Virgil, Eclogue 5. Daphni, tuum interitum, montes sylvæque loquunter. The death of Daphnis woods and hills deplore. Dryden. And Eclogue 10. Illum etiam lauri, illum etiam flevere myricæ, Mænalian pines the godlike swain bemoan, 44. And rivers roll lamenting] See the beginning of Moschus's Idyllium on the death of Bion. 47. And every flower in drooping grief appears.] Ye drooping flowers, diffuse a languid breath, And die with sorrow at sweet Bion's death. Moschus. 55. Soon as she saw him wounded on the plain] There is a similar beautiful description in Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 4. But when her view her bleeding love confess'd, Thee to the shades the Fates untimely bring; 70 80 With thee my zone, which coldest hearts could "My Pyramus! whence sprung thy cruel fate? 69. Thee to the shades the Fates untimely Virgil says of Orpheus, Georg. b. 4. Manesque adiit, regemque tremendum, Nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda. Ev'n to the dark dominions of the night He took his way, through forests void of light; And dar'd amidst the trembling ghosts to sing, And stood before the inexorable king. Dryden. 90 As many drops of blood, as from the wound From these in crimson beauty sprung the rose, 101 The death of fair Adonis I deplore, The lovely youth Adonis is no more. No longer in lone woods lament the dead, O queen of love! behold the stately bed, On which Adonis, now depriv'd of breath, Seems sunk in slumbers, beauteous ev'n in death. Dress him, fair goddess, in the softest vest, In which he oft with thee dissolv'd to rest; On golden pillow be his head reclin'd, And let past joys be imag'd in thy mind. Though Death the beauty of his bloom devours, Crown him with chaplets of the fairest flowers; Alas! the flowers have lost their gaudy pride, With him they flourish'd, and with him they died. With odorous myrtle deck his drooping head, And o'er his limbs the sweetest essence shed: 110 Ah! rather perish every rich perfume, The sweet Adonis perish'd in his bloom. Clad in a purple robe Adonis lies; Surrounding Cupids heave their breasts with sighs, 93. From these in crimson beauty sprung the rose] Some authors say, that anemonies, and not roses, sprung from the blood of Adonis. See Ovid's Metamorph. b. 10, at the end. Where the blood was shed, A flower began to rear its purple head: Such as on punic apples is reveal'd, Or in the filmy rind but half conceal'd. Still here the fate of lovely forms we see, So sudden fades the sweet anemony. The feeble stems, to stormy blasts a prey, Their sickly beauties droop, and pine away, The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long, Which owe to winds their name in Grecian song. Eusden. 114. Surrounding Cupids heave their breasts with sighs] Moschus imitates this in his poem on the Death of Bion: The little Loves, lamenting at his doom, Ecce puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram, See Venus' son his torch extinguish'd brings, His golden locks drink many a falling tear: What piteous sobs, as if his heart would break, Shake his swoln cheek? Ah sorrow too severe! Anon, VOL' XX. Their locks they shear, excess of grief to show, For Venus' sake the pitying Cupids shed 130 But notes of sorrow dwell on ev'ry tongue; 115. Their locks they shear, &c.] For the ceremony of cutting off the hair in honour of the dead, see the notes on the second epigram of Sappho. 118. Some in capacious golden vessels bear The cleansing water, &c.] The custom of washing the dead is very ancient. At the latter end of the fourth book of the Æneid, Anna says of the body of her sister Dido: date vulnera lymphis Abluam, et, extremus si quis super halitus errat, Ore legam. Bring, bring me water; let me bathe in death Her bleeding wounds, and catch her parting breath. Pitt. The custom of catching the parting breath may be compared with the 65th and 66th verses above, "Till in my breast," &c. See a beautiful complaint made by the mother of Euryalus, in the Æneid, b. 9, v. 486. nec te tua funera mater Produxi, pressive oculos, aut vulnera lavi, &c. Compose thy limbs, nor catch thy parting breath; Nor did thy mother close thy eyes in death, Nor bathe thy gaping wounds, nor cleanse the gore, Nor throw the rich embroider'd mantle o'er. 120. Pitt. that fans him with his wings] Cupid caught my trembling hand, And with his wings my face he fann'd. Anacreon, ode 7. 136. Reserve thy sorrows forthe mournful year] The time appointed for mourning for the dead, among the ancients, was ten months; which was originally the year both of the Greeks and Romans. The anniversary of the death of Adonis was celebrated through the whole Pagan world. The ancients differ greatly in their accounts of this divinity. Plutarch maintains, that he and Bacchus are the same; and that the Jews abstained from swine's flesh, because Adonis was killed by a boar.. Ausonius, in epigram 30, affirms, that Bacchus, Osiris, and Adonis, are one and the same. CC Langhorne. |