Thus the sprightly music warms, ODE XXVIII. FROM THE GUARDIAN. HIS MISTRESS'S PICTURE. BEST and happiest artisan, Best of painters, if you can, Describe the charms you hear from me, First draw her easy-flowing hair, 1 That the fair space, which lies between 10 10 20 30 Draw her as she shines away Let her cap be mighty small, Be her shining locks coufin'd Here and there weave ribbon pat in, 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, vypov, 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 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, Draw his ivory neck with grace; All the charms and beauty add, Such as fair Adonis had. Let me, next, the bosom see 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. 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, Colorem 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, v podov was, The sweet rose of persuasion. Anthologia. 43, 44. This divine Apollo take, And from this Bathyllus make.] The poet could not give us a more perfect idea of the beauty of this young Samian: he tells the painter, "If he would draw a good likeness of Bathyllus, he must copy the portrait of Apollo, the most beautiful of the gods; and if he would make a good picture of Apollo, he must paint Bathyllus." 45. When to Samos you repair,] Bathyllus had a celebrated statue erected to his honour at Samos 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. THE PLEASING FRENZY. Alemæon and Orestes grew 2uite mad when they their mothers slew: 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 φιλάμα το Κυπριδος. Whoe'er shall bring the news, his fee is this, But I with no such fury glow, In this bright bowl my cares I'll drown, Heroically mad with wine. ODE XXXII. THE NUMBER OF HIS MISTRESSES. WHEN thou can'st fairly number all At Athens, flames that still survive, Write me at least two thousand flames. 20 10 by the belt which Ajax gave him, at the chariot of Achilles. There is an epigram to this purpose, Anthol. b. 3. c. 14. Έκτωρ Αιαντι ξίφος ώπασεν Έκτορι δ' Αίας Ζως ής, αμφοτέρων ή χάρις εις θάνατον. Ode XXXI.-5. Alcmeon and Orestes] Alc- fair] Corinth, the metropolis of Achaia, was so maon was the son of Amphiaraüs and Eriphyle. famous for rich courtezans, who would only enterHis father had been put to death by the contri-tain the wealthy, that it occasioned the proverb, vance 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, YOL. XX. 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 at so dear a rate." Longepierre. 19. And Crete] Anacreon says of Crete, anav Xons, abounding with all things, to express its fertility. Virgil says, it had a hundred cities: Creta Jovis magni medio jacet insula ponto, Crete's hundred cities pour forth all her sons. Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil; Yet still unnumber'd, still remain The nymphs of Persia and of Spain, Dreadful torment I sustain, 20 ODE XXXIII. THE SWALLOW. LOVELY Swallow, once a year, And, when bright days cease to smile, Some, quite fledg'd and fully grown, 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. 311. 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 Longepierre. out. 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. 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; Like Silenus 'midst his train, 1 can dance along the plain. 10 The cranes from freezing skies repair, And gaily dance along the skies; 10 20 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: Anahuveral yahnm. 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 XXXIX. ON HIMSELF. WHEN I drain the rosy bowl, 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 fellow, riding on an ass. Ovid draws his picture thus: Bacche Satyrique sequuntur, - Quique senex ferulâ titubantes ebrius artus Sustinet, et pando non fortiter hæret asello. Metamorph. 1. 4. Around the Baccha and the Satyrs throng;. Behind, Silenus drunk lags slow along; On his dull ass he nods from side to side, Forbears to fall, yet half forgets to ride. Eusden. Ode XXXIX-3. To the Nine I raise my song] Anacreon is not the only one who asserts, that Baccbus is the best friend to the Muses. If, as Horace says, you give credit to old Cratinus, the comic Greek poet, Nulla placere diu, nec vivere carmina possunt, Quæ scribuntur aquæ potoribus. verses long can please, or long can live, which water-drinkers write." There is an epigram in the first book of the Anthologia, which begins thus: Οίνος του χαριεντι μέγας πέλει ἱππος οίδως "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. |