ODE XXXVII.*

'Twas night, and many a circling bowl
Had deeply warm'd my swimming soul;
As lull'd in slumber I was laid,
Bright visions o'er my fancy play'd!
With virgins, blooming as the dawn,
I seem'd to trace the opening lawn ;
Light, on tiptoe bathed in dew,
We flew, and sported as we flew !

* 66

Compare with this ode the beautiful poem, ' der Traum of Uz.'" Degen.

Monsieur Le Fevre, in a note upon this ode, enters into an elaborate and learned justification of drunkenness; and this is probably the cause of the severe reprehension which I believe he suffered for his Anacreon. "Fuit olim fateor (says he in a note upon Longinus), cum Sapphonem amabam. Sed ex quo illa me perditissima fæmina pene miserum perdidit cum sceleratissimo suo congerrone (Anacreontem dico, si nescis Lector), noli sperare," etc. etc. He adduces on this ode the authority of Plato, who allowed ebriety, at the Dionysian festivals, to men arrived at their fortieth year. He likewise quotes the following line from Alexis, which he says no one, who is not totally ignorant of the world, can hesitate to confess the truth of:

Ουδείς φιλοπότης εσιν ανθρωπος κακος.

"No lover of drinking was ever a vicious man."

Some ruddy striplings, young and sleek,
With blush of Bacchus on their cheek,
Saw me trip the flowery wild

With dimpled girls, and slyly smiled-
Smiled indeed with wanton glee ;

But ah! 'twas plain they envied me.
And still I flew-and now I caught

The panting nymphs, and fondly thought
To kiss-when all my dream of joys,
Dimpled girls and ruddy boys,

All were gone! "Alas!" I said,

Sighing for the illusions fled,

"Sleep! again my joys restore,

"Oh! let me dream them o'er and o'er !

-when all my dream of joys,

Dimpled girls and ruddy boys,

All were gone!] Nonnus says of Bacchus, almost in the same words that Anacreon uses,

Εγρόμενος δε

Παρθενον εκ' εκιχησε, και ήθελεν αυθις ιαύειν.

Waking, he lost the phantom's charms,

He found no beauty in his arms;

Again to slumber he essay'd,

Again to clasp the shadowy maid!

"Sleep! again my joys restore,

LONGEPIERRE.

Oh! let me dream them o'er and o'er !"] Doctor Johnson, in his preface to Shakespeare, animadverting upon the

ODE XXXVIII.*

LET us drain the nectar'd bowl,

Let us raise the

song of soul

To him, the god who loves so well
The nectar'd bowl, the choral swell!
Him, who instructs the sons of earth
To thrid the tangled dance of mirth;
Him, who was nursed with infant Love,
And cradled in the Paphian grove ;
Him, that the snowy Queen of Charms
Has fondled in her twining arms.

commentators of that poet, who pretended, in every little coincidence of thought, to detect an imitation of some ancient poet, alludes in the following words to the line of Anacreon before us : "I have been told that when Caliban, after a pleasing dream, says, 'I cried to sleep again,' the author imitates Anacreon, who had, like any other man, the same wish on the same occasion."

"Compare with this beautiful ode the verses of Hagedorn, lib. v. das Gesellschaftliche; and of Bürger, p. 51," etc. etc. Degen.

Him, that the snowy Queen of Charms

Has fondled in her twining arms.] Robertellus, upon the epithalamium of Catullus, mentions an ingenious derivation of Cytherea, the name of Venus, apa ro XEUDENY THS eparas, which seems to hint that "Love's fairy favours are lost, when not concealed."

From him that dream of transport flows,
Which sweet intoxication knows;
With him the brow forgets to darkle,
And brilliant graces learn to sparkle.
Behold! my boys a goblet bear,
Whose sunny foam bedews the air.
Where are now the tear, the sigh?
To the winds they fly, they fly!
Grasp the bowl; in nectar sinking,
Man of sorrow, drown thy thinking!
Oh! can the tears we lend to thought
In life's account avail us aught?
Can we discern, with all our lore,
The path we're yet to journey o'er ?
No, no, the walk of life is dark,
'Tis wine alone can strike a spark!

No, no, the walk of life is dark,

'Tis wine alone can strike a spark!] The brevity of life allows arguments for the voluptuary as well as the moralist. Among many parallel passages which Longepierre has adduced, I shall content myself with this epigram from the Anthologia :

Λεσάμενοι, Προδίκη, πυκασώμεθα, και τον ακρατον
Ελκωμεν, κυλίκας μείζονας αραμενοι.

Ραιος ὁ χαιροντων επι βιος. ειτα τα λοιπα

Γηρας κωλύσει, και το τελος θάνατος.

Of which the following is a loose paraphrase :

Then let me quaff the foamy tide,

And through the dance meandering glide;
Let me imbibe the spicy breath
Of odours chafed to fragrant death;

Or from the kiss of love inhale
A more voluptuous, richer gale!
To souls that court the phantom Care,
Let him retire and shroud him there;
While we exhaust the nectar'd bowl,
And swell the choral song of soul
To him, the God who loves so well
The nectar'd bowl, the choral swell!

Fly, my beloved, to yonder stream,
We'll plunge us from the noontide beam!
Then cull the rose's humid bud,

And dip it in our goblet's flood.
Our age of bliss, my nymph, shall fly
As sweet, though passing, as that sigh
Which seems to whisper o'er your lip,
"Come, while you may, of rapture sip."
For age will steal the rosy form,

And chill the pulse, which trembles warm!
And death-alas! that hearts, which thrill
Like yours and mine, should e'er be still!