When I drink, the bliss is mine, There's bliss in every drop of wine! ODE LI.* FLY not thus my brow of snow, edition of Anacreon, there are some curious letters upon the Olavo of the ancients, which appeared in the French Journals. At the opening of the Odeon, in Paris, the managers of the spectacle requested Professor Gail to give them some uncommon name for the fêtes of this institution. He suggested the word "Thiase," which was adopted; but the literati of Paris questioned the propriety of it, and addressed their criticisms to Gail, through the medium of the public prints. Two or three of the letters he has inserted in his edition, and they have elicited from him some learned research on the subject. * Alberti has imitated this ode; and Capilupus, in the following epigram, has given a version of it: Cur, Lalage, mea vita, meos contemnis amores? Cur fugis e nostro pulchra puella sinu? Though the wane of age is mine, How the rose, of orient glow, Mingles with the lily's snow; Mark, how sweet their tints agree, Inque tuo roseus fulgeat ore color. Oh! why repel my soul's impassion'd vow, See, in yonder flowery braid, "In the same man Cull'd for thee, my blushing maid!] ner that Anacreon pleads for the whiteness of his locks, from the beauty of the colour in garlands, a shepherd, in Theocritus, endeavours to recommend his black hair : Και το τον μελαν εξί, και γραπτα ύακινθος Longepierre, Barnes, etc. ODE LII.* AWAY, away, you men of rules, What have I to do with schools? They'd make me learn, they'd make me think, My soul upon the goblet's brim; My arms around the nymph divine! "This is doubtless the work of a more modern poet than Anacreon; for at the period when he lived rhetoricians were not known." Degen. Though the antiquity of this ode is confirmed by the Vatican manuscript, I am very much inclined to agree in this argument against its authenticity; for, though the dawnings of rhetoric might already have appeared, the first who gave it any celebrity was Corax of Syracuse, and he flourished in the century after Anacreon. Our poet anticipated the ideas of Epicurus, in his aversion to the labours of learning, as well as his devotion to voluptuousness. Πασαν παιδείαν μακαριοι φευγετε, said the philosopher of the garden in a letter to Pythocles. Teach me this, and let me twine My arms around the nymph divine!] By xpuons AQporys here, I understand some beautiful girl; in the same manner that Avalos is often used for wine. "Golden" is frequently an epithet of beauty. Thus in Virgil, "Venus Age begins to blanch my brow, I've time for nought but pleasure now. At yonder fountain's gelid flow; And there's an end-for ah! you know aurea;" and in Propertius, " Cynthia aurea." Tibullus, however, calls an old woman golden." The translation d'Autori Anonimi, as usual, wantons on this passage of Anacreon: E m' insegni con piu rare Il bel cinto d' onestade. And there's an end-for ah! you know They drink but little wine below!] Thus the witty Mainard: La Mort nous guette; et quand ses lois Au sein d'une fosse profonde, Ma science ne trouve pas Des cabarets en l'autre monde. From Mainard, Gombauld, and De Cailly, old French poets, some of the best epigrams of the English language are borrowed. ODE LIII. WHEN I behold the festive train Of dancing youth, I'm young again! And wings me lightly through the dance. Cull the flower and twine the braid; Burn upon my brow of snows; Bid the blush of summer's rose young Burn upon my brow of snows; etc.] Licetus, in his Hieroglyphica, quoting two of our poet's odes, where he calls for garlands, remarks, "Constat igitur floreas coronas poetis et potantibus in symposio convenire, non autem sapientibus et philosophiam affectantibus."--" It appears that wreaths of flowers were adapted for poets and revellers at banquets, but by no means became those who had pretensions to wisdom and philosophy." On this principle, in his 152d chapter, he discovers a refinement in Virgil, describing the garland of the poet Silenus as fallen off; which distinguishes, he thinks, the divine intoxication of Silenus from that of common drunkards, who always wear their crowns while they drink. This, indeed, is the " labor ineptiarum" of commentators. |