To-day I'll haste to quaff my wine, With mantling cup and cordial smile ; καταβρεχειν ὑπηνην. On account of this idea of perfuming the beard, Cornelius de Pauw pronounces the whole ode to be the spurious production of some lascivious monk, who was nursing his beard with unguents. But he should have known that this was an ancient eastern custom, which, if we may believe Savary, still exists: "Vous voyez, Monsieur (says this traveller), que l'usage antique de se parfumer la tête et la barbe, * célébré par le prophète Roi, subsiste encore de nos jours."-Lettre 12. Savary likewise cites this very ode of Anacreon. Angerianus has not thought the idea inconsistent; he has introduced it in the following lines: Hæc mihi cura, rosis et cingere tempora myrto, Hæc mihi cura, comas et barbam tingere succo This be my care, to twine the rosy wreath, "Sicut unguentum in capite quod descendit in barbam Aaron.-Psaume 133." And shed from every bowl of wine And grimly bid us—drink no more ! ODE IX.* I PRAY thee, by the gods above, And let me sing, in wild delight, *The poet here is in a frenzy of enjoyment, and it is, indeed, "amabilis insania." Furor di poesia, Di lascivia, e di vino, Triplicato furore, Bacco, Apollo, et Amore. This is, as Scaliger expresses it, Ritratti del Cavalier Marino. -Insanire dulce Et sapidum furere furorem. Alcmæon once, as legends tell, Was frenzied by the fiends of hell; Frantic paced the mountain head; ODE X.* TELL me how to punish thee, (So the fabled tale is told), *This ode is addressed to a swallow. I find from Degen and from Gail's index, that the German poet Weisse has imitated it, Scherz. Lieder. lib. ii. carm. 5; that Ramler also has imitated it, Lyr. Blumenlese, lib. iv. p. 335; and some others. See Gail de Editionibus. We are referred by Degen to that stupid book, the Epistles of Alciphron, tenth epistle, third book; where Iophon complains to Eraston of being wakened, by the crowing of a cock, from his vision of riches. Silly swallow! prating thing, etc.] The loquacity of the swallow was proverbialized; thus Nicostratus : Ει το συνεχώς και πολλα και ταχέως λαλειν If in prating from morning till night, For they prattle much faster than we. Or, as Tereus did of old, etc.] Modern poetry has confirmed the name of Philomel upon the nightingale; but many very respectable ancients assigned this metamorphose to Progne, and made Philomel the swallow, as Anacreon does here. Shall I tear that tongue away, ODE XI.* "TELL me, gentle youth, I pray thee, What in purchase shall I For this little waxen toy, pay thee Image of the Paphian boy?" To a youth who pass'd my way: "Sir," (he answer'd, and the while Answer'd all in Doric style,) *It is difficult to preserve with any grace the narrative simplicity of this ode, and the humour of the turn with which it concludes. I feel that the translation must appear very vapid, if not ludicrous, to an English reader. |