In all the glow of epic fire,

To Hercules I wake the lyre!
But still its fainting sighs repeat,
"The tale of Love alone is sweet!"
Then fare thee well, seductive dream,
That mad'st me follow Glory's theme;
For thou my lyre and thou my heart
Shall never more in spirit part;

And thou the flame shalt feel as well
As thou the flame shalt sweetly tell!

In all the glow of epic fire,

66

To Hercules I wake the lyre!] Madame Dacier generally translates up into a lute, which I believe is rather inaccurate. D'expliquer la lyre des anciens (says Monsieur Sorel) par un luth, c'est ignorer la différence qu'il y a entre ces deux instrumens de musique." Bibliothèque Française.

But still its fainting sighs repeat,

"The tale of Love alone is sweet!"] The word avreQave, in the original, may imply that kind of musical dialogue practised by the ancients, in which the lyre was made to respond to the questions proposed by the singer. This was a method which Sappho used, as we are told by Hermogenes : « όταν την λύραν ερωτα Σαπφω και όταν αυτη αποκρινηται.” Περι ιδεων. Τομ. δευτ.

ODE XXIV.*

To all that breathe the airs of Heaven,
Some boon of strength has Nature given.
When the majestic bull was born,

She fenced his brow with wreathed horn.
She arm'd the courser's foot of air,

And wing'd with speed the panting hare.

* Henry Stephen has imitated the idea of this ode in the following lines of one of his poems :

Provida dat cunctis Natura animantibus arma,

Et sua fæmineum possidet arma genus,

Ungulâque ut defendit equum, atque ut cornua taurum,
Armata est formâ fæmina pulchra suâ.

And the same thought occurs in those lines, spoken by Corisca in Pastor Fido:

Così noi la bellezza

Che 'è vertu nostra così propria, come

La forza del leone

El' ingegno de l'huomo.

The lion boasts his savage powers,

And lordly man his strength of mind;

But beauty's charm is solely ours,

Peculiar boon, by Heaven assign'd!

"An elegant explication of the beauties of this ode (says Degen) may be found in Grimm en den Anmerkk. Veber

einige Oden des Anakr."

VOL. VII.

5

She gave the lion fangs of terror,
And, on the ocean's crystal mirror,
Taught the unnumber'd scaly throng
To trace their liquid path along ;
While for the umbrage of the grove,
She plumed the warbling world of love.
To man she gave the flame refined,
The spark of Heaven-a thinking mind!
And had she no surpassing treasure,
For thee, oh woman! child of pleasure?
She gave thee beauty-shaft of eyes,
That every shaft of war outflies!

To man she gave the flame refined,

The spark of Heaven-a thinking mind!] In my first attempt to translate this ode, I had interpreted Opovyμa, with Baxter and Barnes, as implying courage and military virtue; but I do not think that the gallantry of the idea suffers by the import which I have now given to it. For, why need we consider this possession of wisdom as exclusive? and in truth, as the design of Anacreon is to estimate the treasure of beauty, above all the rest which Nature has distributed, it is perhaps even refining upon the delicacy of the compliment, to prefer the radiance of female charms to the cold illumination of wisdom and prudence; and to think that women's eyes are

-the books, the academies,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.

She gave thee beauty-shaft of eyes,

That every shaft of war outflies!] Thus Achilles Tatius: καλλος οξύτερον τιτρώσκει βελες και δια των οφθαλμών

She gave thee beauty-blush of fire,
That bids the flames of war retire!

Woman be fair, we must adore thee;
Smile, and a world is weak before thee!

ODE XXV.*

ONCE in each revolving year,

Gentle bird! we find thee here.

When Nature wears her summer-vest,

Thou comest to weave thy simple nest;

εις την ψυχην καταρρεί.

Οφθαλμος γαρ ὁδος ερωτικω τραυματι. Beauty wounds more swiftly than the arrow, and passes through the eye to the very soul; for the eye

the inlet to the wounds of love."

Woman! be fair, we must adore thee;

is

Smile, and a world is weak before thee!] Longepierre's remark here is very ingenious: "The Romans," says he, were so convinced of the power of beauty, that they used a word implying strength in the place of the epithet beautiful. Thus Plautus, act. 2, scene 2, Bacchid.

Sed Bacchis etiam fortis tibi visa.

'Fortis, id est formosa,' say Servius and Nonius."

*This is another ode addressed to the swallow. Alberti has imitated both in one poem, beginning

Perch' io pianga al tuo canto

Rondinella importuna, etc.

But when the chilling winter lowers,
Again thou seek'st the genial bowers
Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile,
Where sunny hours of verdure smile.
And thus thy wing of freedom roves,
Alas! unlike the plumed loves,
That linger in this hapless breast,
And never, never change their nest!

Alas! unlike the plumed loves,

That linger in this hapless breast,

And never, never change their nest!] Thus Love is represented as a bird, in an epigram cited by Longepierre from the Anthologia:

A μοι δύνει μεν εν βασιν ηχος ερωτος,

Ομμα δε σιγα ποθοις το γλυκυ δάκρυ φερει.

Ουδ' ή νυξ, ου φεγγος εκοίμισεν, αλλ' ύπο φιλτρων
Ηδε πε κραδίη γνωτος ενεςι τυπος.

Ω πτανοί, μη και ποτ' εφιπτασθαι μεν ερωτες
Οιδατ', αποπτηναι δ' εθ' όσον ισχυετε ;

'Tis Love that murmurs in my breast,
And makes me shed the secret tear;
Nor day nor night my heart has rest,
For night and day his voice I hear.

A wound within my heart I find,

And oh! 'tis plain where Love has been;
For still he leaves a wound behind,
Such as within my heart is seen.

Oh bird of Love! with song so drear,
Make not my soul the nest of pain;
Oh! let the wing which brought thee here,
In pity waft thee hence again!