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The bee awak'd-with anger wild

The bee awak'd, and stung the child.
Loud and piteous are his cries;

To Venus quick he runs, he flies;

traces of the same natural simplicity, which it appears to me

to have preserved :

Ερως ποτ' εν χορείαις

Των παρθενων άωτον,
Την μοι φιλην Κορίνναν,
Ὡς ειδεν, ὡς προς αυτην
Προσεδραμε τραχηλω
Διδυμας τε χειρας απτων
Φιλει με, μητερ, είπε.
Καλούμενη Κορίννα,
Μητηρ, ερυθριαζει,

Ως παρθενος μεν ουσα.
Κ' αυτος δε δυσχεραίνων,
Ως ομμασι πλανηθεις,
Ερως ερυθριάζει.

Εγω, δε οἱ παραστας,
Μη δυσχεραινε, φημι.
Κυπριν τε και Κορίνναν
Διαγνώσαι ουκ έχουσι
Και οἱ βλεποντες οξυ.

As dancing o'er the enamell'd plain,
The flow'ret of the virgin train,
My soul's Corinna lightly play'd,
Young Cupid saw the graceful maid;
He saw, and in a moment flew,

And round her neck his arms he threw ;

"Oh mother!—I am wounded through.—

I die with pain-in sooth I do!

Stung by some little angry thing,
Some serpent on a tiny wing-
A bee it was -for once, I know
I heard a rustic call it so."
Thus he spoke, and she the while
Heard him with a soothing smile;
Then said, "My infant, if so much
Thou feel the little wild-bee's touch,
How must the heart, ah, Cupid! be,
The hapless heart that's stung by thee!"

Saying, with smiles of infant joy,
"Oh! kiss me, mother, kiss thy boy!"
Unconscious of a mother's name,
The modest virgin blush'd with shame!
And angry Cupid, scarce believing
That vision could be so deceiving —
Thus to mistake his Cyprian dame!
It made ev'n Cupid blush with shame.
"Be not asham'd, my boy," I cried,
For I was lingering by his side;
"Corinna and thy lovely mother,
Believe me, are so like each other,
That clearest eyes are oft betray'd,
And take thy Venus for the maid."

Zitto, in his Cappriciosi Pensieri, has given a translation of this ode of Anacreon.

ODE XXXVI.

IF hoarded gold possess'd the power
To lengthen life's too fleeting hour,
And purchase from the hand of death
A little span, a moment's breath,
How I would love the precious ore!

And every hour should swell my store;
That when Death came, with shadowy pinion,
To waft me to his bleak dominion,

Fontenelle has translated this ode, in his dialogue between Anacreon and Aristotle in the shades, where, on weighing the merits of both these personages, he bestows the prize of wisdom upon the poet.

"The German imitators of this ode are, Lessing, in his poem 'Gestern Brüder,' &c.; Gleim, in the ode An den Tod;' and Schmidt in der Poet. Blumenl., Gotting. 1783, p. 7." - Degen.

That when Death came, with shadowy pinion,

To waft me to his bleak dominion, &c.] The commentators, who are so fond of disputing "de lanâ caprinâ,” have been very busy on the authority of the phrase ἵν' αν θανειν επελθη. The reading of iv αν Θανατος επελθη, which De Medenbach proposes in his Amonitates Literariæ, was already hinted by Le Fevre, who seldom suggests any thing worth notice

I might, by bribes, my doom delay,
And bid him call some distant day.
But, since, not all earth's golden store
Can buy for us one bright hour more,
Why should we vainly mourn our fate,
Or sigh at life's uncertain date?

Nor wealth nor grandeur can illume
The silent midnight of the tomb.
No-give to others hoarded treasures
Mine be the brilliant round of pleasures;
The goblet rich, the board of friends
Whose social souls the goblet blends;
And mine, while yet I've life to live,
Those joys that love alone can give.

The goblet rich, the board of friends,

Whose social souls the goblet blends;] This communion of friendship, which sweetened the bowl of Anacreon, has not been forgotten by the author of the following scholium, where the blessings of life are enumerated with proverbial simplicity. Υγιαίνειν μεν αριστον ανδρι θνητω. Δευτερον δε, καλον φυην γενεσθαι. Το τρίτον δε, πλουτειν αδόλως. Και το τεταρτον συνεβαν μετα των φίλων.

Of mortal blessings here the first is health,

And next those charms by which the eye we move; The third is wealth, unwounding guiltless wealth, And then, sweet intercourse with those we love!

66

ODE XXXVII.

'Twas night, and many a circling bowl
Had deeply warm'd my thirsty soul;
As lull'd in slumber I was laid,
Bright visions o'er my fancy play'd.
With maidens, blooming as the dawn,
I seem'd to skim the opening lawn;

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

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 he appears to have suffered for his Anacreon. "Fuit olim fateor (says he in a note upon Longinus), cum Sapphonem amabam. Sed ex quo illa me perditissima fœmina pene miserum perdidit cum sceleratissimo suo congerrone, (Anacreontem dico, si nescis, Lector,) noli sperare, &c. &c." 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:

Ουδεις φιλοποτης εστιν ανθρωπος κακος.
"No lover of drinking was ever a vicious man.

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