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ODE XIX.

HERE recline you, gentle maid,
Sweet is this embowering shade;

Sweet the young, the modest trees,
Ruffled by the kissing breeze;

The description of this bower is so natural and animated, that we almost feel a degree of coolness and freshness while we peruse it. Longepierre has quoted from the first book of the Anthologia, the following epigram, as somewhat resembling this ode:

Ερχεο και κατ' εμαν ίζευ πιτυν, & το μελιχρον
Προς μαλακους ηχει κεκλιμένα ζεφυρους.
Ηνιδε και κρουνισμα μελισταγες, ενθα μελισδων
Ηδυν ερημαίοις ύπνον αγω καλαμοις.

Come, sit by the shadowy pine

That covers my sylvan retreat;
And see how the branches incline
The breathing of zephyr to meet.
See the fountain, that, flowing, diffuses
Around me a glittering spray ;
By its brink, as the traveller muses,

I soothe him to sleep with my lay.

Here recline you, gentle maid, &c.] The Vatican MS. reads Babuλou, which renders the whole poem metaphorical Some

Sweet the little founts that weep,
Lulling soft the mind to sleep;
Hark! they whisper as they roll,
Calm persuasion to the soul;

Tell me, tell me, is not this

All a stilly scene of bliss?

Who, my girl, would pass it by?

Surely neither you nor I.

commentator suggests the reading of Batuλλov, which makes a pun upon the name; a grace that Plato himself has condescended to in writing of his boy Αστηρ. See the epigram of this philosopher, which I quote on the twenty-second ode. There is another epigram by this philosopher, preserved in Laertius, which turns upon the same word.

Αστηρ πριν μεν ελαμπες ενι ζωοισιν έωος,

Νυν δε θανων λαμπεις έσπερος εν φθιμενοις.

In life thou wert my morning star,

But now that death has stol'n thy light,
Alas! thou shinest dim and far,

Like the pale beam that weeps at night.

In the Veneres Blyenburgica, under the head of "Allusiones," we find a number of such frigid conceits upon names, selected from the poets of the middle ages.

Who, my girl, would pass it by?

Surely neither you nor I.] The finish given to the picture by this simple exclamation τις αν ουν όρων παρελθοι, is inimitable. Yet a French translator says on the passage, "This conclusion appeared to me too trifling after such a description, and I thought proper to add somewhat to the strength of the original."

ODE XX.

ONE day the Muses twin'd the hands
Of infant Love with flow'ry bands;
And to celestial Beauty gave

The captive infant for her slave.

The poet appears, in this graceful allegory, to describe the softening influence which poetry holds over the mind, in making it peculiarly susceptible to the impressions of beauty. In the following epigram, however, by the philosopher Plato, (Diog. Laert. lib. 3.) the Muses are represented as disavowing the influence of Love.

Α Κυπρις Μουσαισι, κορασια, ταν Αφροδιταν

Τιματ', η τον Ερωτα ύμμιν εφοπλίσομαι.

Αἱ Μουσαι ποτι Κυπριν, Αρει τα στωμυλα ταυτα
Ημιν ου πεταται τουτο το παιδάριον.

"Yield to my gentle power, Parnassian maids; "
Thus to the Muses spoke the Queen of Charms
"Or Love shall flutter through your classic shades,

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And make your grove the camp of Paphian arms!"

No," said the virgins of the tuneful bower,

"We scorn thine own and all thy urchin's art; Though Mars has trembled at the infant's power, His shaft is pointless o'er a Muse's heart!"

There is a sonnet by Benedetto Guidi, the thought of which was suggested by this ode.

His mother comes, with many a toy, To ransom her beloved boy;

Scherzava dentro all' auree chiome Amore
Dell' alma donna della vita mia:

E tanta era il piacer ch' ei ne sentia,
Che non sapea, nè volea uscirne fore.

Quando ecco ivi annodar si sente il core,
Sì, che per forza ancor convien che stia:
Tai lacci alta beltate orditi avia

Del crespo crin, per farsi eterno onore.
Onde offre infin dal ciel degna mercede,
A chi scioglie il figliuol la bella dea
Da tanti nodi, in ch' ella stretto il vede.
Ma ei vinto a due occhi l'arme cede:

Et t' affatichi indarno, Citerea;

Che s' altri 'l scioglie, egli a legar si riede.

Love, wandering through the golden maze Of my beloved's hair,

Found, at each step, such sweet delays,

That rapt he linger'd there.

And how, indeed, was Love to fly,
Or how his freedom find,

When every ringlet was a tie,
A chain, by Beauty twin'd.

In vain to seek her boy's release,
Comes Venus from above:

Fond mother, let thy efforts cease,

Love's now the slave of Love.

And, should we loose his golden chain,
The prisoner would return again!

His mother sues, but all in vain,

He ne'er will leave his chains again.
Even should they take his chains away,
The little captive still would stay.
"If this," he cries, "a bondage be,

Oh, who could wish for liberty ? "

His mother comes, with many a toy,

Το ransom her beloved boy; &c.] In the first idyl of Moschus, Venus thus proclaims the reward for her fugitive child :Ο μανυτας γερας έξει,

Μισθος τοι, το φίλαμα το Κυπριδος ην δ', αγαγης νιν
Ου γυμνον το φίλαμα, τυ δ', ω ξενε, και πλεον έξεις.

On him, who the haunts of my Cupid can show,
A kiss of the tenderest stamp I'll bestow;

But he, who can bring back the urchin in chains, Shall receive even something more sweet for his pains. Subjoined to this ode, we find in the Vatican MS. the following lines, which appear to me to boast as little sense as metre, and which are most probably the interpolation of the transcriber :

Ηδύμελης Ανακρέων

Ηδυμελης δε Σαπφω

Πινδαρικόν το δε μοι μελος

Συγκερασας τις εγχεοι
Τα τρια ταυτα μοι δοκει

Και Διονυσος εισελθών

Και Παφιη παραχροος

Και αυτος Έρως και επιειν.

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