Fly to my aid, and fafely shroud
Me in a purple-beaming cloud,
And on thy painted wings convey
A faithful lover on his way.
Thy blandishments disturb my reft,
And kindle tumults in my breast;
The pleafing poison was convey'd
Late from the lovely Lesbian maid;
Her fun-bright eye difcharg'd a dart,
That rankling preys upon my heart:
In fparkling wit beyond compare,
She flights, alas! my filver hair,
Regardiefs of my heart-felt pain,
And fondly loves fome happier fwain.

ODE LXV.

ON HIMSELF.

I LATELY thought, delightful theme!
Anacreon faw me in a dream,
The Teian fage, the honey'd bard,
Who call'd me with a sweet regard;
I, pleas'd to meet him, ran in haste,
And with a friendly kifs embrac'd.

'Tis true, he feem'd a little old,
But gay and comely to behold;
Still bow'd to Cytherea's fhrine,
His lip was redolent of wine:

He reel'd as if he scarce could stand,
But Cupid led him by the hand.

The poet, with a gentle look,
A chaplet from his temples took,
That did of fweet Anacreon breathe,
And fmiling gave to me the wreath.
I from his brow the flow'ry crown
Receiv'd, and plac'd it on my own:
Thence all my woes unnumber'd flow,
F'er fince with raging love I glow.

ODE LXVI. By Dr. Broome.

ON APOLLO.

ONCE more, not uninspir'd, the string
I waken and spontaneous fing:
No Pythic laurel-wreath I claim,
That lifts ambition into fame :
My voice unbidden tunes the lay;
Some god impells and I obey.
Attend, ye groves! the muse prepares
A facred fong in Phrygian airs;
Such as the fwan expiring fings,
Melodious, by Cayfter's fprings,
Where liftening winds in filence hear,
And to the gods the mufic bear.

Celestial mufe! attend and bring
Thy aid, while I thy Phoebus fing;
To Phoebus and the mufe belong
The laurel, lyre, and Delphic fong.

Begin, begin the lofty ftrain! How Phoebus lov'd, but lov'd in vain! How Daphne fled his guilty flame, And scorn'd a god that offer'd fhame. With glorious pride his vows fhe hears, And heaven, indulgent her prayers,

ΙΟ

10

20

ΙΟ

To laurel chang'd the nymph, and gave
Her foliage to reward the brave.

Ah! how, on wings of love convey'd,
He flew to clafp the panting maid!

Now now o'ertakes-but heaven deceives

His hope-he feizes only leaves.

Why burns my raptur'd breaft? ah! why? Ah! whither ftrives my fout to fly;

I feel the pleasing frenzy strong,
Impulfive to fome nobler fong:
Let, let the wanton fancy play,
But guide it, left it devious ftray.

But, O! in vain-my mufe denies
Her aid, a flave to lovely eyes;
Suffice it to rehearse the pains
Of bleeding nymphs and dying swains;
Nor dare to wield the fhafts of love
That wound the gods, and conquer Jove.

I yield Adieu the lofty ftrain!

Anacreon is himself again :
Again the melting fong I play,
Attemper'd to the vocal lay,

See fee how, with attentive ears,
The youths imbibe the nectar'd airs!
And quaff, in bow'ry fhades reclin'd,
My precepts, to regale the mind.

ODE LXVII.

ON LOVE.

To love I wake the filver ftring,
And of his foft dominion fing:

A wreath of flowers adorns his brow,
The sweeteft, fairest flowers that blow :
All mortals own his mighty fway,

And him the gods above obey.

ODE LXVIII.

THE SUPPLICATION.

QUEEN of the woodland chafe, whose darts
Unerring pierce the mountain-harts,
Diana chafte, Joves daughter fair,
Suppliant to thee I breathe my prayer.
Defcend, propitious to my vow,

To where the ftreams of Lethe flow:
In pity aid a hapless race,

Bright goddefs of the woodland chafe;
With holy awe they own thy fway,
And meek in reverence obey.

ODE LXIX.

ARTEMON.

A Fragment.

Now Artemon, a favourite name, Infpires Eurypyle with flame: An upftart of ignoble blood, Who plodded late in fhoes of wood; And round his waift, instead of vest, 20 Wore a cow's stinking hide undrest, Which might, on fit occafion, yield Rank covering for a rotten shield..

Όσλον ἐκάτω νειμε Θεος φυσιν ηερόφοι τον
Όρνισι μεν πολλήν ταχυτήρ αλκην τε λυσι,
Ταύροις δ' αυτοχύτοις κεραεσσιν, κεντρα μελίσσαις
Εμφυλον αλκαρ εδωκε λόγος δ' ερυμ' ανθρώποισι.
Arms to all creatures God's abundant care
Affords; light pinions to the birds of air;
The lordly lion boafts his matchless night;
The bull's bright horns are terrible in fight;
The fting fharp-pointed is the bee's defence;
The fhield and buckler of mankind is sense.

Ver. 10. The Greek word govnux generally fignifies prudence; and fo Stephens has tranflated it: But as it would be highly abfurd to fuppofe that nature had forgot that ufeful ingredient in the compofition of the ladies, we must look out for another interpretation. Penua equally fig. nifies magnanimity. It is fimilar to an expreffion of Tully, in Off. 1. 19. Elatio et magnitudo animi" And a Mr John Addifon, in his note on this paffage obferves By courage, when ap"plied to man, is properly meant that fuperiority of mind, which is man's peculiar characteristic and charter of dominion."

Ver. 14 Coluthus, in his poem on the Rape of
Helen, has the fame thought, speaking of Venus:
Μένη Κύπρις αναλκις την θεός. 8 βασιλήων
KAIVITY NO 3s agni & 6:20s in
Αλλα τι δειμαίνω περιώσιον αντί μεν αίμης,
Ως θεον είχος έχυσα μελίφρονα δεσμόν ερωτων.

Of all the gods, no regal (way 1 bear,
Nor, weak and timid, wield the martial spear;
Yet great my pow'r, for my refiftless darts
Are fmiles and loves that triumph over hearts.

And a little further,

Έργα μαθων εκ ειδα τι γαρ σακέων Αφροδίτη:
Αγλαίη πολύ μαλλον αρισίύασι γυναίκες.

No fights I know, averfe to war's alarms;
Idalian Venus has no need of arms:
The fair are irrefiftible in charms.

Nonnus introduces Venus fpeaking after the fame manner :

Έρχος εμον πιλς καλλος, εμον ξίφος επλε το μορφή.
Refiftless beauty for a fword I wear,
And charms more piercing than the pointed spear.

The Romas were fo fully convinced of the power of beauty, that the word fortis, ftrong or valiant, fignifics likewife fair or handfome; as appears by two paffages in Plautus.Bacchid. Act 2. Sc. 2.38. "Sed Bacchis etiam tibi fortis vifa eft? Et Miles Glor. Act. 4. Sc. 3. 13. Ecquid fortis vifa eft?

ODE III.

This, as Longepierre obferves, is one of the most beautiful of Anacreon's odes. Nothing can

be more ingenious than the fiction, which is fomething fimilar to the fable of the Serpent and the Labourer.

Ver. 4. Two conftellations near the northern pole. Bootes is also called Arctophylax, or the Bear-keeper. Aratus, in his Phenomena, has three lines perfectly similar to this passage of Anacreon.. Εξοπιθεν δ' Ελικης φέρεται ελαουί εοικως Αρχιφυλαξ, τον δ' άνδρες επικλείεσι Βοώτην, Ούνεχ' άμαξαιης ἐπαφωμενος είδεται Αρχία. Behind, and feeming to urge on the Bear, Arcophylax, on earth Boötes nam'd, Sheds o'er the arctic car his filver light.

Ver. 40. The ancients placed the feat of love in the liver, as might be proved from several paffages.

Cum tibi fervens amor et libido,
Quæ folet matnes furiare equorum,
Sæviet circa jecur ulcerofum.

४

Και πιν, και, τερπνα, Δημοκρατες" 8 γαρ ες σει
Tests', a te τερψιος ἑξομεθα.

Και πεφανες κεφαλος πυκασωμένα, και μυρίσωμεν
Αυτές, πριν τυμβοις ταυτα φέρειν έτερες.
Νυν εν εμοι πιετω μέθυ το πλέον οξέα τάμα.
Νεκρα δε Δευκαλίων αυτα κατακλυσάτω.
Drink and rejoice, for let us wifely think,

My friend, we must not always laugh and drink : Our heads we'll crown with flow'rs and rich perfumes

Before they're vainly lavish'd on our tombs.
Cares and anxieties I now refign,

Or drown them in a mighty bowl of wine.
When dead, Deucalion may, if he thinks good,
Drench my cold carcafe in a war'ry flood.

Mi

μερα, τι σεφανές λίθιναις 5ηλαισι χάριζε, Μηδε το πυρ Φλέξης" εις κενον ἡ δαπανη. Ζωντί μοι, οτι θελεις χαρισαίο

On the cold tombe no fragrant unguents shed,
No flow'ry chaplets unavailing spread,
Nor kindle living lamps to light the dead.
Vain are these honours; rather while I live,
To me the iweet, the rich oblation give.

Of these customs of the ancients of pouring fweet unguents on the tombs of the dead, and crowning them with flowers, &c. See Potter's Antiquities.

Ver. 22. The ancients believed, that the happy foals in the Elysian fields enjoyed thofe pleafures which they most delighted in when living. Thus Virgil,

Pars pedibus plaudunt choreas, et carmina dicunt.
Those raise the fong divine, and these advance
In measur'd fteps to form the folemn_dance. Pitt.

Tibullus, Book 1. Eleg. 3.

Sed me, quod facilis tenero fum femper amori,
Ipía Venus campos ducet in Elyfios;
Hic chorea, cantus vigent, &c.

Then love my ghoft (for love I ftill obey'd)
Will grateful ufher to th' Elysian fhade:
There joy and ceaseless revelry prevail,
There foothing mufic floats on ev'ry gale;

There painted warblers hop from spray to fpray,
And, wildly-pleafing, fwell the gen'ral lay:
There ev'ry hedge, untaught, with caffia blooms,
And fcents the ambient air with rich perfumes:
There ev'ry mead a various plenty yields;
There lavish Flora paints the purple fields:
With ceafelefs light a brighter Phoebus glows,
No fickness tortures, and no ocean flows:
But youths affociate with the gentle fair,
And ftung with pleasure, to the fhades repair:
With them love wanders wherefoe'er they stray,
Provokes to rapture, and inflanies the play:
But chief the conftant few, by death betray'd,
Reign, crown'd with myrtie, monarchs of the fhade.
Grainger.

I hope the reader will not think this quotation tedious, as the paffage is admirably tranflated, and contains a beautiful defcription of Elysium.

ODE V.

The Grecians efteemed the rofe more than any other flower, and admitted it to all their entertainments, of which there needs no other proof than this ode of Anacreon, and likewife the fiftythird, where he praifes this beautiful flower with the greatest addrefs and delicacy. The Romans equally valued it. Horace fays,

Hunc vina et unguenta, et nimium breves
Flores amenæ ferra jube rofæ.

Here wine, and oil, and rofes bring,
Too fhort-liv'd daughters of the fpring.

Duncombe.

His complaint of the fhortnefs of the rofe's duration is an artful and delicate manner of praifing that flower.

Ver. 5. The ancients ufed wreaths of flowers, and perfumes at their entertainments, not only for pleasure, but because they imagined that odours prevented the wine from intoxicating them.

ODE VI.

This ode, in the original bears the fame title as the former, Es god, On the Rofe, But, as it is univerfally agreed, to be a mistake of the copyifts, the editors of Anacreon have given it various appellations. Barnes calls it Koos, which he tranflates Feivium amatoria, The Feftival of Love. Dr. Trapp intitles it Eurorov. Convivium, The Banquet. Madam Dacier would have it called The Mafquerade: but I agree with Longepierre, who thinks it ought to be styled The Party of Pleasure,

Ver. 4. The thyrfus was a fpear enriched with wreaths of ivy, and fometimes of vine-leaves: It was used as a weapon by those who attended the revels of Bacchus.

Ver. 10. Mr. Longepierre quotes a most beautiful epigram from the feventh book of the Anthologia, near the end, fimilar to this paffage; which, I think, cannot have justice done it in an English tranflation:

Miiij