THE WORKS OF SAPPHO.

Mark, mufe! the confcious fhade and vocal grove,
Where Sappho tun'd her melting voice to love,
While echo each harmonious strain return'd,
And with the soft complaining Lesbian mourn'd.

O DE S.

ODE I.

NOTES ON THE ODES.

"ferved the anxieties and tortures infeparable to "jealous love, has collected and displayed them We are indebted for this hymn to Dionyfius of all with the most lively exactnefs." And Dr. Halicarnaffus, who quotes it as a pattern of per- Pierce judiciously obferves, that "in this ode the fection. Madam Dacier fuppofes it to be en"endeavours to exprefs that wrath, jealousy, and tirely historical; and that it was written after" anguish, which distracted her with fuch a vaPhaon, her inconftant lover, had withdrawn him-« riety of torture. And therefore, in the followfelf from the island of Lefbos to Sicily, in ordering verfes of Boileau's tranflation, the true fenfe to avoid the importunities of an amorous miftrefs. It was in Sicily, therefore, and on the abovementioned occafion, that she is supposed to have made this hymn.

Ver. 13. Sappho says, the chariot of Venus was drawn by fparrows, because they are of all birds"

the most amorous.

Ver. 20. There is fomething very pretty in this circumstance, wherein Venus is defcribed as fending away her chariot, upon her arrival at Sappho's lodgings, to denote that it was not a fhort tranfient vifit which the intended to make her. Madam Dacier.

ODE II.

This beautiful ode is preferved by Longinus, in his treatife of the Sublime.

Ver. 1. There is an epigram in the Anthologia,

which feems to be an imitation of this ftanza.

Ευδαίμων ὁ βλεπον σε, τρισούλιος όσις ακουεί,

Ημεθεος δ' όφιλων, αθανατος δ ̓ ὁ συνών.

The youth who fees thee may rejoice,
But bleft is he who hears thy voice,
A demigod who shall thee kifs,
Who gains thee is a god in blifs.

is mistaken :

-dans les doux transports, où s'egare mon ame. "And,

-je tombe en des douces langueurs.

As the word doux will by no means exprefs the rage and distraction of Sappho's mind; it being always used in a contrary fenfe." There are two lines in Philips's tranflation of this ode which are liable to the fame objection:

For while I gaz'd in transport toft.
And,

My blood with gentle horrors thrill'd.

Mr. Addison, in his Spectator on this ode, rePlutarch: "That author, in the famous ftory of lates the following remarkable circumftance from

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his mother-in-law, and (not daring to discover Antiochus, who fell in love with Stratonice, "his paffion) pretended to be confined to his bed "by fickhefs, tells us, that Eraftratus, the phy"fician, found out the nature of his distemper by "thofe fymptoms of live which he had learned "from Sappho's writings. Stratonice was in the room of the love-fick prince, when these symp"toms difcovered themselves to his phyfician; "and it is probable, that they were not very dif Longinus has obferved, that "this defcription of "ferent from thofe which Sappho here describes "love in Sappho is an exact copy of nature; and“ in a lover fitting by his mistress." "that all the circumftances, which follow one another in fuch a hurry of fentiments, notwith"ftanding they appear repugnant to each other, are really fuch as happen in the frenzies of "love." He farther fays: "Sappho, having ob

Madam Dacier fays, that this ode of Sappho is preferved entire in Longinus, whereas, whoever looks into that author's quotation of it, will find, that there must at least have been another stanza, which is not tranímitted to us.

FRAGMENT 1.

FRAGMENTS.

THE Pleiads now no more are feen,
Nor fhines the filver moon ferene,
In dark and difmal clouds o'ercaft;
The love appointed hour is past:
Midnight ufurps her fable throne,
And yet, alas! I lie alone.

FRAGMENT II.

This feems to have been addressed to an arrogant un
lettered lady, vain of ber beauty and riches.
WHENE'LR the fates refume thy breath,

No bright reversion shalt thou gain;
Unnotic'd fhalt thou fink in death,

Ner ev'n thy memory remain:

NOTES ON THE FRAGMENTS.
FRAGMENT I.

Ver. 6. A fhepherd, in the idyllium intituled CAPIETTE (which is generally afcribed to Theocritus, but by Daniel Heinfius is attributed to Mofchus) withes a city-girl, who had flighted him, the punifament of living and dying an old

maid.

places, particularly in the ode Exegi Monumen-
tum:-But Ovid, in the strongest terms,
Jamque opus exegi, &c.

I've now compil'd a work, which nor the rage
Of Jove, nor fire, nor fword, nor eating age,
Is able to deftroy-

Ver. 5. Pieria was a mountain in Macedonia, dedicated to the mufes. By this expreffion, Sappho feems to hint, that the lady who furnished the occafion of this fatire, was not converfant in the politer ftudies, nor acquainted with the mafes,

FRAGMENT III

This fragment fhould be joined with the fourth ode of Anacreon; for as Sappho defires Venus to be her cup-bearer, fo Anacreon appoints Cupid the fame office:

In decent robe, behind him bound,
Cupid fhall terve the goblet round.

There high in air, memorial of my name,

Fix the imooth oar, and bid me live to fame.

า

These fort of epitaphs were more general, concife, and inftructive, than those which afterwards prevailed. Longepierre.

Madam Dacier alfo obferves, that emblems of the humours of the deceafed were fometimes placed on their monuments, as in this epigram on a woman named Myro:

Μη θάμβει μασιγα Μύρας επι σηματι λεύσσων,
Γλαυκά, βιον, χαροπον χήνα, θεαν σκύλακα.
O'er Myro fee the emblems of her soul,
A whip, a bow, a goofe, a dog, an owl.

The whip denoted, that fhe used to chaftife her fervants; the bow, that her mind was always bent on the care of her family; the goofe, that the loved to ftay at home; the dog, that the was fond of her children; and the owl, that fhe was affiduous in fpinning and tapestry, which were the works of Pallas, to whom the owl was confecrated. Da

cier.

At the Earl of Holdernefs's, at Afke in York-
fhire, is an old picture, with a device which feems
to be borrowed from this. It is fuppofed to be
drawn by Hans Holbein, and represents a woman
(faid to be Queen Elizabeth's housekeeper) ftand-
ing on a tortoife, with a bunch of keys by her
fide, her finger on her lips, and a dove on her
head. Under it is this inscription:
Uxor amet, fileat, fervet, nec ubique vagetur;
Hoc teftudo docet, claves, labra, junctaque turtur.
Which has been thus tranflated:

Be frugal, ye wives, live in filence and love,
Nor abroad ever goffip and roam,

This learn from the keys, the lips, and the dove,
And tortoife, ftill dwelling at home!

EPIGRAM II.

Ver. 7. The ceremony of cutting off the hair among the ancients, in honour of the dead, was a token of a violent affection. Thus Achilles, in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, offers his to Patroclus. And the little Cupids tear their hair for grief at the death of Adonis: See Bion. Herodotus tells us, that Mardonius cut off his, after his defeat. Many more inftances of this extraordinary custom might be produced; but thefe will,' I fhall finish my Probably, be thought fufficient. obfervations on this excellent poetefs, with an ingenious furmife in regard to the above-mentioned ceremony it was practifed, perhaps, not only in token of forrow, but might also have a concealed meaning, that, as the hair was cut from the head, and was never more to be joined to it, fo was the dead for ever cut off from the living, never more

to return.

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