When full cups my cares expel,
Sober counsels, then farewell:
Let the winds that murmur, sweep
All my sorrows to the deep.

When I drink dull time away,
Jolly Bacchus, ever gay,
Leads me to delightful bowers,
Full of fragrance, full of flowers.

When I quaff the sparkling wine, And my locks with roses twine, Then I praise life's rural scene, Sweet, sequester'd, and serene.

When I sink the bowl profound, Richest fragrance flowing round, And some lovely nymph detain, Venus then inspires the strain.

When from goblets deep and wide I exhaust the generous tide, All my soul unbends-I play Gamesome with the young and gay. When the foaming bowl I drain, Real blessings are my gain; Blessings which my own I call: Death is common to us all.

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7. Let the winds that murmur, sweep] Horace has expressed himself in the same manner:

Tristitiam et metus

Tradam protervis in mare Creticum
Portare ventis..

Lov'd by the Muses, to the wind
Be all my fears and griefs resign'd,

To drown them in the Cretan main. Duncombe, Ode XL.-Theocritus has imitated this beautiful ode in his nineteenth Idyllium. See p. 217 of

this volume.

13. Dear mamma, a serpent small] Madam Dacier says, that Anacreon makes Cupid speak in this manner, because, according to the Pagan theology, the language of the gods was different from that of men: but, as Longepierre ingeniously observes, "To render a passage of this nature learned, is to make it obscure; for nothing can be more natural to imagine, than that an infant, who had heard of the stinging of serpents, when he found himself stung by a little creature, he hardly knew what, should immediately think it The labourers might call it a bee, if they pleased: his pain and fright made him persist that it was a serpent.

one.

Imp'd with wings, and arm'd with dart, Oh!-bas stung me to the heart."

Venus thus reply'd, and smil'd; "Dry those tears, for shame! my child; If a bee can wound so deep,

Causing Cupid thus to weep,
Think, O think! what cruel pains
He that's stung by thee sustains."

ODE XLI.

THE BANQUET OF WINE.
Now let us gaily drink, and join
To celebrate the god of wine,
Bacchus, who taught his jovial throng
The dance, aud patroniz'd the song;
In heart, in soul, with love the same,
The favourite of the Cyprian dame.
Revelry he nam'd his heir;

The Graces are his daughters fair:
Sadness in Lethe's lake he steeps;
Solicitude before him sleeps.

When in large bowls fair boys produce
The heart-exhilarating juice,
Then all our sorrows are resign'd,
They fly, and mingle with the wind.
The generous bowl then let us drain,
Dismissing care, forgetting pain:
For life, what pleasure can it give,
If with anxiety we live?

And what hereafter may betide
No living casuist can decide.

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name;

All ecstacy! to certain time they bound,
And beat in measur'd awkwardness the ground.
Grainger.

8. The Graces are his daughters fair] Madam Dacier supposes this to be the passage on which the opinion, that the Graces were the daughters of Bacchus and Venus, was founded.

16. Dismissing care] Macedonius, in an epigram in the first book of the Anthologia, c. 25. says, that to banish care was a precept of Anacreon's. Την γαρ Ανακρέοντος ενι πραπίδεσσι φυλάσσω

Παρφασίην, ότι δει φροντίδα μη κατέχειν. For still I hold Anacreon's rule the best, To banish care for ever from my breast. 19, 20. And what hereafter may betide, &c.] Anacreon is not singular in enforcing the necessity of enjoying life from the brevity and uncertainty of it. Rufinus has an epigram in the seventh

The days of man are fix'd by fate, Dark and obscure, though short the date. Then let me, warm with wine, advance, And revel in the tipsy dance; Or, breathing odours, sport and play Among the fair, among the gay. As for those stubborn fools that will Be wretched, be they wretched still. But let us gaily drink, and join

To celebrate the god of wine.

ODE XLII.

ON HIMSELF.

WHEN Bacchus, jolly god, invites, In sprightly dance my heart delights; When with blithe youths I drain the bowl, The lyre can harmonize my soul: But when indulging amorous play, I frolic with the fair and gay, With hyacinthine chaplet crown'd, Then, then the sweetest joys abound; My honest heart nor envy bears, Nor envy's poison'd arrow fears; By rankling malice never stung, I shun the venom-venting tongue. And at the jovial banquet hate Contentions, battles, and debate: When to the lyre's melodious sound With Phyllis in the dance I bound, The blooming fair, the silver lyre, Should only dance and love inspire: Then let us pass life's peaceful day In mirth and innocence away.

book of the Anthologia, epigram 143, to this purpose.

Let us, my friend, in joy refine, Bathe, crown our brows, and quaff the wine: Short is the space for human joys; What age prevents not, death destroys. And Martial,

Non est, crede mihi, sapienti dicere, "vivam:" Sera nimis vita est crastina, vive hodie. "I'll live to morrow," 'tis not wise to say: 'Twill be too late to morrow-live to day. Ode XLII-13, 14. And at the jovial banquet

hate

Contentions, battles, and debate]

Thus our poet in his seventh epigram says, I ne'er can think his conversation good, Who o'er the bottle talks of wars and blood; But his, whose wit the pleasing talk refines, And lovely Venus with the Graces joins. 19. Let us pass life's peaceful day] The Greek 15. Βιαν ήσυχον φερωμεν. Anacreon esteemed trans quillity the happiest ingredient of life: Thus, Ode the 39th, he praises the yarn Biote,

Life's rural scene,
Sweet, sequester'd, and serene,

ODE XLIII.

THE GRASSHOPPER.

THEE, sweet grasshopper, we call
Happiest of insects all,

Who from spray to spray canst skip,
And the dew of morning sip:
Little sips inspire to sing;
Then thou'rt happy as a king.
All, whatever thou can'st see,
Herbs and flowers belong to thee;
All the various seasons yield,
All the produce of the field.
Thou, quite innocent of harm,
Lov'st the farmer, and the farm;
Singing sweet when suminer's near,
Thou to all mankind art dear;
Dear to all the tuneful Nine
Seated round the throne divine;
Dear to Phoebus, god of day,
He inspir'd thy sprightly lay,
And with voice melodious blest,
And in vivid colours drest.
Thou from spoil of time art free;
Age can never injure thee.

Wisest daughter of the earth!

Fond of song, and full of mirth;

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Ode XLIII.-4, 5. And the dew of morning sip:
Little sips inspire to sing]

Dew is the nourishment of grasshoppers. Thus
Virgil, ecl. 5, v. 77.

Dumque thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicada. Bees feed on thyme, and grasshoppers on dew. The Greek poets also describe the grasshopper as a musical insect. Thus Theocritus, Idyll. 1. -Τεττιγός επεί τυγε φέρτερον αδείς.

Thy song is sweeter than the grasshopper's. Antipater, in an epigram of the Anthologia, book 1. says,

Αρκει Τεττιγας μεθυσαι δροσος, αλλα πιονίες
Αείδειν κυκνων εισι γεγωνότεροι.
Inspir'd by dew the grasshoppers rejoice,
Nor boasts the swan so musical a voice.

15. Dear to all the tuneful Nine] Elian, writing against those who eat grasshoppers, says: They are ignorant how much they offend the Muses, the daughters of Jupiter. Whence it appears, that these animals were esteemed sacred to the Muses, The following is a translation of an epigram from and the eating of them accounted an impiety. the first book of the Anthologia, chap. 33. containing a beautiful complaint of a grasshopper against that practice.

Τίπτε με τον, κ. τ. λ.

Why do ye, swains, a grasshopper pursue
Content with solitude, and rosy dew? [prevail:
Me, whose sweet song can o'er the nymphs
I charm them in the forest, hill, or dale,
And me they call their summer-nightingale.
See, on your fruits the thrush and black-bird
prey!

See, the bold starlings steal your grain away!
Destroy your foes-why should you me pursue
Content with verdant leaves, and rosy dew?
23. Wisest daughter of the earth] The Athe

Free from flesh, exempt from pains,
No blood riots in thy veins:

To the blest I equal thee;
Thou'rt a demi-deity.

ODE XLIV.

THE DREAM.

I DREAM'D, that late I pinions wore,
And swiftly seem'd through air to soar;
Me fleeter Cupid, quick as thought,
Pursued, and in an instant caught,
Though at his feet hung weights of lead:
What can this vision mean, I said?
Its mystic sense I thus explain:
I, who ere-while have worn the chain
Of many a fair-one for a day,
Then flung the flowery band away,
Am now involv'd, and fetter'd fast
In links that will for ever last.

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Darts of steel for Cupid's bow,
Source of joy, and source of woe;
Venus, fast as Vulcan wrought,
Ting'd them in a honey'd draught:
But her son in bitter gall

Ting'd them, doubly-ting'd them all.
Here, releas'd from war's alarms,
Enters the fierce god of arms;
Whether led by will or chance,
Here he shakes his weighty lance.
Cupid's shafts with scornful eyes
Straight he views, and straight decries:
"This is slight, and that a toy
Fit for children to employ."
"These," said Cupid, “I admit
Toys indeed, for children fit:
But, if I divine aright,
Take it

this is not so slight."
Mars receives it; Venus smiles
At her son's well-season'd wiles.
Mars, with sudden pain possest,
Sighs from out his inmost breast:
Cupid, you aright divine,

Not so slight this shaft of thine; Small of size! but strong of make! "Take it-I have try'd it-take.” "No," reply'd the wanton boy,

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ODE XLV.

BY ANOTHER HAND.

CUPID'S DARTS.

As the god of manual arts
Forg'd at Lemnos missile darts,

nians called themselves Terrys, grasshoppers, and some of them wore little grasshoppers of gold in their hair, as badges of honour, to distinguish them from others of later duration; and likewise as a memorial, that they were born of the earth like those insects.

25, 26. Free from flesh, exempt from pains, No blood riots in thy veins.]

Homer represents the gods as free from blood.
Speaking of Venus wounded, book 5. he says,

From the clear vein a stream immortal flow'd,
Such stream as issues from a wounded god;
Pure emanation! uncorrupted flood!
Unlike our gross, diseas'd, terrestrial blood:
(For not the bread of man their life sustains,
Nor wine's inflaming juice supplies their veins.)

Pope.

Ode XLIV.-Nothing can be more politely imagined than this ode, nor more courtly than the turn of it. Behold," says madame Dacier," one of the finest and most gallant odes of antiquity; and if she, for whom it was composed, was as beautiful, all Greece could produce nothing more charming."

Ode XLV.-Mons. Le Fevre was so transported with this ode, that he could not forbear crying out,

Felix, ah! nimium felix, cui carmine tali Fluxit ab Aoniis vena beata jugis. Quid melius dictaret amor, risusque jocique, Et cum germanis gratia juncta suis? Thrice happy he! to whose enraptur'd soul Such numbers from th' Aonian mountains roll: More finish'd what could love or laughter write, Or what the graces dictate more polite?

John Addison.

2. Forg'd at Lemnos] Lemnos was an island of

"Keep it, Mars, 'tis but a toy."

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ODE XLVI.

THE POWER OF GOLD.
LOVE's a pain that works our woe;
Not to love, is painful too :
But, alas! the greatest pain
Waits the love that meets disdain.

the Ægean sea sacred to Vulcan, who, in the first book of the Iliad, gives an account of Jupiter's throwing him down from Heaven, and his fall upon that island:

Once in your cause I felt his matchless might, Hurl'd headlong downward from th' etherial height;

Tost all the day in rapid circles round;
Nor, till the Sun descended, touch'd the ground:
Breathless I fell, in giddy motion lost;
The Sinthians rais'd me on the Lemnian coast.

Pope.

ODE XLVIII.

BY DR. BROOME.

GAY LIFE.

GIVE me Homer's tuneful Ivre,
Let the sound my breast inspire!
But with no troublesome delight
Of

arms, and heroes slain in fight:
Let it play no conquests here,
Or conquests only o'er the fair!

Boy, reach that volume-book divine! The statutes of the god of wine: He, legislator, statutes draws, And I, his judge, inforce his laws; And, faithful to the weighty trust, Compel his votaries to be just: Thus, round the bowl impartial flies, Till to the sprightly dance we rise; We frisk it with a lively bound,

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Charm'd with the lyre's harmonious sound; Then pour forth, with a heat divine, Rapturous songs that breathe of wine.

ODE XLVII.

YOUNG OLD-AGE.

YES, yes, I own, I love to see
Old men facetious, blithe, and free;
I love the youth that light can bound,
Or graceful swim th' harmonious round:
But when old-age jocose, though grey,
Can dance and frolic with the gay;
'Tis plain to all the jovial throng,

Though hoar the head, the heart is young.

Ode XLVI.-6. Sprightly wit, or noble birth. Nil tibi nobilitas poterit conducere amanti. Propertius.

Your noble birth pleads not the cause of love. 8. Gold alone engages love] Ovid says the

same:

Aurea sunt verè nunc sæcula: plurimus auro
Venit honos: auro conciliatur amor,

This is the golden age; all worship gold:
Honours are purchas'd, love and beauty sold.
Our iron age is grown an age of gold,
'Tis who bids most, for all men would be sold.
Dryden.

13. Gold creates in brethren strife, &c.] Phocylides, in his Admonitory Poem, ver. 38, &c. seems to have imitated this passage.

Ἡ φιλοχρημοσύνη, κ. τ. λ.

On sordid avarice various evils wait,
And gold, false, glittering, is the tempting bait.
O cursed gold! in whom our woes combine,
Why dost thou thus with pleasing ruin shine?
Cause of the parent's curse, of brethrea's strife,
Wars, murders, and all miseries of life.

Ode XLVII.-8. Though hoar the head, the heart is young] Longepierre quotes a passage from Guarini, where the same sentiment is expressed, though in a different manner; and which is translated by John Addison.

-O Corisca mia cara,

D'anima Linco e non di forze sono;
E'n questo vecchio tronco

E più che fosse mai verde il desio.
Yes, my Corisca, Lincus is the same,
Though not in youthful force, in youthful flame;
Though age and wrinkles on my front appear,
My heart is green, and love still blossoms there.

ODE XLIX.

BY ANOTHER HAND.

TO A PAINTER.

WHILE you my lyre's soft numbers hear,
Ingenious painter, lend an ear,

And, while it charms your ravish'd heart,
Display the wonders of your art.

First draw a nation blithe and gay,
Laughing and sporting life away;
Let them in sprightly dances bound,
While their shrill pipes the Bacchæ sound;

Ode XLVIII.-8. The statutes ofthe god of wine] It was customary with the ancients, at their entertainments, to choose a king or master of the revels, who both regulated the size of the cups, and the quantity each person was to drink: he was generally chosen by the cast of a die.

Nec regna vini sortiere talis.
No longer by the die's successful cast
Shalt thou control the gay repast.

-Quem Venus arbitrum Dicet bibendi

Hor.

Duncombe.

L. 2. ode 7.

Who, nam'd by Venus, at the jovial board The laws of drinking shall prescribe?

Duncombe.

Ode XLIX. 5. Draw a nation blithe and gay] It is probable, that in this ode Anacreon had in view the image of peace, which Vulcan represented upon the shield of Achilles. Iliad 18.

Two cities radiant on the shield appear,
The image one of peace, and one of war;
Here sacred pomp and genial feast delight,
And solemn dance and hymeneal rite;
Along the streets the new-made brides are led,
With torches flaming, to the nuptial bed:
The youthful dancers in a circle bound
To the soft flute and cittern's silver sound;
Through the fair streets the matrons in a row
Stand in the porches, and enjoy the show.

Pope,

All sense of woe delivers to the wind.
Though on the blazing pile his parent lay,
Or a lov'd brother groan'd his life away,
Or darling son, oppress'd by ruffian force,
Fell breathless at his feet, a mangled corse,
From morn to eve, impassive and serene,
The man entranc'd would view the deathful scene.
Fenton.

Ode LI.-6. Shines the beauteous queen of love] There are several epigrams in the fourth book of the Anthologia on Venus rising from the I shall give a translation of one of them, beginning,

sea.

Των εκφυγήσειν, κ. τ. λ.
Apelles, rapt in sweet surprise,
Saw Venus from the ocean rise:

23.

The workman's fancy mounted high,
And stole th' idea from the sky.
Transporting sight!-the waves conceal
But what 'twere impious to reveal!
She, like some flower all-blossom'd gay,
Shines along the smiling way.
The amorous waters, as she swims,
Crowd to embrace her snowy limbs;
Then, proudly swelling to be prest,
Beneath her snowy fragrant breast
Ambitiously up-rise on high,
And lift the goddess to the sky;
And, while her lucid limbs they lave,
She brightens the transparent wave:
So violets enlighten'd glow,
Surrounded by the lily's snow.

But see! a lovely, smiling train,
Conspicuous o'er the limpid main,
The queen attends! in triumph moves
Gay Cupid with his laughing Loves.
On dolphins borne, in state they ride,
And beautify the silver tide:
Dancing around in shoals they play,
And humble adoration pay.

Rare art, that life to phantoms gives! See! see! a second Venus lives.

ODE LII.

BY DR. BROOME,

GRAPES, OR THE VINTAGE.

lo! the vintage now is done!
And purpled with th' autumnal sun;
The grapes gay youths and virgins bear,
The sweetest product of the year!

What art before could never give,
He made the breathing picture live.
Her radiant locks luxuriant flow'd;
Her lovely eyes serenely glow'd;
Like two round apples ripe, her breast
Rose, gently suing to be prest.

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-a lovely smiling train, &c.] So when bright Venus rises from the flood, Around in throngs the wondering Nereids crowd; The Tritons gaze, and tune the vocal shell, And every grace unsung the waves conceal.

Garth's Disp. b. 6. As when sweet Venus, so the fable sings, Awak'd by Nereids, from the ocean springs; With smiles she sees the threatening billows rise, Spreads smooth the surge, and clears the louring skies;

Light o'er the deep with fluttering Cupids crown'd, The pearly conch and silver turtles bound; Her tresses shed ambrosial odours round.

Tickell. Prosp. of Peace. Ode LII.-8. The grapes gay youths and virgins bear] Homer, in his beautiful description of the vintage, book 18, introduces young men and maids employed in the same office. To this one path-way gently winding leads, Where march a train with baskets on their heads.

* In Dodsley's Miscellanies it is by mistake printed, the pearly couch. Venus, speaking of

a beautiful woman, says,

Hæc & cæruleis mecum consurgere digna
Fluctibus; et nostrâ potuit considere concha.

Statius,