Cupid, too, in Paphian shades,
His hair with rosy fillet braids,
When with the blushing, naked Graces,
The wanton winding dance he traces.
Then bring me showers of roses, bring,
And shed them round me while I sing;
Great Bacchus! in thy hallow'd shade,
With some celestial, glowing maid,
While gales of roses round me rise,
In perfume, sweeten'd by her sighs,
I'll bill and twine in early dance,
Commingling soul with every glance!

When with the blushing, naked Graces, The wanton winding dance he traces.] "This sweet idea of Love dancing with the Graces, is almost peculiar to Anacreon." Degen.

With some celestial, glowing maid, etc.] The epithet Batuxedos, which he gives to the nymph, is literally "fullbosomed:" if this was really Anacreon's taste, the heaven of Mahomet would suit him in every particular. See the Koran, cap. 72.

ODE XLV.

WITHIN this goblet, rich and deep,
I cradle all my woes to sleep.

Why should we breathe the sigh of fear,
Or pour the unavailing tear?

For death will never heed the sigh,

Nor soften at the tearful eye;

And eyes that sparkle, eyes that weep,

Must all alike be seal'd in sleep :

Then let us never vainly stray,

In search of thorns, from Pleasure's way;

Which Bacchus loves, which Bacchus gave;

And in the goblet, rich and deep,

Gradle our crying woes to sleep!

Then let us never vainly stray,

In search of thorns, from Pleasure's way; etc.] I have thus endeavoured to convey the meaning of τι δε τον βιον avaμal; according to Regnier's paraphrase of the line: E che val, fuor della strada Del piacere alma e gradita, Vaneggiare in questa vita?

ODE XLVI.*

SEE, the young, the rosy Spring,

Gives to the breeze her spangled wing;

*The fastidious affectation of some commentators has denounced this ode as spurions. Degen pronounces the four last lines to be the patch-work of some miserable versificator, and Brunck condemns the whole ode. It appears to me to be elegantly graphical; full of delicate expressions and luxuriant imagery. The abruptness of Ιδε πως εαρος φανέντος is striking and spirited, and has been imitated rather languidly by Horace:

Vides ut alta stet nive candidum

Soracte

The imperative de is infinitely more impressive, as in Shakespeare,

But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,

Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.

There is a simple and poetical description of Spring, in Catullus's beautiful farewell to Bithynia. Carm. 44.

Barnes conjectures, in his life of our poet, that this ode was written after he had returned from Athens, to settle in his paternal seat at Teos; there, in a little villa at some distance from the city, which commanded a view of the Egean Sea and the islands, he contemplated the beauties of nature and enjoyed the felicities of retirement. Vide Barnes, in Anac. vita, § xxxv. This supposition, however unauthenticated, forms a pleasant association, which makes the poem more interesting.

Monsieur Chevreau says, that Gregory Nazianzenus has paraphrased somewhere this description of Spring. I cannot find it. See Chevreau, OEuvres Mêlées.

Compare with this ode (says Degen) the verses of Hagedorn, book fourth der Frühling, and book fifth der Mai."

While virgin Graces, warm with May,
Fling roses o'er her dewy way!
The murmuring billows of the deep
Have languish'd into silent sleep;
And mark! the flitting sea-birds lave
Their plumes in the reflecting wave;
While cranes from hoary winter fly
To flutter in a kinder sky.

Now the genial star of day

Dissolves the murky clouds away;
And cultured field, and winding stream,
Are sweetly tissued by his beam.
Now the earth prolific swells

With leafy buds and flowery bells;

While virgin Graces, warm with May,

Fling roses o'er her dewy way!] De Pauw reads, Χαριτας ροδα βρυσιν, "the roses display their graces." This is not uningenious; but we lose by it the beauty of the personification, to the boldness of which Regnier has objected, very frivolously.

The murmuring billows of the deep

Have languish'd into silent sleep; etc.] It has been justly remarked that the liquid flow of the line απαλυνεται γαληνη is perfectly expressive of the tranquillity which it describes.

And cultured field, and winding stream, etc.] By ẞporar έργα, "the works of men," (says Baxter), he means cities, temples, and towns, which are then illuminated by the beams of the sun.

Gemming shoots the olive twine,
Clusters ripe festoon the vine;
All along the branches creeping,
Through the velvet foliage peeping,
Little infant fruits we see

Nursing into luxury!

ODE XLVII.

'Tis true, my fading years decline,
Yet can I quaff the brimming wine
As deep as any stripling fair

Whose cheeks the flush of morning wear;
And if, amidst the wanton crew,

I'm call'd to wind the dance's clue,
Thou shalt behold this vigorous hand

Not faltering on the Bacchant's wand,
But brandishing a rosy flask,

The only thyrsus e'er I'll ask!

But brandishing a rosy flask, etc.] Aoxos was a kind of leathern vessel for wine, very much in use, as should seem by the proverb aoxos xai Duλaxos, which was applied to those who were intemperate in eating and drinking. This proverb is mentioned in some verses quoted by Athenæus, from the Hesione of Alexis.

The only thyrsus e'er I'll ask!] Phornutus assigns as a