V. PAPAVER 



I quoted from Plato, ('Crown of Wild Olive,' p. 95): 

 '' And bore lightly the burden of gold and of possessions." 



rendered also false as well as weak by the introducing- sentence, u Volvitur 

 Euryalus leto," after which the simile of the drooping flower is absurd. 

 Of criticism, the chief use of which is to warn all sensible men from 

 such business, the following abstract of Diderot's notes on the passage, 

 given in the ' Saturday Review ' for April 29th, 1871, is worth preserv- 

 ing. (Was the French critic really not aware that Homer 7iad written 

 the lines his own way ?) 



" Diderot illustrates his theory of poetical hieroglyphs by no quota- 

 tions, but we can show the manner of his minute and sometimes fanciful 

 criticism by repeating his analysis of the passage of Virgil wherein the 

 death of Euryalus is described : 



4 Pulchrosque per artus 



It cruor, inque humeros cervix collapsa recumbit ; 

 Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 

 Languescit moriens ; lassove papavera collo 

 Demisere caput, pluvia cum forte gravantur.' 



"The sound of c lt cruor,' according to Diderot, suggests the image 

 of a jet of blood ; ' cervix collapsa recumbit,' the fall of a dying man's 

 head upon his shoulder ; * succisus ' imitates the use of a cutting 

 scythe (not plough) ; ' deinisere ' is as soft as the eye of a flower ; 

 4 gravantur,' on the other hand, has all the weight of a calyx, filled 

 with rain ; * collapsa ' marks an effort and a fall, and similar double 

 duty is performed by ' papavera,' the first two syllables symbolizing 

 the poppy upright, the last two the poppy bent. While thus pursuing 

 his minute investigations, Diderot can scarcely help laughing at him- 

 self, and candidly owns that he is open to the suspicion of discovering 

 in the poem beauties which have no existence. He therefore qualifies 

 his eulogy by pointing out two faults in the passage. ' Gravantur,' not- 

 withstanding the praise it has received, is a little too heavy for the light 



