ROSE-BUSH. 327 



" Then father Anchises decked a capacious bowl with a garland, 

 and filled it up with wine." DAVIDSON'S TRANSLATION. 



" To crown the bowl," says Mr. Davidson : " sometimes 

 signifies no more than to fill the cup to the brim, but here 

 it is to be taken literally for adorning the bowl with 

 flowers, according to the ancient custom. Otherwise, 

 implevitque mero f would be mere tautology." Horace 

 repeatedly speaks of crowning the bowl with Roses. 



It is said that the Turks cannot endure to see a rose-leaf 

 fall to the ground, because, says Gerarde, " some of them 

 have dreamed that the first Rose sprang from the blood 

 of Venus:' 



It may, perhaps, be worth while to quote Gerarde's 

 translation of a passage from Anacreon, rather for its 

 curiosity than beauty : 



" The rose is the honor and beauty of flowers, 

 The rose is the care and the love of the spring, 

 The rose is the pleasure of th' heavenly powers : 

 The boy of fair Venus, Cy thera's darling, 

 Doth wrap his head round with garlands of rose, 

 When to the dances of the Graces he goes." 



This is scarcely to be recognised for the same passage 

 given a few pages back, in the translation of one of our 

 living poets. 



Roses, when they are associated with a moral meaning, 

 are generally identified with mere pleasure ; but some 

 writers, with a juster sentiment, have made them emblems 

 of the most refined virtue. In the Orlando Innamorato, 

 the famous Orlando puts Roses in his helmet, which 

 guard his ears against a syren ; and in Lucian, a man who 

 has been transformed into an ass recovers his shape upon 

 eating some Roses.* 



Many species of the Rose preserve their sweet perfume 



* Orlando Innamorato, Canto 33, Stanza 33. and Francklin's Lucian, 

 vol. iii. page 236. 



