L y R 



L T S 



which made eighteen in all. Anacreon himfclf faj-s, p. 2J3, 

 of Mr. Barnes's edition, canto vigmti totis chorcl'u. As for 

 the modern lyre, or Wel(h harp, it is fufficiently known. 

 (See Harp.) From the lyre, wliich all agree to be the 

 firft inllnmient of the IWinged kind in Greece, there arofe 

 an infinite number of others, different in (hape and number 

 of firings ; as the pfalteriuni, trigon, fambucus, peflis, ma- 

 gadis, barbiton, teihido (the two kit ufed promifcuouily, 

 by Horace, with the lyre and cithara), epigonium, (immi- 

 cium, and pandura ; which were all llruck with the hand, 

 or a pleftrum. See Psalteky, Sambuca, Mag.vdis, 

 Baubiton", and Cithara. 



Lyue, Lydian See Lydian Lyre. 



Lyre of the Mufco'uUes. This is a rude and coarfc in- 

 ftrument, in the form of the ancient lyre of fix ihings, as 

 thick as packthread, which are thrummed with the naked 

 fingers after the manner of the lute. 



Lyee, among painters, ftatuaries, &c. is an attribute of 

 Apollo and the Mufcs. 



IvYRIC, fomething fung or played on the lyre or harp. 



L\RIC is more particularly applied to the ancient odes 

 and ftanzas ; which anfwer to our airs or fongs, and may be 

 played on inftruments. See the next article. 



Lyric Poetry, verfes written for mufic ; which, with 

 the ancients, implied verfes to be fung to the accompani- 

 inent of the lyre. In the fupplcment to the firft edition of 

 the folio Encyelopedie, there is a very long article on the 

 fubjeft. We have often admired the ingenuity, refinement, 

 and apparent feeUng, with which the French treat the fub- 

 jeft of dramatic mufic. Even in the feuds and difcuf- 

 fions of the Gluckifts and Piccinifts, many of the trafts and 

 pamphlets feem to breathe the pureft t.'.fte and moft pro- 

 found reafoning of which the theme is capable. The Ita- 

 lians, who have fo long furniflied models of perfeftion to the 

 reft of Europe in compofition and performance, have not 

 half fo much to fay in defence of their talents as the French 

 in attacking them. 



The article Lyric Poetry in the fupplement to the firft 

 edition of the Encyclopedic, written long before the firm 

 adherents to Lulli and Rameau were extinft, is of great 

 length, and fecms to flow from a writer who had read, 

 meditated, and felt, with enthufiafm, all the infpirations 

 of the lyric bards of Greece. He has taken a wide range 

 in treating the fubjeft, and confidered the union of poetry 

 and mufic, not only with more eidarged views than any 

 other modern, but perhaps than the ancients themielves. 

 He begins in the following manner : " The lyric poetry of 

 the Grecians was not only lung, but compofed to tiie churds 

 of the lyre. This was at firit the charafteriftic dillinc\ion 

 of all that was called lyric poetry by the Romans, and ' 

 their defcendants and imitators in later times. The poet 

 was a mufician, he called upon the god of verfe, and ani- 

 mated himfelf with a prelude. He fixed upon the time, the 

 movement, and the n.ufical period ; the melody gave birth 

 to the verfe ; and thence was derived the unity of rhythm, 

 charafter, and expTeffion, between the mufic and the poem 

 that was fung. Thus the poetry became naturally fubier- 

 vient to number and cadence, and thus each lyric poet in- 

 vented not oidy the proper kind of verfe, but alfo the ftrophe 

 analogous to tlie melody which he himfelf had created, and 

 to which he compofed it. 



" In this rcfpeft, the lyric poem or ode with the Latins 

 and with modern nations, has been nothing more than a 

 frivolous imitation of the lyric poem of the Greeks : they 

 fay, I fing, but never do fing; they fpeak of the chords of 

 the lyre, but have never leen a lyre. No poet, fincc 

 Horace inclufively, appears to have modelled his odes upon 



a melody. Ht^race adopting, by turns, the different for- 

 mnlae of the Greek poets, feems fo much to have forgotten 

 that an ode ought to be fung, that he has often fufpended 

 the fenfe at the end of the ftrophe, where the air ou 'ht 

 to repofe, to the beginning of the next ftanxa.'' 



This fptcies of poetry was originally employed in cele- 

 brating the praifes of gods and heroes ; though it was af- 

 terwards introduced into feails and public diverfions : it is 

 a miftake to imagine Anacreon, as the Greeks do, the au- 

 thor of it ; fincc it appears from fcripture to have been 

 in life above a thoufand years before that poet. Mr. 

 Barnes (hews how unjuft it is to exclude heroic fubjeftj 

 and aftions from this fort of verfe, lyric poetry beir^g ca- 

 pable of all the elevation and fublimity fuch fubjecls re- 

 quire ; which he confirms by the examples of Alcaeuj, 

 Stefichorus. Anacreon, and Horace, and by his own elTuv, 

 a triumphal cde infcribed to the duke of Marlborough, 

 at the head of this edition ; he coiicludes with the hiftory of 

 lyric poetry, and of thofe ancients v.'ho excelled in it. 



The charafteriftic of lyric poetry, which diftinguifties it 

 from all others, is di'^nity and f-weetnefs. As gravity rules 

 in heroic verle ; Jimpficlty, in paltoral ; tendcrnejs and foftnefs, 

 in elegy ; Jharpnefs and poignancy, in fatire ; mirth, in co- 

 medy ; the pathetic, in tragedy ; and the point, in epigram ; 

 fo in the lyric, the poet applies himfelf wholly to foothe the 

 minds of men, by the fweetnefs and variety of the verfe, and 

 the delicacy and elevation of the svords and thoughts ; the 

 agreeablenefs of the numbers, and the defcription of things 

 moft pleafing in their own nature. See Ode and Poetky. 



LYRODI, among the Ancients, a kind of muficians who 

 played on the lyre, and fung at the fame time. 



Lyrodi was alfo an appellation given to fuch as made it 

 their employment to fing lyric poems, compofed by others. 



LYS, in Geography, oneof the 13 departments of tlie region 

 of France, called the Reunited Country, formed of a part of 

 Auftrian Flanders ; bounded on the N. by the fea, and on 

 the E. by the department of the Efcaut, in N. lat. 51-. 

 It contains 36625 kiliometres, or 159 fquare leagues, and 

 470,707 inhabitants. It is divided into four circles or dif- 

 trifts, 36 cantons, and 250 communes. Its circles are 

 Bruges, containing 149,421 inhabitants, Furnes, 49,808, 

 Ypres, 107,103, and Courtray, 164,375. The annual 

 contributions amount to 4,915,251 tr. and the annual ex- 

 pences for government, the adminiftration of juftice, and 

 public inftruftion, amount annually to 358,916 fr. 66 cents. 

 The capital of this department is Bruges. I'he foil, in 

 general, is fertile, and produces all forts of grain, flax, to- 

 bacco, and excellent paftures. 



Lys, St., a town of France, in the department of the 

 Upper Garonne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift 

 of Muret ; 7 miles Vv . of Muret. The place contains 

 1 140, and the canton 5249 inhabitants, on a territory of 

 190 kiliometres, in 1 1 communes. 



LYSANDER, a townllnp of America, in Onondago 

 county. New York, incorporated in 1794, and compre- 

 hendjng the mihtary towns of Hannibal and Cicero. The 

 number of inhabitants is 121. It is dillant i6 miles S.E. 

 of lake Ontario. 



Lys.vnder, in Biography, an eminent Spartan com- 

 mander in the laft years of the Peloponnefian war, was 

 the fon of Arilloclitus, a defcendant af the Herachds, but 

 not of the royal line. About the year 406 B.C. Ly lander 

 was made the naval commander of the Laceda;monian?. 

 His firft mealure was to draw off Ephefus from the interell 

 of Athens, which he accomplifhed, and at the fame time 

 gained the friendfhip of Cyrus the younger. He gave^ 

 battle to the Athenian fleet, conQfting of 120 fhips, at 

 4X2 ^Igos- 



