768 
POE 
poetry in Tome of his comedies that would do honour to 
Homer himfelf. As an illullration of the force of Arifto- 
phanes’s fatire, we copy a fpeech from the “ Birds,” 
(tranflated by the Rev. Mr. Cary, 1824.,) which depi&s 
the fophifts in moft excellent colours. 
Oh come, ye men, ye brittle things, mere images of clay. 
Ye flitting leaves, ye lhadowy fliapes, ye creatures of a 
da 7’ 
Poor, winglefs, wretched mortals ye, like nothing but a 
dream ; 
Give heed to us, and lift for once to an immortal theme. 
Immortals we, and live for aye, from age and forrow free ; 
Our manfion in the viewlefs air; our thoughts, eternity. 
Come learn from us, for we can tell ye fecrets moft fub- 
iime. 
How.all things are ; and birds exift before the birth of 
time ; 
How Gods and Hell and Chaos rofe, and mighty rivers 
fprang; 
Come learn aright; and then from me bid Prodicus go 
hang. 
Firft Chaos was, and Night and Hell and Tartarus pro¬ 
found ; 
But Earth was not, nor Sky nor Heaven ; fo Hell with- 
outen bound 
Stretch’d forth his bofom dark and deep, by windy tem- 
pefts blown, 
When firft of all black winged Night doth lay an egg 
thereon. 
In circling hours thence Love was born, an infant hea¬ 
venly fair, 
Glittering his back with golden wings, and fleet as eddy¬ 
ing air ; 
With winged Chaos mingling he, amid the gloomy night, 
In Tartarus our kind did hatch, and brought us firft to 
light. 
Both in Tragedy and Comedy the Greeks have one 
material and pervading fault: theirplots are very defective. 
The fimplicity of tragedy not requiring much of this 
artifice, the fault is not fo apparent in that fpecies of com- 
pofition as in the works of Ariftophanes : but the come¬ 
dies of this writer are like fame favourite little pieces 
of our French neighbours, mere fketches of character; 
and it forms no bad illuftration of one of our funda¬ 
mental propofitions, (that chara<Ser and language are 
the firft qualifications of a play,) to find that Arifto¬ 
phanes could pleafe the volatile Athenians with pieces, 
which had none of them any ftory, by the mere force of 
his chara&eriftic delineation, and by the beauty and variety 
of his verfe. 
Menander, the fupport of the new comedy, improved 
upon Ariftophanes in regard to the management of plot 
and the fubjugation of exceflive mirth and ribaldry. But 
he did not attempt to inculcate the great moral and 
political truths after the manner of his predecefl’or ; nor 
is the forcible, broad, and humorous, difplay of abfurdi- 
ties, in which Ariftophanes excelled, at all attempted by 
Menander. As to the reft, this author draws and con¬ 
trails charaflers with force and diferimination, and intro¬ 
duces a variety of incidents which are highly amufing. 
He is lafeivious, however. It appears by the latter 
tranflations of Menander that remain, that his ftyle was 
good, for Plutarch declares Menander’s diftion is as fweet 
and Ample as his thoughts are valuable and profound ; and 
obferves, that as the painter, when his eyes are wearied out, 
turns for recreation to florid hues and verdant colours, fo 
mult the philofopher or laborious ltudent find refrefhment 
for his unremitted and intenfe exertions in the pages of a 
bard who ‘' laps the foul in an elyfium” of his own ; a 
meadow rich in fliade, prodigal of flowers, and haunted 
by the breeze. 
Theocritus, Bion, and Mofchus, founded the Pa floral 
poem. This fpecies of poetry confifts in a defeription of 
men in that ftate of life when, juft advanced from the 
rude employment of hunters, they begin to praftifeagri- 
T R Y„ 
culture and to lead flocks. The imagination has fup- 
pofed, that in this degree of civilization mankind lofe the 
rough and ferocious difpofition of the ruder fociety ; and 
being, on the other hand, un contaminated by thefelfilh- 
nefs of the world, acquire foft and mild manners, virtuous 
and benevolent fentiments, Sic. No reflefting man can 
entertain fuch an idea; and accordingly others, having 
obferved the actual condition of clowns and Ihepherds, 
have fet to work to imitate nature and truth. If the 
firft attempts were erroneous, becaufe founded on falfe 
afiumptions, the latter was ridiculous, becaufe it was occu¬ 
pied with a mean and infipid fubjeft. If it were true 
that the paftoral life is pure and elegant as it is repre- 
fented, the want of all profundity of thought, and of 
education, mult render it a mere childifh goodnefs. If it 
were drawn faithfully, the meannefs and fenfuality of 
country love Ihould be the laft fubjett for a poet. We 
think then the paftoral an abfurd ftyle ; but of courfe 
elegant poetry will make every fubjeft amufing. The 
charmingly fmooth yet perpetually varied numbers of 
Theocritus, the fpirit of fome of his dialogues, and the 
elegance of his defcriptions, mult ever render the IdyIlia 
the delight of the ftudent. The belt of his poems, how¬ 
ever, are not paftorals. The Idyll in which Hercules tells 
of his victory over the Nemaean lion, thofe addreffed to 
Ptolemy, thexvth which del'cribes the old women going to 
hear the Greek girl fing, the fight between Pollux and 
Amycus, are the belt things he wrote ; and they are any 
thing but paftorals. His epigrams are very miferable. 
Bion and Mofchus have been always united : and fuch 
is the famenefs of ftyle, fentiment, and imagery, in both, 
that the fame obfervations will apply equally to the 
Bucolics of the one, and to the Id.ylliums of the other. 
Their language is unmixe. 1 with any of the low ideas and 
colloquial terms which occafionally offend us in Theocri¬ 
tus. The thoughts are frequently ingenious and delin¬ 
eate ; but the general ftrain is monotonous, and abfolutely 
diverted of variety : there is befides an appearance of 
affectation and art. We point out to the reader of fenfi- 
bility, the beautiful Elegy by Mofchus upon the Death 
of Bion, which is highly finilhed throughout. A ftrain 
of mournful fweetnels pervades the whole, that renders 
it irrefiftibly affe&ing. As fpecimens of peculiar beauty, 
we refer to the paflage beginning thuss 
AiAjva poi roiccxfiTt vouim xou Awp»o» v&ag 
K.a .i vrorapAot y.Xatoh rov tfxepoevlx BiafCt. 
Ye woods, w-ith grief your waving fummits bow ; 
Ye Dorian fountains, murmur as ye flow ; 
From weeping urns your copious forrows Ihed, 
And bid the rivers mourn for Bion dead. 
And a little lower, the paflage beginning with thefe lines: 
Aevils EikeAd cat t a 7TEt0£©- oc^eIe Mvtcrat 
A&ov e;, at ’rrvx.ivoHruioSv^optvca volt ipvAAot?, 
Napcaat rot; SuceAoi;. 
Begin, Sicilian mufe, your mournful ftrain : 
Ye nightingales that perch among the fprays. 
Tune to melodious elegy your lays, 
And bid the ftream of Arethufe deplore 
Bion’s fad fate; for Bion is no more. 
Nor verfe, nor mufic, could his life prolong; 
He died, and with him died the Doric fong. 
Apollonius Rhodius is the author of a poem called 
Argonautica, in four books, deferibing the golden fleece. 
He has laboured his work with great rninutenefs, and 
there is a pleafing variety in the conduft of the poem, 
though the plan perhaps is not fufficiently epic, and it is 
fomewhat too redundant in epifodes. Its principal merit 
confifts in having afforded Virgil a model for the beautiful 
ftory of Dido. The love of Medea for Jafon is drawn 
with a degree of nature and truth, that leave us only to 
regret that it is not delineated with more energy, and 
greater ftrength of colouring. The ftyle, though fome- 
times harlh, is in general even and correct, feldom riling 
to excellence, and never finking into abfurdity. Thole 
who 
