1305.) Epigrams, Fragments, and Fugitive Pisces fromthe Greek. 137 
- Obferyer, with forme which he has rendered 
into our own language but more particu- 
larly of the fragments which have come 
down to us from the comic peets. 
Let thofe who object to the word ep7- 
gram, refer to any book of etymology, and 
jatisfy their doubts; but let them not ob- 
ject to feeing them‘in an Englih dreds, 
fince they are the-very men and women of 
all others, who fhould own themfelyes in- 
debted to the tranfla:or. : 
Men of genius have inftruéted the 
two great epic Poets to fing in Eng- 
lifh numbers. Even Horace, who com- 
bines all the gaiety of the moft gay, 
with the thoughtfulnels of the moft fe- 
rious, who illuitrates the greateft yariety- 
of fubje&s with expreffions for ever new and 
varying; even the facetious, yet profound, 
the refined, yet nervous, Horace has met 
with imitators, paraphratts and tranilators. 
That any perfon fhould have revolted from 
a tafk which requires talents feemingly fo 
oppofite, I fhould’ not have been furprized, 
as I confider Horace in the light of a ftand- 
ing argument againft the aflertion made by 
Locke, which prohibits wit from. making 
an alliance with judement, 
Aut acrem flammz fonitum dabit, atq. ita 
vinclis 
Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapfus abibit. 
At one time he is all dignity, at another 
playful or fatyrical; and even fhould his 
imitator preferve confiltency thus far, he 
will elude the grafp in a fhape as unlike 
thefé, as Therfites to Hercules, True it 
is, that nothing comprehends greater vari- 
ety than the epigram, and as the charm 
of compofitions {0 light and fhort is made 
up of novelty, furprize and elegance, the 
Jeaft deviation from the former even with 
the affiftance of the two latter; is more re- 
proachshble than ‘in longer compofitions, 
anda failure in the latter ‘totally inex- 
evufable. In naturalizing thefe plants fo 
flourifhing in the atmofphere of Greece, 
many would have died as foon as tranf- 
planted—many would have effumed a bue 
lefS lively, and from witd flowers would 
have become plants of the hot-lioufe; but 
fome, doubtlets, under fkilful hands would 
have worn their former horours, witha 
diminution neither of colour nor of fra- 
France, : 
No place-has given an afylum more fe- 
cure to the ‘banifhed Mules of Greece 
than our ifland—by no matters have her 
melodies been more faithfully and fcienti- 
ficaily tranfpofed to charm the ear, and 
dwe!l upon the heart. On cafting my eye 
over the Anthologia, and Mr, Cumber 
-Jand’s Obferver, I feund that Ben Jonfen 
has been twice indebted to Greek hints 
- for two of his mof duccefsful pieces. From 
a Greek infcription ef two lines he has 
taken a thouglit on which he has dilated, 
and judicioufly too, te five times the num- 
ber. The verfes are infcribed to Euripie 
des, by Ton: 
Od civ pavijiua Tod Eo” Eupexity AAAL ob TED, 
TH on ye dfn wien Tod duntyeras 
The lines of our countryman are in- 
feribed to the memory of Michael Drayton, 
the poet. He thus addrcfles the ** pious 
marble :” 
¢* And when #hy rains thall difclaim 
To be the treafuret of his name, 
His name, that cannot fade, fhall be 
An everlafting Monument to thee.”? 
For the next difcovery of imitation the 
world is indebted to Mr. Cumberland, 
who profeffes himfelf to be ** much fur 
prized at Gnding that cur learned poet had 
been poaching in an obfcure colleétion of 
love letters, written by the fophift Philo- 
ftratus, in a very rhapfodical ftile, for the 
purpofe of f{tringing together a parcel of 
unnatural conceits.”? For this mott po- 
pular and exquifitely beautiful fong, to 
which Jonfon has ftood father, we are in. 
debted to a pretty turn in letter xxiv, 
of Philoftrattis—zZuo Se peove:g srpomwe rotg 
oMptagss & de Beret, Tog VELAEDt apcopEperay 
Anos Piarnearoav TO eanoua, % erue dds, &C. 
—which ideas, together with the fubfep 
quent thoughts, are familiarifed to us by 
the well-known fong— 
6¢ Drink to me only with thine eyes.” 
And this aifo bears a trong refemblance 
to-an epigram of Meleager’s, of which the 
following is a pretty clofe tranflation. 
Epes prev & Pidoaivog 
Farewel to wine—yet if thou bid me fip, , 
_Prefent the cup more honour’d from thy lip. 
Pour’dby thy hand, to rofy draughts I fly, 
And caft away my ftern fobriety. 
For, as I drink, foft raptures tell my foul, 
That Julia left a kifs within the bowl. 
One of the few tranflated epigranis (that 
_of Simonides on the tomb of .Sephocles) 
excited .a fenfation fo firong, that mufic 
was adapted to the words, sand it is .fung 
and admired by the beautiful and gay, 
who know not how far they are indebted, 
in this inftance at leait, to learning and. 
genius, for the pleafure which they receive 
—iipem’ inte TusColo TopoxAcogeee 
Angl. ‘* Wind, gentle evergreen,” &c. 
One peculiar excellence belonging to 
thofe Greek infcriptions which are in ho~ 
nour of departed merit, fs the happy ele- 
gance with which the name is inferted ; 
and 
SSS 
i 
| 
——— 
ee 
Ae 
ee ee eee 
