Pl 
8 Epigrams, Fragments, Sc. from the Greek. 
That pang ftrikes deepeft in the human 
heart, 
That bitter anguifh, when we fay—‘* We 
S part” = 
The moment when our lips pronounces= 
‘¢ Farewell |” ‘ 
Is as the fall from upper heav’n to hell. 
The lifeof man, and all his glitt’ring joys, | 
Are the moft frail of Natare’s fraileft toys ;—- 
Like rain-drops trembling on the leafy {pray, 
The gale fcarce breathes, and fcatters them 
away. - 
The miferies of parting and of abfence 
have in all ages afforded an ample theme 
to the amorous Mufe in her tendereft and 
moft melanchely moods ; and there is no 
fubjeét on which defcriptions more natural, 
or that come more home to the foftef 
feelings of the human heart, occur to us 
in the writings both of ancient and modern 
poets. It is alluded to im the foregoing 
verfes with all the warmth and force of 
Afiaticimagery. In the following lines it 
appears to us ina ftyle of playful gallan- 
try, refembling the lighter compofitions. of 
Our own age and country ; yet there is no 
lover who has not more than once experi- 
enced fenfations very fimilar to thofe which 
it defcribes, when the avocations of bufi- 
nefs, or the commands of parents, have 
forced from him his unwilling confent to 
a temporary banifhment. 
"DQyaora. pryavalesy. Pau. SILENT. 
When I left thee, Love ! I {wore 
Not to fee that face again 
For a fortaight’s {pace or more; 
But the cruel oath was vain, 
Since the next day I pafs’d fromthee 
Was a long year cf mifery. 
Oh then, for thy Lover, pray 
Ev'ry gentler deity, 
Wot in too-nice {cales to weigh 
That conftrained perjury ! 
And thou! Oh gity my defpair ! 
Heav’n’s rage, and thine, 2 cannot bear. 
On account of the {rong affinity in fen- 
timent of the foregoins epigram to many 
of our modern love-fongs, I have given 
it fuch a form of verfe in my tranflationas 
might render the relemblance more com- 
plete to the ear of an Englith reader; and 
the fame reafon led meto adopt the pecu- 
Har metre in which I prefent the follow. 
Ing iy 
"Apvvras viy"Epara Meticciés. Rurinus. 
Why will Meliffa, young and fair, 
Still her virgin-love deny, 
When ev'ry motion, ev'ry air, 
The pafiton of her foul declare, 
And give her words the lie ? . an 
~ 
(Feb. I, 
‘That panting breath, that broken figh, 
And thofe limbs that feebly fail, 
_ And that dark hollow round her eye, 
The mark of Cupid’s archery ,* 
_ Too plainly tell the tale. 
But, oh thou God of foft defire, 
By thy Mother, thron’d above, 
Oh let not pity quench thine ire, 
Till, yielding to thy fierceft fire, 
She cries, at length, ** I love !” 
There isa great mixture of tendernefs 
and gallantry in the following addrefs of 
Anchifes to his heavenly Miftrefs. It is 
by the collector Agathias, who, notwith- 
ftanding the corruption of tafte that cha- 
racterized the age he lived-in,: has himfelf 
added many very confiderable ornaments 
to the Anthologia :—— 
Ofv’ haftthou left the realmsof air, |, 
~ 'Todweli with me on Ida’s fhore ; 
But now gay youth is mine no more : 
Ne 
, And age has mark’d my brows with care. 
Oh, Queen of Love ! my youth reftore, 
Or take my offering of grey hair ! 
The Phrygian hero appears to have had 
very fuficient caufe to complain of the 
cruel treatment of his celeftial miftrefs.— 
The lamentable effe& of Jupiter’s thun- 
derbolt, the pain of a deep and incurable 
wound (Virg. Ain., lib.ii.; Plut. de Vit. 
& Virt., &c.), was indeed a very fevere 
punifhment for one unfortunate moment 
of unguarded franknefs, and may well ex- 
cufe the very natural complaints whigh 
Scarron makes him. utter ;—* 
Vieil, cafsé, mal-propre a la guerre, 
“Je ne fers de rien fur la terre ; 
Spettre, qui n’ai plus que la voix, 
yy fuis un inutile poids. 
Depuis le tems que de fon foudre 
Jupia me voulut mettre en poudre, &c. 
————j’ay depuis eu cent fois envie s 
De m’alter pendre un beau matin 
&t finir mon chien de deftin, 
That the learned language of Greece 
was not unfuited to the frains of modern 
gallantry and {prightlinefs, a French gen- 
tieman of the 17th century appears to 
have endeavoured to prove, when he wrote 
a molt elegant copy of Greek verfes ad- 
creffed to a lady who had recovered from 
the fmall-pox without injury to her beau- 
* This feemsa harth exprefiion in Englith, 
but I think it is jufified by the metaphor of 
the original + a 4 
yee Kasdat Brepépay iovumess Bacieg. 
* ,See a.long and entertaining difcuffion of 
this interefting fubjedi in Bayle’s DiGuonary, 
art..§§ Snchife,” ei re i 
. 
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