Anacreon done into English out of the original Greek

The Life of ANACREON.

ANACREON was a Poet famous for Lyriques amongst the Graecians, and ac∣cording to Strabo an Inhabitant of the City Teios; whence he took the denomination of Te•…•…us, and whence we read in Ovid Teia Mu∣•…•… about whose Parents the Antiquarians are of different Opinions, and seem dubious on whom to confer that Honour. Some would have his Father to be Scythinus, others Eumelus, others say his name was Parthemus or Aristocri∣tus▪ I shall not therefore endeavour to recon∣cile these differences, but were I to guess at his Genealogy, byass'd by the delicious Wantonness of his Stile: I should be apt to conjecture, that Bacchus had sometime stoln the Marriage-Sweets of Venus, and palliated his crime with this off∣spring.

His life was a continued Scene of Delight, and

his Body seemed, instead of a Soul, to be infor∣med with nothing but Love. He was much en∣slaved with the Masculin Love of a Beautiful Boy named Bathyllus; as we may easily appre∣hend by his often mentioning of him through∣out his whole Book, as also by that of Ho∣race.

Non aliter Samio dicunt arsisse Bathyllo Anacreonta Teium.—

Nor was he less enamoured with the powerful charms of his Mistress Eurypile; for whose af∣fection he determined his Genious so to Love-Verses, that Cicero says of him, His Poetry is all ore a treatise of Amours. Which I am apt to imagine a mistake, knowing that Bacchus equal∣ly shares in it, and he never separated those two chief Ingredients of an Epicurean's happiness, Women and Wine. To the Latter of these he seemed to owe all his Enthusiasm, all the youth∣ful vigour of his Old Age: he was so actuated, so enlivened with this, as if, when his own Spir∣its decayed, Those of Wine became vital. He was much addicted to the vice of Drinking, whence he was reproachfully entituled by some 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and the Athenians (as Pansanias re∣lates

in his description of Greece) erected his Statue in a Drunken posture. There goes a very pleasant Story of him, that once having took a Cup too much of the Creature, he came staggering homewards through the Market place, and •…•…eeling against a Nurse with a Child in her Arms named Cleobulus, he had almost beat her down; nor did he c•…•…ave her pardon for this Offence, but injured her as much afterwards wich a scornful, hectoring reply: upon which the Nurse begged that the Justice of Heaven would take it into consideration, and prayed that he might be hereafter with all the Tyranny of af∣•…•…ectionate Passion as much endeared to the Child •…•…s now he abhorred it.

Now after Cleobulus was past his Infancy, he •…•…ecame so strangely beautiful, that Nature seem∣•…•…d extravagant in bestowing all her charms upon •…•…ne face; and the Gods being mindful of the •…•…urse's request inflicted upon Anacreon the sweet •…•…evenge of Love, as appears in some of his mai∣•…•…ed pieces, where he draws up this Petition to •…•…he God of Love.

Tu propitius •…•…neras exaudi preces, Fave Cleobulo, suscipe amorem meum.

But Athenaeus is of Opinion that this Poet was not so much given to debauchery and seems •…•…o clear him from the crime of Drunkenness; when he says, ▪〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Lib. 10. Dei•…•…: Fol. 429. that he onely played the Counterfeit as much in compo∣sing his drunken Songs, as I have in translating them.

As▪ for the other part of his Verses▪ those L•…•…es of Love, and b•…•…s for delight, they seem by a kind of Sympathy to be co•…•…le to his Life, and maintain an equal Correspondence with Mitth and Pleasure: so that by the lusciousness of his Stile, and neatness of Wit, he got himself no small re∣pute amongst the Ancients; some of which dig∣nified him with the title of the delicious Anacrean, the Honey-Poet; And Plato, though a very nice Philosopher who allows of no pleasure but that in the Abstract; who terms the gross enjoyment of the sensual Appetite a Brute delight, •…•…nd ac∣counts that refined bliss the Marriage of Souls a property onely entailed on Rationalls; yet he was so overswayed with the Poetical Philtres of of Anacreon, as to sign his approbation of a more substantial delight in gratifying the Senses, and abandon that aerie notion of pleasure, as a sha∣dow of Solid joy, a mere creature of •…•…ancy;

when he calls this Author the wise Anacreon: Whose Moralls tell us he was a great Abetter of Epicurism, he placed his Summum Bonum in the gross embraces of delight and all his Actions tended to that as to their Centre; he pronoun∣ced to his Mind the Poets Requiem, Aetate frue∣re, Enjoy thy Life; and if any hour slipped away without Mirth he accounted it mispent, and himself guilty of the crime of Idleness; he aban∣doned all gravity and Wisdom as bold Incroachers upon the liberties of Pleasure; Business was a mere stranger to his mind, nor did ever the tur∣bulent thoughts of that discompose the calmness of his Breast: Nay what most of all commands our Admiration is, that when he was under the severe Discipline of Age when nothing is becom∣ing but to be Morose, and commence a Dissenter in Jollity; to see how Love overpower'd all these Tyrants, and a Smile could pry out some kind cranies to peep through his wrinkled looks, how he could be capable at this Winter of his Life to be inflamed with Love!

As if Nature had priviledg'd in him, a familiar Society, a friendly Neighbourhood betwixt two Contraries, Heat and Cold. I am apt methinks now to credit the theft of Prometheus, or sub∣scribe to the tenet os Heraclitus Physicus, that

his Soul owed its being to fire: when I see it so often flash out in wanton sparks of Love, and be∣tray the flame within, when he writes with all the heat of Passion: But tis said besides these Love-Songs he composed several Elegies, and Iambicks, and several other Pieces of Poetry, which the World hath not been so happy to retain.

The time he lived in is ambiguons: Eusebius records it in the LXI Olympiad, Suidas in the LXII, and makes him Cotemporary with Poly∣crates a Tyrant at Samos; His Verse so mollified the harsh temper of that Prince, and as it were ci∣vilized his brutal Disposition, that he became no small favourite of his; But others are of Opini∣on, that he flourished under the Reign of Cyrus and Cambyses, and that not being able to suffer the Tyranny of the Persians, he betook himself to Abdera a City in Thrace whose sometime inhabiting there might attone for the Epidemical Disease of that people, Dullness: here he long time enjoyed the sweets of a quiet Life, attended with content and mirth the gay retinue of a Po∣et; and in the LXXXV^th year of his Age died being choaked with a Grape-stone, upon whose death we have this Elegy out of Caelius.

ATte Sancte Senex a•…•…us sub Tartara misit, Cygneae clausit qui tibi vocit iter: Vos Hederae tumulum, tumulum vos cingite Lauri Hoc Rosa perpetuo uernet odora lo•…•…o; At vitis procul hinc, procul hinc odiosa face ssat, Quae dirae causam protulit una necis; Creditur ipse minus vitem nunc Bacchus amare In vatem tantum quae fuit ausa nefas.

English't thus.

HAil Bard triumphant, whose melodious breath A Grape-stone stopp'd, the Thunder-bolt of death. Let Ivie now thy envied Tomb surround, And let it be with thy own Laurels crown'd; Let grateful Roses od'rous offerings bring, And here enjoy an everlasting Spring; But hence, far hence be plac'd the treach'rous Vine, That made immortal Thee to death re•…•…gn; Bacchus self hates it now, 'tis thought, and grieves T' has kill'd a Poet in whose Verse it lives.