ILLUSTRATIONS. AMATORY. "Sea-wandering barks, that o'er the Egean sail." p. 1. THE Poet may be supposed walking on the sea-coast. He sees numberless vessels passing and repassing over the Hellespont, and tells them to bear tidings from him to the lady of his affections, whom, it seems, he was expecting soon to visit. The sixth line in the original has caused much dispute. Its literal interpretation is, "Expect me not as a sailor, but as one who travels on foot to behold you;" a hyperbolical expression, implying (says Jacobs) "The desire of seeing you will support me over the seas, even without the aid of a ship." The passion of love may well be imagined capable of inspiring such extraordinary energy, if the mere desire of eating a dinner at another person's expense, has been held sufficiently powerful to produce it. Such was the case of a personage in one of the lost comedies of Alexis : “Chærephon, having an invitation to supper at Corinth, flew over the sea to the place of rendezvous; so great was his impatience to partake of the banquet which was offered him." Athenæus, Lib. IV. "Sell not thy sacred honour for a feast." p. 2. N'ayant sujet ni de pleurer ni de rire, mais riant et pleurant par compagnie." I cannot now recollect where this sentence occurs. "Oft hast thou left the realms of air." p. 2. There is a mixture of tenderness and gallantry in this address of Anchises to his heavenly mistress. The Phrygian hero appears to have had very sufficient cause to complain of her cruelty. The lamentable effect of Jove's thunderbolt, the pain of a deep and incurable wound, was indeed a very severe punishment for one unfortunate moment of unguarded frankness, and may well excuse (says Bayle) the very natural complaints which the droll Scarron makes him utter. "Vieil, cassé, mal-propre à la guerre, Depuis le tems que de son foudre "When I left thee, Love, I swore." p. 3. This simple thought, of time being lengthen'd by the absence of Lovers, has never been so well expressed, because never in so few words, as by Theocritus. 'Oi de ποθέυντες εν ηματι γηρασκουσιν. "Chi ama, e chi desia, in un giorno s' invecchia," as Salvini has accurately render'd it. Fawkes's translation gives a very inadequate impression of its beauty : "Sure thou hast felt, unless thy heart be cold, "For me thy wrinkles have more charms." p. 3. In the fair and courteous days of France, when a gay and half romantic gallantry was the universal taste of the young and old, the lofty and the humble, Madame la Mareschale de Mirepoix, already in the winter of her days, but with more wit and warmth of imagination remaining than most of the youngest and gayest ladies of the court, sent to her old admirer, M. le Duc de Nivernois, a lock of her grey hair, accompanied by some very pretty and elegant verses descriptive of the regard she felt for him, which age could neither extinguish nor diminish. The Duke's reply is one of the sweetest specimens of gaiety and tenderness that I ever remember to have met with. |