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The Laughter-loving Maids you fly, and fear;
And Death, with hafty fteps, will foon be here.
His fatal Night already clouds your Morn,
Beauty is fall'n! and thy gay Locks are fhorn.

Horace fays of our Author, that he wrote non elaboratum ad pedem, artlefly elegant. And the inimitable Eafe which abounds in the Original of this Ode, is an Inftance, amongst many others, how juftly he deferves that Character. We have an Imitation of it in an Epigram of Palladas Antholog. L. 2. pag. 175.

Γηραλέον με γιναῖκες ἀποσκώπλεσι, λέγεσαι
Εἰς τὸ κάτοπλεον ὁρᾷν λείψανον ἡλικίης.

Αλλ'

But whether still foft-curls my Hair, Or flying hence, has left me bare,

I know not; this indeed I know,

If, as they tell me, old I grow,

It's time to snatch fhort Joys from Fate,

And hafte to live ere it's too late,

10

ODE

Αλλ' ἐγὼ εἰ λακας φορέω τείχας, είτε μελαίνας,
Οὐκ ἀλέγω, βιότε πρὸς τέλΘ ἐρχόμμΘ.
Εὔδμοις ἢ μύροισι, κι ευπετάλοις σεφάνοισι,
Τῷ Βρομίῳ πάνω φροντίδας ἀργαλέας.

The Fair, infulting cry, because I'm old,
Here, in this Glafs thy winter'd Spring behold!
But whether White, or youthful Black my Hair,
Just stepping out of Life, I little care.
Around my od'rous Brows I Refes twine,
And drown Solicitude in rofy Wine.

VER. 3

D

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Εἰς χελιδόνα.

'I' σοι θέλεις ποιήσω;

Τί σοι λάλη χελιδών ;
Τὰ ταρσά σου τὰ κεφα,
Θέλεις, λαβὼν ψαλίξω;
Ἢ μᾶλλον ἔνδοθέν σου

Τὴν γλῶσσαν, ὡς ὁ Τηρούς

5

Ἐκεῖν, ἐκθερίζω;

Τί

VER. 3 & 4. Shall my Steel invade thy Wings,
Clipping thence their airy Rings? ]

Perhaps Anacreon gave the Epithet xo", Light, to the
Wings of the Swallow; becaufe, as Pliny remarks, Vo-
lucrum foli hirundini, flexuofi volatus velox celeritas; the
Swallow is the only Bird which flies fwift in a Ring or
mazy Flight.

VER. 5. Or fhall I a Tereus play.] Tereus was King of Thrace; he marry'd Progné the Daughter of Pandion, King of Athens; but being afterwards taken with the Beauty of her Sifter Philomela, he ravish'd her, and to conceal his Crime, cut out her Tongue and imprifon'd her; but Progné being inform'd of her Sifter's

Misfortune,

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C

ODE XII.

ON A SWALLOW.

HATT'RER! What Revenge of mine

Equal can this Crime of thine?

Shall my Steel invade thy Wings,

Clipping thence their airy Rings?
Or fhall I a Tereus play,

Shall I tear thy Tongue away?

5

Why

Misfortune, by a Piece of Embroidery which she had the Addrefs to fend her, to revenge herself of her incestuous Husband, kill'd the Son fhe had by him, call'd Itys, and had his Flesh ferv'd up for him to eat: Being pursued by Tereus, fhe was chang'd by the Gods into a Swallow, Philomela into a Nightingale, Tereus into a Lapwing, and Itys into a Pheasant. The Story is told at large by Ovid, in the Sixth Book of his Metamorphofes. it's remarkable, that Anacreon, in this Paffage, contradicts the received Opinion, and makes Philomela the Perfon chang'd into a Swallow. Servius, the Scholiast of Virgil, is of the fame Sentiment; as is alfo Apollodorus, and Homer himself, Odys. L. 19.

D 2

But

VER. 7.

Τί μου καλῶν ὀνείρων,

Ὑπορθρίαισι φωναῖς

Αφήρπασας Βάθυλλον ;

ΙΟ

ΩΔΗ

VER. 7. Why with early tuneless Noife.] No Birds fing fo early in the Morning as Swallows. Virgil speaks of them when he says,

Et matutini volucrum fub culmine cantus.

And Songs of early Birds invite to rise.

D'Acier.

Ma

VER. 10. Snatch'd Bathyllus from my Arms.]

dam D'Acier, in her Remark on this Line, cites the fol

lowing beautiful Paffage from Horace, L. 4. Ode 1.

Nocturnis te ego fomniis

Jam captum teneo: jam volucrem fequor

Te per gramina Martii

Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles.

Thee, thee, my lovely Boy,

Now, now I clafp, and now in Dreams

Purfue o'er Fields and Streams;

Thee, thee, my Dear, my flying Joy.

Creech.

Agathias has given us a very elegant Imitation of this Ode in an Epigram of his Antholog. L. 7. p. 461.

Πάσαν

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