If then in outward manner, form, and kind, Wonder no more, my friend! the cause is plain, According to Müller, Theognis doubtless made this complaint on the debasement of the Megarian nobility, with the stronger feeling of bitterness, as he himself had been rejected by the parents of a young woman whom he had desired to marry; and a far worse man, that is a man of plebeian blood, had been preferred to him;-yet the girl herself was captivated with the noble descent of Theognis; she hated her ignoble husband, and came disguised to the poet, with the lightness of a little bird, as he says.'* Here Müller refers to a fragment, not translated by Mr. Frere; we venture therefore a paraphrase rather than a close translation, for we must confess that we are baffled by the meaning of the third and fourth lines. οὔ μοι πίνεται οἶνος. 261. Wine I've forsworn, since that sweet gentle maid Though cold her parents to my suit might be, Once was she in my arms, I kissed her neck, With this fragment Müller has connected another, according to his reference in Bekker's edition, line 1097. But there is here an insuperable difficulty-ἄνδρα κακὸν προφυγών and βροχον ἀποῤpnas, clearly cannot apply to a female. Mr. Frere has translated this passage as relating to Theognis himself, but appears to have indulged in more than his usual licence of paraphrase:— Ἤδη καὶ πτερύγεσσιν. 1093. 'Now like a liberated bird I fly, That having snapt the noose, ranges on high- There are, however, two lines in which the same sentiment is * We quote the excellent translation of Mr. Lewis. Many of our readers may not be aware that among the sixpenny publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' is to be found the best, we may say, the only history of Grecian literature in our language. When we add that it is worthy of its author, the lamented Karl Otfried Muller, and its translator, George Cornwall Lewis, it is sufficient praise. The work was written expressly for this publication, and, though it has since been published in German, its first appearance was in its English dress. We have understood that, since the death of Muller, the continuation has been entrusted to Mr. Donaldson. expressed, expressed, which Müller probably intended to refer to, and where the gender is right. Εχθαίρω κακὸν ἄνδρα, καλυψαμένη δὲ πάρειμι, μικρῆς ὄρνιθος κούφον ἔχουσα νόον. 579. I hate my base born lord, and veil'd I flee, Before we leave this part of the subject, we may express our regret that Mr. Frere has found no place among his translations for two or three fragments among the most elegant of those ascribed to Theognis, and which, if indeed his, belong to this state of his mind. We give the Greek, as not wishing to rest our judgment on our own version. They are but common sentiments, but expressed, to our taste, with uncommon purity and sweetness. Ἡμεῖς δ ̓ ἐν θαλίῃσι φίλον καταθώμεθα θυμὸν, αἵ τε ἄνακτα φέρουσι δορυσσόον ἐς πόνον ἀνδρῶν Ever be ours the banquet and the feast, The spear-arm'd king whirl to the warrior fight, The following fragments seem to belong to each other :- Ἡβώοις, φίλε θυμέ· τάχ ̓ αὖ τινὲς ἄλλοι ἔσονται ταῦτ ̓ ἐσορῶν κραδίην εὖ πείσομαι, ὄφρα τ' ἐλαφρὰ Enjoy thy youth, my soul! Another day For they whom once black earth hath covered o’er, Delight no more in pipe or lyre's sweet sound, While the brain works, and limbs obey the will. The political and most of the moral verses are addressed to one person, Kyrnus, the son of Polypas.* Kyrnus was a man who, either from station or ability, had gained great weight in public affairs; and Theognis appears to have looked to him for the re-establishment of order and tranquillity-the supremacy of the good, the discomfiture of the bad. But the poet's views were gloomy. According to Mr. Frere, Theognis 'distinctly prognosticates an approaching revolution, originating in the misrule of the party to which he himself naturally belonged, and of which his friend Kyrnus was, if not the actual, the anticipated chief; for we shall see him driven from his country at an early age, after having been for some time at the head of the state. He warns him of the rising intelligence and spirit of the lower orders; the feebleness, selfishness, and irresolution and falsehood of the higher, and the discontent which their mode of government was exciting.'—p. 27. Mr. Frere might have added that the verses which he translates show further the nature of the revolution which had begun-that common change in the Grecian and in other republics, the enforced admission of the perioci (the inhabitants of the country) to the rights of suffrage, and to a share in the political government of the state. Κύρνε, πόλις μὲν. 53. 'Our commonwealth preserves its former fame: Degenerate, debased, timid and mean. Who can endure to witness such a scene? * Elmsley had observed, and Otfried Muller assents to his observation, that Polypedes must be a patronymic. Welcker, and even Bode, in his 'Geschichte der Hellenischen Dichtkunst,' make him a different person. Mr. Frere says that, in the sixth line, he does not profess to have given an exact version of the original, which, 'to say the truth, he does not quite understand.' With submission, he has given the reverse of the sense: d' wor thαpos tñvd SVÉμOVTO TÓXI (Bekker reads, rod-Tótos) means that, like the deer of the forest, they lived aloof, and shared none of the rights or duties of active citizenship; they knew nothing-not of the protection, bu-of the administration of rights and laws. They are now become the ayad-the actual governing aristocracy. Their easy courtesies, the ready smile, For any bold design or manly deed) Never imagine you can choose a just Or steady friend, or faithful in his trust. But change your habits! let them go their way! Be condescending, affable, and gay! Adopt with every man the style and tone Most courteous, most congenial with his own! For whose salvation nothing can avail.' In the following lines the significant distinctions between the two parties-the yao (the aristocracy), who never endangered a city, and the xaxos (the popular party), who pervert justice and corrupt the people-are rather lost in the vaguer words, the ' noble spirits' and the feeble minds.' Mr. Frere would, however, expand the sense of the passage into the following commentary : 'The governments by an aristocracy of caste, such as ours, have never been overthrown while they have been directed by men of generous character, and resolute magnanimous spirit. The danger does not arise till they are succeeded by a poor-spirited selfish generation, exercising the saine arbitrary authority with mean and mercenary views.' Κύρνε, κύει πόλις. 39. 'Our state is pregnant, shortly to produce The supercilious, arrogant pretence Never imagine that a ruin'd land Will trust her destiny to your command, To be remodell❜d by a single hand.' This is paraphrastic, but the last line certainly seems to be a warning warning addressed to Kyrnus that the city will not submit to ' monarchy Μούναρχος δὲ πόλει μήποτε τῇδε ἅδοι. The repeated admonitions against the danger of arrogance, of ßgis, we must acknowledge seem like remonstrances against a ruling caste. ὕβρις καὶ Μάγνητας. 'Pride and oppressive rule destroy'd the State Of the Magnesians! Such was Smyrna's fate- And ours, my friend, will follow soon or late.' We cannot enter into the minute and ingenious particularity with which Mr. Frere works out every shade and variation in the character of Kyrnus, from the scattered fragments of moral advice which form a considerable part of the poetry of Theognis, nor the very fine and subtile allusions to the changes in domestic and external politics which he perceives or imagines. The following passages will show, however, the kind of high and honourable, in some degree parental, friendship which Theognis entertained (according to Doric usage) for this well-born and distinguished youth : Αργαλέως μοι θυμὸς. 1086. 'My mind is in a strange distracted state: Hard to renounce our better thoughts for ill: To love without return is harder still. But mark my resolution and protest: Those services for which you once profess'd A sense of obligation due to me, On my part were gratuitous and free; No task had I, no duty to fulfil, No motive but a kind and friendly will. The next are among the best verses preserved to us from Theognis, and in our judgment are rendered with great spirit and sufficient fidelity. Σοὶ μὲν ἐγώ. 237. 'You soar aloft, and over land and wave Are borne triumphant on the wings I gave― |