While Vengeance, in the lurid air, EPODE. In earliest Greece, to thee, with partial choice, Yet he, the Bard who first invok'd thy name, For not alone he nurs'd the poet's flame, But who is he, whom later garlands grace, * Eschylus. In his play, entitled Eumenides (Furies), he introduced a chorus of 50 persons, whose habits, gestures, and appearance altogether, were so formidable, as to terrify the whole audience. Eschylus fought at the battle of Marathon.-C. The allusion here is to the Edipus Coloneus of Sophocles, which contains the most sublime scene in the whole compass of the Grecian Drama, of that kind of sublimity which arises from the obscure, and is calculated to produce terror.-See Ed. Col. v. 1658.-C. Wrapt in thy cloudy veil th' incestuous Queen* And he the wretch of Thebes no more appear'd. Ο Fear, I know thee by my throbbing heart, Yet all the thunders of the scene are thine! * Jocasta.This is a little inaccurate: it was not Jocasta who called, nor was the call sighed out: Ην μεν σιωπη φθεγμα δ' εξαίφνης τινος there was silence for a while; But sudden he was summon'd by a voice That made our hairs all stand on end who heard it; Some deity so loud and often called Thou, Edipus The person who makes this report goes on to relate, that Œdipus then ordered them all to depart except Theseus, who alone was to witness his end. ως δ' απήλθομεν Χρονῳ βραχει ςραφενίες, εξαπείδομεν Τον Άνδρα, τον μεν, εδαμε παρον τις Χειρ' αντεχονία κρατος, ως δεινε τινος Φοβε φανενος, εδ' ανασχες βλεπειν. ν. 1718. At his command we came away; When shortly after turning round to view, ANTISTROPHE.. Thou who such weary lengths hast past, Where gloomy Rape and Murder dwell? 'Gainst which the big waves beat, Hear drowning seamen's cries in tempest brought! Which thy awakening bards have told: Him we saw not, for he was gone; but Theseus Stood with his hand o'ershadowing his eyes, As from a fearful sight intolerable. The mysterious fate of the British King Arthur is recorded in our old English ballad, with some circumstances that may remind us of this Grecian catastrophe.-See Percy's Ant. Songs, vol. 3.-C. *The eve which was hallowed, one might imagine, should rather be free from all these objects of fear, as Shakspeare represents it: Some say that ever'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, O thou whose spirit most possest Teach me but once like him to feel: His cypress wreath my meed decree, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.-Hamlet, A. 1, S. L. which have been thus translated ; Et quotiês redeunt natalia tempora Christi Tanta est sacratæ reverentia credita nocti.-C. It is difficult to keep entirely separate the active and passive qualities of allegorical personages: difficult to say whether such a thing as Fear should be the agent in inspiring, or the victim agitated by the passion. In this ode the latter idea prevails; for Fear appears in the character of a nymph pursued, like Dayden's Honoria, by the ravening brood of Fate. She is distracted by the ghastly train conjured up by Danger, and hunted through the world without being suffered to take repose: yet this idea is somewhat departed from, when the poet endeavours to propitiate Fear, by offering her, as a suitable abode, the cell where Rape and Murder dwelli ODE TO SIMPLICITY. O thou by Nature taught, To breathe her genuine thought, In numbers warmly pure, and sweetly strong: Who first on mountains wild, In Fancy, loveliest child, Thy babe, and Pleasure's, nurs'd the powers of song! Thou, who with hermit heart Disdain'st the wealth of art, And gauds, and pageant weeds, and trailing pall: But com'st a decent maid, In Attic robe array'd, O chaste, unboastful nymph, to thee I call! or a cave whence she may hear the cries of drowning seamen. She then becomes the Power who delights in inflicting fear. But perhaps the reader is an enemy to his own gratification, who investigates the attributes of these shadowy beings, with too nice and curious an eye.-B. * Hybla is a mountain in Sicily; but this allegorical imagery of the honey store, the blooms, and murmurs of Hybla, alludes to the sweetness and beauty of the Attic poetry.-L. |