phon for marrying his wife [vi. 5]. The debates [vii. 712, viii. 8-16] on both sides are insufferably tiresome. The priest of Diana, with whom Leucippe had taken refuge, lavishes much abuse on Thersander, which is returned on his part with equal volubility. Leucippe is at last subjected to a trial of chastity in the cave of Diana, from which the sweetest music issued when entered by those who resembled its goddess. Never were notes heard so melodious as those by which Leucippe was vindicated. Thersander was of course nonsuited, and retired loaded with infamy [viii. 14]. Leucippe then related that it was a woman dressed in her clothes, whose head had been struck off by the banditti, in order to deter Clitophon from farther pursuit, but that a quarrel having arisen among them on her account, Chaereas was slain, and after his death she was sold by the other pirates to Sosthenes. By him she had been purchased for Thersander, in whose service she remained till discovered by Clitophon [viii. 16]. In this romance many of the descriptions are borrowed from Philostratus, and the Hero and Leander of Musæus. Some of the events have also been taken from Heliodorus.1 Like that author, Tatius makes frequent use of robbers, pirates, and dreams; but the general style of his work is totally different. If there be less sweetness and interest than in Theagenes and Chariclea, there is more bustle in the action. A number of the amorous stratagems, too, are original and well imagined-such as Clitophon's discourse on love with Satyrus, in the hearing of Leucippe [i. 16-20]; and the beautiful incident of the bee [ii. 7], which has been adopted by D'Urfé, and by Tasso in his Aminta, where Sylvia having pretended to cure Phyllis, whom a bee had stung, by kissing her, Aminta perceiving this, feigns that he too had been stung, in order that Sylvia, pitying his pain, might apply a similar remedy.2 See 1 Also from Plato, Longus, Synesias, Nonnus, and others. Passow in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopædia, sub voce Achilles Tatius. "I made pretence, 2 As if the bee had bitten my under lip; And fell to lamentations of such sort, That the sweet medicine which I dared not ask Among these devices may be mentioned the petition of Melite to Leucippe, whom she believes to be a Thessalian, to procure her herbs for a potion that may gain her the affections of Clitophon. The sacrifice, too, of Leucippe by the robbers in the presence of her lover, is happily imagined, were not the solution of the enigma so wretched. As the work advances, however, it must be confessed, that it gradually decreases in interest, and that these agreeable incidents are more thinly scattered. Towards the conclusion it becomes insufferably tiresome, and the author scruples not to violate all verisimilitude in the events related. Indeed, through the whole romance, want of probability seems the great defect. Nothing can be more absurd or unnatural than the false uterus-nothing can be worse imagined than the vindication of the heroine in the cave of Diana, which is the final solution of the romance. When it is necessary for the story that Thersander should be in With word of mouth, I asked for with my looks. Offered to give her help To that pretended wound; And oh the real and the mortal wound, Which pierced into my being, When her lips came on mine! Never did bee from flower Suck sugar so divine, As was the honey that I gathered then From those twin roses fresh. I could have bathed them in my burning kisses, But fear and shame withheld That too audacious fire, And made them gently hang. But while into my bosom's core, the sweetness, Mixed with a secret poison, did go down, It pierced me so with pleasure, that still feigning The pain of the bee's weapon, I contrived That more than once the enchantment was repeated." Cf. too Sir John Suckling's "Her lips were red and one was thin, Compared to that was next her chin, Some bee had stung it newly." formed who Leucippe is, the author makes him overhear a soliloquy, in which she reports to herself a full account of her genealogy, and an abridgement of her whole adventures. A soliloquy can never be properly introduced, unless the speaker is under the influence of some strong passion, or reasons on some important subject; but as Heliodorus borrowed from Sophocles, so Tatius is said to to have imitated Euripides. From him he may have taken this unnatural species of soliloquy, as this impropriety exists in almost all the introductions to the tragedies of that poet. Tatius has been much blamed for the immorality of his romance, and it must be acknowledged that there are particular passages which are extremely exceptionable; yet, however odious some of these may be considered, the general moral tendency of the story is good;-a remark which may be extended to all the Greek romances. punishes his hero and heroine for eloping from their father's house, and afterwards rewards them for their long fidelity.1 Tatius 1 Though in the Greek romances the surface may be often impure, remarks M. Chassang (Hist. du Rom. p. 424), the substance is nearly always moral. The imaginations of the writers are indeed generally libertine, their pictures sensual, and their language broad. But we know enough of antiquity to allow for an outrightness in expression, which modern diction does not emulate, and to recognize happily many differences between Greek and modern French manners. Again, in these compositions the authors do not dilate much on duty and virtue, nor fill pages with elaborate sentimental disquisition; the senses are given a prominence which shocks our modern delicacy; but in the long run their heroes will compare well with too many others, in the struggle to subdue their passions, in their vigilance against surprises by the senses, and in their triumph over abundant seductions. If they give way to amorous delights, it is from impulse, from weakness, never on system; they break through the maxims of conduct, they do not seek rebellious abolishment of them. They contain no such types as Lovelace or Saint Preux. The literary art was not yet far enough advanced to substitute the display of fine sentiments for the fulfilment of duty; and while the heroes of modern novels, elevating love into a virtue, often do not recoil from adultery, those of Greek romances always remain virgin and pure amidst a host of perils, and despite the obstacles which oppose their union. One cannot but acknowledge, however, that the continence of the heroes of the Greek romancists strikes a singular contrast with their voluptuous proclivities. However moral their example, its effect is destroyed by the nudity, so to speak, of particular situations. It is The Clitophon and Leucippe of Tatius does not seem to Writers, however, are apt to indulge themselves in en- The description of the rise and progress of the passion not, then, in the Greek romances that moral lessons are to be sought, of Clitophon for Leucippe is extremely well-executed. Of In point of style, Tatius is said by Huet and other In the delineation of character Tatius is still more defec- We now proceed to the analysis of a romance different It may be conjectured with much probability, that pas- 1 Huet. p. 40, Boder. præf. p. 15. 2 Photius, Bib. Cod. lxxxvii. p. 206. 3 Durier (1605-1658) wrote a tale in imitation of Achilles Tatius, |