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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.
The simple Sylvia then,
Compassioning my pain,

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."
Aminta, act i. sc. 2, Leigh Hunt's translation.

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
have been composed like Theagenes and Chariclea, as a
romance equally interesting and well written throughout,
but as a species of patchwork, in different places of which
the author might exhibit the variety of his talents. At
one time he is anxious to show his taste in painting and
sculpture; at another his acquaintance with natural his-
tory; and towards the end of the book his skill in decla-
mation. But his principal excellence lies in descriptions;
and though these are too luxuriant, they are in general
beautiful, the objects being at once well selected, and so
painted as to form in the mind of the reader a distinct and
lively image. As examples of his merit in this way may
be instanced, his description of a garden [i. 16], and of
a tempest followed by a shipwreck [iii. 234]. We may
also mention his accounts of the pictures of Europa [i. 1],
of Andromeda [iii. 7], and Prometheus [iii. 8], in which
his descriptions and criticisms are executed with very con-
siderable taste and feeling. Indeed, the remarks on these
paintings form a presumption of the advanced state of the
art at the period in which Tatius wrote, or at least of the
estimation in which it was held, and afford matter of much
curious speculation to connoisseurs and artists.

Writers, however, are apt to indulge themselves in en-
larging where they excel; accordingly the descriptions of
Tatius are too numerous, and sometimes very absurdly
introduced. Thus Clitophon, when mentioning the pre-
parations for his marriage with a woman he disliked, pre-
sents the reader with a long description of a necklace
which was purchased for her, and also enters into a detail
concerning the origin of dyeing purple [ii. 11]; he likewise
introduces very awkwardly an account of various zoological
curiosities [ii. 14]. Indeed, he seems particularly fond of
natural history, and gives very animated and correct de-
lineations of the hippopotamus [iv. 2, &c.], of the elephant
[iv. 4], and the crocodile [iv. 19].

The description of the rise and progress of the passion

not, then, in the Greek romances that moral lessons are to be sought,
they may rather supply information respecting the private life of the
ancients, though their trustworthiness in this regard is by no means
unchallenged. (See note, p. 62, 3.)

of Clitophon for Leucippe is extremely well-executed. Of
this there is nothing in the romance of Heliodorus. Thea-
genes and Chariclea at first sight are violently and mutually
enamoured; in Tatius we have more of the restless agita-
tion of love and the arts of courtship. Indeed, this is
by much the best part of the Clitophon and Leucippe, as
the author discloses very considerable acquaintance with
the human heart. This knowledge also appears in the
sentiments scattered through the work, though it must be
confessed that in many of his remarks he is apt to subtilize
and refine too much.

In point of style, Tatius is said by Huet and other
critics to excel Heliodorus, and all the writers of Greek
romance. His language has been chiefly applauded for its
conciseness, ease, and simplicity. Photius, who wrote
tolerable Greek himself, and must have been a better
judge than any later critic, observes, "with regard to dic-
tion and composition, Tatius seems to me to excel. When
he employs figurative language, it is clear and natural:
his sentences are precise and limpid, and such as by their
sweetness greatly delight the ear.'

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In the delineation of character Tatius is still more defec-
tive than Heliodorus.-Clitophon, the principal person in
the romance, is a wretchedly weak and pusillanimous
being; he twice allows himself to be beaten by Thersander,
without resistance he has neither sense nor courage, nor
indeed any virtue except uncommon fidelity to his mistress.
She is a much more interesting, and is indeed a heroic
character.3

We now proceed to the analysis of a romance different
in its nature from the works already mentioned; and of a
species which may be distinguished by the appellation of
Pastoral romance.

It may be conjectured with much probability, that pas-
toral composition sometimes expressed the devotion, and
sometimes formed the entertainment, of the first generations
of mankind. The sacred writings sufficiently inform us that

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,
entitled: “Les Amours de Leucippe et de Clitophon en deux journées.”

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