bad a Cause he fairly carried back the Treasure and told his Patron that however Considerable the Summ might be it was not an equal Price for the trouble of keeping it We don't hear that he was much giâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ambling Only Plato b Hipparch informs us that when Hipparchus Son to the Tyrant Pisistratus invited him to Athens and sent a Vessel on purpose to convey him he accepted the Honour and made a Voyage to that Court. The same Philosopher who gives this Relation in another place c Phaedr does Anacreon the Honour to Stile him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Wise Anacreon Which is the Foundation of Monsieur Fontanelle's ingenious Dialogue where he brings in Anacreon and Aristotle disputing the Prize of Wisdom and gives the Advantage to the Poet. What became of him after the Athenian Voyage or where He pass'd his last Minutes is not on record But as his own Verses confess his Great Age tho' not the effects of it so Lucian reckons him among the Long-livers allowing him Fourscore and Five Years The manner of his Death was very extraordinary For they tell us he was choak'd with an unlucky Grape-stone which slip'd down as he was regaling on some new Wine a Plin. Nat. Hist l. 7. c. 7. Val Max. l. 8. c. 13. This remarkable End altogether as odd as his way of Life has given an excellent Subject to his Successors in Poetry Among the rest our Incomparable Mr. Cowley who has so happily imitated the Style and Manner of Anacreon has farther repaid his Obligations by honouring him with an Elegy in his own Strain The Conclusion is very grave and serious and the most Fortunate in the World for the occasion It grieves me when I see what Fate Do's on the Best of Mankind wait Poets â—… Lovers let them be ' Ti neither Love nor Poesy Can aâ—…m against Death's smallest Dart The Poet's Head or Lover's Heart But when their Life in it's Decline Touches th' inevitable Line All the World 's Mortal to them then And Wine is Aconite to Men. Nay in Death's Hand the Grape-stone proves As strong as Thunder is in Jove's If it be thought an Advantage to Anacreon that he should still enjoy his beloved Ease in spight of the Historians who have been able only to transmit such short Memorials of his Actions it cannot be esteem'd a meaner Happiness that he has escap'd the more dangerous disturbance of the Criticks Indeed both the Blessings are in a great measure owing to himself one to the Condition of his Life the other to that of his Writings For as the careless and uâ—concern'd freedom of his Manners hindred him from being drawn into the Business of the World so the beautiful negligence and the sweet Gaeity of his Odes have kept them from ever forming an ungrateful Field for Learned Quarrels and Encounters The Masters of Controversial Philology are utterly disappointed when Anacreon falls under their Canvass He deprives them of all their Common Places of Talk They can produce no tedious Labours on the Occasions of his Poems because they were all perfect Humours They can neither dispute what Examples he follow'd nor who have follow'd his Example because the Natural delicacy of his Pieces disdains a Copier as much as it did a Pattern Would they contend about his Numbers or his Stile they are both too equal to found a difference Or would they as their last Refuge oppose one Excellency against another the Virtues of his Poesy are more closely united than those of the Moralists and his Graces being all born together it were unnatural to divide them The nice Judges may safely please themselves with admiring each a particular Beauty One may celebrate the happy novelty of his thoughts Another the agreeable fineness of his Turns a third the moving softness of his Expressions and many more declare in favour either of his Sublimity or of his Justness or of his Simplicity or of his Musical Cadences or of whatever they think touches them with most advantage But were they all oblig'd to describe the Powers that had charm'd them they might very probably appear better Friends than they desir'd For a General Character of Anacreon Cupid who was the chief Hero of his Verses has given the best account of their Worth as Mr. Cowley has taught him to speak All thy Verse is softer far Than the downy Feathers are Of my Wings or of my Arrows Of my Mothers Doves or Sparrows Graceful cleanly smooth and round All with Venus's Girdle bound PINDARVS Apud Fuluium Vrsinum in marmore PINDAR WHatever attempts have been made for fixing the exact time of Pindar's Birth are all demonstrated to be uncertain by the Great a Animadvers ad Euseb Numb MDXXXI Scaliger only thus much is clear that it happen'd somewhat above Forty Years before the Expedition of Xerxes against Greece and somewhat more than Five Hundred before our Saviour The place of his Birth which ought rather to have been forgot stands firm enough on Record and appears to have been Thebes the Capital City of Baeotia A Country of so gross and heavy an Air as to furnish Common talk with a Proverb for extream stupidity We find the Poet confessing this disadvantage of his Climat but at the same time resolving to procure himself an exemption from the General Censure For in the Sixt Olympique he thus exhorts Aeneas the Master of the Chorus that used to Sing his Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And You. Aeneas drive Your ready Choir Let their first March be into Juno's Praise And show the Wondring World if er'e my Lays Betray my Country's weaker Fire If not with Justice I decline The Vulgar rude Reproach a dull Baeotian Swine Many will have him the Son of one Scopelinus a Piper tho' the most credible Authorities name his Father Diaphantus a Vid. Suid. On the Women's side one Myrtis or Myrto seems to have born the nearest relation to him either as his Mother or his Tutoress or perhaps as both His Nativity fell out just in the Solemnity of the Pythian Games b Plutarch Sympos Lib. 8. Q. 1. an Omen of the Honours they were afterwards to receive from his Verses Philostratus makes the Nymphs to have danced at his Birth and Pan himself to have leap'd awkerdly about for Joy who if we believe the same Story when the Poet was grown up and set to Writing left off his Antick Sports and employ'd himself in singing the new Compositions a Philostrat in Icon. p. 798. Julius Firmicus the Astronomer has taken the pains to erect Pindar's Horoscope and demonstrates from the Stars that he was design'd by Heaven for a Divine Master in the Lyric Strain But because the happy site of his Planets was not likely to be so well understood they tell us he was honour'd with
he should appear to his Majestie 's Eyes Nay then cried Theocritus I am a Dead Man if that be the only Condition of my Pardon And this coming to Antigonus's Ear He justly esteem'd the Railery an addition to the former Treason and accordingly order'd Justice to proceed It cannot fairly be omitted that the attributing the Fate of Theocritus the Rhetorician to Theocritus the Poet was an easier slip in as much as the former also pretended to some knack in Verse and has an Epigram or two preserv'd in Laertius and Plutarch Tho' Theocritus passes in common Esteem for no more than a Pastoral Poet yet he is manifestly robb'd of great part of his Fame if his other Peices have not their proper Laurels For not to speak of the few little Epigrams as the larger share of his Idylliums cannot properly be call'd the Songs of Shepherds so they are in too great repute to be banished from the Character of their Author At the same time he ought no doubt to lay his Pastorals as the Foundation of his Credit And upon the Claim he will be admitted for the happy Finisher as well as for the Inventor of his Art and will be acknowledg'd to have excell'd all his following Rivals as much as Originals usually do their Copies He has the same advantage in the Rural as Homer had in the Epick Poesy and that was to make the Criticks turn His Practice into Eternal Rules and to measure Nature Herself by his accomplish'd Model And therefore as to enumerate the Glories of Heroick Numbers is the same thing as to cast up the Summ of Homer's Praises so to set down all the Beauties of Pastoral Verse is no more than an indirect way of making so many short Panegyricks on Theocritus Indeed Theocritus has been so much happier than Homer as Virgil's Eclogues are reckon'd more unequal Imitations than his Aeneis It must be own'd that the Dialect which Theocritus wrote in has a great share in his Honours The old Dorian Phrase seems to have been introduc'd on purpose for these Compositions Or one would think this was the plain Language of the Golden Age and that the Poet had express'd the Speech of these Good Mortals as well as the Manners On the other hand many excellent Judges have maintain'd that his Muse now and then rather show's her ill-breeding than her simplicity that her Country Air and Tone are both a little uncouth at least that they appear so to the elegancy and the niceness of Modern Times Now to this Censure it might with submission be return'd that unless the Shepherds are allow'd some ruder liberties in their Words and Carriage they will seem to be abridg'd of the Privileges of their Nature and their Condition For tho' they ought not to be either grossly stupid or critically refin'd yet it would be a safer error to let them smell rank of the Field than to deck them with the least spruceness of the City We see the ill effects of the contrary practise in the famous Pastorals of the Italians and of the French who have turn'd their Swains into Courtiers for fear of making them Clowns It seems indeed reasonable enough that the Purity of Modern Tongues should not admit the use of a grosser Dialect even in Pastoral Pieces Tho' as for our selves the Scotch-Songs which pass with so much applause show that it is not impossible to revive this old Conduct among Us with Success However Theocritus is not to be judg'd by the Manners of our Times but by his own We must not conceive the Performers in His Pastorals like those in Spencer's Feeding their Flocks upon the Hills of Kent But in the rude Fields of Ancient Sicily and here they may be as rustick as they please without offence tho' there perhaps they ought to have been more cautious and more decent It 's certain Quintilian however he has been of late misconstrued never intended his Judgment on Theocritus for a Reproach when he observes that His Rustical Muse was not only afraid to appear in the Forum but even in the City a Instit l. 10. c. 1. For the Rhetorician could mean no more but that the Language and the thoughts of Theocritus's Shepherds ought neither to be imitated in Publick speaking nor in any Gallant Composure Yet the Poet might for all this be admirable in his way as indeed Quintilian in the same place expressly pronounces him But should the Dialect of Theocritus not be admitted among his Graces he can produce enough besides to secure his Rural Crown from the boldest Competitor Mr. Dryden acknowledges him to have been rais'd above Virgil himself by the inimitable tenderness of his Passions by the propriety of his Wit never departing from the Plains and Cottages and by an Art that he has of betraying his Learning as his Nymphs do their Love meerly by endeavouring to conceal it These Excellencies Mr. Dryden b Preface to the Second Miscellan would fix to distinguish the Sicilian Poet from all others in the World And to pretend to confirm His Judgment would be the same rashness as to oppose it To say nothing of Virgil who disdain's a meaner Censor as well as a meaner Translator than Mr. Dryden it will be no breach of modesty to affirm that the greatest part of the succeeding Pastorals are as far distant from these Ornaments as from the Age that produc'd them for their Patterns The Persons introduc'd have not only the Speech but the Address and the Carriage of Gentlemen Their Love is the highest Gallantry and their Wit the choicest Invention Our own Incomparable Sir Philip Sidney has sallen into the common humour tho' not in the common fault Some of his Shepherds talk in as fine a Strain of Sence and Elegancy as if each was a true Philisides Showing Wits as Palladius observ'd that might better become such Shepherds as Homer speaks of who are Governors of the People than such Senators who hold their Council in a Sheep-cote a Arcadia pag. 14. But then with what a matchless Judgment has that Noble Author fram'd a necessity for his Practice The Old Epique Poets when their Heroes accomplish any Adventure that seems plac'd beyond the reach of Human Force salve the Probability by joyning the miraculous assistance of the Gods And Sir Philip when his Rural Lovers act and talk above the Nature and Character of the Common Inhabitants of the Plains refers the whole Business to the eztraordinary Influence of Heaven He is careful to let us know that the particular favour of Providence had not more distinguish'd His Arcadia from other Countries by the Benefits of the Climate and of the Soil than by the Parts and the Wisdom of the People and that these were as Common Blessings as the others The Muses having chose this Country for their chief repairing Place and having bestow'd their Gifts so largely here that the very SHEPHERDS had their Fancies lifted to so high Conceits as the Learned
Fellow Nor what 's worst of all that he basely threw away his Shield a Aelian Var. Hist l. 10. c. 13. The last part of this censure shows him to have been like Horace in Courage as well as Poetry And b Lib. 12. pag. 549. Strabo cites the Verses in which he gives an account of that Misfortune as Horace has pleasantly recorded his Perhaps it was on account of this passage that as Plutarch informs us in his Laconic Institutions when he came to Sparta that rough People immediately expelled him their City Because they understood he had hinted in one of his Pieces that 't was better to throw away ones Arms than to lose ones Life Yet for all this he valued himself more upon his Skill in War than his Talent in Verse 'T is his own Brag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King of War do's my first Service claim And the fair Muse inspires the second Flame However this imputation of Cowardice is no very great blot to his Character But the other Charges of Lasciviousness and virulency are the perpetual Stains of his Reputation tho' he was reckon'd an honest Man on other accounts a Suid. In his Writings Quintilian long since observ'd the highest force of Expression Sentences that were strong and yet short and glittering with an abundance of Blood and of Nerves So as to give many People reason to judge that if he seem'd inferior to any Poet 't was on the account of his Subject not of his Wit b Quintil. Instit l. 10. c 1. Suidas tells a long Story how dissatisfied Apollo was with his Death and how the Oracle refus'd to grant any Answer to the Man who had kill'd him 'till he had appeas'd his Ghost Of which vain Relation we need make no farther use than to observe thence that he died in Battel We find this ingenious Epitaph on him in the Anthologia The Author of which was certainly of the same mind with the Criticks Quintilian speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here lies Archilochus whose Sacred Vein The Muses partial to their Homer's Praise Diverted in the keen Jambic Strain Nor taught his Hand to reach the Epic Bays STESICHORVS HE was born at Himera a City of Sicily in the the 37th Olympiad a Suid which was the time of Jeremiah the Prophet b Euseb Cron. His Name at first was Tisias but was chang'd to Stesichorus in memory of his being the first who taught the Chorus to dance to the Lyre * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There goes a famous Story of him much more pleasant than true c Suid that having in one of his Poems abus'd fair Helen the Lady's two Brothers now advanc'd to Demi-Gods took the Affront so heinously as to punish the poor Poet with the loss of his sight But he being quickly sensible of the Cause of his Misfortune made his Recantation in as fine Verses as had given the injury and so recover'd by his Panegyrick the Blessing he had lost by his Satire Horace alledges his Case when he is writing a Palinode of the same nature to the injur'd Canidia Infamis Helenae Castor effensus vice Fraterque magni Castoris victi prece Ademta vati reddidere lumina Castor enrag'd at Helen's false Amour And Castor's Brother could remit their Fire And give the Poet back his seeing Power Won by the Charms of his Recanting Lyre The Grave Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus does not only tell the same Story but obliges us with the beginning of Stesichorus's Palinode 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is False 't is Slander all the Muse has said You never saw the Gallant Fleet You never climb'd the Boat of State Nor knew the Scandal of a Trojan Bed Perhaps the Poem in which he had not been so respectful as he ought to that Ladies Character and Honour might be his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Destruction of Troy cited by Pausanias a Phocic p. 659. 661. He appears to have been a Man of the First Rank for Wisdom and Authority among his Fellow Citizens and to have had a great Hand in the Transactions between that State and the Tyrant Phalaris When the Himerians first chose that Prince for their Commander and Protector and were now voting to allow him a Guard for his Person Siesichorus who had all along vigorously oppos'd the whole Design made them sensible of their Folly by representing their Case in a pleasant Fable which with one of Aesop's Aristotle brings for an Example of those kind of Discourses in his b Lib. 2. cap. 21. Rhetorick And which now makes so good a Figure among us in the same Company * In Sir Roger L'Estrang's Aesop Upon a Dispute betwixt the Stag and a Horse about a piece of Pasture the Stag got the better on 't and beat the other out of the Field The Horse on this affront advis'd with a Man what course to take who told him that if he would submit to take a Man upon his back with a Lance in his Hand he 'd undertake to give him the satisfaction of a Revenge The Horse came to his Terms and for the gratifying of a present Passion made himself a Slave all the days of his Life This Horses Condition says Stesichorus will be yours You have already receiv'd a Bridle by creating a General with Absolute Command and now if by allowing him a Guard you let him get up upon your Backs too you 'l have your Revenge but you 'l lose your Liberties Without doubt the Himerians quickly repented of their new Settlement and we find Stesichorus deeply engag'd in promoting the Design of a Revolt Phalaris getting Intelligence that the Poet was one of his most violent Opposers and that he was now raising Men and Money to favour a Defection sends him that Epistle which is the 92d in his Works where he first tells him he hears of the Plot he is driving then laughs at the folly of it and at last threatens him that tho' the Poets commonly fancy themselves able to escape by the help of some Deity yet Heaven it self shall not secure him from his Hands Indeed the Himerians refus'd to send him to Agrigentum on Phalaris his Order But within a little time He and two more of their Agents were intercepted by the Tyrant's Officers in their Passage to Corinth By the Letter which Phalaris wrote to a See Phalar Epist 121. Himera on this occasion it appears that he immediately Executed one of the Gentlemen that he design'd to send one of them home safe but kept Stesichorus 'till he could invent a Death answerable to his Crime b Epist 108. But after a little acquaintance with the Poet's Person and Excellencies we find the Tyrant's Fury turning into Love and Respect and his Resolution so far chang'd as to make him restore the admir'd Captive
Old Gentleman with much scruple admitted him and told him how long he had slept h Diog. Laert. Some Authors have discountenanced this Story of his long Dream and make him to have wander'd all that time in order to the improving his Natural Philosophy by the experience of Simples But perhaps the sleep might be only a Politick Fiction of his to gain Authority to his Art For we are told he us'd commonly to put a much greater Fallacy on the People pretending as often as the Fit took him to die and revive again at his Pleasure a D. Laert. However the report of this Accident spreading about Greece he was presently reckon'd a peculiar Favourite of the Gods and one whom they admitted to their deepest Counsels On which account the Athenians being tormented with the double Plague of Sickness and Sedition and upon consulting the Oracle having been advis'd to make a solemn Purification of the City they sent a Vessel into Crete with an Invitation to Epimenides to come to Athens and manage the Ceremony He accepted their Offers and accompanying the Messengers home perform'd the Lustration of the Town in this manner He brought a parcel of Sheep some Black and some White all together to the Arius Pagus and there let them all loose to take which way they pleas'd Persons were order'd to follow them all and where-ever any one of them laid down to Sacrifice it presently to the Divine Guardian of that particular place Quisquis foret ille Deorum By this Expedient the City's Health and Quiet were restor'd and in memory of the Action a great number of Altars were erected about the Streets dedicated each to the Unknown God who had been appeas'd in such a Quarter b Idem And in the Judgment of many Learned Men 't was one of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Altars without any Name Inscrib'd which gave occasion to Saint Paul's Glorious Sermon to the Men of Athens This Ceremony of the Solemn Expiation was perform'd in the First Year of the 46th Olympiad according to Diogenes Laertius or as Eusebius has it in the 47th 'T was this Journey brought Epimenides acquainted with Solon then engag'd in his Great Design of regulating the Athenian Commonwealth Solon took his Advice in the weightiest matters under debate and was by him put into a method to compose his Laws The Prophet particularly directed him to make the People decent in their Worship and to retrench a great many things in their odd manner of Mourning by ordering some settled kind of Sacrifices after the Funeral and by taking off those severe and Barbarous Ceremonies which the Women then u'sd to practise on such occasions a Plutarch in Solon Before Epimenides left Athens he happen'd on a lucky saying which is deliver'd with Triumph by the Ancients as a mighty Prophecy Standing one day to look on the Munychia a new Mole or fortified Harbour he said to those that were about him How blind is Man in future things For did the Athenians foresee what a Mischief this would be to their City they 'd demolish it with their very Teeth rather than let it stand b Ibid. D. Laert. There pass'd near Sixty four Olympiads before Antipater made good his Judgment by placing a Garrison of Macedonians in those invincible Works And we must have own'd the Wise Observer to have had a large Foresight if it were not easie for a Man to guess without the Imputation of Magick that a Tyrant would some time or other make use of such a place to lodge a Guard for a Bridle to the City However since we find in Plato and Laertius several others of his Predictions relating to things at some distance we may so far vindicate our Poet as not to let him lie under the Scandal Aristotle has cast upon him when he says c Rhetor. l. 3. c. 17. That Epimenides was esteemed a Prophet not because he foretold things to come but because he told things that were past and which no body knew besides Having finish'd his Business at Athens the Magistracy made him an Offer of the richest Gifts and the highest Honours in their disposal a Plutarch in Solon But he refusing the other Presents requested only one Branch of the Sacred Laurel preserv'd in the Cittadel b Diog. Laert. and desir'd the Athenian People to keep a fair Correspondence with his Country men the Gnossians And haveing obtain'd those Favours return'd home to Crete where he died in a very little time after Aged 157 Years according to the Common Account tho' the Cretans pretended he was 299 Years Old He wrote 5000 Verses on the Genealogy of the Curetes and Corybantes and of the Gods themselves with the Building of the Ship Argos and Jason's Expedition to Colchos compriz'd in 6500 and 4000 more about Minos and Rhadamanthus The Lacaedemonians procur'd his Body and preserved it among them upon advice of an Oracle c Ibid. d In Solon Plutarch says he was counted the Seventh Wiseman by those who would not admit Periander into the Number And Diogenes Laertius ranks him with the same Illustrious Sages when he writes his Life SIMONIDES HE was born at Coes a Suid Strab. l. 10. an Isle in the Aegean Sea about the 55th or the 56th Olympiad b Suid. Euseb Before he came to be much known in the World he kept a School at Carthea in that Island teaching the Art of Singing and Dancing in Chorus His School being seated at a distance from the Sea in the upper part of the City near the Temple of Apollo c Athenaus l. 10. p. 456. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch when he tells us that the Poet Aeschylus left his Country and remov'd into Sicily adds that Simonides did the same before him whence it should seem he went abroad on some like discontent But whatever was the occasion of his Travels the success of them was owing to his Wisdom and his Verse which gain'd him the respect and Love of the three Greatest Men perhaps then in the World Pausanias General of Sparta Themistocles the Athenian and Hiero of Sicily the wisest and the most moderate of the Ancient Tyrants For the first of these Princes he compos'd the Inscription of the Golden Tripos e Pausan Lacon p. 174. which he presented at Delphi after the Victory at Plataea in so arrogant an Epigram that the Lacaedemonians scratch'd it out and put some more modest words in its room f Com. Nep. in Vit. Pausan But this was owing to the Vanity of the General not to that of the Poet. As to King Hiero its certain he spent much of his Life in His g Pausan Attic. p. 3. Court and perhaps he died there too Then for Themistocles he could not but be acquainted with Him when he celebrated his Victory at Salamis and Plutarch tells us that desiring once an unreasonable thing of that