THE ODES OF ANACREON.
Delevit ætas.' Hor.
THE ODES OF ANACREON.
TRANSLATED BY THOMAS MOORE.
WITH FIFTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIVE DESIGNS BY
GIRODET DE ROUSSY.
NOW FIRST PRODUCED IN ENGLAND.
LONDON:
JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY.
LONDON:
Strangeways and Walden, Printers,
Castle St. Leicester Sq.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
Amongst the innumerable translators of Anacreon, there was one—aFrenchman by birth—who was both an illustrious painter and aliterary enthusiast. Girodet de Roussy, inspired by a genius altogetherGreek in its character, has translated Anacreon better by his pencil thanhe could have been translated by words. One might fancy that his designshad been executed under Anacreon's own eye by some Greek artist, whohad himself witnessed that soft and voluptuous existence, where song andpleasure are one.
Seldom indeed have chasteness of execution and voluptuousness ofcharacter been so curiously and indissolubly blended. Seldom has amodern artist so happily caught the spirit of an ancient poet. We seem to[Pg 8]be transported, as in a dream, to the vines, and orange-groves, and cloudlessskies of Greece, and the wearied spirit abandons itself for a while tothe soft influences of the azure heaven, the countless luxuriance of roses,the undulating forms of the fair girls dancing in the shade, while youthfulattendants brim the beaker with wine. Under such influences we rememberthat youth, and love, and mirth are immortal, and we say withHorace,—
Delevit ætas.' Hor.[A]
In that close wrestle of the genius that imitates with the genius thatcreates, Girodet alone came out from the trial successfully. He has shownhimself the rival of Anacreon in grace, in abandon, in naïveté. He hassucceeded in depicting his poet's theme with equal elegance and delicacy.Loving with a real love those old Greek songs, he has displayed them inliving beauty before our eyes in fifty-four exquisite drawings. To attemptsuch a masterpiece required a poet's as well as a painter's skill; andGirodet was both a painter and a poet.
Nor prey upon his youthful strains.'
In examining these compositions, one cannot abstain from a certainkind of surprise: all the odes of Anacreon revolve upon two or threecentral ideas, expressed in a manner full of grace, unquestionably, but stillalways the same ideas. The artist, while