"chilles. [They fay that Telamon was the first and Ajax "the fecond who came to Troy, next to Achilles.]" Another, of which, as the fame ingenious writer pleasantly obferves, neither the poetry nor morality is very exalted, runs thus: "He who does not betray his friend, has great honour "both with gods and men,-in my opinion (36)." Alcman was one of the first and most eminent compofers of fongs upon love and gallantry, He is faid to have banished hexameters, and adopted a fhort measure for his verfes, which, from being fung to the lyre, afterwards obtained the name of lyrics. He fung his airs to the found of the flute. A few fragments of his numerous and cele brated compofitions are imagined to be ftill extant (37). Simonides, a famous bard, who flourished about the year 500 before Chrift, compofed fongs of victory and triumph for the conquerors at public games. His poetry was fo tender and plaintive, that he was called Melicertes, fweet as honey; and the tearful eye of his Mufe was pro verbial. A beautiful fragment of this poet is preserved by Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus (38). We may likewife rank Pindar in the lift of writers of Scolia, not on account of his odes, which, though writt◄ en for, and fung to the lyre, are undoubtedly no fongs, but on the authority of Athenæus, who has inferted pieces of that defcription under his name. Sapphos elegance as a poetefs is too well known to need mentioning here. The fragment preserved by Longinus, of which mr. Philips has given fo happy a (36) The author of this Scolium, does not, however, on confulting Athenæus, appear to have had perfect juftice done him. "Alas! alas! Lipfydrium, betrayer of thy friends, what heroes "thou haft destroyed, men brave in battle, and lovers of their country, "who then fhewed from what ancestors they fprung. The man who "betrays not his friend, deferves, in my opinion, great glory among "men and gods." Lipfydrium was a place in Attica, of which the Alemæonidæ, (the family or relations of the patriot Megacles) took poffeffion, and fortified it against the Pififtratida, the ufurping fovereigns of Athens. The former were routed with great slaughter. (37) Burney, I. 357. (38) Idem, I. 395. tranflation, tranflation, as well as her beautiful addrefs to Venus, is a pure Scolium: as is likewife Ariftotles hymn to Virtue, a compofition which has been always admired. Almost every profeffion in Greece feems to have had a fong peculiar to it. Thus Athenæus mentions the fongs of the flaves grinding in the mill, of the gleaners, of the nurfes, of the labourers going into the fields, of the bathkeepers, of the bakers, of perfons tending cattle, c. (39) We have likewise some account of thofe of the fhepherds, the reapers, and those who got in the harvest, and trod out the corn, of the water-drawers, of the millers, of the weavers, of the carders or dreffers of wool, of children, &c. &c. (40) Fragments of fome are still preferved (41). The Greeks had likewife fongs adapted to particular circumstances or ceremonies, as festivals, courtship, marriage, funerals, joy, forrow, c. (42) There were among these people, as there are with us, blind men, who begged from door to door, finging. Athenæus, from Phoenix of Colophon, an iambic poet, has preferved one of their fongs (43), of which the reader has here a poetical verfion. It must be premifed, that the finger carried a raven on his hand, which he calls Corone (the Greek name for that bird), and for which he affected to beg. Ye who to forrows tender tale With pity lend an ear, A tribute to Corone bring, (39) p. 618, 619. (4c) M. de la Nauze. (41) The very nature and ufe of thefe fongs would undoubtedly require great fimplicity. Thales remembered to have heard a female flave of Lefbos finging the grinders fong as he turned the mill. It began thus: "Grind mill, grind, for Pittacus, king of Great Mitylene, likewife "grinds." This monarch, it is faid, ufing that exercife on account of his health. (42) Athe. p. 619. M. de la Nauze. (43) 1. S. p. 359. (44) The raven was facred to this god. It was once white, and of a beautiful figure, but, having too officiously reported the difloyalty of his mistress Coronis, whom he, in confequence of that information, haftily killed with an arrow, was rewarded by its present hue and appearance. Or Or barley-fheaf, or falt, or bread, Corone fhall receive, Or clothes or wheat---what every one Who now bring falt, fome future time, Ye fervants, open wide the door, Has heard,---his daughter brings the fruit Ye gods! let fuitors come from far, And may the gain a wealthy youth Soon may fhe give an infant fon O may the live to see her fon With every honour crown'd; While I, wheree'er my footsteps guide Chear those who give, and who refuse, With---all I have---a fong. These men, it seems, were called Coronifta, and their fongs Coronifmata. There was at Rhodes another fort of beggers, called Chelidonifta, who carried a swallow with them, and are mentioned, according to Athenæus, by Theognis, in his fecond book of the Rhodian facrifices, where he fays this manner of finging, which was in the month of Boedromion (nearly anfwering to our September), was fo called from the custom of exclaiming: "The fwallow, the fwallow is come, bringing pleafant feafons, and plea"fant years, with her white breaft and black back. Why do you not prepare cakes of rich figs, and a cup of wine "and " and a plate of cheese and wheat-Nor does the swallow reject the cake of eggs. Muft we go, or fhall we get any "thing from you? You had better give us fomething. If you do not, we will never let you alone. We will carry away either the door or the lintel, or the woman who is fitting within. She is little, we fhall eafily carry her away. If you bring us any thing, let it be fomething great. Open, open the doors to the swallow :-for we are not old men, but boys (45).” 66 $2. What nature was to the Greeks, the Greeks were to "the Romans; as the natives of Greece had no other example than nature herself to follow, for no nation with "which they had any intercourfe, was learned and po"liced before them," is the judicious obfervation of a French author (46). The Romans appear not, however, in the article of fong, to have profited much by the inftructions of their accomplished teachers. Indeed the history of mufical poetry among this great people is extraordi narily barren. The inhabitants of Latium, like those of all other countries, muft have poffeffed fongs of fome fort or other; but none of them has had the good fortune to come down to us. Ennius refers their most ancient fongs to the Fauns, by which, as an ingenious French writer, often quoted, acutely obferves, he has well marked their rural origin. Horace is the only Latin lyric with whose works we are acquainted. Moft of his odes are real fongs, which he is fuppofed to have fung either at table with his friends, to his miftreffes, or in focieties where men of pleasure ufed to affemble (47). The foldiers had their war-fongs and lampoons, which they fung in triumphs, and on other public occafions. One of the latter, upon Cæfar, is noticed by Suetonius. In a war with the Sarmatii, Aurelian, a foldier of fortune, whose bravery afterwards raised him to the purple, flew, in the space of a few hours, with his own hand, 950 of the enemy. This exploit well deferved a fong (45) Athe. 1. 8. p. 360. (46) Abbé Gedoya, Burney, I. 490. and (47) M. du Querlon and the following was fung by children in the streets: "We have reaped a thoufand and a thousand heads; "thousand and a thousand heads thrown to the ground, "have been the work of a fingle man. A thousand and a "thousand times long live the warrior who has made this "overthrow. No one has drunk fo much wine as he has fhed blood (48)." The fondness of the Roman youth for fongs and finging was at one time fo exceffive, that Seneca the rhetorician complains that they spent their whole time in effeminato attempts to foften their voice, and bring it to the tender and fweet tone of a woman (49). 3. Notwithstanding the deftruction of the Weftern em pire in Italy, it is natural to believe, that the vulgar fongs of the Romans would be ftill preferved in the mouths of the native inhabitants. During a long fucceeding period, i.. between the fixth and the thirteenth century, which is immersed in darkness, barbarifm, and confufion, we have no information upon this or any other subject. Songs, however, make their appearance as foon as any thing. Dante the poet, who may be faid to have first cultivated and established the Tufcan dialect, and nearly down to, if not (at least in fome places) actually in whofe time the popular tongue appears to have been a corrupt and barbarous Latin (50), was a great fongwriter. As he was one day paffing through a street where a crowd had assembled about an itinerant fongfter, he had the curiofity to liften, and finding the poetry his own, was fo exasperated at the rude and ignorant pronunciation of the performer, that he could not refrain from giving him a fevere beating (51). The Italians have still a few ballatelle of Dantes age, one of them by that great poet hisfelf. When in purgatory, he has a conference with his friend Cafella, a musician, whom he prevails on to fing him a favourite love-fong of his own compofition (52). (48) Vopifcus, as cited by M. de Querfon. (49) M. de Querlon. (50) Burney, II. 323. Barettis Italian Library, ii. xv. (51) Burney, II, 321. (ga) Idem, I. 3a3· |