NOTES ON ODES OF THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD CLASS. NOTES ON ODES OF THE FIRST CLASS. ODE XL. Page 8. THE Attic sage exhausts the bowl,] Socrates, who was condemned to die by poison. 9. See there the injured Poet bleed !) Seneca, born at Corduba, who, according to Pliny, was orator, poet, and philosopher. He bled to death in the bath. "ib. Lo! there the wild Assyrian queen,] Semiramis, cum ei circa cultum capitis sui occupatae nunciatum esset Babylonem defecisse ; altera parte crinium adhuc soluta protinus ad eam expugnandam cucurrit: nec prius decorem capillorum in ordinem quam tantam urbem in potestatem suam redegit : quocirca statua ejus Babylone posita est, &c. Val. Max. de Ira. 10. Absorb'd in thought, great Newton stands ; ] A noble statue of Sir Isaac Newton, erected in Tri. nity College chapel by Dr. Smith. ODE XLIII. Page 18. O'er Helicon my bleating lambs I guard,] Hesiod is said to have led the life of a shepherd on mount Helicon, where, as he relates in his Theogony, the Muses appeared to him, and adopted him in their service. V. 24. 19. For thee, sole glory of thy abje&t race,] Pindar, whose birth the nymphs and Pan are said to have solemnized with dances: we are likewise told, that in his infancy the bees fed him with their honey. He was born at Thebes, the capital of Beotia, a province remarkable for the dulness of its inhabitants, of which he himself takes notice in his Olympics. ib. Oft fir'd with Bacchanalian rage, The father of the Grecian stage In terror clad annoys my rest ;] Aeschylus, who was reported never to have wrote but when inspir'd by wine: he had a particular genius for terrifying the audience; of which the Chorus of Furies in his Eumenides is a remarkable and well known instance. He was buried near the river Gela, where the tragedians performed dramas at his tomb. ib. With longing taste, with eager lip, In raptur'd visions oft / sip The honey of the tragic bee ;] Sophocles, who, it is said, was able to check the fury of the winds and sea. Philostratus de Vita Apollonii Tyanei, lib. viii. p. 393. He was ge 20. How oft inspir'd with magic dread, By Fancy to the cave I'm led Where sits the wise Pierian sage ;] Euripides, who, we learn from Aul. Gellius, lib. xv. cap. 20. p. 418, was reported to have wrote many of his tragedies in an old melancholy cave. nerally distinguished by the epithet of Wise. ib. With patriot ardor i behold The mirthful Muse for freedom bold;] Aristophanes, who is esteemed to have been of sin. gular service to the commonwealth, by representing to his fellow-citizens, the pernicious designs of their leading men. ib. With simpler strains the Doric Muses charm ;] Theocritus. ib. As Libya's poet hymns his solemn lays,] Callimachus. ib. The wanton Teian loves each chaster thought disarm.] Anacreon. ib. Thus, if at Juno's fond request,] Alluding to a passage in Homer. Iliad 2, v. 233. ODE XLIV. Page 24. Sleep on, much-injur'd hapless swain, Nor wake thy cruel fate to moan, And proud Iberia's bloody son!] M ODE XLVI. Page 29. Dr. Grainger, who as this Ode evinces, possessed distinguished talents as a Poet, was for some time Physician to the Army, and whilst in that situation amused himself with the translations of TIBULLUS, which he afterwards published ; as well as a tract or two on professional subjects. Having quitted the army he attended Mr. Borryau, a West-Indian, as his private tutor at Cambridge ; and afterwards settled in St. Kitt's; whilst there, he wrote a didactic poem of great merit entitled the SUGAR-CANE, and the ballad of Bryan and Pyrene, which the present Bishop of DROMORE inserted in his Reliques of ancient English Poetry. From that publication the Author's corrections of this Ode are taken. Dr. Percy is believed to have been the author of those elegant translations inserted by Dr. Grainger in his edition of Ti. bullus. ib. Or at the purple dawn of day, Tadmor's marble wastes survey;] Alluding to the account of Palmyra, published by Messrs. Wood and Dawkins, and the manner in which they were struck at the sight of these magnificent ruins by break of day. 30. You with the tragic Muse retir'd The wise Euripides inspir'd,] In the island of Salamis, |
