登陆注册
5429800000014

第14章 THE PTOLEMAIC ERA (Continued.)(2)

The smartness, the fine epithets, the recondite conceits, the bits of effect, are beyond all praise; but as for one spark of life, of poetry, of real belief, you will find none; not even in that famous Lavacrum Palladis which Angelo Poliziano thought worth translating into Latin elegiacs, about the same time that the learned Florentine, Antonio Maria Salviano, found Berenice's Hair worthy to be paraphrased back from Catullus' Latin into Greek, to give the world some faint notion of the inestimable and incomparable original. They must have had much time on their hands. But at the Revival of Letters, as was to be expected, all works of the ancients, good and bad, were devoured alike with youthful eagerness by the Medicis and the Popes; and it was not, we shall see, for more than one century after, that men's taste got sufficiently matured to distinguish between Callimachus and the Homeric hymns, or between Plato and Proclus. Yet Callimachus and his fellows had an effect on the world. His writings, as well as those of Philetas, were the model on which Ovid, Propertius, Tibullus, formed themselves.

And so I leave him, with two hints. If any one wishes to see the justice of my censure, let him read one of the Alexandrian hymns, and immediately after it, one of those glorious old Homeric hymns to the very same deities; let him contrast the insincere and fulsome idolatry of Callimachus with the reverent, simple and manful anthropomorphism of the Homerist--and let him form his own judgment.

The other hint is this. If Callimachus, the founder of Alexandrian literature, be such as he is, what are his pupils likely to become, at least without some infusion of healthier blood, such as in the case of his Roman imitators produced a new and not altogether ignoble school?

Of Lycophron, the fellow-grammarian and poet of Callimachus, we have nothing left but the Cassandra, a long iambic poem, stuffed with traditionary learning, and so obscure, that it obtained for him the surname of [Greek text: skoteinos] the dark one. I have tried in vain to read it: you, if you will, may do the same.

Philetas, the remaining member of the Alexandrian Triad, seems to have been a more simple, genial, and graceful spirit than the other two, to whom he was accordingly esteemed inferior. Only a few fragments are left; but he was not altogether without his influence, for he was, as Ihave just said, one of the models on which Propertius and Ovid formed themselves; and some, indeed, call him the Father of the Latin elegy, with its terseness, grace, and clear epigrammatic form of thought, and, therefore, in a great degree, of our modern eighteenth century poets;not a useless excellence, seeing that it is, on the whole, good for him who writes to see clearly what he wants to say, and to be able to make his readers see it clearly also. And yet one natural strain is heard amid all this artificial jingle--that of Theocritus. It is not altogether Alexandrian. Its sweetest notes were learnt amid the chestnut groves and orchards, the volcanic glens and sunny pastures of Sicily; but the intercourse, between the courts of Hiero and the Ptolemies seems to have been continual. Poets and philosophers moved freely from one to the other, and found a like atmosphere in both; and in one of Theocritus' idyls, two Sicilian gentlemen, crossed in love, agree to sail for Alexandria, and volunteer into the army of the great and good king Ptolemy, of whom a sketch is given worth reading; as a man noble, generous, and stately, "knowing well who loves him, and still better who loves him not." He has another encomium on Ptolemy, more laboured, though not less interesting: but the real value of Theocritus lies in his power of landscape-painting.

One can well conceive the delight which his idyls must have given to those dusty Alexandrians, pent up forever between sea and sand-hills, drinking the tank-water, and never hearing the sound of a running stream--whirling, too, forever, in all the bustle and intrigue of a great commercial and literary city. Refreshing indeed it must have been to them to hear of those simple joys and simple sorrows of the Sicilian shepherd, in a land where toil was but exercise, and mere existence was enjoyment. To them, and to us also. I believe Theocritus is one of the poets who will never die. He sees men and things, in his own light way, truly; and he describes them simply, honestly, with little careless touches of pathos and humour, while he floods his whole scene with that gorgeous Sicilian air, like one of Titian's pictures; with still sunshine, whispering pines, the lizard sleeping on the wall, and the sunburnt cicala shrieking on the spray, the pears and apples dropping from the orchard bough, the goats clambering from crag to crag after the cistus and the thyme, the brown youths and wanton lasses singing under the dark chestnut boughs, or by the leafy arch of some Grot nymph-haunted, Garlanded over with vine, and acanthus, and clambering roses, Cool in the fierce still noon, where the streams glance clear in the moss-beds;and here and there, beyond the braes and meads, blue glimpses of the far-off summer sea; and all this told in a language and a metre which shapes itself almost unconsciously, wave after wave, into the most luscious song. Doubt not that many a soul then, was the simpler, and purer, and better, for reading the sweet singer of Syracuse. He has his immoralities; but they are the immoralities of his age: his naturalness, his sunny calm and cheerfulness, are all his own.

同类推荐
  • 明伦汇编人事典利害部

    明伦汇编人事典利害部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 女范编

    女范编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说帝释所问经

    佛说帝释所问经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Enchanted Typewriter

    The Enchanted Typewriter

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金刚般若经挟注

    金刚般若经挟注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 都市神级护花保镖

    都市神级护花保镖

    世界闻名的佣兵之王,在执行过一次任务之后莫名隐退,回到中国并且结婚,在跟兄弟们喝酒时打赌进了某美女的房间,却没想到人生轨迹就此改变。
  • 左右逢源的社交术(成功的秘诀在哪里?)

    左右逢源的社交术(成功的秘诀在哪里?)

    本书所提供的全方位的方法与技巧将在您的事业之旅中成为您成功的得力助手。本书将扮演一个站在您身后的智囊团的角色,尽其之力,教您左右逢源的成功方法。在伴您创造成功的历程中,使您获得精神上的指引、激励和扶持,最终让你品尝到不断成长中的成功喜悦。
  • 一世唐人

    一世唐人

    阅尽千古风流,独占万世潇洒。这就是大唐!现代孤儿重生大唐太宗长子,来到了这血性男儿神往的英雄时代,其志在拓万里疆域,布国威四方!突厥吐蕃,高丽倭国……尔曹蛮夷,灭国擒王;五姓七望,江南盐帮……跳梁小丑,弹指平之;西域岭南,辽东百越……国之领地,纳土开发。纵横天下誓要再戴顶上红缨,重振秦汉雄风!泱泱中华,巍巍华夏;堂堂天朝,煌煌大唐,他要让这东方巨龙腾飞世界之巅,也好不枉为一世唐人!且看主角如何用一世打出个璀璨盛唐,敬请看《一世唐人》。神策军:645-744-944
  • 神医毒后:爷,狠会宠!

    神医毒后:爷,狠会宠!

    【宠文+女强+后期发育】穿越前,沈星是现代Z国著名国医,人狠话少医术高。穿越后,却成了娇柔的病秧子一枚!不能忍!一身医术,一跃而起,一针救万人,一刀扫天下!封九爷,江湖霸主,豪情冷漠路子野,偏对她柔情似水,纠缠多年。她躲,他找。她跑,他追。后来,二十万兵马围堵沈家,百里红妆恭迎她上轿。再后来,战乱一触即发,两国联合围剿,九爷被困!她抛弃医术,披上战甲,提起屠刀,为夫征战!她说:“从前,你替我遮风挡雨,今日,我为你屠尽天下!”
  • 金牌猎人:盛世懒妃种鬼王

    金牌猎人:盛世懒妃种鬼王

    阴年阴日阴时出生的她,传说会克父克母克亲人,狠心的父母听信术士的鬼话将其抛弃,不料人家是阎王的干女儿,拥有通灵剪影的异能。干爹终于把她这个烫手山芋送出去了,为此,特送未来女婿饱览农书的懒虫一枚,敬请未来女婿笑纳!听说春天里把老公的种子播下去,到了秋天就能收获许多许多的老公……狗腿鬼仆的采访:“鬼主,你最大的愿望是什么?”她:“愿得一人心,睡了一美男。”“还有呢?”“坐拥天下财,睡了一美男。”“还有呢?”“吃货米虫命,睡了一美男。”待到山花烂漫时,妖孽丛中笑。“爱妃,本王可美?”【爽文,强强,超级宠!种田养花带玄幻,跳坑吧】
  • 法之主宰

    法之主宰

    在天赐帝国的东边,有一座不大的城镇叫布尔城,布尔城北靠布尔森林,因此得名,故事就是从这里开始……
  • 邻家拽校草

    邻家拽校草

    “我当你男朋友吧!”某房东又一次半夜三更跳窗追求。“我不喜欢男人!”某女语出惊人。“我也不喜欢女人,我就喜欢你!”“抱歉,你走错了!你的房子在隔壁!”“没事过来串串门也不行么?我可是你的房东诶!”“那你能不能别爬我房间的窗户!”“……我想玩突击看看你在干什么。”为了任务,她乔装打扮成为学校内一根平凡无奇的杂草。可是……杂草都有人穷追不舍?对方还是校草?老天,谁能带着这位帅哥去看一下眼科!他的视力绝对不正常!
  • 大陆黄金运台秘事

    大陆黄金运台秘事

    在解放战争即将胜利之时,大陆的几百万两黄金被国民党秘密运往台湾。这些黄金是大陆人民辛勤劳动的血汗,本应属于人民,但国民党却盗取了国库中的黄金。本书详尽叙述蒋介石如何调兵遣将细致布置黄金运出计划、运输手段……只是人们都知道蒋介石从大陆运走了黄金,却不知其中的三分之二却源于美国!?本书丰富了吴宇森导演的电影《太平轮》的历史背景,为大众架构起一段完整、清晰的历史图景。
  • 掌家小农女

    掌家小农女

    一觉醒来,沈安安成了农家女。被退亲不说,还被传是个狐媚子。为养家沈安安决定从商,从一只画笔入手开启了商机,卖药材,做美食,开发香料。换来太平盛世不说,还捧出一个大将军。总之一句话,这个农女不简单。
  • 我和超级大佬隐婚了

    我和超级大佬隐婚了

    (推荐新文:陆爷的小祖宗又撩又飒)“绵绵,嫁给我,你会得到一个有钱有颜,还能帮你虐渣渣的绝世好老公。”一不小心,乔绵绵惹上云城身份最尊贵显赫的男人墨夜司。很快,全城的人都知道曾扬言终身不娶的墨少娶了个心头宝回来,捧手里怕摔了,含嘴里怕化了。婚后,墨太太忙着拍戏,虐渣渣。墨先生忙着宠老婆,宠老婆,还是宠老婆。下属:“少爷,少夫人今天打了影后程菲菲一巴掌,把人家都打哭了。”男人皱起了眉头:“又打架了?不像话!告诉她,以后这种事情交给我,别把自己手弄痛了,我心疼。”下属:“少爷,外面传言少夫人嫁给了一个糟老头子。”隔天,国民男神墨夜司便召开了全球记者会,高调宣布:“乔绵绵,我老婆。她是我这辈子最爱的女人。”