But if you long to know, Then look round yonder dazzling row, See near thofe facred fprings, The third with charming beauty bleft, Like her, this charmer now Makes every love-fick gazer bow; Nay, even old age her power allow, And banish'd flames recall, Wealth can no trophy rear, A PIN 1 On the Victorious Progrefs of Her MAJESTY'S Arms under the Conduct of the Duke of MARLBOROUGH. THE the regularity of the antient Lyric Poetry, which feems to be altogether forgotten or unknown by our English writers. There is nothing more frequent among us, than a fort of poems intituled Pindaric Odes; pretending to be written in imitation of the manner and stile of Pindar, and yet I do not know that there is to this day extant in our language, one Ode contrived after his model. What idea can an English reader have of Pindar (to whofe mouth, when a child, the bees, L 4. brought brought their honey, in omen of the future sweetness and melody of his fongs) when he fhall fee fuch rumbling and grating papers of verfes, pretending to be copies of his works? The character of thefe late Pindarics is, a bundle of rambling incoherent thoughts, expreffed in a like parcel of irregular stanzas, which alfo confist of such another complication of difproportioned, uncertain, and perplexed verses and rhymes. And I appeal to any reader, if this is not the condition in which these titular Odes appear. On the contrary, there is nothing more regular than the Odes of Pindar, both as to the exact obfervation of the measures and numbers of his ftanzas and verses, and the perpetual coherence of his thoughts. For though his digreffions are frequent, and his transitions fudden, yet is there ever fome fecret connection, which though not always appearing to the eye, never fails to communicate itself to the understanding of the reader. The liberty which he took in his numbers, and which has been fo misunderstood and misapplied by his pretended imitators, was only in varying the ftanzas in different Odes; but in each particular Ode they are ever correspondent one to another in their turns, and according to the order of the Ode. All the Odes of Pindar which remain to us, are fongs of triumph, victory or fuccefs in the Grecian games : they were fung by a chorus, and adapted to the lyre, and fometimes to the lyre and pipe; they confifted ofteneft of three ftanzas; the first was called the Strophé, from from the verfion or circular motion of the fingers in that flanza from the right hand to the left. The fecond ftanza was called the Antiftrophé, from the contraverfion of the chorus; the fingers, in performing that, turning from the left hand to the right, contrary always to their motion in the Strophe. The third ftanza was called the Epode, (it may be as being the after-fong) which they fung in the middle, neither turning to one hand nor the other. What the origin was of thefe different motions and ftations in finging their Odes, is not our prefent business to enquire. Some have thought that by the contrariety of the Strophé and Antiftrophé, they intended to reprefent the contrarotation of the Primum Mobile, in refpect of the Secunda Mobilia; and that by their ftanding ftill at the Epode, they meant to fignify the stability of the carth. Others afcribe the inftitution to Thefeus, who thereby expreffed the windings and turnings of the labyrinth, in celebrating his return from thence. The method obferved in the compofition of these Odes, was therefore as follows. The poet having made choice of a certain number of verfes to conftitute his Strophé or firft ftanza, was obliged to obferve the fame in his Antiftrophé, or second stanza; and which accordingly perpetually agreed whenever repeated, both in number of verfes and quantity of feet: he was then again at liberty to make a new choice for his third ftanza, or Epode; where, accordingly, he diverfified his numbers, as his car or fancy led him : compofing that ftanza of more or fewer verfes than the former, and thofe thofe verses of different measures and quantities, for the greater variety of harmony, and entertainment of the ear. But then this Epode being thus formed, he was ftrictly obliged to the fame measure as often as he fhould repeat it 'in the order of his Ode, so that every Epode in the fame Ode is eternally the fame in meafure and quantity, in refpect to itself; as is alfo every Strophé and Antiftrophé, in refpect to each other. a 66 The lyric poet Stefichorus (whom Longinus reckons amongst the ablest imitators of Homer, and of whom Quintilian fays, that if he could have kept within bounds, he would have been nearest of any body, in merit, to Homer) was, if not the inventer of this order in the Ode, yet fo ftrict an observer of it in his compofitions, that the three ftanzas of Stefichorus became common proverb to exprefs a thing univerfally known, ne tria quidem Stefichori noftri," so that when any one had a mind to reproach another with exceffive ignorance, he could not do it more effectually than by telling him, "he did not fo much as know the "three ftanzas of Stefichorus; that is, did not know that an Ode ought to consist of a Strophé, an Antiftrophé, and an Epode. If this was fuch a mark of ignorance among them, I am fure we have been pretty long liable to the fame reproof; I mean, in respect of our imitations of the Odes of Pindar. My intention is not to make a long Preface to a fhort Ode, nor to enter upon a differtation of Lyric Poetry in general: but thus much I thought proper to fay, |