Thomas Moore

“ Amongst the innumerable translators of Anacreon, there was one—a Frenchman by birth—who was both an illustrious painter and a literary enthusiast. Girodet de Roussy, inspired by a genius altogether Greek in its character, has translated Anacreon better by his pencil than he could have been translated by words. One might fancy that his designs had been executed under Anacreon's own eye by some Greek artist, who had himself witnessed that soft and voluptuous existence, where song and pleasure are one. ”

“ The present reproductions are on a scale more proportionate with the originals, and constitute the first appearance of Girodet's designs in England, where, we feel assured, they will be appreciated as they deserve by all true lovers of classical art.
The English verse-translation of Moore has been chosen to accompany them, because, though it has often been objected to by the learned for its imperfect scholarship, it seemed to us to be most in harmony with the real spirit of the great French painter, and of the old Greek poet himself. ”

“ Flushing white and mellow'd red;
Gradual tints, as when there glows
In snowy milk the bashful rose. ”

“ Girodet is not less voluptuous than Anacreon; but he always maintains that grace and delicacy which add so great a charm to the voluptuous: nowhere in his animated panorama is sight or sense shocked.
These designs originally accompanied a translation of the Odes of Anacreon, made by the painter himself and published shortly after his [Pg 10] death. Some small photographs of them on a greatly reduced scale appeared in 1864, in an exquisite little edition of the original Greek, from the press of Firmin Didot, at the almost prohibitive price of Two Pounds. ”

“ In examining these compositions, one cannot abstain from a certain kind of surprise: all the odes of Anacreon revolve upon two or three central ideas, expressed in a manner full of grace, unquestionably, but still always the same ideas. ”

“ Why do we shed the rose's bloom
Upon the cold insensate tomb?
Can flowery breeze, or odour's breath,
[Pg 37]
Affect the slumbering chill of death? ”

“ In Ode XXIII, after the phrase 'wish for liberty', the missing punctuation marks ?' have been added.
There are three words with the [oe] ligature. This is normalised to 'oe' in the text file; in the HTML file the ligature has been retained. ”

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Transcriber's Notes
In Ode III, beginning of last line on page 26, the word 'The' is mostly illegible and has been added by comparison with another version of the text.
In Ode III, after the phrase 'my blissful visions fly?', the missing punctuation mark ' has been added. ”

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