Satyr

“ Amo. So, this work hath end: Farewel and live, be constant to thy friend That loves thee next.
Enter Satyr, Perigot runs off.
Satyr. See the day begins to break,
And the light shoots like a streak
Of subtil fire, the wind blows cold,
Whilst the morning doth unfold ”

“ Satyr is a kind of Poetry only known amongst the Romans, having no Relation to the Satyrical Poesie of the Greeks, though some Learned Men have pretended to the contrary. Quinctilian leaves no room to doubt upon this Point, when he writes in Chap. 10. Satyra quidem tota nostra est. The same Reason makes Horace call it, in the last Satyr of Book 1. ”

“ In each of us there is a hidden Satyr. As to myself, as I said already, I am highly impressionable; therefore, when I think of it, that there is something going on between me and this live statue of a Juno, that some mysterious power pushes us towards each other,—my head is in a whirl, and I ask myself what would I wish for more perfect than this. ”

“ Satyrs are horned forest spirits, man-like above and goat- like below, usually portrayed as more or less lustful. In Roman mythology, Satyr, one of the satyrs, is a companion of Bacchus with long, pointed ears, behind which are the stumps of horns, with the tail of a goat, bristly hair, and a flat nose. ”

“ The Satyr and the Ape-man stood watching us and making other remarks to each other.
“He says nothing,” said the Satyr. “Men have voices.”
“Yesterday he asked me of things to eat,” said the Ape-man. “He did not know.”
Then they spoke inaudible things, and I heard the Satyr laughing.
It was on our way back that we came upon the dead rabbit. The red body of the wretched little beast was rent to pieces, many of the ribs stripped white, and the backbone indisputably gnawed.
At that Montgomery stopped. “Good God!” ”

“ Seneca's Book on the Death of Claudius, Boetius his Consolation of Philosophy, and that of Petronius Arbiter, are Satyrs entirely like those of Varro.
This is what I have in general to say on Satyr; nor is it necessary I insist any more on this Subject. This the Reader may observe, that the Name of Satyr in Latin, is not less proper for Discourses that recommend Virtue, than to those which are design'd against Vice. It had nothing so formidable in it as it has now, when a bare Mention of Satyr makes them tremble, who would fain seem what they are not ”

“ H. D. HOLY SATYR Most holy Satyr, like a goat, with horns and hooves to match thy coat of russet brown, I make leaf-circlets and a crown of honey-flowers for thy throat; where the amber petals drip to ivory, I cut and slip each stiffened petal in the rift of carven petal: honey horn has wed the bright virgin petal of the white flower cluster: lip to lip let them whisper, let them lilt, quivering:
Most holy Satyr, like a goat, hear this our song, accept our leaves, love-offering, [Pg 152] return our hymn; like echo fling a sweet song, answering note for note. ”

“ Of all the Ways that wisest Men could findSatyr.
To mend the Age, and mortifie Mankind,
Satyr well writ has most successful prov'd,
And cures, because the Remedy is lov'd.
'Tis hard to write on such a subject more,
Without repeating Things said oft before.
Some vulgar Errors only we remove,
That stain this Beauty which so much we love.
Of well chose Words some take not care enough,
And think they should be as the Subject rough ”

“ I cannot find, therefore, from what Reason Satyr is allow'd more Licence than Comedy, or why either of them (to be admir'd) ought not to be limited by Decency and Justice. Let Juvenal and Aristophanes have taken what Liberties they please, if the Learned have nothing more than their Antiquity to justify their laying about them at that enormous rate, I shall wish they had a better excuse for them! ”

“ The nakedness of the mountain ranges and the whiteness of the plains are vaulted over by a brilliant sky and surrounded by a sea of a splendid sapphire glow. Even the olive trees, which still grace the fields about Athens are bunches of silver rather than of green. In "The Satyr, or the Naked Song," taken from the volume of Town and Wilderness we may detect the very spirit which, springing from the same soil thousands of years ago, created the song which gradually rose from primitive sensuousness to the heights of the Greek Tragedy:
All about us naked! ”

“ Would not the Satyr have been equally just? Or would any sober Reader have seen more in [Pg 45] the Line, than a wide mouthful of Ill-Manners? Or would my professing myself a Satyrist give me a Title to wipe my foul Pen upon the Face of every Man I did not like? Or would my Impudence be less Impudence in Verse than in Prose? or in private Company? What ought I to expect less, than that you would knock me down for it? unless the happy Weakness of my Person might be my Protection? Why then may I not insist that Colley or Sawney in the Verse would make no Difference in the Satyr! ”

“ The satyr virus isn't very high on the scale, I agree, but it is life, with no detectable connection to any other form in the Kingdoms. So the Satyr Plague is from God, and it must be His Will that we use it, within the limits of morality He's given us, to reverse the decline."
"The Satyr Plague used within the bounds of morality?" Princess Ursula sounded highly dubious.
"It can be done," Cortin said. "Troopers don't use their dispensation to spend all their time having sex, do they?" ”

“ Who angered by the Satyr’s swollen pride
And monstrous failure, had become a will
Of resolute retribution. But the muses,
Because they feel for those who trying lose,
Even as a mother for her crippled son
Whom the sound-footed distance in the race, [159]
Hastened away lest they behold the thing
That came to pass. And flinging far the flute
Marsyas shrieked and sank upon the earth. ”

“ Probably they were partly personifications, intended to express the debasing influence of animal propensities and sensual indulgence: and as nothing tends more than intoxication to reduce man to a level with the brutes, since it deprives reason of all control over the passions, the form of the Satyr may have been ingeniously intended as a visible representation of the degraded state of those who surrender up the noblest prerogative of man. ”

“ At the same time Attic schemes of composition present themselves, which had already come into use in the time of Pheidias.
This frieze is a remarkable example of the Greek power of combining variety and symmetry. On the right and left of Dionysos the groups correspond with great accuracy, but the correspondent groups always differ one from another. On each side of the God we have an attendant Satyr; a Satyr with a crater; a Satyr watching the conflict; a Satyr hastening to join it; a Satyr kneeling on a pirate; a Satyr about to strike a pirate thrown to the ground ”

“ So does the pretty moral fiction of the viper's putting away her poison when she goes to her lover. The origin of the enamoured Satyr is Pan and his followers; but the rejected Polyphemic Satyr, unhappy in his love on account of the difference of his form, was first compounded by the inventor of the Sylvan Drama, Beccari ”

“ Most of these, it may be remarked, as well as the character of Thenot and the unconventional rôle of the satyr, find parallels in the earlier stages of the Italian pastoral. The transformation-well recalls the enchanted lake of the Sacrifizio; the introduction of a supernatural agent in the plot reminds us of the same play, as well as of Epicuro's Mirzia; the friendly satyr, of this latter, which may be, in its turn, indebted to the revised version of the Orfeo; the character of Thenot is anticipated in the Sfortunato. I give the resemblances for what they are worth, which is perhaps not much ”

“ And let the Atheists spight of Sense Blaspheme,
They can no room for Banter find,
Till they produce another Father for the Wind.
Satyr, thy Sense of Sovereign Being Declare,
He made the Mighty Prince o'th' Air,
And Devils recognize him by their Fear.
Ancient as Time, and Elder than the Light,
Ere the First Day, or Antecedent Night,
Ere Matter into settl'd Form became,230
And long before Existence had a Name;
Before th' Expance of indigested Space,
While the vast No-where fill'd the Room of Place. ”

“ Of the sunset and the moon's up-coming,
Shall the storm, with boisterous hoof-beats, under
Thy dark roof dance, Faun-like, to the humming
Of the Pan-pipes of the rain and thunder.
Oft the satyr spirit, beauty-drunken,
Of the Spring called; and the music-measure
Of thy sap made answer; and thy sunken
Veins grew vehement with youth, whose pressure
Swelled thy gnarly muscles, winter-shrunken. ”

“ The Satyr-man looked curiously at me. “The Third with the Whip, he that walks weeping into the sea, has a thin white face.”
“He has a thin long whip,” said Montgomery.
“Yesterday he bled and wept,” said the Satyr. “You never bleed nor weep. The Master does not bleed or weep.”
“Ollendorffian beggar!” said Montgomery, “you'll bleed and weep if you don't look out!”
“He has five fingers, he is a five-man like me,” said the Ape-man.
“Come along, Prendick,” said Montgomery, taking my arm; and I went on with him.
The Satyr and the Ape-man stood watching us and making other remarks to each other. ”

“ The point here is that satyrs do not go indoors, for the reason that for a satyr to go indoors is unheard of. If it is indecent to mention a satyr, then not only should Keats and Swinburne be destroyed, but Elizabeth Barrett Browning should be reprimanded for writing that poem “A Musical Instrument”, which is all about “The Great God Pan”, chief of Satyrs. ”

“ No animal can withstand it, with the exception of man, to whom, when in its own regions, it is not inferior. It loves boys and women.
Pliny speaks of the Satyr Ape thus: “Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, we find the Satyr, an animal of extraordinary swiftness. They go sometimes on four feet, and sometimes walk erect; they have, also, the features of a human being. ”

“ I repeated, thinking swiftly, for really I did not want to cause affront. "Oh! A satyr is a fellow who runs loose in the woods. That's you, isn't it?"
He was looking in the fire, and presently he began to nod.
"I reck'n it air; yes, I reck'n it air."
"But you've another name," I went on; "what is that?"
"Jeff Angel."
"That doesn't suit," I made bold to answer. "Satyr is much nicer than Angel. Where do you live, pray?"
"Anywhur; nowhur. Jis' use 'roun' th' country, eat'n' 'n' sleep'n' fust one place 'n' 'nother."
Feeling cramped, I now reclined upon my elbow with my head away from the fire. ”

“ A Satyr should expose nothing but what is corrigible, and make a due Discrimination between those who are, and those who are not the proper Objects of it. ”

“ It is from Theocritus that our poet took the Flight of Love and the rewards offered by Venus in the Prologue, the comparison of Love with a bee at the beginning of the Second Act, and the complaints of the Satyr in that soliloquy. Minor touches of imitation are also scattered about from Theocritus, Moschus, and Anacreon. The Satyr's curse upon mercenary love is from Tibullus. Thyrsis going to the capital, and describing his patron as a god, is Virgil's Tityrus going to Rome and deifying Augustus. ”

“ They led a life of pleasure and self-indulgence, followed the chase, revelled in every description of wild music and dancing, were terrible wine-bibbers, and addicted to the deep slumbers which follow heavy potations. They were no less dreaded by mortals than by the gentle woodland nymphs, who always avoided their coarse rough sports.
The Satyrs were conspicuous figures in the train of Dionysus, and, as we have seen, Silenus their chief was tutor to the wine god. The older Satyrs were called Silens, and are represented in antique sculpture, as more nearly approaching the human form. ”

“ For, as Alcibiades says in the Platonic dialogue, where he is one of the chief speakers, he was a Satyr only externally, but internally full of wonderful shapes and sights of gods, like certain hollow figures full of pipes and tubes, seen in the statuaries’ shops, which outwardly were shaped like Sileni, but within contained a machinery of beautiful sacred images. So, as is wont to happen to wise men, his loss became his gain, and his uncomely physiognomy, to all that entered into conversation with him, was the cause of an agreeable surprise. ”

“ Hence too arises all that flat Poverty of Censure and Invective that so often has a Run in our publick Papers upon the Success of a new Author; when, God knows, there is seldom above one Writer among hundreds in Being at the same time whose Satyr a Man of common Sense ought to be mov'd at. When a Master in the Art is angry, then indeed we ought to be alarm'd! How terrible a Weapon is Satyr in the Hand of a great Genius? ”

“ The Fauns and Satyrs lived among the woods and hills, like the Dryads and Oreads.
The king of all these Nymphs, Fauns, and Satyrs was a god named Pan, who was himself a very hideous satyr. He had nothing to do with the gods of Olympus, but lived on the earth, chiefly in a part of Greece called Arcadia. “Pan” is the Greek for “all”—you may remember the same word in the name of “Pan-dora.” He was called “Pan” because he was the god of “all” nature—all the hills and mountains, all the woods and forests, all the fields, rivers, and streams. ”

“ An oracle prohibited its being raised again. This is the most remarkable of the votive offerings, and it is allowed to be one of the seven wonders of the world.127 There were also the pictures by Protogenes,128 the Ialysus, and the Satyr, who was represented [Pg 30]
[CAS. 652] standing by a pillar. On the top of the pillar was a partridge. The bird strongly attracted, as was natural, the gaping admiration of the people, when the picture was first hung up in public, and they were so much delighted, that the Satyr, although executed with great skill, was not noticed. ”