Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/257

 ANACREON. 221 then abufed him, and her wifhes were fulfilled ; for Clcobu- lus growing to be a beautiful y >uth, Anaireon fell in love with him, and wrote fcveral verle- in his praife. .flilidn has/Eijjn.Hiit. endeavoured to clear Anacreon from the fufpicion of enter- l'i. i*.-4 taining any dishonourable paflion for thcfe youths; but the general charge againtt him in this refpcdl is ftrong. How long Anacreon continued at Samos is uncertain, but it is probable he remained there during the gteateft part of the reign of Polycrates ; for Herodotus aflures us, that Anacreon Lib. ill. was with that prince in his chamber, when he received a f p ' meflage from Orsjtes covernor of Sardis, by whofe treachery Polycrates was foon after betrayed and inhumanly crucified. It feems to have been a little before this, that Anacreon left Samos and removed to Athens; having been invited thither by Hipparchus the eldeft (on of Pifiltratus, one of the moft virtuous and learned princes of his time, who, as Plato aflures PUto In us, fent an obliging letter, with a vefll-1 of fifty oars to con- Hl PP archo - vey him over the JEgezn fea. After Hipparchus was flain by the confpiracy of Harmodius and Ariftogiton, Anacreon returned to Teos, where he remained till the revolt of Hif- tiaeus, when he was obliged once more to remove to Abdera, where he died. The manner of his death is faid to have been very extraordinary ; for they tell us he was choaked Pliny, with a grape-ftone, which he fwallowed as he was regaling llbviu on fome new wine. A fmall part only of Anacreon's works a remain. Btfides odes and epigrajns, he compofexl elegies, hymns, and iambics : the poems which are extant confift chiefly of Bacchanalian fongs and love-fonnets. They have been frequently printed : but the principal editions are, that of Madame Dacier, with a French verfion, at Paris, 1682, in I2mo ; and that of Jofhua Barnes at Cambridge, 1705, in 121110. The odes of Anacreon, fas Rapin, are flowers, beauties, and perpetual graces : it is familiar to him to write what is natural and to the life, he having an air fo delicate, foeafy, and fo graceful, that among all the ancients there is nothing comparable to him. He flows foft and eafy, every where diffufing the joy and indolence of his mind through his verfe, and tuning his harp to the fmooth and pleafant tem- per of his foul. To the fame purpole the little god of love, as taught to fpeak by Mr. Cowley : All thy verfe is fofter far Than the downy feathers are : Of my wings or of my arrows, Of my mother's doves and fparrows, Graceful