Page:Cox - Sappho and the Sapphic Metre in English, 1916.djvu/20

 uncritical writer, while admitting the genius of the poetess, is inclined to accept the scandals and the absurd Phaon legend. It is curious to note how every writer up to the nineteenth century was ready to accept the Ovidian version of this alleged episode, apparently without stopping to think that Ovid himself might be straining probability in order to indulge in the licence of a poet. In this edition become “feathered steeds,” and we may record the fact that the philological and historical footnotes have a certain amount of interest. Some years before this edition, in 1745, Akenside published his thin quarto volume of Odes. In Ode X he introduces a free paraphrase of the great Sapphic hymn, in which he has made a not unsuccessful use of the material, but that is the most we can say for his effort. The beauty of the original evidently appealed to him, but its rhythm and metre were beyond his powers of conversion into English, or else he had no wish to go beyond a mere paraphrase. During the remainder of the eighteenth century there was not much done in the way of translating or editing Sappho. There were some reprints, for example, Ambrose Philips in 1748 and 1765, and Fawkes in 1789, and in 1799 a charmingly produced little book, called “The Wreath,” and edited by Edward Du Bois, appeared. It contained selections from Sappho, Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, with text, notes and literal translations. It is a well printed volume, and the Greek type is very satisfactory.

It was not, however, until the nineteenth century was well under way that attention began to be devoted to the scientific treatment of the literary remains of the poetess. The study of the subject was stimulated later in the century by the discovery of additional fragments of her works, and, still more recently, during the last ten or fifteen years the Egyptian discoveries have tantalized us with several small but important rewards for great effort, and have held out the alluring prospect of further good fortune in this direction. An interesting collection