Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/148

134 But we are not to suppose that such language as the last couplet wore so much the expression of his serious moods as of a gaiety rendered reckless by potations such as, we are obliged to confess, lent a not infrequent inspiration to his poetry. Theognis is, according to his own theory, quite en règle when he retires from a banquet

He glories in a state which he expresses by a Greek word, which seems to mean that of being fortified or steeled with wine, an ironical arming against the cares of life to which he saw no shame in resorting. And perhaps too implicit credence is not to be given to the professions of indifference to wealth and character, which are made by a poet who can realise in verse such an experience as is portrayed in the fragment we are about to cite:—

In his more sober moments the poet could appreciate