Page:The Poems of Sappho (1924).djvu/37

Rh and the other four verses are of the same somewhat jerky and undistinguished quality. In Davison’s “Poetical Rhapsody,” 1602, there is also an attempt at Sapphics in a set of verses supposed to be by the mysterious “A. W.,” who contributed other poems to this rare anthology. A specimen verse is as follows:

Hatred eternal, furious revenging,

Merciless raging, bloody persecuting;

Slanderous speeches, odious revilings;

Causeless abhorring.

This is very vigorous, and also very rough, and a bad imitation of poetry noted particularly for its sweetness and melody.

In “Wits Theatre of the Little World," 1599, on leaf 72 of this curious collection of extras from classical and mediaeval writers on all sorts of subjects occurs the statement that “poets fain that in Leucadia there is a very high steepe rocke which is a notable remedy to asswage love,” and on leaf 152 it is said that “Lucilius was the first that wrote Satyres and Sappho the first poeme of love,” the reference being to Pausanias. No other particulars of Sappho’s life or works are given. In 1601 Thomas Campion and Philip Roseter published a book called “Lyrics, Elegies,” etc., and in the Address to the Reader Sapphic verse is mentioned, and in the book itself an example is given. It is a sort of English