Qui ferox bello, &c. Alcaus firft thy Mufic ftrung, And Lycus high in Beauty's Pride, Francis THIS Boy, as Cicero obferves, had a Mole upon his Finger, which, in the Poet's Fancy, was a beautiful Ornament; and remarks farther, that though Alceus had fome Title to Courage, yet he had filled his Verfes with an exceffive Pederafty. He was fo amorous, fays Scipio Gentilis, in his Notes on Apuleius, that he compares himself to a Hog, which whilft it is eating one Acorn, devours another withits Eyes; juft fo, fays he, when I am enjoying one Girl, I am wifhing for another. He had likewife the Character of a great Drinker,. and would take occafion from the Difference of each fucceeding Seafon of the Year, to il luftrate the Neceffity of generous Living and circulating the Glafs. THE Poetical Abilities of Alcaus are indif putable, and though his Writings were chiefly in the Lyric Measure, fome Fragments of which are collected by Fulvius Urfinus, yet his Mufe. was capable of treating the fublimeft Subjects D. 6 with with a fuitable Dignity. This made Horace fay, Et te fonantem, &c. Alcaus fweeps the Golden Strings, To Kings expell'd and Tyrants flain, MR.DACIER obferves upon this occafion, that Alcaus's Style was elevated and ftrong, and that he treated of fublimer Subjects than Sappho, who says of him in Ovid, Nec plus Alcæus, &c. The wide World refounds with Sappho's Praife, Tho' great Alcæus more fublimely fings, And ftrikeswith bolderRage the founding Strings. No lefs Renown attends the moving Lyre, Which Cupid tunes, and Venus does infpire. ALCEUS, fays Quintilian, merits the Golden Plectrum, which every wife and virtuous Perfon gives him in that Part of his Poems, in which he lashes the Oppreffion of Tyrants; in. this he is highly useful to the Manners of Mankind, being concife and majeftic in his Language, and breathing the true Spirit of Homer; however, he fometimes defcends to Mirth and Love, though naturally qualified for loftier Subjects. THERE was another Alcaus, an Athenian, a Tragic Poet, and the first, according to fome Writers, who compofed Tragedies. It feems he repudiated his Country, which was Mitylene, and paffed for an Athenian. He left ten Pieces, whereof one was Pafiphaë; it was this which he produced when he difputed with Aristophanes, in the fourth Year of the ninety-feventh Olympiad. I find in Plutarch another Alcaus, different from the preceding, and who perhaps is the fame, whom Porphiry mentions as a Writer of fatirical Iambic Verfes, and Epigrams, and who wrote a Poem concerning the Plagiarism of the Hiftorian Ephorus. The Alcaus mentioned in Plutarch lived in the hundred and forty-fifth Olympiad, in the Year of Rome five hundred and fifty-five, as appears from the Ode he composed on the Battle which Philip King of Macedon loft in Theffaly. This Ode reprefented Philip as running away fafter than a Stag, and magnified the number of the Slain, in order to vex him the more. Nevertheless, Plutarch tells us, that Titus Flaminius, who gained that Battle, was more offended at Alcaus's Verfes than Philip, because the Ode mentioned the Etolians before the Romans, and feemed by this Circumftance to give the Etolians the chief Honour of the Victory. Philip defended himself against Alcaus's Song by another; the Subftance of which is thus given us by Plutarch: This leaflefs barklefs Trunk, O Paffenger, WE are told likewife of one Alcaus a Meffenian, who lived in the Reigns of Vefpafian and Titus. I know not which of these Alcauses it was who fuffered a very remarkable Kind of Death for his Lewdness. This Epitaph is given us by Voffius. *Αλκαίο τάφο το 196 This is Alcaus's Tomb, who died by a Radish The Daughter of the Earth, and Punisher of Adulterers. THE Meaning is, that Alcaus fuffered the Punishment of Adulterers, which confifted in a certain manner of impaling; they thrust one of the largest Radishes they could find up the Adulterer's Fundament, or for want of Radishes. they made ufe of a Fish with a very large Head, as the Scholiaft of Juvenal informs us in the tenth Satire ; Quofdam Machos & Mugilis intrat, THIS enables us to understand the Menace of Catullus. Ah tum te miferum, &c. Ah! wretched Thou, and born to lucklefs Fate, Who art discover'd by the unshut Gate! |