The Clitophon and Leucippe of Tatius does not seem to Writers, however, are apt to indulge themselves in en- The description of the rise and progress of the passion not, then, in the Greek romances that moral lessons are to be sought, Of of Clitophon for Leucippe is extremely well-executed. In point of style, Tatius is said by Huet and other 99 2 In the delineation of character Tatius is still more defec- We now proceed to the analysis of a romance different It may be conjectured with much probability, that pas- 1 Huet. p. 40, Boder. præf. p. 15. 2 Photius, Bib. Cod. lxxxvii. p. 206. 3 Durier (1605-1658) wrote a tale in imitation of Achilles Tatius, it existed among the eastern nations during the earliest ages. Rural images are everywhere scattered through the Old Testament; and the Song of Solomon in particular beautifully delineates the charms of a country life, while it paints the most amiable affections of the mind, and the sweetest scenery of nature. A number of passages of Theocritus bear a striking resemblance to descriptions in the inspired pastoral; and many critics have believed that he had studied its beauties, and transferred them to his eclogues. Theocritus was imitated in his own dialect by Moschus and Bion; and Virgil, taking advantage of a different language, copied yet rivalled the Sicilian. The Bucolics of the Roman bard seem to have been considered as precluding all attempts of the same kind; for, if we except the feeble efforts of Calpurnius, and his contemporary Nemesianus, who lived in the third century, no subsequent specimen of pastoral poetry was, as far as I know, produced till the revival of literature. It was during this interval that Longus, a Greek sophist, who is said to have lived soon after the age of Tatius, wrote his pastoral romance of DAPHNIS AND CHLOE, which is the earliest, and by far the finest example that has appeared of this species of composition.1 Availing 1 Rohde (Gr. Rom. p. 503) thinks that Tatius lived later than the author of Daphnis and Chloe, and indeed imitated him in some respects (e.g., the sumptuous description of a garden, of a town, and the episode of Pan and the flute. It is extremely doubtful whether Longus was ever the name of any Greek author. Schöll (Hist. de la Litt. Gr. vi. p. 238) supposes the alleged name of the author to be simply a false reading of the last word of the title as found in the Florentine MS. Acoẞiakov ἐρωτικῶν λόγοι δ', and this suggestion is adopted by Jacobs in his German version, 1832, and by Seiler in his edition of Longi Pastoralia, Lipsiæ, 1835. The last-named editor says (Præf. p. iii.) that the best MS. begins and ends with λόγου ποιμενικῶν, instead of Λόγγου, and that Stephens cites two copies, in one of which the heading began Xóyov, and in the other Aòyyou. If the author was really Longus, he was probably a freedman of one of the many Roman families who bore this cognomen. Be this as it may, we know nothing of the author's life or date, which Rohde (Gr. Rom. p. 502) gives reasons for placing at the close of the second century. Photius says nothing of him in his Myriabiblia, nor is he mentioned by any of the authors with whom he is supposed to have himself of the beauties of the pastoral poets who preceded him, he has added to their simplicity of style, and charming pictures of Nature, a story which possesses considerable interest, and of which the following abstract is presented to the reader. In the neighbourhood of Mytilene, the principal city of Lesbos, Lamon, a goatherd, as he was one day tending his flock, discovered an infant sucking one of his goats with surprising dexterity. He takes home the child, and presents him to his wife Myrtale; at the same time he delivers to her a purple mantle with which the boy was adorned, and a little sword with an ivory hilt, which was lying by his side. Lamon having no children of his own, resolves to bring up the foundling, and bestows on him the pastoral name of Daphnis [Bk. I. c. 3].' About two years after this occurrence, Dryas, a neighbouring shepherd, finds in the cave of the nymphs, which is beautifully described in the romance, a female infant, nursed by one of his ewes. The child is brought to the cottage of Dryas, receives the name of Chloe, and is cherished by the old man as if she had been his daughter [i. 6]. When Daphnis had reached the age of fifteen, and Chloe that of thirteen, Lamon and Dryas, their reputed fathers, had corresponding dreams on the same night. The nymphs of the cave in which Chloe had been discovered appear to each of the old shepherds, delivering Daphnis and Chloe to a winged boy, with a bow and arrows, who commands that Daphnis should be sent to keep goats, and the girl to tend been contemporary. His book itself shows that he was a clever and well-read sophist of the school of Lucian and the Philostrati; and the style and tone of the novel, no less than its proper title Acoẞiaká, or 'Lesbian Adventures,' place it in the same class with the Ethiopica of Heliodorus. Mueller, Hist. Lit. Gr. p. iii. p. 357. See further an excellent article, which is from the pen of Professor Malden, in Knight's Quarterly Magazine, vol. i. pp. 277-295, on this romance. For the bibliography of the Lesbiaca, see Schöll, Hist. Gr. Lit. iii. p. 161, but and especially the Notice bibliographique par A. J. Pons appended to the French translation published by Quantin, of Paris, in 1878. 1 In the indication of the chapters it has been thought best to follow M. Zévort's French translation (Romans Grecs, précédé d'une introduction sur le Roman chez les Grecs. Paris, 1856). the sheep: Daphnis and Chloe have not long entered on their new employments, which they exercise with a care of their flocks, increased by a knowledge of the circumstances of their infancy, when chance brings them to pasture on the same spot [i. 8]. It was then, says the romance, the beginning of spring, and every species of flower bloomed through the woods, the meadows and mountains.-The tender flocks sported around-the lambs skipped on the hills-the bees hummed through the valleys—and the birds filled the groves with their song. Daphnis collects the wandering sheep of Chloe, and Chloe drives from the rocks the goats of Daphnis. They make reeds in common, and share together their milk and their wine;-their youth, their beauty, the season of the year, every thing tends to inspire them with a mutual passion: which is further strengthened in Chloe's breast by the sight of Daphnis bathing in the stream. Chloe had, however, another admirer, Dorco, a cow-herd, who had rescued Daphnis from a pit into which he had tumbled. Between him and Daphnis a discussion arose as to which of them was the handsomer. When both of them had spoken, Chloe, who was umpire, decided in favour of Daphnis, and bestowed upon him the award for victory, a kiss [i. 16].1 Chloe's other admirer, Dorco, the cow-herd, having in vain requested her in marriage from Dryas, her reputed father, resolves to carry her off by force; for this purpose he disguises himself as a wolf, and lurks among some bushes near a place where Chloe used to pasture her sheep. In this garb he is discovered and attacked by the dogs, who entered into his frolic with unexpected alacrity, but is preserved from being torn to pieces by the timely arrival of Daphnis. From the example of Dorco this became a favourite stratagem among pastoral characters. In the Pastor Fido (act iv. sc. ii.), Dorinda disguises herself as a 1 These two episodes (Bk. i. 13-17) form the fragment which was omitted in all editions published before 1810. It was found by P. L. Courier in 1807 in a Manuscript in the Laurentian Library in Florence, and has been reintegrated with the work in subsequent issues. In the English translation of J. Craggs (1719, 172), Mr. H. Jenner tells me, a passage was ingeniously invented to supply the deficiency, which is however far more precipitate in its action than the real words of Longus." 6. |