BION AND MOSCHUS.
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he relation of Shelley's Elegy of _Adonais_ to the two Elegies writtenby Bion and by Moschus must no doubt have been observed, and been moreor less remarked upon, as soon as _Adonais_ obtained some currency amongclassical readers; Captain Medwin, in his _Shelley Papers_, 1832,referred to it. I am not however aware that the resemblances had everbeen brought out in detail until Mr. G.S.D. Murray, of Christ Church,Oxford, noted down the passages from Bion, which were publishedaccordingly in my edition of Shelley's Poems, 1870. Since then, 1888,Lieut.-Colonel Hime, R.A., issued a pamphlet (Dulau & Co.) entitled _TheGreek Materials of Shelley's Adonais, with Remarks on the three GreatEnglish Elegies_, entering into further, yet not exhaustive, particularson the same subject. Shelley himself made a fragmentary translation fromthe Elegy of Bion on Adonis: it was first printed in Mr. Forman'sedition of Shelley's Poems, 1877. I append here those passages which aredirectly related to _Adonais_:-- 'I mourn Adonis dead--loveliest Adonis--Dead, dead Adonis--and the Loves lament.Sleep no more, Venus, wrapped in purple woof--Wake, violet-stoled queen, and weave the crownOf death,--'tis Misery calls,--for he is dead.... AphroditeWith hair unbound is wandering through the woods,Wildered, ungirt, unsandalled--the thorns pierceHer hastening feet, and drink her sacred blood. * * * * * The flowers are withered up with grief.* * * * *Echo resounds, . . "Adonis dead!"* * * * *She clasped him, and cried ... "Stay, Adonis!Stay, dearest one,...And mix my lips with thine!Wake yet a while, Adonis--oh but once!--That I may kiss thee now for the last time--But for as long as one short kiss may live!" The reader familiar with _Adonais_ will recognise the passages in thatpoem of which we here have the originals. To avoid repetition, I do notcite them at the moment, but shall call attention to them successivelyin my Notes at the end of the volume. For other passages, also utilised by Shelley, I have recourse to thevolume of Mr. Andrew Lang (Macmillan & Co. 1889), _Theocritus, Bion, andMoschus, rendered into English Prose_. And first, from Bion's Elegy onAdonis:-- 'The flowers flush red for anguish.... This kiss will I treasure, evenas thyself, Adonis, since, ah ill-fated! thou art fleeing me,... whilewretched I yet live, being a goddess, and may not follow thee.Persephone, take thou my lover, my lord, for thyself art stronger thanI, and all lovely things drift down to thee.... For why ah overbold!didst thou follow the chase, and, being so fair, why wert thou thusover-hardy to fight with beasts?... A tear the Paphian sheds for eachblood-drop of Adonis, and tears and blood on the earth are turned toflowers.... Ah even in death he is beautiful, beautiful in death, as onethat hath fallen on sleep.... All things have perished in his death, yeaall the flowers are faded.... He reclines, the delicate Adonis, in hisraiment of purple, and around him the Loves are weeping and groaningaloud, clipping their locks for Adonis. And one upon his shafts, anotheron his bow, is treading, and one hath loosed the sandal of Adonis, andanother hath broken his own feathered quiver, and one in a golden vesselbears water, and another laves the wound, and another, from behind him,with his wings is fanning Adonis.... Thou must again bewail him, againmust weep for him another year.... He does not heed them [the Muses];not that he is doth to hear, but that the Maiden of Hades doth not lethim go.' The next-ensuing passages come from the Elegy of Moschus for Bion:-- 'Ye flowers, now in sad clusters breathe yourselves away. Now redden, yeroses, in your sorrow, and now wax red, ye wind-flowers; now, thouhyacinth, whisper the letters on thee graven, and add a deeper ai ai tothy petals: he is dead, the beautiful singer.... Ye nightingales thatlament among the thick leaves of the trees, tell ye to the Sicilianwaters of Arethusa the tidings that Bion the herdsman is dead.... Thysudden doom, O Bion, Apollo himself lamented, and the Satyrs mournedthee, and the Priapi in sable raiment, and the Panes sorrow for thysong, and the Fountain-fairies in the wood made moan, and their tearsturned to rivers of waters. And Echo in the rocks laments that thou artsilent, and no more she mimics thy voice. And in sorrow for thy fall thetrees cast down their fruit, and all the flowers have faded.... Nor eversang so sweet the nightingale on the cliffs,... nor so much, by the greysea-waves, did ever the sea-bird sing, nor so much in the dells of dawndid the bird of Memnon bewail the son of the Morning, fluttering aroundhis tomb, as they lamented for Bion dead.... Echo, among the reeds, dothstill feed upon thy songs.... This, O most musical of rivers, is thysecond sorrow,--this, Meles, thy new woe. Of old didst thou loseHomer:... now again another son thou weepest, and in a new sorrow artthou wasting away.... Nor so much did pleasant Lesbos mourn for Alcaeus,nor did the Teian town so greatly bewail her poet,... and not for Sapphobut still for thee doth Mitylene wail her musical lament.... Ah me! whenthe mallows wither in the garden, and the green parsley, and the curledtendrils of the anise, on a later day they live again, and spring Inanother year: but we men, we the great and mighty or wise, when once wehave died, in hollow earth we sleep, gone down into silence.... Poisoncame, Bion, to thy mouth--thou didst know poison. To such lips as thinedid it come, and was not sweetened? What mortal was so cruel that couldmix poison for thee, or who could give thee the venom that heard thyvoice? Surely he had no music in his soul,... But justice hath overtakenthem all.' Bion was born in Smyrna, or in a neighbouring village named Phlossa, andmay have died at some date not far from 250 B.C. The statement ofMoschus that Bion was poisoned by certain enemies appears to be intendedas an assertion of actual fact. Of Moschus nothing distinct is known,beyond his being a native of Sicily. ADONAIS; AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS, Author of _Endymion, Hyperion,_ etc. [Greek:
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