New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-10-20

| ~ Plato were only beginning to be felt. SO far
| IA the Greeks we're concerned then. the period
! in which Sapphc lived was comparable In many
respects to that which interviewed between classic
literature and that OF modern times. Hers was
90 TO speak. the Greek middle age. Before 1t the
Greeks were still uncivilized. and like the Frank
| lsh barbarians waged war to the eastward
| against a culture which they first hated and then
| stroye to init ate and to surpass While they
were perfectin ia civilization OF their own. they
were. just as the case in medieval life,
slow TO develop a new literature as character
istc of their changed condition as the epic had
| beer ~ an older time Song and the metrcal
| forms suited to song engrossed them. The multi
tude of medieval hymns and ballads have their
counterpart in the poetical fragments left by the
Greek citharoedcts and aulodists. In perfection
| of form In the adaptation Of sound to sense in
SIMPLICITY drectness and variety Of motive with
| in narrow limits. the productions OF these TWO
periods in literary history have 10 rivals except
| among themselves.
For historic moment the whole evolution Oh
Greek musical and metrica art rested with the
Lesbians. That the moment when frst
| Tcrpander-who left his native island to awaken
artistic feeling on the Greek Northumberland AFTER
him Alcaeus and Sappho were supreme. Inc
| Lesbians, judged by their politics. were nerV-
GUS excitable race, ready for any violence, given
| TO public disorder. TO rotng In the streets IN
short to practical Anarchy; and yet, endowed
with an aptitude for commerce, an eager taste
for travel and adventure, and lively desire Tor
beauty and luxury in every form, some Of the
forms being rdescrbable in modern writing
Two things did much to stimulate the natural
genius of the people and to perfect civilization
which like the strange flower of Provence. no
0np
alton that of Sappho lived through all that was
great I'm Lesbos. If tradition can be trusted, TINS
generation furnished soldiers to Babylon. traders
IN Egvpt musicians to Sparta, coionists to the
Far West. as It then seemed, Of Italy and Sicily,
scandal to comic writers for ages to come poets
for all the ages wise man like Pittacus, tur-
buIent oligarch like Acaeus, and a whole popu-
Iaton bent on pleasures of every degree or re-
fnement No wonder that 1t was soon eX-
hausted Now the Sapphc stanza comes the
nearest Of all metrcal forms to expressing TINS
eager active. petuant evanescent, popular
genius. It's gayety is melancholy and saddenihg'
its passion Is a pain, its worship fanciiri' Inc
Alcaic stanza-whch has, like its rival. been
made more or less familiar TO modern rea iers D.
modern poets-c1nnot divide with 1t this honor
Of being racy Of the soil. Alcaeus had travelled
much and lac reflected wider culture than
that OF Sappho.
It is the fashion gently to depreciate the
Sapphic monostrophe and to question its origin
that Sappho invented 1t is most unlikely-Dut
Longinus ard Dionysius are still good witnesses
70 its effect upon men born to the Greek
language Sappho herself in the little that time
has SHARED is a witness still better. Her loves,
her angers and her prayers take this form In
preference 10 any other. Wedding hymns and
other poems in forms more staid may have
made her popular in Mityene, but they were OBJ
viously part Of the business of trained verse
maker and musician. That she should have
written little or much comparatively in her IA
vorite stanza does not affect the question OF It's
value What she is known to have written III
it indicates the peculiar place which 1t held IN
her esteem. In the same way the use whch
later writer's made OF IT, as long as the ancient
nrosodv held sway shows its abiding popularity
From Melinno down to the present day It's
votaries have been many The ode of Horace
mos. frequent on modern tongues "Intege-
vitae" is in this metre; and 1t Is probably the
favorite metre now for occasions when
Latin verse Is appropriate. But Sapphos man.
agemsnt Of this verse form has never peeh
rivalcd. In Melinnos little poem. ITO Rome
there was a stiffness which showed that what
was free in its beginnings as an Improvisation
degenerated into literary formula. The pris-
tine freedom was never recovered, not even by
Catulus. What sappho would have said to
Horace would certainly have been something
like this: you comprehend my device. but you
have no ideas to which II is suited. You are a
cold-hearted philosopher You have not tasted
the bitterness Of love and anger as know them.
You have only good-natur'd ways and con-
tempt for the world. You should have let my
stanza alone.
In fact. Horace, to fit the stanza to his pur-
pose was obliged to make an important restrc-
ton The light rapid movement OF Sapphos
verse was much facilitated by the frequent,
though not uniform use of 4 tiJchee; that Is, or
long and short syabl, in the second foot Of the
three verses of the monostrophe. But the Roman
poet required slower, heavier movement; and
so he made II a rule to use two long syllables
invariably where Sappho would only have used
them occasionally. He was followed by Status
and PruGentius, as we'll as by most OF those who
ATTEMPTED verses N this form. Seneca. however,
took Horace's spondee to be, as In hexameter,
INTERCHANGEABLE with dactyl. and promptly put
three syllables into some Of the songs OF his
plays. thus completely destroying the line as
sappho meant IT, but making change that a
Latin ear would have been startled by after
Horace At the revival OF learning there was
much discussion Of this matter, as there was
upon nearly every other literary point; and
Buchanan, the Scottish Latinlst was censured
for violating Horatian precedent In his version
OF the Nacteth Psalm. lie was defended by
reference to the practice of two famous poets
OF his own age. now forgotten. Paulus Melissus
and Michaelis Marullus and to the more authori-
ta:ivc usage OF the Lesod1 poets
To all these later poets the stanza came as a
finished product, with It's three long lines and
the short Adonic echo that gave II completeness.
This Is not the place &c discuss the learned In
auries OF Neue and others who look to the
Alcaic verse and in other directions for the