Ninth Lyrick and the Tenth Muse and is said to have written Epigrams, Elegies, Iambicks, Monodies, and nine books of Lyrick Verses; and was the Inventress of that kind of verse which from her is called Sapphick.” There are a few biographical and critical details similar to those in the “Theatrum Poetarum,” but no fragments are quoted and no translations are offered or even mentioned. However, the general tone of Blount’s remarks is highly laudatory and appreciative. The Leucadian rock legend is not mentioned and the name of Phaon does not occur.
The first reasoned criticism of Sappho and her works in English did not appear until 1711, when in Nos. 223, 229, and 233 of the “Spectator,” Joseph Addison gave us a more or less comprehensive view of the subject. He says that “among the mutilated poets of antiquity there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho,” and he describes her as “not descending to those little points, conceits, and turns of wit with which many of our modern lyrics are so miserably infected.” He repeats the legend connecting her with Phaon, and gives a circumstantial repetition of the Leucadian rock story. In the first-mentiond number of the “Spectator” he introduces a translation by Ambrose Philips, of what he calls the “Ode.” Addison professed to believe that this translation had “all the ease and spirit of an original,” and altogether praised it much more highly than we should feel inclined to do now. The
