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44
THE POEMS OF SAPPHO

preceded them. In his introduction Fawkes traverses Addison’s favourable criticisms of Ambrose Philips, and calls certain of his lines “amazingly rough and awkward.” He thinks that Addison’s friendship for Philips may have influenced his judgment, and this is probably true. The next edition of the poetess was that in which the introductory poem entitled: “The Classic, a Poem” is signed E.B.G., initials which belong to E. Burnaby Greene. The book is called “The Works of Anacreon and Sappho, with Pieces from Ancient Authors and Occasional Essays,” etc. The imprint is “London, Printed for J. Ridley in St. James’ Street, 1768.” It is a small octavo. The two chief portions of Sappho’s works occupy pages 139 to 146 inclusive, and the so-called fragments, pages 165 to 169. The Hymn to Aphrodite occupies forty-two lines, and the translation is very free and decidedly mediocre. As was usual with his predecessors, this translator also ignores the Sapphic metre. The biographical remarks in this edition are stereotyped and uninteresting, and their uncritical writer, while admitting the genius of the poetess, is inclined to accept the scandals and the absurd Phaon legend. It is curious to note how every writer up to the nineteenth century was ready to accept the Ovidian version of this alleged episode, apparently without Stopping to think that Ovid himself might be straining probability in order to indulge in the licence of a poet. In this edition ὤκεες στρούθοι become “feathered steeds,” and