66 ON RHODODAPHNE, OR THE THESSALIAN SPELL," A POEM BY THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK. RHODODAPHNE is a poem of the most remarkable character, and the nature of the subject no less than the spirit in which it is written forbid us to range it under any of the classes of modern literature.' It is a Greek and Pagan poem. In sentiment and scenery it is essentially antique. There is a strong religio loci throughout which almost compels us to believe that the author wrote from the dictation of a voice heard from some Pythian cavern in the solitudes where Delphi stood. We are transported to the banks of the Peneus and linger under the crags of Tempe, and see the water lilies floating on 1 Shelley is not the only poet who has thought well of Rhododaphne. Edgar Allan Poe in his Marginalia (Mr. J. H. Ingram's edition, Edinburgh, 1874-5, Vol. III, p. 443) has this laconic criticism : Rhododaphne' (who wrote it?) is brimful of music:-e.g. PROSE.-VOL. III. By living streams, in sylvan shades, C the stream. We sit with Plato by old Ilissus under the sacred Plane tree among the sweet scent of flowering sallows; and above there is the nightingale of Sophocles in the ivy of the pine, who is watching the sunset so that it may dare to sing; it is the radiant evening of a burning day, and the smooth hollow whirlpools of the river are overflowing with the aërial gold of the level sunlight. We stand in the marble temples of the Gods, and see their sculptured forms gazing and almost breathing around. We are led forth from the frequent pomp of sacrifice into the solitude of mountains and forests where Pan," the life, the intellectual soul of grove and stream," yet lives and yet is worshipped. We visit the solitudes of Thessalian magic, and tremble with new wonder to hear statues speak and move and to see the shaggy changelings minister to their witch queen with the shape of beasts and the reason of men, and move among the animated statues who people her inchanted palaces and gardens. That wonderful overflowing of fancy the Syria Dea of Lucian, and the impassioned and elegant pantomime of Apuleius, have contributed to this portion of the poem. There is here, as in the songs of ⚫ ancient times, music and dancing and the luxury of voluptuous delight. The Bacchanalians toss on high their leaf-inwoven hair, and the tumult and fervour of the chase is depicted; we hear its clamour gathering among the woods, and she who impels it is so graceful and so fearless that we are charmed-and it needs no feeble spell to see nothing of the agony and blood of that royal sport. These words are quoted, not quite accurately, from Canto III of Rhododaphne, pp. 48-9: The streams no sedge-crowned Genii roll Of vale, and grove, and stream, has fled 2 Cancelled MS. reading, forms for statues. This it is to be a scholar; this it is to have read Homer and Sophocles and Plato. Such is the scenery and the spirit of the tale. The story itself presents a more modern aspect, being made up of combinations of human passion which seem to have been developed since the Pagan system has been outThe poem opens in a strain of elegant but less powerful versification than that which follows. It is descriptive of the annual festival of Love' at his temple. in Thespia. Anthemion is among the crowd of votaries; a youth from the banks of Arcadian Ladon: worn. The flower of all Arcadia's youth Was he such form and face, in truth, Still shewed how beautiful it were If its own natural bloom were there.-CANTO I, p. 11. As He comes to offer his vows at the shrine for the recovery of his mistress Calliroë, who is suffering under some strange, and as we are led to infer, magical disease. he presents his wreath of flowers at the altar they are suddenly withered up. He looks and there is standing near him a woman of exquisite beauty who gives him. another wreath which he places on the altar and it does not wither. She turns to him and bids him wear a 1 The word Uranian before Love stands cancelled in the MS. flower which she presents, saying, with other sweet words Some meet for once and part for aye, And till it fades remember me.-CANTO I, p. 22. As Anthemion passes from the temple among the sports and dances of the festival" with vacant eye" the trains Of youthful dancers round him float, As the musing bard from his sylvan seat Or the play of the watery flowers, that quiver In the eddies of a lowland river.-CANTO II, p. 29. He there meets an old man who tells him that the flower he wears is the profane laurel-rose which grows in Larissa's unholy gardens, that it is impious to wear it in the temple of Love, and that he, who has suffered evils which he dares not tell from Thessalian inchantments, knows that the gift of this flower is a spell only to be dissolved by invoking his natal genius and casting the flower into some stream with the caution of not looking upon it after he has thrown it away. Anthemion obeys his direction, but so soon as he has . . . . A portion of the MS. is here wanting. Probably it contained little more than an abstract of the movement of the third and fourth Cantos, illustrated by extracts, as the next fragment begins with a quotation from the fifth Canto. It will be useful to supply here the thread of the story. As soon as Anthemion has thrown the flower into the water he hears a sudden cry, Calliroë's voice: He turned to plunge into the tide, The sun upon the surface bright round his neck Are closely twined the silken rings Of Rhododaphne's glittering hair, And round him her bright arms she flings, And cinctured thus in loveliest bands The charmed waves in safety bear The youth and the enchantress fair CANTO V, pp. 110-11. They now find themselves on a lonely moor on which stands a solitary cottage-ruined and waste; this scene is transformed by Thessalian magic to a palace surrounded by magnificent gardens. Anthemion enters the hall of the palace where, surrounded by sculptures of divine workmanship, he sees the earthly image of Uranian Love. Rhododaphne, and receives her declarations of love. She utters the words These lips are mine; the spells have won Which round and round thy soul I twine; CANTO III, pp. 66-7. Stung by the thought of Calliroë, Yet deem not so. The Power of Spells CANTO IV pp. 72-3. This is introductory to the working of the spell. Seeking Calliroë, he finds her recovered, rejoices with her one evening, kisses her, and sees her fade and at once become as one dead. Fleeing along the shore, he is seized by pirates (Canto V), on board whose ship he is set beside a maiden similarly snatched away, She rose, and loosed her radiant hair, CANTO V, p. 105. The extract with which the next leaf of the MS. opens is the conclusion of Canto V; and the paragraph beginning with They now find themselves epitomizes Canto VI. At the opening of the paragraph there is a cancelled reading, The scene in which they now find themselves is then described. |