An Egyptian Princess | Page 5

a night scene the effect of which is
heightened by the calm cold moonshine. The old woman leaves the girl,
who at once ceases to weave her spells, allows her pent- up tears to
have their way, and looking up to Selene the moon, the lovers' silent
confidante, pours out her whole story: how when she first saw the
beautiful Delphis her heart had glowed with love, she had seen nothing
more of the train of youths who followed him, "and," (thus sadly the
poet makes her speak)
"how I gained my home I knew not; some strange fever wasted me. Ten
days and nights I lay upon my bed. O tell me, mistress Moon, whence
came my love!"
"Then" (she continues) when Delphis at last crossed her threshold:
"I Became all cold like snow, and from my brow Brake the damp
dewdrops: utterance I had none, Not e'en such utterance as a babe may
make That babbles to its mother in its dreams; But all my fair frame
stiffened into wax,-- O tell me mistress Moon, whence came my love!"
Whence came her love? thence, whence it comes to us now. The love
of the creature to its Creator, of man to God, is the grand and yet
gracious gift of Christianity. Christ's command to love our neighbor
called into existence not only the conception of philanthropy, but of
humanity itself, an idea unknown to the heathen world, where love had
been at widest limited to their native town and country. The love of
man and wife has without doubt been purified and transfigured by
Christianity; still it is possible that a Greek may have loved as tenderly
and longingly as a Christian. The more ardent glow of passion at least
cannot be denied to the ancients. And did not their love find vent in the
same expressions as our own? Who does not know the charming
roundelay:

"Drink the glad wine with me, With me spend youth's gay hours; Or a
sighing lover be, Or crown thy brow with flowers. When I am merry
and mad, Merry and mad be you; When I am sober and sad, Be sad and
sober too!"
--written however by no poet of modern days, but by Praxilla, in the
fifth century before Christ. Who would guess either that Moore's little
song was modelled on one written even earlier than the date of our
story?
"As o'er her loom the Lesbian maid In love-sick languor hung her head.
Unknowing where her fingers stray'd, She weeping turned away and
said,' Oh, my sweet mother, 'tis in vain,
I cannot weave as once I wove; So wilder'd is my heart and brain With
thinking of that youth I love.'"
If my space allowed I could add much more on this subject, but will
permit myself only one remark in conclusion. Lovers delighted in
nature then as now; the moon was their chosen confidante, and I know
of no modern poem in which the mysterious charm of a summer night
and the magic beauty which lies on flowers, trees and fountains in
those silent hours when the world is asleep, is more exquisitely
described than in the following verses, also by Sappho, at the reading
of which we seem forced to breathe more slowly, "kuhl bis an's Herz
hinan."
"Planets, that around the beauteous moon Attendant wait, cast into
shade Their ineffectual lustres, soon As she, in full-orb'd majesty
array'd, Her silver radiance pours Upon this world of ours."
and:--
"Thro' orchard plots with fragrance crown'd, The clear cold fountain
murm'ring flows; And forest leaves, with rustling sound, Invite to soft
repose."
The foregoing remarks seemed to me due to those who consider a love
such as that of Sappho and Bartja to have been impossible among the
ancients. Unquestionably it was much rarer then than in these days:
indeed I confess to having sketched my pair of lovers in somewhat
bright colors. But may I not be allowed, at least once, to claim the
poet's freedom?
How seldom I have availed myself of this freedom will be evident from
the notes included in each volume. They seemed to me necessary,

partly in order to explain the names and illustrate the circumstances
mentioned in the text, and partly to vindicate the writer in the eyes of
the learned. I trust they may not prove discouraging to any, as the text
will be found easily readable without reference to the explanations.
Jena, November 23, 1868. GEORG EBERS, DR.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH GERMAN EDITION.
Two years and a half after the appearance of the third edition of "An
Egyptian Princess," a fourth was needed. I returned long since from the
journey to the Nile, for which I was preparing while correcting the
proof-sheets of the third edition, and