The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume III | Page 4

stair."
What man has an ear so delicate as to hear such music?
The contrast between Greek poetry and Scotch is very marked in this
point. There is not one Greek lyric devoted to what we should
designate love, with perhaps something like an exception in Alcman. In
fact, while moderns rarely make a tragedy or comedy, a poem or novel,
without some love-concern which is the pivot of the whole, all the great
poems and dramas of the ancients revolve on entirely different passions.
Love, such as we speak of, was of rather rare occurrence. Women were
in such a low position, that it was a condescension to notice
them,--there was no chivalrous feeling in regard to them; they were
made to feel the dominion of their absolute lords and masters. Besides
this, the greater number of them were confined to their private
chambers, and seldom saw any man who was not nearly related. Those
who were on free terms of intercourse with men, were for the most part
strangers, whose morals were low, and who could not be expected to
win the respectful esteem of true lovers. The men enjoyed the society
of these--their tumbling, dancing, singing, and lively chat; but the
distance was too great to permit that deep devotion which characterises
modern love. Moreover, when a Greek speaks of love, we have to
remember that he fell in love as often with a male companion as with a
woman--he admired the beauty of a fair youth, and he felt in his
presence very much as a modern lover feels in the presence of his
sweetheart. We have, therefore, to examine expressions of love
cautiously. Anacreon says, for instance, that love clave him with an axe,
like a smith; but it seems far more likely that the reference is to the

affection excited by some charming youth.[1] We have a specimen
remaining of the nonchalant style in which he addressed a woman, in
the ode commencing "O Thracian mare!"--Schneidewin, Poet. Lyr.
Anac. fr. 47.
The great poet of Love was not Anacreon, but Sappho, whose heart and
mind were both of the finest. Her life is involved in obscurity, but it is
probable that she was a strong advocate of woman's rights in her own
land; and as she found men falling in love with other men, so she took
special pains to win the affections of the young Æolian ladies, to train
them in all the accomplishments suited to woman's nature, and to
initiate them into the art of poetry,--that art without which, she says, a
woman's memory would be for ever forgotten, and she would go to the
house of Hades, to dwell with the shadowy dead, uncared for and
unknown. We have two poems of hers which have come down to us
tolerably complete, both, we think, addressed to some of her female
friends, and both remarkably sweet, touching, and beautiful.
The Scottish songs devoted to other subjects than love are few, and
almost exclusively descriptive. Our sense of the humorous gives us a
delight in queer and odd characters, in which the Greeks probably
would not have participated. Though they had an abundance of wit, and
a keen perception of the ridiculous, no songs have reached us which are
intended to please by their pure absurdity and good-natured foolishness.
Archilochus and Hipponax wrote many a jocular song; but the fun of
the thing would have been lost, had the sting which they contained
been extracted.
Nor do the Greeks seem to have cared much for descriptive songs.
They frequently introduced their heroes into their odes, but these were
ever living, ever present to their minds; and several of the songs written
on particular occasions were probably sung when the singer had no
connexion with the events. But they lived, like boys, too much in the
present, to throw themselves back into the past. They wished to give
utterance to the feelings of the moment in their own persons, and
directly; while we are content to be mere listeners, and are often as
much pleased by the occurrences of another's life as by the sentiments

of our own hearts.
We are remarkably deficient in what are called class-songs. The Greeks
had none of these, for there scarcely existed any classes but free and
slave. The people were all one--had the same interests and the same
emotions. There was far less of individuality with them than with us,
and there was still less of that feeling which divides society into
exclusive circles. A Greek turned his hand to anything that came in his
way, while division of labour has reached its utmost limit among us.
We can find, therefore, no contrast here between Greek and Scotch
songs; but we find a very marked one between Scotch and