Mediaeval Rhodian Love-Poems

Author(s): H. F. Tozer
Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 1 (1880), pp. 308-313
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/623628 .
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MEDIAEVAL RHODIAN LOVE-POEMS.

308

MEDIAEVAL RHODIAN LOVE-POEMS.

THE study of mediaeval Greek literature has lately experienced a serious loss in the early death of Dr. W. Wagner,
who by his Medieval Greek Texts, published for the English
Philological Society, his Carmina Graeca Medii Aevi, and other
works on the same subject, has deserved well of all who are
interested in the writings of that period. Not the least important addition to our knowledge of this branch of literature is
that which he made shortly before his death by publishing
The Alphabet of Love ('O X4bd/pro9
dy7nrq, Leipzig:
Toqr~
The
from
is
this
which
Teubner).
manuscript
printed for the
first time was discovered by him in the British Museum during
the spring of 1878, and it contains a collection of love-poems
in the usual Greek ballad-metre, which were partly arranged
according to their initial letter; this system Dr. Wagner has
introduced throughout, whence the name The Alphabet of Love.
The place of their composition is shown by internal evidence
to have been Rhodes, for in one of the poems the writer represents her lover, who has gone into foreign lands, as saying that
he had left her in that island-

'

V K6p' V,

Tq'V
d0tlo'a,

qvT\V ePo8ovT?\v6?0,qa.
(No. xxxii. 11.)

Their date was some time during the two centuries preceding
the capture of Constantinople by the Turks; most probably in
the middle or the latter half of the fourteenth century. We
find in them the mention of the Turcopuls or Turkish mercenaries, who were employed by the Byzantine emperors, and
of the Venetians and Genoese, who were then the most influential powers in the Levant; and the admiration expressed for

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MEDIAEVAL RHODIAN LOVE-POEMS.

309

objects in the imperial palace, or in the possession of the

emperors-such as the porphyry pillar, and the imperial icon
of the Virgin; mentioned in the poem of which a translation is
given below-seems to imply that the Byzantine empire had
not yet reached the last stage of decline, and that its influence
was still felt in the island. Now this was the period of the
occupation of Rhodes by the Knights of St. John (A.D.
1309-1522), and consequently the cavaliers who are so constantly mentioned here are none other than the members of
that military order; and the passages, like that already quoted,
which imply a somewhat migratory life on the part of some of
the writers, refer to their visits to Western Europe; as where
one of them says-'
BeXwva' rayw Tv al~rmcoq,
pafyxtdv,

iXpdt, t dpyyrow.
(No. xxxiii. 2.)

In fact, the whole collection is the amatory correspondence

which passed between them and the ladies of the island. They
are 112 in number, ranging from distichs to poems of some
length, for one contains more than fifty lines. Unlike most
modern Greek love-poems, they are addressed as well by
women to men as vice versd, and the compositions of the fair
sex are not less impassioned than the others. In the present
arrangement the poems of the two sexes are frequently made
to alternate, so that a sort of amoebean character prevails.
Their directness of expression, fulness of metaphor, and highly
coloured diction, are thoroughly lyric; and they may fairly
be described, not only as superior to anything of the kind in
modern Greek literature, but as deserving a high place among
amatory poems. The dialect, notwithstanding their early date,
is almost pure Romaic, though here and there we meet with an
unusual tense-form, and oi is frequently used as the negative,
though not to the exclusion of 86v. With a view to popularise
them, Dr. Wagner has appended a German translation throughout, in which the metre and much of the spirit of the original is
retained. By means of this notes are rendered almost unnecessary,
but there is a complete glossary at the end of the volume, compiled with the editor's usual care and learning; though it is
difficult to understand why so many words should have been
included which will be found in any modern Greek lexicon.

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MEDIAEVALRHODIANLOVE-POEMS.

310

Though scarcely anything like indelicacy is to be discovered

in the poems, yet, as Dr. Wagner remarks, they bear witness
to a corrupt state of society, and to the demoralising influence
of the military orders on those amongst whom they lived. This
is corroborated in what we find a century and a half later in
Emmanuel Georgillas' poem on the great visitation of Rhodes
by the plague in 1498 (Tb OavatIcv
7rqiv'P6Tov), which
describes the great beauty of the ladies of the island, the rich
attire worn by both sexes, and their luxurious feasting. I subjoin one of the longer of the Rhodian poems together with
a translation, premising that modes of expression, and transitions
in sentences, which hardly seem out of place in the original,
will easily be felt to be harsh or abrupt in English. It is worth
while to call the attention of those who are interested in the
subject to the fact that in the same manuscript volume which
contains these poems (Additional MSS. No. 8241) Dr. Wagner
found a mediaeval Greek Achilleis, which he had not time
to transcribe.
tcvpdpov, eyd7rov 0e, ical ad,'yanrc we 7rXreov.

IdvTa,

&

Xvyep,' KL
7tXrTepove,
,

'pCpqre

roVJ9epOTe

'ro&9

v wrXrpocopauat,

Icap8&to'oyTa'rd&e,

e ela
Ta2v
iapitdv pov.
tCxea
vre(terav
5 Icwa7raTareic al K 6Olet ra 0tiXXa
xicapS6tepov,
vrq
,ra
ica To
a '7)y/.era 0ov.
b pedaq,6 pe at
'tV
IcKeC v TOb
,
xcvpi p.ov, er' 'at 6 ~ oaXpav3ropeXcrdpt%
/dXav Ical
#7roT1

7TroV eXetC icXcica/.ara

ica~err'vov

'rot &tapoiv
10

caKa
'ry(o, xvpa,

w4

al p,&ehStwpay.
pe re'ioav
rToroXaXa
i
to,
oe
~4tfrovrv,

eITva,

7roTC

'otr
oc
OrKe
Xbpraod

-e,

icvpa p/ov, va c 7rrvco.

,
'reOv,4,,
'9
7T 7raXaTrv,
e(v 'urat c&OVLtvrop7vp ov 7roJ a0TEKe

v ta
7rvra

orov

rcal

ee o facr tXeIab
covmrt'wet5

6 XoyoO&nC,
I6plve&

roD paactXe^0
rrotwa elic6vtpav,
6y3 6Xs'tv,
xcal 86faTCv apx6fYrTv.
'rta i 7
Tr(yCdiaV8
15 Kai\6y
T974;c

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MEDIAEVAL RHODIAN LOVE-POEMS.

311

I ever loved thee, lady mine, and yet my love increases.

If thou believ'st not, slender maid, if thou art not persuaded,
Then ask, I pray thee, ask the Loves that fire the soul with
passion,
The Loves who brought and planted thee within my heart's
enclosure.
5 But thou dost rend and trample down the flowers of my
affection,
Yet dear and near art thou to me, the nail and flesh no nearer.
Thou art the river, lady mine, that flows with gold and
honey,
So many are the braided locks that wave and are thy glory:
The passers-by that drink thereof thirst not again for ever,
10 But, lady, since I drank of thee, I never have been sated,
I ever thirst, and ever long, lady, to drink thy fountain.
Thou art the shaft of porphyrythat stands within the palace,
By which the Emperor sits in state, the Logothete gives
judgment ;
Thou art Our Lady's imaged form, worn on the Emperor's
bosom,
15 And foreign princes honour thee, and chieftains magnify thee.

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312

MEDIAEVAL RHODIAN LOVE-POEMS.

deov o'atT 77r; VIura

ij SpootQ
tIac

jI

rdXv? 70ro XGL~ovO,

pa7,
Kait beryyog a71roo7Treptvv Kai i~so?rOT7479
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a
allryiq abyepwO',
r, 70raXa'rtoi
Kal7ti
v
o
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'A8d/aov "'17)v
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&ica'r*ev Kali 'VptTrev 7rroXXcV

arn'b

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ivi"

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.k4Xl.
p.OV artavar

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313

MEDIAEVAL RHODIAN LOVE-POEMS.

Thou art the cooling dew of night, the hoar-frost of the

winter,
The moonlight of the eventide, the sunshine of the daytime,
The planet bright that leads the dawn, the lamp that lights
the palace.
Thou art the star of heaven above, the blossom of the
meadow,
20 A land by all much coveted, a land of many treasures.
From forth the circle of the sun thou art the one pure
daybeam,
The single rib from out the side of our first father taken;
'Tis thou who many hearts of men with flames of love hast
kindled,
Among the vocal nightingales thou art a tuneful songstress :
25 When I betake myself to rest, e'en in my dreams I see thee.
And many other are the forms in which the Loves torment me
For, lady, when I think of thee, when in my mind I bear
thee,
My heart of hearts is deeply moved, it quivers like an aspen,
My inmost breast is torn with sighs, I can no more endure it,
30 For that thy love has found its way into my soul's recesses,
And like a sharp two-edged sword cruelly rends my heartstrings,
And all emaciates my limbs, and robs me of my reason.
H. F. TOZER.

IT. S.-

VOL

T.

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