The relation of Shelley's Elegy of _Adonais_ to the two Elegies written
by Bion and by Moschus must no doubt have been observed, and been more
or less remarked upon, as soon as _Adonais_ obtained some currency among
classical readers; Captain Medwin, in his _Shelley Papers_, 1832,
referred to it. I am not however aware that the resemblances had ever
been brought out in detail until Mr. G.S.D. Murray, of Christ Church,
Oxford, noted down the passages from Bion, which were published
accordingly in my edition of Shelley's Poems, 1870. Since then, 1888,
Lieut.-Colonel Hime, R.A., issued a pamphlet (Dulau & Co.) entitled _The
Greek Materials of Shelley's Adonais, with Remarks on the three Great
English Elegies_, entering into further, yet not exhaustive, particulars
on the same subject. Shelley himself made a fragmentary translation from
the Elegy of Bion on Adonis: it was first printed in Mr. Forman's
edition of Shelley's Poems, 1877. I append here those passages which are
directly related to _Adonais_:--
'I mourn Adonis dead--loveliest Adonis--
Dead, dead Adonis--and the Loves lament.
Sleep no more, Venus, wrapped in purple woof--
Wake, violet-stoled queen, and weave the crown
Of death,--'tis Misery calls,--for he is dead.
... Aphrodite
With hair unbound is wandering through the woods,
Wildered, ungirt, unsandalled--the thorns pierce
Her hastening feet, and drink her sacred blood.
* * * * *
The flowers are withered up with grief.
* * * * *
Echo resounds, . . "Adonis dead!"
* * * * *
She clasped him, and cried ... "Stay, Adonis!
Stay, dearest one,...
And mix my lips with thine!
Wake yet a while, Adonis--oh but once!--
That I may kiss thee now for the last time--
But for as long as one short kiss may live!"
The reader familiar with _Adonais_ will recognise the passages in that
poem of which we here have the originals. To avoid repetition, I do not
cite them at the moment, but shall call attention to them successively
in my Notes at the end of the volume.
For other passages, also utilised by Shelley, I have recourse to the
volume of Mr. Andrew Lang (Macmillan & Co. 1889), _Theocritus, Bion, and
Moschus, rendered into English Prose_. And first, from Bion's Elegy on
Adonis:--
'The flowers flush red for anguish.... This kiss will I treasure, even
as thyself, Adonis, since, ah ill-fated! thou art fleeing me,... while
wretched I yet live, being a goddess, and may not follow thee.
Persephone, take thou my lover, my lord, for thyself art stronger than
I, and all lovely things drift down to thee.... For why ah overbold!
didst thou follow the chase, and, being so fair, why wert thou thus
over-hardy to fight with beasts?... A tear the Paphian sheds for each
blood-drop of Adonis, and tears and blood on the earth are turned to
flowers.... Ah even in death he is beautiful, beautiful in death, as one
that hath fallen on sleep.... All things have perished in his death, yea
all the flowers are faded.... He reclines, the delicate Adonis, in his
raiment of purple, and around him the Loves are weeping and groaning
aloud, clipping their locks for Adonis. And one upon his shafts, another
on his bow, is treading, and one hath loosed the sandal of Adonis, and
another hath broken his own feathered quiver, and one in a golden vessel
bears water, and another laves the wound, and another, from behind him,
with his wings is fanning Adonis.... Thou must again bewail him, again
must weep for him another year.... He does not heed them [the Muses];
not that he is doth to hear, but that the Maiden of Hades doth not let
him go.'