"How Fate to Virtue paid her debt,
And for their troubles, bade them prove
A lengthened life of peace and love."
The forte of Heliodorus lies especially in descriptions; his work abounds in these, and apart from the general story, the most interesting portions are, the account of the haunts of the Buccaneers; the procession at Delphi, with the respective retinues and dresses of Theagenes and Chariclea; the wrestling match, and the bull fight—all these are brought before the reader with picturesque effect, and in forcible and vivid language; nor should we omit what is very curious and valuable in an antiquarian point of view, his minute description of the panoply worn by man and horse composing the flower of the Persian army, which paints to the life, the iron-clad heroes of the Crusades, so many centuries before they appeared upon the scene.
With reference to the writers of Greek Romance, in general, there is one particular point which deserves mention; the more prominent manner in which they bring forward that sex, whose influence is so powerful upon society, but whose seclusion in those early times banished them from a participation in the every day affairs of life. "The Greek Romances," says Dunlop, "may be considered as almost the first productions, in which woman is in any degree represented as assuming her proper station of the friend and companion of man. Hitherto she had been considered almost in the light of a slave, ready to bestow her affections on whatever master might happen to obtain her; but in Heliodorus and his followers, we see her an affectionate guide and adviser. We behold an union of hearts painted as a main spring of our conduct in life—we are delighted with pictures of fidelity, constancy, and chastity."
The same writer sums up his observations upon the Greek Romances, by saying: "They are less valuable than they might have been, from giving too much to adventure, and too little to manners and character; but these have not been altogether neglected, and several pleasing pictures are delineated of ancient customs and feelings. In short, these early fictions are such as might have been expected at the first effort, and must be considered as not merely valuable in themselves, but as highly estimable in pointing out the method of awaking the most pleasing sympathies of our nature, and affecting most powerfully the fancy and heart." The popularity of Heliodorus has found translators for his Romance in almost every European language—France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Holland have contributed their versions.
Four Translations have appeared in English, by Thomas Underdowne, Lond., 1587; W. Lisle, Lond., 1622; N. Tate and another hand, 1686; lastly, the translation upon which the present one is based, 1791.
Among these, Lisle, who favoured the world with a Poetical version of the Prose Romance, affords us an example of an adventurous and ill fated wight.
"Carmina qui scripsit Musis et Apolline nullo."
"Apollo and the Nine; their heavy curse
On him did lay;—they bid him—go, write verse."
The Reviewer in Blackwood designates his production, as "one of the most precious specimens of balderdash in existence; a perfect literary curiosity in its way." Of the truth of which any one, who will be at the trouble of turning over his pages, may satisfy himself.
The worthy man, at starting, prays earnestly for "A sip of liquor Castaline," and having done this, he mounts and does his best to get Pegasus into a canter; but it is all in vain—whip and spurs avail not; the poor jade, spavined and galled, will not budge an inch; however, nothing daunted, the rowels and scourge are most unmercifully applied; the wretched brute gets into a kind of hobbling trot, which enables the rider to say at the end of his journey—
"This have I wrought with day and nightly swinke
. . . . . .
That after-comers know, when I am dead,
I, some good thing in life endeavoured;—
. . . . . .
To keep my name undrown'd in Lethe pool;
In vain (may seem) is wealth or learning lent
To man that leaves thereof no monument."