Thy tongue were labouring to declare,
Nor shame should dash thy glance, nor fear
Forbid thy suit to reach my ear.
Anon. (Edin. Rev., 1832, p. 190).
Aristotle, in his Rhetoric, i. 9, about 330 B.C., says 'base things dishonour those who do or wish them, as Sappho showed when Alcaeus said—
ἰόπλοκ' ἄγνα μελλιχόμειδε Σάπφοι,
θέλω τι ϝείπην, ἀλλά με κωλύει αἴδως.
"Violet-weaving, pure, softly-smiling Sappho, I would say something, but shame restrains me"' (cf. supra, p. [8]), and she answered him in the words of the present fragment.
Blass (Rhein. Mus. 1879, xxix. p. 150) believes that these verses also are Sappho's, not Alcaeus'. Certainly they were quoted as Sappho's by Anna Comnena, about 1110 A.D., as well as by another writer whom Blass refers to. Blass would read the last line περὶ ὦ δικαίως ('δικαίως) = περὶ οὗ ἐδικαίους, about that which thou didst pretend.
IV