The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 2Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
General
The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 2
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
English poetry
Panagiotes Kodrikas, the translator of Fontenelle, and Kamarases,[251]
who translated Ocellus Lucanus on the Universe into French,
Christodoulus,[252] and more particularly Psalida,[253] whom I have
conversed with in Joannina, are also in high repute among their
literati. The last-mentioned has published in Romaic and Latin a work on
_True Happiness_, dedicated to Catherine II. But Polyzois,[254] who is
stated by the Reviewer to be the only modern except Coray who has
distinguished himself by a knowledge of Hellenic, if he be the Polyzois
Lampanitziotes of Yanina, who has published a number of editions in
Romaic, was neither more nor less than an itinerant vender of books;
with the contents of which he had no concern beyond his name on the
title page, placed there to secure his property in the publication; and
he was, moreover, a man utterly destitute of scholastic acquirements. As
the name, however, is not uncommon, some other Polyzois may have edited
the Epistles of Aristænetus.
It is to be regretted that the system of continental blockade has closed
the few channels through which the Greeks received their publications,
particularly Venice and Trieste. Even the common grammars for children
are become too dear for the lower orders. Amongst their original works
the Geography of Meletius, Archbishop of Athens, and a multitude of
theological quartos and poetical pamphlets, are to be met with; their
grammars and lexicons of two, three, and four languages are numerous and
excellent. Their poetry is in rhyme. The most singular piece I have
lately seen is a satire in dialogue between a Russian, English, and
French traveller, and the Waywode of Wallachia (or Blackbey, as they
term him), an archbishop, a merchant,[255] and Cogia Bachi (or primate),
in succession; to all of whom under the Turks the writer attributes
their present degeneracy. Their songs are sometimes pretty and pathetic,
but their tunes generally unpleasing to the ear of a Frank; the best is
the famous "Δεύτε, παῖδες τῶν Ἑλλήνων [Deu/te, pai~des tô~n E(llê/nôn],"
by the unfortunate Riga.[256] But from a catalogue of more than sixty
authors, now before me, only fifteen can be found who have touched on
any theme except theology.
I am intrusted with a commission by a Greek of Athens named Marmarotouri
to make arrangements, if possible, for printing in London a translation
of Barthelemi's _Anacharsis_ in Romaic, as he has no other opportunity,
unless he dispatches the MS. to Vienna by the Black Sea and Danube.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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