PREFACE

Since the appearance of the fourth edition of
Theodor Bergk's Poetwe Lyrict Graeco. in which they
form the third volume. the Lyrie Fragments, or as
they are more acc urately called, the Melie Fr: agments,
have not been published complete. The last forty
years, thanks mainly to the work of the Egypt
Exploration Fund and similar societies, have added
very notably to our slender store, and a new edition
has been long overdue. My buok will, I hope, go
some way to supply the want. It is complete in the
sense that its sole omissions are fragments which
have only palaeographical value, and it contains all
that is really necessary by way of exegesis. In all
places where the text adopted would otherwise be
misleading I have given critical notes, save only
where I have already discussed the re: nding in one or
other of the classical periodicals. Many sscholars—
and to say this is not to depreciate a great work ;
for such things depend on the point of view—must
have found Bergk lacking in two respects. First,
when so little is known of these great figures of
antiquity. all that little has value for us if they are
to seem things of flesh and blood and not the mere
subjects of a lesson in translation. With the single
exception of Sappho’s, the Fragments alone are not
enough. I have therefore included, unlike Berek,
the chief passages of ancient literature which throw
light on the life and person: lity of the poets and
their literary reputation in antiquity—not making
an exception of Sappho: for the clear-drawn self-

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