'.1 -, • . ■ 'y.-.\ ' .w. y^.^c-"'" ' !!?•»»«»>•' ■^^■: 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 VEESES 
 
 AND 
 
 TEANSLATIONS.
 
 VERSES 
 
 AXD 
 
 TKANSLATIOXS. 
 
 BY C. S. C. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON : BELL AND DALDY. 
 
 1862.
 
 CTuiubribgc : 
 
 PRINTKD BY JONATHAN PALMKR, .SIDNEY STEEET.
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 VISIONS ... ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 GEMINI AND VIKGO ... ... ... ... « 
 
 "THERE IS A CITY." ... ... ... ... H 
 
 STRIKING ... ... ... ... ... 1« 
 
 VOICES OF THE NIGHT ... ... ... 21 
 
 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE 14th OF FEBRUARY ... :24 
 
 A, B, C. ... ... ... ... ... 2« 
 
 TO MRS. GOODCHILD ... ... ... ... 28 
 
 ODE— 'ON A DISTANT PROSPECT' OF MAKING A 
 
 FORTUNE ... ... ... ... 33 
 
 ISABEL ... ... ... ... ... 37 
 
 DIRGE ... ... ... ... ... 40 
 
 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE 1-lth OF FEBRUARY ... 4.5 
 
 "HIC VIR, HIC EST" ... ... ... ... 47 
 
 BEER ... ... ... ... ... 52 
 
 ODE TO TOBACCO ... ... ... ... fiO 
 
 DOVER TO MUNICH ... ... ... ... 63 
 
 TO MISS E. C. ... ... ... ... ... 74 
 
 CHAR4DES ... ... ... ... ... "' 
 
 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY ... ... ... K'O 
 
 645969
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 TRANSLATIONS : 
 
 Page 
 
 LVCIDAS 
 
 
 108 
 
 In Memoriam 
 
 
 130 
 
 Laura Matilda's 
 
 Dirge 
 
 134 
 
 " Leaves Have Their Time to Fall." . 
 
 138 
 
 "Let Us Turn Hitherward Our Bark." ... 142 
 
 CARMEN S^CULARE 
 
 
 146 
 
 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE : 
 
 
 To A Ship 
 
 ■•■ ••■ • 
 
 154 
 
 To ViRGII, 
 
 ... ... 
 
 156 
 
 To THE Fountain 
 
 OF BANDrSIA 
 
 158 
 
 To Ibycus's Wife 
 
 
 160 
 
 Soracte 
 
 
 162 
 
 To Leuconoe 
 
 
 164 
 
 Juno's Speech 
 
 
 165 
 
 To A Faun... 
 
 
 170 
 
 To Lyce ... 
 
 
 172 
 
 To HIS Slave 
 
 
 174 
 
 TRANSLATIONS : 
 
 
 
 From Virgil 
 
 
 175 
 
 From Theocritus 
 
 • >• ••> . 
 
 177 
 
 Speech op Ajax 
 
 
 179 
 
 From Lucretius 
 
 
 182 
 
 From Homer 
 
 
 190
 
 VISIONS. 
 
 "She was a phantom," &c. 
 
 TN lone Glenartney's thickets lies couched the 
 
 lordly stag, 
 The dreaming terrier's tail forgets its customary 
 
 wag; 
 And plodding ploughmen's weary steps insensibly 
 
 grow quicker, 
 As broadening casements light them on towards 
 
 home, or home-brewed liquor. 
 
 It is (in fact) the evening — that pure and pleasant 
 
 time, 
 When stars break into splendour, and poets into 
 
 rhyme; 
 
 B
 
 2 VISIONS. 
 
 When in the glass of Memory the forms of loved 
 
 ones shine — 
 And when, of course, Miss GoodchUd's is prominent 
 
 in mine. 
 
 Miss Goodchild ! — Julia Goodchild ! — how graciously 
 you smiled 
 
 Upon my childish passion once, yourself a fair- 
 haired child : 
 
 When I was (no doubt) profiting by Dr. Crabb's 
 instruction, 
 
 And sent those streaky lollipops home for your 
 fairy suction! 
 
 " She wore" her natural " roses, the night when 
 
 first we met" — 
 Her golden hair was gleaming 'neath the coercive 
 
 net: 
 " Her brow was like the snowdrift," her step was 
 
 like Queen Mab's,
 
 VISIONS. 3 
 
 And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at 
 Crabb's. 
 
 The parlour-boarder chasseed by her on graceful 
 
 limb — 
 The onyx decked his bosom — but her smiles were 
 
 not for him : 
 With me she danced — till drowsily her eyes " began 
 
 to bHnk," 
 And /brought raisin wine, and said, "Drink, pretty 
 
 creature, drink!" 
 
 And evermore, when winter comes in his garb of 
 
 snows, 
 And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he 
 
 grows ; 
 Shall I — with that soft hand in mine — enact ideal 
 
 Lancers, 
 And dream I hear demure remarks, and make 
 
 impassioned answers: —
 
 4 VISIONS. 
 
 I know that never, nevei- may her love for me 
 
 return — 
 At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised 
 
 concern — 
 But ever shall I bless that day : (I don't bless, as 
 
 a rule. 
 The days I spent at " Dr. Crabb's Preparatory 
 
 School.") 
 
 And yet — we two mai/ meet again — (Be still, my 
 throbbing heart !) — 
 
 Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and 
 raspberry-tart : — 
 
 One night I saw a vision. — 'Twas when musk- 
 roses bloom, 
 
 I stood — we stood — upon a rug, in a sumptuous 
 dining-room : 
 
 One hand clasped hers — one easily reposed upon 
 my hip —
 
 VISIONS. 5 
 
 And "Bless ye!" burst abruptly from Mr. Good- 
 child's lip : 
 
 I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an 
 answering gleam — 
 
 My heart beat wildly — and I woke, and lo ! it was 
 a dream.
 
 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 
 
 ^OME vast amount of years ago, 
 Ere aU my youth had vanished from me, 
 
 A boy it was my lot to know. 
 
 Whom his familiar friends called Tommy, 
 
 I love to gaze upon a child; 
 
 A young bud bursting into blossom; 
 Artless, as Eve yet unbeguiled. 
 
 And agUe as a young opossum : 
 
 And such was he. A calm-browed lad. 
 Yet mad, at moments, as a hatter : 
 
 Why hatters as a race are mad 
 I never knew, nor does it matter.
 
 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 7 
 
 He was what niirses call a "limb;" 
 One of those small misguided creatures 
 
 Who, though their intellects are dim, 
 Are one too many for their teachers : 
 
 And, if you asked of him to say 
 What twice 10 was, or 3 times 7, 
 
 He'd glance, (in quite a placid way,) 
 
 From heaven to earth, from earth to heaven : 
 
 And smile, and look politely round, 
 
 To catch a casual suggestion; 
 But make no effort to propound 
 
 Any solution of the question. 
 
 And so not much esteemed was he 
 
 Of the authorities : and therefore 
 He fraternized by chance with me. 
 
 Needing a somebody to care for:
 
 GEMINI ANB VIRGO. 
 
 And three fair summers did we twain 
 Live (as they say) and love together; 
 
 And bore by turns the wholesome cane 
 Till our young skins became as leather: 
 
 And carved our names on every desk, 
 
 And tore our clothes, and inked our collars; 
 
 And looked unique and picturesque. 
 But not, it may be, model scholars. 
 
 « 
 
 "We did much as we chose to do; 
 
 We'd never heard of Mrs. Grundy; 
 All the theology we knew 
 
 Was that we mightn't play on Sunday; 
 
 And all the general truths, that cakes 
 Were to be bought at four a penny, 
 
 And that excruciating aches 
 Resulted if we ate too many:
 
 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 
 
 And seeing ignorance is bliss, 
 
 And wisdom consequently folly, 
 The obvious result is tbis — 
 
 That our two lives were very jolly. 
 
 At last the separation came. 
 
 Eeal love, at that time, was the fashion; 
 And by a horrid chance, the same 
 
 Young thing was, to us both, a passion. 
 
 Old PosEK snorted like a horse: 
 
 His feet were large, his hands were pimply. 
 His manner, when excited, coarse : — 
 
 But Miss P. was an angel simply. 
 
 She was a blushing gushing thing; 
 
 All — more than all — my fancy painted; 
 Once — when she helped me to a wing 
 
 Of goose — I thought I should have fainted.
 
 10 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 
 
 The people said tliat she was blue: 
 
 But I was green, and loved her dearly. 
 
 She was approaching thirty-two; 
 And I was then eleven, nearly. 
 
 I did not love as others do; 
 
 (None ever did that I've heard tell of;) 
 My passion was a byword through 
 
 The town she was, of course, the beUe of: 
 
 Oh sweet — as to the toilworn man 
 The far-off sound of rippling river; 
 
 As to cadets in Hindostan 
 
 The fleeting remnant of their liver — 
 
 To me was Anna; dear as gold 
 
 That fiUs the miser's sunless coffers; 
 
 As to the spinster, growing old, 
 
 The thought — the dream — that she had offers.
 
 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 11 
 
 I'd sent her little gifts of fruit; 
 
 I'd written lines to her as Venus; 
 I'd sworn unflinchingly to shoot 
 
 The man who dared to come between us : 
 
 And it was you, my Thomas, you, 
 The friend in whom my soul confided. 
 
 Who dared to gaze on her — to do, 
 I may say, much the same as I did. 
 
 One night, I saw him squeeze her hand; 
 
 There was no doubt about the matter; 
 I said he must resign, or stand 
 
 My vengeance — and he chose the latter. 
 
 We met, we 'planted' blows on blows: 
 We fought as long as we were able : 
 
 My rival had a bottle-nose, 
 
 And both my speaking eyes were sable.
 
 12 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 
 
 When the school-bell cut short our strife, 
 
 Miss P. gave both of us a plaster; 
 
 And in a week became the wife 
 
 Of Horace Nibbs, the writing-master. 
 * * * * # 
 
 I loved her then — I'd love her still, 
 Only one must not love Another's: 
 
 But thou and I, my Tommy, will, 
 
 When we again meet, meet as brothers. 
 
 It may be that in age one seeks 
 
 Peace only: that the blood is brisker 
 
 In boys' veins, than in theirs whose cheeks 
 Are partially obscured by whisker; 
 
 Or that the growing ages steal 
 
 The memories of past wrongs from us. 
 
 But this is certain — that I feel 
 
 Most friendly unto thee, oh Thomas!
 
 GEMINI AND VIRGO. 
 
 And wheresoe'er we meet again, 
 On this or that side the equator, 
 
 If X've not turned teetotaller then, 
 
 And have wherewith to pay the waiter, 
 
 To thee I'll drain the modest cup, 
 Ignite with thee the mild Havannah ; 
 
 And we will waft, while liquoring up, 
 Forgiveness to the heartless Anna.
 
 " There is a City." 
 
 Ingoldsbt. 
 
 VEAR by year do Beauty's daughters, 
 In the sweetest gloves and shawls, 
 
 Troop to taste the Chattenham waters, 
 And adorn the Chattenham balls. 
 
 'Nulla non donanda lauru,* 
 Is that city: you could not, 
 
 Placing England's map before you, 
 Light on a more favoured spot. 
 
 If no clear translucent river 
 
 Winds 'neath willow-shaded paths, 
 
 " Children and adults" may shiver 
 All day in "Chalybeate baths:"
 
 ''TSEJRE IS A city:' 15 
 
 If "the inimitable Fechter" 
 
 Never brings the gallery down, 
 Constantly "the Great Protector" 
 
 There "rejects the British crown:" 
 
 And on every side the painter 
 
 Looks on wooded vale and plain 
 And on fair hills, faint and fainter 
 
 Outlined as they near the main. 
 
 There I met with him, my chosen 
 
 Friend — the ' long ' but not * stem swell,'* 
 
 Faultless in his hats and hosen. 
 
 Whom the Johnian lawns know well : — 
 
 Oh my comrade, ever valued! 
 
 StiU. I see your festive face; 
 Hear you humming of "the gal you'd 
 
 Left behind" in massive bass : 
 
 * "The kites know well the long stern swell 
 That bids the Romans close." 
 
 Macavlay.
 
 16 ''THERE IS A CITY." 
 
 See you sit with that composure 
 
 On the eeliest of hacks, 
 That the novice would suppose your 
 
 Manly limbs encased in wax: 
 
 Or anon, — when evening lent her 
 Tranquil light to hill and vale, — 
 
 Urge, towards the table's centre, 
 With unerring hand, the squail. 
 
 Ah delectablest of summers! 
 
 How my heart — that "muffled drum" 
 Which ignores the aid of drummers — 
 
 Beats, as back thy memories come! 
 
 Oh, among the dancers peerless, 
 Fleet of foot, and soft of eye! 
 
 Need I say to you that cheerless 
 Must my days be till I die?
 
 ''TEERE IS A CITY." 17 
 
 At my side she mashed the fragrant 
 
 Strawberry; lashes soft as silk 
 Drpoped o'er saddened eyes, when vagrant 
 
 Gnats sought (watery?) graves in milk: 
 
 Then we danced, we walked together ; 
 
 Talked — no doubt on trivial topics; 
 Such as Blondin, or the weather. 
 
 Which "recalled to us the tropics"; 
 
 Eut — oh ! in the deuxtemps peerless, 
 Fleet of foot, and soft of eye I — 
 
 Once more I repeat, that cheerless 
 Shall my days be till I die. 
 
 And the lean and hungry raven. 
 As he picks my bones, will start 
 
 To observe * m. n.' engraven 
 Neatly on my blighted heart.
 
 STEIKING. 
 
 TT was a railway passenger, 
 
 And he lept out jauntilie. 
 " Now up and bear, thou stout porter, 
 
 My two chattels to me : 
 
 " Bring hither, bring hither my bag so red, 
 
 And portmanteau so brown : 
 (They lie in the van, for a trusty man 
 
 He labelled them London town:) 
 
 " And fetch me eke a cabman bold, 
 That I may be his fare, his fare; 
 And he shall have a good shilling. 
 If by two of the clock he do me bring 
 To the Terminus, Euston Square."
 
 STRIKING. 19 
 
 "Now, — so to thee the saints alway, 
 
 Good gentleman, give luck, — 
 As never a cab may I find this day, 
 
 For the cabman wights have struck : 
 And now, I wis, at the Red Post Inn, 
 
 Or else at the Dog and Duck, 
 Or at Unicorn blue, or at green Grifiin, 
 The nut-brown ale and the fine old gin 
 
 Eight pleasantly they do suck." 
 
 " Now rede me aright, thou stout porter. 
 What were it best that I should do : 
 
 For woe is me, an I reach not there 
 Or ever the clock strike two." 
 
 •'I have a son, a lytel son; 
 
 Fleet is his foot as the wild roebuck's : 
 Give him a shilling, and eke a brown, 
 And he shall carry thy chattels down.
 
 20 STRIKING. 
 
 To Euston, or half over London town, 
 On one of the station trucks." 
 
 Then forth in a hurry did they twain fare, 
 The gent, and the son of the stout porter, 
 \Vlio fled like an arrow, nor turned a hair. 
 
 Through all the mire and muck: 
 ' ' A ticket, a ticket, sir clerk, I pray : 
 For by two of the clock must I needs away :" 
 " That may hardly be," the clerk did say, 
 
 "For indeed — the clocks have struck."
 
 VOICES OF THE NIGHT. 
 
 "The tender Grace of a day that is past." 
 
 fT^HE dew is on the roses, 
 
 The owl hath spread her wing; 
 And vocal are the noses 
 
 Of peasant and of king : 
 "Nature" (in short) "reposes;" 
 
 But I do no such thing. 
 
 Pent in my lonesome study 
 Here I must sit and muse; 
 
 Sit till the morn grows ruddy, 
 Till, rising with the dews, 
 
 " Jeameses" remove the muddy 
 Spots from their masters' shoes.
 
 22 VOICES OF TEE NIGHT. 
 
 Yet are sweet faces flinging 
 Their witchery o'er me here: 
 
 I hear sweet voices singing 
 A song as soft, as clear, 
 
 As (previously to stinging) 
 A gnat sings round one's ear. 
 
 Does Grace draw young Apollos 
 In blue mustachios still? 
 
 Does Emma tell the swallows 
 How she will pipe and trill, 
 
 When, some fine day, she follows 
 Those birds to the window-sill? 
 
 And oh! has Albert faded 
 From Grace's memory yet? 
 
 Albert, whose "brow was shaded 
 By locks of glossiest jet," 
 
 Whom almost any lady'd 
 Have given her eyes to get?
 
 VOICES OF TEE NIGHT. 23 
 
 Does not her conscience smite her 
 
 For one who hourly pines, 
 Thinking her bright eyes brighter 
 
 Than any star that shines — 
 I mean of conjse the writer 
 
 Of these pathetic lines? 
 
 Who knows? As quoth Sir "Walter, 
 "Time rolls his ceaseless course: 
 
 The Grace of yore" may alter — 
 And then, I've one resource: 
 
 I'll invest in a bran-new halter. 
 And I'll perish without remorse.
 
 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE FOIIRTEENTH 
 OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 "PRE the morn the east has crimsoned, 
 When the stars are twinkling there, 
 (As they did in Watts' s hymns, and 
 
 Made him wonder what they were:) 
 When the forest-nymphs are beading 
 
 Fern and flower with silvery dew — 
 My infallible proceeding 
 
 Is to wake, and think of you. 
 
 When the hunter's ringing bugle 
 Sounds farewell to field and copse, 
 
 And I sit before my frugal 
 Meal of grayy-soup and chops : 
 
 When (as Gray remarks) " the moping 
 Owl doth to the moon complain,"
 
 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE Uth OF FEB. 25 
 
 And the hour suggests eloping — 
 Fly my thoughts to you again. 
 
 May my dreams be granted never? 
 
 Must I aye endure affliction 
 Earely realised, if ever, 
 
 In our wildest works of fiction? 
 Madly Komeo loved his Juliet; 
 
 Copperfield began to pine 
 When he hadn't been to school yet — 
 
 But their loves were cold to mine. 
 
 Give me hope, the least, the dimmest, 
 
 Ere I drain the poisoned cup : 
 Tell me I may tell the chymist 
 
 Not to make that arsenic up ! 
 Else, this heart shall soon cease throbbing; 
 
 And when, musing o'er my bones. 
 Travellers ask, "Who killed Cock Robin?" 
 
 They'll be told, " Miss Sarah J— s."
 
 A, B, C. 
 
 A is an Angel of blushing eighteen : 
 
 B is the Ball where the Angel was seen : 
 
 C is her Chaperone, who cheated at cards : 
 
 D is the Deuxtemps, with Frank of the Guards : 
 
 E is the Eye which those dark lashes cover: 
 
 E is the Fan it peeped wickedly over: 
 
 G is the Glove of superlative kid : 
 
 H is the Hand which it spitefully hid: 
 
 I is the Ice which spent nature demanded: 
 
 J is the Juvenile who hurried to hand it: 
 
 K is the Kerchief, a rare work of art: 
 
 L is the Lace which composed the chief part. 
 
 M 's the old Maid who watch' d the girls dance '. 
 
 N is the Nose she turned up at each glance:
 
 A, £, a 27 
 
 is the Olga (just then in its prime) : 
 
 P is the Partner who wouldn't keep time : 
 
 Q, 's a 'Quadrille, put instead of the Lancers : 
 
 R the Remonstrances made by the dancers : 
 
 S is the Supper, where all went in pairs : 
 
 T is the Twaddle they talked on the stairs : 
 
 TJ is the Uncle who 'thought we'd be going': 
 
 V is the Voice which his niece replied ' !No' in : 
 W is the Waiter, who sat up till eight: 
 
 X is his Exit, not rigidly straight: 
 
 Y is a Yawning fit caused by the Ball : 
 Z stands for Zero, or nothing at all.
 
 TO MRS. GOODCHILD. 
 
 T'HE night wind's sliriek is pitiless and hollow, 
 
 The boding bat flits by on sullen wing, 
 And I sit desolate, like that "one swallow" 
 Who found (with horror) that he'd not brought 
 spring : 
 Lonely as he who erst with venturous thumb 
 Drew from its pie-y lair the solitary plum. 
 
 And to my gaze the phantoms of the Past, 
 
 The cherished fictions of my boyhood, rise : 
 I see Eed Eidinghood observe, aghast. 
 
 The fixed expression of her grandam's eyes ; 
 I hear the fiendish chattering and chuckling 
 Which those misguided fowls raised at the Ugly 
 Duckling.
 
 TO MRS. GOOBCEILD. 29 
 
 The House that Jack bxiilt — and the Malt that lay 
 "Within the House — the Eat that ate the Malt — 
 
 The Cat, that in that sanguinary way 
 
 Punished the poor thing for its venial fault — 
 
 The Worrier-Dog — the Cow with crumpled horn — 
 And then — ah yes ! and then — the Maiden all forlorn ! 
 
 Oh Mrs. Gurton — (may I call thee Gammer?) — 
 Thou more than mother to my infant mind! 
 I loyed thee better than I loved my grammar — 
 I used to wonder why the Mice were blind, 
 And who was gardener to Mistress Mary, 
 And what — I don't know still — was meant by 
 "quite contrary?" 
 
 "Tota contraria," an "Arundo Cami" 
 
 Has phrased it — which is possibly explicit, 
 
 Ingenious certainly — but all the same I 
 
 Still ask, when coming on the word, ' What is 
 
 it?'
 
 30 TO MRS. GOOBCHILB. 
 
 There were more things in Mrs. Gurton's eye, 
 Mayhap, than are dreamed of in our philosophy. 
 
 No doubt the Editor of 'Notes and Queries' 
 
 Or ' Things not generally known' could tell 
 That word's real force — my only lurking fear is 
 That the great Gammer "didna ken hersel:" 
 (I've precedent, yet feel I owe apology 
 For passing in this way to Scottish phraseology.) 
 
 Also, dear Madam, I must ask your pardon 
 For making this unwarranted digression, 
 
 Starting (I think) from Mistress Mary's garden : — 
 And beg to send, with every expression 
 
 Of personal esteem, a Book of Rhymes, 
 For Master G. to read at miscellaneous times. 
 
 There is a youth, who keeps a 'crumpled Horn,' 
 
 (Living next me, upon the selfsame story,) 
 And ever, 'twixt the midnight and the morn,
 
 TO MRS. GOOBCHILD. 31 
 
 He solaces his soul with Annie Laurie, 
 The tune is good ; the habit p'raps romantic ; 
 But tending, if pursued, to drive one's neighbours 
 frantic. 
 
 And now, — at this unprecedented hour. 
 
 When the young Dawn is " trampling out the 
 stars," — 
 I hear that youth — with more than usual power 
 And pathos — struggling with the first few 
 bars. 
 And I do think the amateur cornopean 
 Should be put down by law — but that's perhaps 
 Utopian. 
 
 Who knows what "things unknown" I might 
 
 have " bodied 
 Forth," if not checked by that absurd Too-too? 
 But don't I know, that when my friend has 
 
 plodded
 
 32 TO MUS. OOOBCHILD. 
 
 Through the first verse, the second will ensue ? 
 Considering which, dear Madam, I will merely 
 Send the aforesaid book — and am yours most sin- 
 cerely.
 
 ODE—' ON A DISTANT PROSPECT ' 
 OF MAKING A FORTUNE. 
 
 I^OW the "rosy morn appearing" 
 
 Floods with light the dazzled heaven; 
 And the schoolboy groans on hearing 
 
 That eternal clock strike seven : — 
 Now the waggoner is driving 
 
 Towards the fields his clattering wain; 
 Now the blue-bottle, reviving, 
 
 Buzzes down his native pane. 
 
 But to me the morn is hateful : 
 
 Wearily I stretch my legs, 
 Dress, and settle to my plateful 
 
 Of (perhaps inferior) eggs. 
 Yesterday Miss Crump, by message 
 
 Mentioned "rent," which "p'raps I'd pay;"
 
 34 ODE—' ON A DISTANT PROSPECT' 
 
 And I have a dismal presage 
 That she'll call, herself, to-day. 
 
 Once, I breakfasted off rosewood, 
 
 Smoked through silvermounted pipes — 
 Then how my patrician nose would 
 
 Turn up at the thought of ''swipes!" 
 Ale, — occasionally claret, — 
 
 Graced ray luncheon then : — and now 
 I drink porter in a garret. 
 
 To be paid for heaven knows how. 
 
 When the evening shades are deepened, 
 
 And I doff my hat and gloves, 
 No sweet bird is there to " cheep and 
 
 Twitter twenty million loves:" 
 No darkringleted canaries 
 
 Sing to me of "hungry foam;" 
 No imaginary "Marys" 
 
 Call fictitious " cattle home."
 
 OF MAKING A FORTUNE. 35 
 
 Araminta, sweetest, fairest ! 
 
 Solace once of every ill ! 
 How I wonder if thou bearest 
 
 Mivins in remembrance still I 
 If that Friday night is banished 
 
 Yet from that retentive mind, 
 When the others somehow vanished, 
 
 And we two were left behind : — 
 
 "When in accents low, yet thrilling, 
 
 I did all my love declare; 
 Mentioned that I'd not a shilling — 
 
 Hinted that we need not care : 
 And complacently yon listened 
 
 To my somewhat long address — 
 (Listening, at the same time, isn't 
 
 Quite the same as saying Yes.) 
 
 Once, a happy child, I caroUed 
 
 O'er green lawns the whole day througli.
 
 36 OLE—' ON A DISTANT FROSPECT: 
 
 Not unpleasingly apparelled 
 In a tightish suit of blue : — 
 
 What a change has now passed o'er me! 
 Now with what dismay I see 
 
 Every rising mora before me ! 
 Goodness gracious patience me ! 
 
 And I'll prowl, a moodier Lara, 
 
 Through the world, as prowls the bat, 
 
 And habitually wear a 
 
 Cypress wreath around my hat : 
 
 And when Deatli suviffs out the tapei' 
 Of my Life, (as soon he muot), 
 
 I'll send up to every paper, 
 
 •'Died, T. Mivins; of disgust."
 
 ISABEL. 
 
 AJOW o'er the landscape crowd the deepening 
 shades, 
 
 And the shut lily cradles not the bee; 
 The red deer couches in the forest glades, 
 
 And faint the echoes of the slumberous sea : 
 
 And ere I rest, one prayer I'll breathe for thee, 
 The sweet Egeria of my lonely dreams : 
 
 Lady, forgive, that ever upon me 
 
 Thoughts of thee linger, as the soft starbeams 
 Linger on Merlin's rock, or dark Sabrina's streams. 
 
 On gray Pilatus once we loved to stray. 
 And watch far off the glimmering roselight break 
 O'er the dim mountain-peaks, ere yet one ray 
 Pierced the deep bosom of the mist-clad lake.
 
 38 ISABEL. 
 
 Oh! who felt not new life within him wake, 
 And his pulse quicken, and his spirit burn — 
 
 (Save one we wot of, whom the cold did make 
 Feel "shooting pains in every joint in turn,") 
 When first he saw the sun gild thy green shores, 
 Lucerne ? 
 
 And years have past, and I have gazed once more 
 
 On blue lakes glistening beneath mountains blue ; 
 And all seemed sadder, lovelier than before — 
 
 For aU awakened memories of you. 
 
 Oh I had I had you by my side, in lieu 
 Of that red matron, whom the flies would worry, 
 
 (Flies in those parts unfortunately do,) 
 Who walked so slowly, talked in such a hurry. 
 And with such wild contempt for stops and Lindley 
 Miirray ! 
 
 Isabel, the brightest, heavenliest theme 
 That ere drew dreamer on to poesy,
 
 ISABEL. 39 
 
 Since "Peggy's locks" made Burns neglect his 
 team. 
 And Stella's smile lured Johnson from his tea — 
 I may not tell thee what thou art to me ! 
 But ever dwells the soft voice in my ear, 
 
 Whispering of what Time is, what Man might be. 
 Would he but " do the duty that lies near," 
 And cut clubs, cards, champagne, balls, billiard- 
 rooms, and beer.
 
 DIEGE. 
 
 " Dr. Birch's young friends will reassemble to day, Feb. 1st." 
 
 XySITE is the wold, and ghostly 
 
 The dank and leafless trees; 
 And 'M's and 'N's are mostly 
 
 Pronounced like 'B's and 'D's: 
 'Neath bleak sheds, ice-encrusted, 
 
 The sheep stands, mute and stolid: 
 And ducks find out, disgusted, 
 
 That all the ponds are solid. 
 
 Many a stout steer's work is 
 
 (At least in this world) finished; 
 
 The gross amount of turkies 
 Is sensibly diminished : 
 
 The holly-boughs are faded, 
 The painted crackers gone;
 
 DIRGE. 41 
 
 Would I could write, as Gray did, 
 An Elegy thereon ! 
 
 For Christmas-time is ended : 
 
 Now is ''our youth" regaining 
 Those sweet spots where are " blended 
 
 Home-comforts and school-training." 
 Now they're, I dare say, venting 
 
 Their grief in transient sobs, 
 And I am "left lamenting" 
 
 At home, with Mrs. Dobbs. 
 
 Posthumus! " Fugaces 
 
 Labuntur anni" still; 
 Time robs us of our graces. 
 
 Evade him as we will. 
 We were the twins of Siam : 
 
 Now she thinks me a bore, 
 And I admit that / am 
 
 Inclined at times to snore.
 
 42 DIRGE. 
 
 I was her own Nathaniel; 
 
 With her I took sweet counsel, 
 Brought seed-cake for her spaniel, 
 
 And kept her bird in groundsel : 
 "We've murmured, "How delightful" 
 
 A landscape, seen by night, is, — 
 
 And woke next day in frightful 
 
 Pain from acute bronchitis. 
 •Sf * * * 
 
 But ah ! for them, whose laughter 
 
 We heard last New Tear's Day, 
 They recked not of Hereafter, 
 
 Or what the Doctor 'd say: 
 For those small forms that fluttered 
 
 Moth-like around the plate, 
 When Sally brought the buttered 
 
 Buns in at half-past eight! 
 
 Ah for the altered visage 
 Of her, our tiny Belle,
 
 DIRGE. 43 
 
 Whom my boy Gus (at his age !) 
 
 Said was a " deuced swell !" 
 P'raps now Miss Tickler's tocsin 
 
 Has caged that pert young linnet ; 
 Old Birch perhaps is boxing 
 
 My Gus's ears this minute. 
 
 Yet, though your young ears be as 
 
 Eed as mamma's geraniums, 
 Tet grieve not! Thus ideas 
 
 Pass into infant craniums. 
 Use not complaints unseemly; 
 
 Tho' you must work like bricks; 
 And it is cold, extremely, 
 
 Eising at half-past six. 
 
 Soon sunnier will the day grow. 
 And the east wind not blow so; 
 
 Soon, as of yore, L'AUegro 
 Succeed II Penseroso :
 
 44 DIRGE. 
 
 Stick to your Magnall's Questions 
 And Long Division sums; 
 
 And come — with good digestions — 
 Home when next Christmas comes.
 
 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE FOURTEENTH 
 EEBRUARY. 
 
 T)AEKKESS succeeds to twilight: 
 Through lattice and through skylight 
 The stars no doubt, if one looked out. 
 Might be observed to shine : 
 And sitting by the embers 
 I elevate my members 
 On a stray chair, and then and there 
 Commence a Valentine. 
 
 Yea! by St. Valentinus, 
 Emma shall not be minus 
 What all young ladies, whate'er their grade is. 
 Expect to-day no doubt : 
 Emma the fair, the stately — 
 Whom I beheld so lately.
 
 46 LINES SUGGESTED BY THE Uth FEB. 
 
 Smiling beneath the snow-white wreath 
 Which told that she was "out." 
 
 "Wherefore fly to her, swallow, 
 And mention that I'd "follow," 
 And "pipe and trill," et cetera, till 
 I died, had I but wings : 
 Say the North's "true and tender," 
 The South an old offender; 
 And hint in fact, with your well-known tact. 
 All kinds of pretty things. 
 
 Say I grow hourly thinner, 
 Simply abhor my dinner — 
 Tho' I do try and absorb some viand 
 Each day, for form's sake merely: 
 And ask her, when all's ended. 
 And I am found extended. 
 With vest blood-spotted and cut carotid. 
 To think on Her's sincerely.
 
 "HIC riR, HIC EST." 
 
 QFTEN, when o'er tree and turret, 
 
 Eve a dying radiance flings, 
 By that ancient pile I linger 
 
 Known familiarly as "King's." 
 And the ghosts of days departed 
 
 Rise, and in my burning breast 
 All the undergraduate wakens, 
 
 And my spirit is at rest. 
 
 What, but a revolting fiction. 
 
 Seems the actual result 
 Of the Census's enquiiies 
 
 Made upon the 15th ult. ? 
 Still my soul is in its boyhood; 
 
 Nor of year or changes recks.
 
 48 ''EIG Vlli, MIC EST." 
 
 Though my scalp is almost hairless, 
 And my figure grows convex. 
 
 Backward moves the kindly dial ; 
 
 And I'm numbered once again 
 With those noblest of their species 
 
 Called emphatically 'Men': 
 Loaf, as I have loafed aforetime. 
 
 Through the streets, with tranquil mind, 
 And a long-backed fancy-mongrel 
 
 Trailing casually behind : 
 
 Past the Senate-house I saunter, 
 
 "Whistling with an easy grace; 
 Past the cabbage-stalks that carpet 
 
 Still the beefy market-place; 
 Poising evermore the eyeglass 
 
 In the light sarcastic eye, 
 Lest, by chance, some breezy nursemaid 
 
 Pass, without a tribute, by.
 
 "SIC VIS, EIC EST:' 49 
 
 Once, an unassuming Freshman, 
 
 Through these wilds I wandered on, 
 Seeing in each house a College, 
 
 Under every cap a Don; 
 Each perambulating infant 
 
 Had a magic in its squall. 
 For my eager eye detected 
 
 Senior Wranglers in them all. 
 
 By degrees my education 
 
 Grew, and I became as others ; 
 Learned to court delirium tremens 
 
 By the aid of Bacon, Brothers ; 
 Bought me tiny boots of Mortlock, 
 
 And colossal prints of Roe ; 
 And ignored the proposition 
 
 That both time and money go. 
 
 Learned to work the warj- dogcart 
 Artfully through King's Parade;
 
 50 ''HIG VIE, SIC EST." 
 
 Dress, and steer a boat, and sport with 
 
 Amaryllis in the shade : 
 Struck, at Brown's, the dashing hazard; 
 
 Or (more curious sport than that) 
 Dropped, at Callaby's, the terrier 
 
 Down upon the prisoned rat. 
 
 I have stood serene on Penner's 
 
 Ground, indifferent to blisters, 
 While the Buttress of the period 
 
 Bowled me his peculiar twisters : 
 Sung 'We won't go home till morning': 
 
 Striven to part my backhair straight; 
 Drunk (not lavishly) of Miller's 
 
 Old dry wines at 78 : — 
 
 When within my veins the blood ran, 
 And the curls were on my brow, 
 
 I did, oh ye undergraduates. 
 Much as ye are doing now.
 
 " EIC VIE, mC ESTr 51 
 
 Wherefore bless ye, oh beloved ones :— 
 
 Ijow unto mine inn must I, 
 Tour 'poor moralist,'* betake me, 
 
 In my 'solitary fly.' 
 
 * "Poor moralist, and -what art thou? 
 A solitary fly." 
 
 Gray.
 
 BEER. 
 
 TN those old days whicli poets say were golden — 
 (Perhaps they laid the gilding on themselves : 
 
 And, if they did, I'm all the more beholden 
 To those brown dwellers in my dusty shelves, 
 
 Who talk to me "in language quaint and olden" 
 Of gods and demigods and fauns and elves, 
 
 Pan with his pipes, and Bacchus with his leopards, 
 
 .A.nd staid young goddesses who flirt with shepherds : ) 
 
 In those old days, the Nymph called Etiquette 
 (Appalling thought to dwell on) was not born. 
 
 They had their May, but no Mayfair as yet, 
 No fashions varying as the hues of morn.
 
 BEER. 53 
 
 Just as they pleased they dressed and drank and ate, 
 
 Sang hymns to Ceres (their John Barleycorn) 
 And danced unchaperoned, and laughed unchecked, 
 And were no doubt extremely incorrect. 
 
 Yet do I think their theory was pleasant : 
 And oft, I own, my ' wayward fancy roams' 
 
 Back to those times, so different from the present ; 
 When no one smoked cigars, nor gave At-homes, 
 
 !Nor smote a billiard ball, nor winged a pheasant, 
 Nor ' did' their hair by means of long-tailed combs, 
 
 Nor migrated to Brighton once a-year. 
 
 Nor — most astonishing of all — drank Beer. 
 
 No, they did not drink Beer, "which brings me to" 
 (As Gilpin said) "the middle of my song." 
 
 Not that "the middle" is precisely true. 
 
 Or else I should not tax your patience long : 
 
 If 1 had said ' beginning,' it might do ; 
 But I have a dislike to quoting wrong :
 
 54 BEER. 
 
 I was unlucky — sinned against, not sinning — 
 "When Cowper wrote down ' middle' for ' beginning.' 
 
 So to proceed. That abstinence from Malt 
 Has always struck me as extremely curious. 
 
 The Greek mind must have had some vital fault, 
 That they should stick to liquors so injurious — 
 
 (Wine, water, tempered p'raps with Attic salt) — 
 And not at once invent that mild, luxurious, 
 
 And artful beverage, Beer. How the digestion 
 
 Got on without it, is a startling question. 
 
 Had they digestions ? and an actual body 
 Such as dyspepsia might make attacks on ? 
 
 Were they abstract ideas — (like Tom Noddy 
 
 And Mr. Briggs) — or men, like Jones and Jackson ? 
 
 Then Nectar — was that beer, or whiskey-toddy ? 
 Some say the Gaelic mixture, / the Saxon : 
 
 I think a strict adherence to the latter 
 
 Might make some Scots less pigheaded, and fatter.
 
 BEER. 55 
 
 Besides, Bon Gaultier definitely shews 
 That the real beverage for feasting gods on 
 
 Is a soft compound, grateful to the nose 
 
 And also to the palate, known as ' Hodgson.' 
 
 I know a man — a tailor's son — who rose 
 To be a peer : and this I would lay odds on, 
 
 (Though in his Memoirs it may not appear,) 
 
 That that man owed his rise to copious Beer. 
 
 Oh Beer ! Oh Hodgson, Guinness, AUsop, Bass ! 
 
 Names that should be on every infant's tongue ! 
 Shall days and months and years and centuries 
 pass. 
 
 And still your merits be unrecked, unsung ? 
 Oh ! I have gazed into my foaming glass. 
 
 And wished that lyre could yet again be strung 
 Which once rang prophet-like through Greece, and 
 
 taught her 
 Misguided sons that " the best drink was water."
 
 56 BEER. 
 
 How would he now recant that wild opinion, 
 And sing — as would that I could sing — of you ! 
 
 I was not born (alas!) the "Muses' minion," 
 I'm not poetical, not even blue : 
 
 And he (we know) but strives with waxen pinion, 
 Whoe'er he is that entertains the view 
 
 Of emulating Pindar, and will be 
 
 Sponsor at last to some now nameless sea. 
 
 Oh ! when the green slopes of Arcadia burned 
 
 "With all the lustre of the dying day, 
 And on Cithseron's brow the reaper turned, 
 
 (Humming, of course, in his delightful way. 
 How Lycidas was dead, and how concerned 
 
 The Nymphs were when they saw his lifeless clay ; 
 And how rock told to rock the dreadful story 
 That poor young Lycidas was gone to glory:) 
 
 "What would that lone and labouring soul have given, 
 At that soft moment, for a pewter pot !
 
 BEER. 57 
 
 How had the mists that dimmed his eye been riven, 
 
 And Jjycidas and sorrow all forgot ! 
 If his own grandmother had died unshriven, 
 
 In two short seconds he'd have recked it not ; 
 Such power hath Beei\ The heart which Grief hath 
 
 canker' d 
 Hath one unfailing remedy — the Tankard. 
 
 Coffee is good, and so no doubt is cocoa ; 
 
 Tea did for Johnson and the Chinamen : 
 "Wlien ' Lulce est desipere in loco' 
 
 Was written, real Falernian winged the pen. 
 "When a rapt audience has encored ' Fra Poco' 
 
 Or ' Casta Diva,' I have heard that then 
 The Prima Donna, smiling herself out, 
 Eecruits her flagging powers with bottled stout. 
 
 But what is coffee, but a noxious berry. 
 Born to keep used-up Londoners awake ?
 
 58 BEEB. 
 
 What is Falemian, what is Port or Sherry, 
 But vile concoctions to make dull heads ache ? 
 
 Nay stout itself— (though good with oysters, very) — 
 Is not a thing your reading man should take, 
 
 He that would shine, and petrify his tutor, 
 
 Should drink draught Allsop in its "native pewter." 
 
 But hark ! a sound is stealing on my ear — 
 A soft and silvery sound — I know it well. 
 
 Its tinkling tells me that a time is near 
 Precious to me — it is the Dinner Bell. 
 
 Oh blessed Bell ! Thou bringest beef and beer, 
 Thou bringest good things more than tongue may 
 tell: 
 
 Seared is (of course) my heart — but unsubdued 
 
 Is, and shall be, my appetite for food. 
 
 I go. Untaught and feeble is my pen : 
 
 But on one statement I may safely venture ;
 
 BEER. 59 
 
 That few of our most highly gifted men 
 Have more appreciation of the trencher. 
 
 I go. One pound of British beef, and then 
 
 What Mr. Swiveller called a "modest quencher;" 
 
 That home-retiuTiing, I may ' soothly say,' 
 
 " Fate cannot touch me : I have dined to-day."
 
 ODE TO TOBACCO. 
 
 T^HOU who, when fears attack, 
 Bidest them avaunt, and Black 
 Care, at the horseman's back 
 
 Perching, unseatest; 
 Sweet when the morn is grey; 
 Sweet, when they've cleared away 
 Lunch; and at close of day 
 
 Possibly sweetest: 
 
 I have a liking old 
 For thee, though manifold 
 Stories, I know, are told, 
 Not to thy credit;
 
 ODE TO TOBACCO. 61 
 
 How one (or two at most) 
 Drops make a cat a ghost — 
 Useless, except to roast — 
 Doctors have said it: 
 
 How they who use fusees 
 All grow by slow degrees 
 Erainless as chimpanzees, 
 
 Meagre as lizards; 
 Go mad, and beat their wives; 
 Plunge (after shocking lives) 
 Eazors and carving knives 
 
 Into their gizzards : 
 
 Confound such knavish tricks ! 
 Yet know I five or six 
 Smokers who freely mix 
 
 Still with theii' neighbours ; 
 Jones — (who, I'm glad to say,
 
 62 ODE TO TOBACCO. 
 
 Asked leave of Mrs. J.) — 
 Daily absorbs a clay 
 After his labours : 
 
 Cats may have had their goose 
 Cooked by tobacco juice ; 
 Still why deny its use v 
 
 Thoughtfully taken? 
 We're not as tabbies are: 
 Smith, take a fresh cigar! 
 Jones, the tobacco-jar! 
 
 Here's to thee, Bacon!
 
 DOYER TO MUNICH. 
 
 T^AEEWELL, farewell! Before our prow 
 Leaps in white foam the noisy channel, 
 
 A tourist's cap is on my brow, 
 
 My legs are cased in tourist's flannel : 
 
 Around me gasp the invalids — 
 
 (The quantity to-night is fearful) — 
 
 I take a brace or so of weeds, 
 
 And feel (as yet) extremely cheerful. 
 
 The night wears on : — my thirst I quench 
 With one imperial pint of porter; 
 
 Then drop upon a casual bench — 
 
 (The bench is short, but I am shorter)—
 
 64 DOVER TO MUNICH. 
 
 Place 'neath my head the havre-sac 
 "Which I have stowed my little all in, 
 
 And sleep, though moist about the back, 
 Serenely in an old tarpaulin. 
 
 Bed at Ostend at 5 a.m. 
 
 Breakfast at 6, and train 6.30. 
 Tickets to Konigswinter (mem. 
 
 The seats objectionably dirty). 
 
 And onward through those dreary flats 
 We move, with scanty space to sit on, 
 
 Flanked by stout girls with steeple-hats, 
 Ard waists that paralyse a Briton ; — 
 
 By many a tidy little town, 
 
 Where tidy little Fraus sit knitting ; 
 (The men's pursuits are, lying down, 
 
 Smoking perennial pipes, and spitting;)
 
 DOVER TO MUNICH. 65 
 
 And doze, and execrate the heat, 
 And wonder how far off Cologne is, 
 
 And if we shall get aught to eat, 
 Till we get there, save raw polonies : 
 
 Until at last the "grey old pile" 
 
 Is seen, is past, and three hours later 
 
 We're ordering steaks, and talking vile 
 Mock-German to an Austrian waiter. 
 
 Konigswinter, hateful Konigswinter ! 
 
 Burying-place of all I loved so well ! 
 Never did the most extensive printer 
 
 Print a tale so dark as thou could' st tell ! 
 
 In the sapphire West the eve yet lingered, 
 Bathed in kindly light those hill-tops cold; 
 
 Fringed each cloud, and, stooping rosy-fingered. 
 Changed Rhine's waters into molten gold; —
 
 66 DOVER TO MUNICH. 
 
 While still nearer did his light waves splinter 
 Into silvery shafts the streaming light; 
 
 And I said I loved thee, Konigswinter, 
 For the glory that was thine that night. 
 
 And we gazed, till slowly disappearing. 
 Like a day-dream, passed the pageant by, 
 
 And I saw but those lone hills, nprearing 
 Dull dark shapes against a hue-less sky. 
 
 Then I turned, and on those bright hopes pondered 
 Whereof yon gay fancies were the type; 
 
 And my hand mechanically wandered 
 Towards my left-hand pocket for a pipe. 
 
 Ah! why starts each eyeball from its socket. 
 As, in Hamlet, start the guilty Queen's? 
 
 There, deep-hid in its accustomed pocket. 
 Lay my sole pipe, smashed to smithereens !
 
 DOVER TO MUNICH. 67 
 
 On, on the vessel steals; 
 Round go the paddle-wheels, 
 And now the tourist feels 
 
 As he should; 
 For king-like rolls the Rhine, 
 And the scenery's divine. 
 And the victuals and the wine 
 
 Rather good. 
 
 From every crag we pass '11 
 Rise up some hoar old castle; 
 The hanging fir-groves tassel 
 
 Every slope; 
 And the vine her lithe arms stretches 
 O'er peasants singing catches — 
 And you'll make no end of sketches, 
 
 I should hope.
 
 6S DOVER TO MUNICH. 
 
 We've a nun here (called Theresa), 
 Two couriers out of place, 
 One Yankee, with a face 
 
 Like a ferret's : 
 And three youths in scarlet caps 
 Drinking chocolate and schnapps — 
 A diet which perhaps 
 
 Has its merits. 
 
 And day again declines: 
 
 In shadow sleep the vines, 
 
 And the last ray through the pines 
 
 Feebly glows. 
 Then sinks behind yon ridge; 
 And the usual evening midge 
 Is settling on the bridge 
 
 Of my nose.
 
 DOVER TO MUNICH. 69 
 
 A.Tid keen's the air and cold, 
 And the sheep are in the fold, 
 And Night walks sable-stoled 
 
 Through the trees; 
 And on the silent river 
 The floating starbeams quiver; — 
 And now, the saints deliver 
 
 Us from fleas. 
 
 Avenues of broad white houses. 
 Basking in the noontide glare; — 
 
 Streets, which foot of traveller shrinks from, 
 As on hot plates shiinks the bear; — 
 
 Elsewhere lawns, and vista' d gardens, 
 Statues white, and cool arcades, 
 
 Where at eve the German warrior 
 Winks upon the German maids; —
 
 70 DOVER TO MUNICH. 
 
 Such is Municli : — broad and stately. 
 Rich of hue, and fair of form; 
 
 But, towards the end of August, 
 Unequivocally wa/rm. 
 
 There, the long dim galleries threading, 
 
 May the artist's eye behold, 
 Breathing from the "deathless canvass" 
 
 Records of the years of old : 
 
 Pallas there, and Jove, and Juno, 
 
 " Take" once more " their walks abroad," 
 
 Under Titian's fiery woodlands 
 And the saifron skies of Claude: 
 
 There the Amazons of Rubens 
 
 Lift the failing arm to strike. 
 And the pale light falls in masses 
 
 On the horsemen of Vandyke;
 
 DOVER TO MUNICH. 71 
 
 And in Berghem's pools reflected 
 Hang the cattle's graceful shapes, 
 
 And Murillo's soft boy-faces 
 Laugh amid the Seville grapes; 
 
 And all purest, loveliest fancies 
 
 That in poet's souls may dwell 
 Started into shape and substance 
 
 At the touch of Eaphael. — 
 
 Lo ! her wan arms folded meekly. 
 
 And the glory of her haii- 
 Falling as a robe around her, 
 
 Kneels the Magdalene in prayer; 
 
 And the "white-robed Virgin-mother 
 Smiles, as centuries back she smiled, 
 
 Half in gladness, half in wonder, 
 On the calm face of her Child: —
 
 72 DOVER TO MUNICH. 
 
 And that mighty Judgment-vision 
 Tells how man essayed to climb 
 
 Tip the ladder of the ages, 
 
 Past' the frontier-walls of Time ; 
 
 Heard the trumpet-echoes rolling 
 
 Through the phantom-peopled sky, 
 
 And the still voice bid this mortal 
 
 Put on immortality. 
 
 * * ^ -;? 
 
 Thence we turned, what time the blackbird 
 Pipes to vespers from his perch, 
 
 And from out the clattering city 
 Past into the silent church ; 
 
 Marked the shower of sunlight breaking 
 Through the crimson panes o'erhead, 
 
 And on pictured wall and window 
 Eead the histories of the dead :
 
 DOVER TO MUNICS. 73 
 
 Till the kneelers round us, rising, 
 
 Grossed their foreheads and were gone; 
 
 And o'er aisle and arch and cornice, 
 Layer on layer, the night came on.
 
 TO MISS E. C. 
 
 FROM AN OLD FRIEND. 
 
 XJOPIN' my own cMckabiddy, and bless her 
 
 smilin' face, 
 Will excuge this same, which I ast yer parding 
 
 grant yer grace, 
 Havin' been took with fits last night and never slep 
 
 a wink 
 A thinking o' you, my bird, and but for the least- 
 
 est drop o' drink 
 Should be a copse in the arey now ; which weU you 
 
 knows, my child, 
 It's little as Sairey wants, perwisin' it's brought 
 
 reglar and drawed mild : 
 So here's luck, and a ansome pardner, and a puss 
 
 and goldian guineas.
 
 TO MISS E. C. lb 
 
 And claridge a plenty, and oh my dear find out 
 
 where the key of the bin is ! 
 Which Gamp he kep hisself, till took out by me, 
 
 a bage feller. 
 In a blue ankercher unbeknown, when drunk, my 
 
 dear, in the cellar. 
 Says Mrs. Harris to me, "Ma'am," she says, "them 
 
 men's ojiss :" 
 "Ma'am," I says in return," we lives in a Piljian's 
 
 Projiss ; 
 "But pick yer chice," I says, "and there's better 
 
 nor you suppoges ; 
 And maybe I've had experienge, not bein' Solomons 
 
 nor yet Moges." 
 "You underpaid faithful creetur," she says, " your 
 
 words is true." 
 And PICK YOiTE CHicE, my dovey, is what I says to 
 
 you. 
 And if ever you feels worrited, which worrited you 
 will be,
 
 76 TO MISS E. C. 
 
 And coiild fancy a biled egg or an ingun with 
 a nice cup o' tea, 
 
 Go to Kingsgate Street, High Holbom, the bird- 
 fancier's in the arey, 
 
 She as you wants live there — snap her up — and 
 her name's Saiket.
 
 CHARADES. 
 
 ^HE stood at Greenwich, motionless amid 
 The ever-shifting crowd of passengers. 
 
 I marked a big tear quivering on the lid 
 Of her deep-lustrous eye, and knew that hers 
 "Were days of bitterness. But " Oh ! what stirs," 
 
 I said, "such storm within so fair a breast?" 
 Even as I spoke, two apoplectic curs 
 
 Came feebly up: with one wild cry she prest 
 
 Each singly to her heart, and faltered, " Heaven 
 be blest!" 
 
 Yet once again I saw her, from the deck 
 
 Of a black ship that steamed towards Blackwall.
 
 78 CEARABES. 
 
 She walked upon my first. Her stately neck 
 Bent o'er an object shrouded in her shawl : 
 I could not see the tears — the glad tears — fall, 
 
 Yet knew they fell. And "Ah," I said, "not 
 puppies, 
 Seen unexpectedly, could lift the paU 
 
 From hearts who Tcnow what tasting misery's cup is. 
 
 As Niobe's, or mine, or Mr. "William Guppy's," 
 
 Spake John Grogblossom the coachman to Eliza 
 
 Spinks the cook : 
 "Mrs. Spinks," says he, "I've foundered: 'Liza 
 
 dear, I'm overtook. 
 Druv into a corner reglar, puzzled as a babe unborn ; 
 Speak the word, my blessed 'Liza; speak, and John 
 
 the coachman's yourn." 
 
 Then Eliza Spinks made answer, blushing, to the 
 coachman John :
 
 CSABABES. 79 
 
 "Jolin, I'm born and bred a si^inster: I've begun 
 
 and I'll go on. 
 Endless cares and endless worrits, well I knows it, 
 
 has a wife : 
 Cooking for a genteel fam'ly, John, it's a goluptious 
 
 life! 
 
 "I gets £20 per annum — tea and things o' course 
 
 not reckoned, — 
 There's a cat that eats the butter, takes the coals, 
 
 and breaks mij second : 
 There's soci'ty — James the footman; — (not that I 
 
 look after him ; 
 But he's aff'ble in his manners, with amazing 
 
 length of limb;)— 
 
 "Never durst the missis enter here until I've said 
 
 'Come in': 
 If I saw the master peeping, I'd catch up the 
 
 rolling-pin :
 
 80 CHARADES. 
 
 Christmas-boxes, that's a something; perkisites, 
 
 that's something too; 
 And I think, take all together, John, I won't be on 
 
 with you." 
 
 John the coachman took his hat up, for he thought 
 
 he'd had enough ; 
 Rubbed an elongated forehead with a meditative 
 
 cuff; 
 Paused before the stable doorway ; said, when there, 
 
 in accents mild, 
 "She's a fine young 'oman, cook is; but that's 
 
 where it is, she's spiled." 
 
 I have read in some not marvellous tale, 
 (Or if I have not, I've dreamed) 
 
 Of one who filled up the convivial cup 
 Till the company round him seemed
 
 CHARADES. 81 
 
 To be vanished and gone, tho' the lamps upon 
 Their face as aforetime gleamed : 
 
 And his head sunk down, and a Lethe crept 
 
 O'er his powerful brain, and the young man slept. 
 
 Then they laid him with care in his moonlit bed : 
 But first — having thoughtfully fetched some tar — 
 
 Adorned him with feathers, aware that the weather's 
 Uncertainty brings on at nights catarrh. 
 
 They staid in his room till the sun was high : 
 But still did the feathered one give no sign 
 
 Of opening a peeper — he might be a sleeper 
 Such as rests on the rails of the Midland line. 
 
 At last he woke, and with profound 
 Bewilderment he gazed around; 
 Dropped one, then both feet to the ground, 
 But never spake a word : 
 
 G
 
 82 CHABABES. 
 
 Then to my whole he made his way; 
 Took one long lingering survey; 
 And softly, as he stole away, 
 Eemarked, "By Jove, a bird!" 
 
 < ::i -
 
 II. 
 
 TF you've seen a short man swagger tow'rds the 
 footlights at Shoreditch, 
 
 Sing out " Heave aho ! my hearties," and per- 
 petually hitch 
 
 Tip, by an ingenious movement, trousers innocent 
 of brace, 
 
 Briskly flom-isbing a cudgel in his pleased com- 
 panion's face; 
 
 If he preluded with hornpipes each successive thing 
 he did, 
 
 From a sun-browned cheek extracting still an os- 
 tentatious quid; 
 
 And expectorated freely, and occasionally cursed : —
 
 84 CHARABES. 
 
 Then have you beheld, depicted by a master's hand, 
 my first. 
 
 Oh my countryman ! If ever from thy arm the 
 bolster sped, 
 
 In thy schooldays, with precision at a young com- 
 panion's head; 
 
 If 'twas thine to lodge the marble in the centre of 
 the ring, 
 
 Or with well-directed pebble make the sitting hen 
 take wing: 
 
 Then do thou — each fair May morning, when the 
 
 blue lake is as glass, 
 And the gossamers are twinkling star-like in the 
 
 beaded grass; 
 When the mountain-bee is sipping fragrance from 
 
 the bluebell's lip, 
 And the bathing- woman tells you, now's your time 
 
 to take a dip :
 
 CEAEADES. 85 
 
 ■When along the misty valleys fieldward winds the 
 
 lowing herd, 
 And the early worm is being dropped on by the 
 
 early bird; 
 And Aurora hangs her jewels from the bendirig 
 
 rose's cup. 
 And the myriad voice of Nature calls thee to mj/ 
 
 second up : — 
 
 Hie thee to the breezy common, where the melancholy 
 
 goose 
 Stalks, and the astonished donkey finds that he is 
 
 really loose; 
 There amid green fern and furze-bush shalt thou 
 
 soon my tvhole behold. 
 Rising 'bull-eyed and majestic' — as Olympus queen 
 
 of old : 
 
 Kneel, — at a respectful distance, — as thej- kneeled 
 to her, and try
 
 86 CHARADES. 
 
 With judicious hand to put a ball into that baU-less 
 
 eye: 
 Till a stiflfness seize thy elbows, and the general 
 
 public wake — 
 Then return, and, clear of conscience, walk into thy 
 
 well-earned steak.
 
 III. 
 
 V. 
 
 Tj^RE yet " knowledge for the milliou" 
 
 Came out "neatly bound in boards;" 
 When like Care upon a pillion 
 
 Matrons rode behind their lords : 
 Rarely, save to hear the Rector, 
 
 Forth did younger ladies roam; 
 Making pies, and brewing nectar 
 
 From the gooseberry- trees at home. 
 
 They'd not dreamed of Pau or Yevay; 
 
 Ne'er should into blossom burst 
 At the ball or at the levee; 
 
 Never come, in fact, my first : 
 Nor illumine cards by dozens 
 
 With some labyrinthine text. 
 Nor work smoking-caps for cousins 
 
 Who were pounding at my next.
 
 88 CEARABES. 
 
 Now have skirts, and minds, grown ampler ; 
 
 Now not all they seek to do 
 Is create upon a sampler 
 
 Beasts which Biitfon never knew : 
 But their venturous muslins rustle 
 
 O'er the crags tone and the snow, 
 Or at home, their biceps muscle 
 
 Grows by practising the bow. 
 
 "Worthier they those dames who, fable 
 
 Says, rode "palfreys" to the war 
 With gigantic Thanes, whose "sable 
 
 Destriers caracoled" before; 
 Smiled, as — springing from the warhorse 
 
 As men spring in modern ' cirques' — 
 They plunged, ponderous as a four-horse 
 
 Coach, among the vanished Turks: — 
 
 In the good times when the jester 
 Asked the monarch how he was,
 
 CHARADES. 89 
 
 And the landlady addi-est her 
 
 Guests as "gossip" or as "coz;" 
 "When the Templar said, "Gramercy," 
 
 Or, " 'Twas shrewdly thrust, i' fegs," 
 To Sii' Halbert or Sir Percy 
 
 As they knocked him oif his legs : 
 
 And, by way of mild reminders 
 
 That he needed coin, the Knight 
 Day by day extracted grinders 
 
 From the howling Israelite : 
 And my lohole in merry Sherwood 
 
 Sent, with preterhuman luck. 
 Missiles — not of steel but fii'-wood — 
 
 Through the two-mile-distant buck. 
 
 t)ht£acr.
 
 IV. 
 
 "P VEXING threw soberer hue 
 Over the blue sky, and the few 
 Poplars that grew just in the view 
 Of the haU of Sir Hugo de Wynkle : 
 "Answer me true," pleaded Sir Hugh, 
 (Striving to woo no matter who,) 
 "What shall I do, Lady, for you? 
 'Twill be done, ere your eye may twinkle. 
 Shall I bon'ow the wand of a Moorish enchanter. 
 And bid a decanter contain the Levant, or 
 The brass from the face of a Mormonite ranter? 
 Shall I go for the mule of the Spanish Infantar — 
 (That r, for the sake of the line, we must grant 
 her,)—
 
 CHARADES. 91 
 
 And race with the foul fiend, and beat in a canter, 
 Like that first of equestrians Tarn o' Shanter ? 
 I talk not mere banter — say not that I can't, or 
 By this my first — (a Virginia planter 
 Sold it me to kill rats) — I will die instanter." 
 The Lady bended her ivory neck, and 
 Whispered mournfully, "Go for — my second y 
 She said, and the red from Sir Hugh's cheek 
 
 fled, 
 And "Nay," did he say, as he stalked away 
 
 The fiercest of injured men: 
 "Twice have I humbled my haughty soul, 
 And on bended knee I have pressed my whole — 
 But I never will press it again!" 
 
 ^»i.,)f<l^';
 
 V. 
 
 AN pinnacled St. Mary's 
 
 Lingers the setting sun; 
 Into the street the blackguards 
 
 Are skulking one by one : 
 Butcher and Boots and Bargeman 
 
 Lay pipe and pewter down; 
 And with wild shout come tumbling out 
 
 To join the Town and Gown. 
 
 And now the undergraduates 
 
 Come forth by twos and threes, 
 From the broad tower of Trinity, 
 
 From the green gate of Caius : 
 The wily bargeman marks them, 
 
 And swears to do his worst; 
 To turn to impotence their strength, 
 
 And their beauty to my first.
 
 CHARADES. 93 
 
 But before Corpus gateway 
 
 My second first arose, 
 When Barnacles the freshman 
 
 "Was pinned upon the nose : 
 Pinned on the nose by Boxer, 
 
 "Who brought a hobnailed herd 
 From Barnwell, where he kept a van, 
 Being indeed a dogsmeat man, 
 Vender of terriers, blue or tan, 
 
 And dealer in my third. 
 
 'Twere long to tell how Boxer 
 
 "Was 'countered' on the cheek. 
 And knocked into the middle 
 
 Of the ensuing week : 
 
 How Barnacles the Freshman 
 
 "Was asked his name and college,' 
 
 And how he did the fatal facts 
 Reluctantly acknowledge.
 
 94 CEARABES. 
 
 He called upon the Proctor 
 
 Next day at half-past ten; 
 Men whispered that the Freshman cut 
 
 A different figure then: — 
 That the brass forsook his forehead, 
 
 The iron fled his soul, 
 As with blanched lip and visage wan 
 Before the stony-hearted Don 
 
 He kneeled upon my whole.
 
 VI. 
 
 QIKES, housebreaker, of Hoimdsditch, 
 
 Habitually swore; 
 But so surpassingly profane 
 
 He never was before, 
 As on a night in winter, 
 
 "When — softly as he stole 
 In the dim light from stair to stair, 
 Noiseless as boys who in her lair 
 Seek to surprise a fat old hare — 
 He barked his shinbone, unaware 
 
 Encountering my tvhole. 
 
 As pours the Anio plainward, 
 
 When rains have swollen the dykes, 
 
 So, with such noise, poured down my first, 
 Stirred by the shins of Sikes.
 
 96 CHARADES. 
 
 The Butler Bibiilas heard it; 
 
 And straightway ceased to snore, 
 And sat up, like an eg^g on end. 
 
 While men might count a score : 
 Then spake he to Tigerius, 
 
 A Buttons bold was he : 
 "Buttons, I think there's thieves about; 
 Just strike a light and tumble out; 
 If you can't find one, go without, 
 
 And see what you may see." 
 
 But now was all the household, 
 
 Almost, upon its legs. 
 Each treading carefully about 
 
 As if they trod on eggs. 
 With robe far-streaming issued 
 
 Paterfamilias forth; 
 And close behind him, — stout and true 
 
 And tender as the North, —
 
 CHARADES. 97 
 
 Came Mrs. P., supporting 
 On a broad arm her fourth. 
 
 Betsy the nurse, who never 
 
 From largest beetle ran, 
 And — conscious p'raps of pleasing caps — 
 
 The housemaids, formed the van : 
 And Bibulus the Butler, 
 
 His calm brows slightly arched; 
 (No mortal wight had ere that night 
 
 Seen him with shirt unstarched;) 
 And Bob, the shockhaired knifeboy. 
 
 Wielding two Sheffield blades, 
 And James Plush of the sinewy legs. 
 
 The love of lady's maids : 
 And charwoman and chaplain 
 
 Stood mingled in a mass, 
 And " Things," thought he of Houndsditch, 
 " Is come to a pretty pass." 
 
 H
 
 98 CHARADES. 
 
 Beyond all things a Baby 
 
 Is to the schoolgirl dear; 
 I^'ext to herself the nursemaid loves 
 
 Her dashing grenadier; 
 Only with life the sailor 
 
 Parts from the British flag; 
 While one hope lingers, the cracksman's fingers 
 
 Drop not his hard-earned ' swag.' 
 
 But, as hares do my second 
 
 Through green Calabria's copses; 
 
 As females vanish at the sight 
 Of short-horns and of wopses ; 
 
 So, dropping forks and tea-spoons, 
 The pride of Houndsditch fled, 
 
 Dumbfoundered by the hue and cry 
 
 He'd raised up overhead. 
 *****
 
 CHARADES. 99 
 
 They gave him — did the Judges — 
 
 As much as was his due. 
 And, Saxon, should'st thou e'er be led 
 
 To deem this tale untrue : 
 Then — any night in mnter. 
 
 When the cold north wind blows, 
 And bairns are told to keep out cold 
 
 By tallowing the nose : 
 When round the fire the elders 
 
 Are gathered in a bunch, 
 And the girls are doing crochet, 
 
 And the boys are reading Punch: — 
 Go thou and look in Leech's book; 
 
 There haply shalt thou spy 
 A stout man on a staircase stand 
 With aspect anything but bland, 
 And rub his right shin with his hand, 
 
 To witness if I lie.
 
 PEOVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 A RT thou beautiful, oh my daughter, as the 
 
 budding rose of April? 
 Are all thy motions music, and is poetry throned in 
 
 thine eye? 
 Then hearken unto me ; and I will make the bud 
 
 a fair flower, 
 I will plant it upon the bank of Elegance, and 
 
 water it with the water of Cologne ; 
 And in the season it shall "come out," yea bloom, 
 
 the pride of the parterre; 
 Ladies shall marvel at its beauty, and a Lord shall 
 
 pluck it at the last.
 
 FROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 101 
 
 V, 
 
 Of ^ropmlg. 
 
 Study first Propriety : for she is indeed the Pole- 
 star 
 
 ^\Tiich shall guide the artless maiden through the 
 mazes of Vanity Fair; 
 
 Nay, she is the golden chain ^yhich holdeth to- 
 gether Society ; 
 
 The lamp by whose light young Psyche shall ap- 
 proach unblamed her Eros. 
 
 Verily Truth is as Eve, which was ashamed being 
 naked ; 
 
 Wherefore doth Propriety dress her with the fair 
 foliage of artifice: 
 
 And when she is drest, behold I she knoweth not 
 herself again. — 
 
 I walked in the Forest; and above me stood the 
 Yew,
 
 102 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPSY. 
 
 Stood like a slumbering giant, shrouded in im- 
 penetrable shade ; 
 
 Then I past into the citizen's garden, and marked 
 a tree dipt into shape, 
 
 (The giant's locks had been shorn by the Dalilah- 
 shears of Decorum ;) 
 
 And I said, "Surely natxu-e is goodly; but how 
 much goodlier is Art!" 
 
 I heard the wild notes of the lark floating far over 
 the blue sky, 
 
 And my foolish heart went after him, and lo ! 
 I blessed him as he rose; 
 
 Foolish ! for far better is the trained boudoir 
 bulfinch, 
 
 Which pipeth the semblance of a tune, and me- 
 chanically draweth up water: 
 
 And the reinless steed of the desert, though his 
 neck be clothed with thunder.
 
 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 103 
 
 Must yield to him that danceth and ' moveth in the 
 
 circles' at Astley's. 
 For verily, oh ray daughter, the world is a masque- 
 rade, 
 And God made thee one thing, that thou mightest 
 
 make thyself another: 
 A maiden's heart is as champagne, ever aspiring 
 
 and struggling upwards, 
 And it needeth that its motions be checked by the 
 
 silvered cork of Propriety : 
 He that can afford the price, his be the precious 
 
 treasure, 
 Let him drink deeply of its sweetness, nor grumble 
 
 if it tasteth of the cork. 
 
 Choose judiciously thy friends; for to discard them 
 is undesirable,
 
 104 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Yet it is better to drop thy friends, oh my daugh- 
 ter, than to drop thy "H's". 
 Dost thou know a wise woman? yea, wiser than 
 
 the children of light? 
 Hath she a position? and a title? and are her 
 
 parties in the Morning Post ? 
 If thou dost, cleave unto her, and give up unto her 
 
 thy body and mind; 
 Think with her ideas, and distribute thy smiles 
 
 at her bidding : 
 So shalt thou become like unto her; and thy 
 
 manners shall be "formed," 
 And thy name shall be a Sesame at which the 
 
 doors of the great shall fly open : 
 Thou shalt know every Peer, his arms, and the 
 
 date of his creation. 
 His pedigree and their intermarriages, and cousins 
 
 to the sixth remove :
 
 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 105 
 
 Thou shalt kiss the hand of Eoyalty, and lo ! in 
 
 next morning's papers, 
 Side by side with rumours of wars, and accounts of 
 
 shipwrecks and sieges, 
 Shall appear thy name, and the minutise of thy 
 
 headdress and petticoat, 
 For an enraptured public to muse upon over their 
 
 matutinal muffin. 
 
 Read not Milton, for he is dry; nor Shakespeare, 
 
 for he wrote of common life; 
 Nor Scott, for his romances, though fascinating, 
 
 are yet intelligible : 
 Nor Thackeray, for he is a Hogarth, a photographer 
 
 who flattereth not : 
 Nor Kingsley, for he shall teach thee that thou 
 
 shouldest not dream, but do.
 
 106 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Read incessantly thy Burke ; that Burke who, nobler 
 
 than he of old, 
 Treateth of the Peer and Peeress, the truly Sublime 
 
 and Beautiful : 
 Likewise study the "creations" of "the Prince of 
 
 modern Romance;" 
 Sigh over Leonard the Martyr, and smile on 
 
 Pelham the puppy : 
 Learn how "love is the dram-drinking of ex- 
 istence;" 
 And how we " invoke, in the Gadara of our still 
 
 closets, 
 The beautiful ghost of the Ideal, with the simple 
 
 wand of the pen." 
 Listen how Maltravers and the orphan " forgot all 
 
 but love," 
 And how Devereiix's family chaplain "made and 
 
 unmade kings:" 
 How Eugene Aram, though a thief, a liar, and 
 
 a murderer.
 
 PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY. 107 
 
 Yet, being intellectual, was amongst the noblest of 
 
 mankind. 
 So shalt thou live in a world peopled with heroes 
 
 and master-spirits; 
 And if thou canst not realize the Ideal, thou shalt 
 
 at least idealize the Eeal.
 
 ^, 
 
 TEANSLATIONS.
 
 LYCIDAS. 
 
 "VET once more, ye laurels! and once more 
 Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 
 I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, 
 And with forced fingers rude 
 Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 
 Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, 
 Compels me to disturb your season due; 
 For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime. 
 Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer: 
 Who would not sing for Lycidas? He knew 
 Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 
 He must not float upon his watery bier 
 Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, 
 Without the meed of some melodious tear.
 
 LTCIDAS. 
 
 T^N ! iterum laurus, iterum salvete myricse 
 Pallentes, nulliqiie hederte quae ceditis sevo. 
 Adsum cruda equidem baccaria et aspera tactu 
 TJt carpam, digitisque (jubent ita fata) protervis 
 Prgo maturantem frondes demoliar annum. 
 Causa gravis, pia causa, subest, et amara deum lex ; 
 Nee jam sponte mea vobis rata tempora turbo. 
 Nam periit Lycidas, periit superante juventa 
 Imberbis Lycidas, et non manet alter ab illo. 
 Quis cantare super Lycida neget ? Ipse quoque artem 
 Norat Apollineam, versumque imponere versu. 
 Non nullo vitreum fas innatet ille feretrum 
 Flente, voluteturque arentes corpus ad auras, 
 Indotatum adeo et lacrymoo vocalis cgenum.
 
 1 1 TRANS LA TIONS. 
 
 Begin then, sisters, of the sacred well. 
 That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring ; 
 Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
 Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse. 
 So may some gentle muse 
 "With lucky words favour my destined urn, 
 And, as he passes, turn 
 And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud: 
 For we were nursed upon the self-same hill. 
 Fed the same flock by fountain, shade, and rill. 
 
 Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 
 Under the opening eyelids of the morn, 
 "We drove afield, and both together heard 
 What time the gray fly winds her sultry horn, 
 Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night. 
 Oft till the star that rose, at evening, bright, 
 Toward Heaven's descent had sloped his westering 
 wheel.
 
 LYCIBAS. Ill 
 
 Quare agite, o sacri fontis qiieis cura, sorores, 
 Cui sub Olympiaci sella patris exit origo : 
 Incipite, et sonitu graviore impellite chordas. 
 Lingua procul male prompta loqui, suasorque mo- 
 
 rarum 
 Sit pudor : alloquiis ut mollior una secundis 
 Pieridum faveat, cui mox ego destiner, urnae : 
 Et gressus pratergrediens convertat, et "Esto", 
 Dicat, '' amcena quies atra tibi veste latent!" : 
 TJno namque jugo duo nutribamur; eosdem 
 Pavit uterque greges ad fontem et rivulum et 
 umbram. 
 
 Tempore nos illo, nemorum convexa priasquam, 
 Aurora reserante oculos, ca3pere videri, 
 Urgebamus equos ad pascua: novimas horam 
 Aridus audiri solitus qua clangor asili; 
 Eore recentes greges passi pinguescere noctis 
 Ssepius, albuerat donee quod vespere sidus 
 Hesperiam cursum prono inclinasset Olympo.
 
 1 1 2 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, 
 Tempered to the oaten flute; 
 Eough satyrs danced, and fauns with cloven heel 
 From the glad sound would not be absent long, 
 And old Damsetas loved to hear our song. 
 
 But oh, the heavy change, now thou art gone. 
 Now thou art gone, and never must return! 
 Thee, shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves 
 "With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown. 
 And all their echoes mourn. 
 The willows, and the hazel copses green, 
 Shall now no more be seen. 
 Panning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
 As killing as the canker to the rose, 
 Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 
 Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 
 When first the white- thorn blows; 
 Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherds' ear. 
 
 Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep
 
 ZYCIDAS. 113 
 
 At pastorales non cessavere camoense, 
 Fistulo disparibus quas temperat apta cicutis: 
 Saltabant Satyri informes, nee murmnre Iseto 
 Capripedes potuere diu se avertere Fauni; 
 Damaetasque modos nostros longsevns amabat. 
 Jamque, relicta tibi, quantum mutata viden- 
 tur 
 
 Eura — relicta tibi, cui non spes ulla regressus! 
 Te sylvge, teque antra, puer, deserta ferarum, 
 Incultis obducta thymis ac vite sequaci, 
 Decessisse gemunt; gemitusque reverberat Echo. 
 Non salices, non glauca ergo coryleta videbo 
 Molles ad numeros Isetum motare cacumen : — 
 Quale rosis scabies; quam formidabile vermis 
 Depulso jam lacte grcgi, dum tondet agellos ; 
 Sive quod, indutis verna jam veste, pruinae 
 Floribus, albet ubi primum paliurus in agris : 
 Tale fuit nostris, Lycidam periisse, bubulcis. 
 Quo, Nymphse, latuistis, ubi crudele profundum
 
 114 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 Closed o'er the liead of your loved Lycidas? 
 
 For neither were ye playing on the steep, 
 
 Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie; 
 
 Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, 
 
 Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream : 
 
 Ay me ! I fondly dream ! 
 
 Had ye been there, for what could that have done ? 
 
 What could the muse herseK that Orpheus bore, 
 
 The muse herself for her enchanting son, 
 
 Whom universal nature did lament, 
 
 When by the rout that made the hideous roar. 
 
 His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
 
 Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? 
 
 Alas ! what boots it with incessant care 
 To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade. 
 And strictly meditate the thankless muse? 
 Were it not better done as others use. 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, 
 Or with the tangles of Nesera's hair?
 
 ZYCIDAS. 115 
 
 Delicias Lycidam vestras sub vortice torsit? 
 Nam aeque vos scopulis turn ludebatis in illis 
 Quos ve teres, Draidae, vates, illustria servant 
 Nomina; nee celsae setoso in culmine Monae, 
 Nee, quos Deva locos magicis amjjlectitur undis. 
 Vse milii ! delusos exercent somnia sensus : 
 Venissetis enim ; numquid venisse juvaret ? 
 Numquid Pieris ipsa parens interfuit Orphei, 
 Pieris ipsa suge sobolis, qui carmine rexit 
 Corda virum, quem terra olim, quam magna, dolebat, 
 Tempore quo, dirum auditu strepitante caterva, 
 Ora secundo amni missa, ac focdata cruore, 
 Lesbia prfficipitans ad litora detulit Hebrus? 
 
 Eheu quid prodest noctes instare diesque 
 Pastorum curas spretas humilesque tuendo, 
 Nilque relaturam meditari rite Camcenam ? 
 Nonne fuit satius lusus agitare sub umbra, 
 (Ut mos est aliis,) Amaiyllida sive Neaeram 
 Sectanti, ac tortis digitum impediisse capillis?
 
 1 1 6 TRANS LA TIONS. 
 
 Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise 
 
 (That last infirmity of noble mind) 
 
 To scorn delights, and live laborious days, 
 
 But the fair guerdon when we hope to find. 
 
 And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
 
 Comes the blind fury with the abhorred shears. 
 
 And slits the thin- spun life. " But not the praise," 
 
 Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears; 
 
 "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
 
 Nor in the glistering foil 
 
 Set ofi" to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, 
 
 But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, 
 
 And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; 
 
 As he pronounces lastly on each deed. 
 
 Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed." 
 
 fountain Arethuse, and thou honoured flood. 
 Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, 
 That strain I heard was of a higher mood :
 
 LTCIDAS. 117 
 
 Scilicet ingenuas mentes agit ultimus alti 
 Morbus Fama sinus, et uti calcaribus urget 
 Spernere delicias ac dedi rebus agendis. 
 Quanquam — exoptatam jam spes attingere dotem; 
 Jam nee opinata remur splendescere flamma : — 
 Caeca sed invisa cum forfice venit Erinnys, 
 Quae resecet tenui baerentem subtemine vitam. 
 "At Famam non ilia," refert, tangitque trementes 
 Pbcebus Apollo aures. "Fama baud, vulgaris ad 
 
 instar 
 Floris, araat terrestre solum, fictosque nitores 
 Queis inhiat populus, nee cum Rumore patescit. 
 Vivere dant illi, dant increbrescere late 
 Puri oculi ac vox summa Jovis, cui sola Potestas. 
 Fecerit ille semel de facto quoque virorum 
 Arbitrium : tantum fama3 manet ^tliera pactis." 
 Fons Aj-ethusa ! sacro placidus qui laberis alveo, 
 Frontem vocali praetextus arundine, Minci ! 
 Sensi equidem gravius carmen. Nunc cetera pastor
 
 1 1 8 TRANS LA TIONS. 
 
 But now my oat proceeds, 
 
 And listens to the herald of the sea 
 
 That came in J^eptune's plea; 
 
 He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 
 
 What hard mishap had doomed this gentle swain? 
 
 And questioned every gast of rugged wings. 
 
 That blows from off each beaked promontory : 
 
 They knew not of his story. 
 
 And sage Hippotades their answer brings. 
 
 That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed, 
 
 The air was calm, and on the level brine 
 
 Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 
 
 It was that fatal and perfidious bark 
 
 Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, 
 
 That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 
 
 Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, 
 His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge, 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 
 "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest 
 pledge ?"
 
 LYCIDAS. 119 
 
 Exsequor. Adstat enim missus pro rege marino, 
 Seque rogasse refert fluctus, ventosque rapaces, 
 Quae sors dura nimis tenerum rapuisset agrestem. 
 Compellasse refert alarum quiequid ab omni 
 Spirat, acerba sonans, scopulo, qui cuspidis instar 
 Promiaet in pelagus; fama baud pervenerat illue. 
 Hsec ultro pater Hippotades responsa ferebat: 
 "Nulli sunt nostro palati carcere venti. 
 Straverat sequor aquas, et sub Jove compta serene 
 Lusum exercebat Panope nymphaeque sorores. 
 Quam Furige struxere per interlunia, leto 
 FoBtam ac fraude ratem, — malis insederat Ate, — 
 Credas in mala tanta caput mersisse sacratura." 
 
 Proximus huic tardum senior se Camus agebat ; 
 Cui setosa cblamys, cui pileus ulva : figuris 
 Idem intertextus dubiis erat, utque cruentos 
 Quos perhibent flores, inscriptus margine luctum. 
 "Nam quis," ait, " prsedulce meum me pignus 
 ademit?"
 
 120 TBANSLATIONS. 
 
 Last came, and last did go, 
 
 The pilot of the Galilean lake, 
 
 Two massy keys he bore, of metals tAvain 
 
 (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain). 
 
 He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake : 
 
 " How weU could I have spared for thee, young swain, 
 
 Enow of such as for their bellies' sake 
 
 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! 
 
 Of other care they little reckoning make. 
 
 Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast, 
 
 And shove away the worthy bidden guest; 
 
 Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how 
 
 to hold 
 A sheep -hook, or have learned aught else the least 
 That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs! 
 What recks it them ? What need they ? They are 
 
 sped; 
 And when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw : 
 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed. 
 But swollen with wind, and the rank mist they draw, 
 Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread : 
 Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing said.
 
 LYCIBAS. 121 
 
 Post hos, qui Galilaea regit pei' stagna carinas, 
 Post hos venit iturus : habet manus utraque 
 
 clavim, 
 (Quels aperit clauditque) auro ferrove gravatam. 
 Mitra tegit crines; quassis quibus, acriter infit: 
 "Scilitce optassem pro te dare corpora leto 
 Sat multa, o juvenis : quot serpunt ventribus acti, 
 Vi quot iter faciunt spretis in ovilia muris. 
 Hie labor, hoc opus est, pecus ut tondente magistro 
 Praeripiant epulas, trudatm- dignior hospes. 
 Capti oculis, non ore ! pedum tractare nee ipsi 
 Norunt; quotve bonis sunt upilionibus artes. 
 Sad quid enim refert, quove est opus, omnia nactis ? 
 Pert ubi mens, tenue ac deductum carmen avenam 
 Eadit stridentem stipulis. At suspicit et non 
 Pascitur segra pecus : vento gravis ac lue tracta 
 Tabescit; mox foeda capit contagia vulgus. 
 Quid dicam, stabulis ut clandestinus oberrans 
 Expleat ingluviem tristis lupus, indice nullo?
 
 1 2 2 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 But that two-handed engine at the door 
 
 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 
 
 Retui'n, Alpheus, the dread voice is past, 
 That shrunk thy streams; return Sicilian muse. 
 And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
 Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues 
 Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use 
 Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks. 
 On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks, 
 Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes. 
 That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 
 And pui-jile all the ground with vernal flowers. 
 Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 
 The tufted crow- toe, and pale jessamine. 
 The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet. 
 The glowing violet, 
 
 The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine. 
 With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
 And every flower that sad embroidery wears : 
 Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 
 And dafi'odillies fill their cups with tears,
 
 ZTCIDAS. 123 
 
 Ilia tamen bimanus custodit maclima portam, 
 Stricta, paratque mails plagam non amplius unam." 
 En, Alphee, redi ! Qiiibus ima cohonniit unda 
 Voces praeteriere : redux qnoque Sicelis omnes 
 Musa voca valles; hue pendentes hyacincthos 
 Fac jaciant, teneros hue floras mille colorum. 
 nemorum depressa, sonant ubi crebra susurri 
 Umbrarum, et salientis aquae, Zephjiique protervi ; 
 Queisque virens gremium penetrare Canicula parcit : 
 Pieturata modis jacite hue mihi lumina miris, 
 Mellitos imbres quels per viridantia rura 
 Mos haurire, novo quo tellus vere rubescat. 
 Hue pallens jasminum, apice hue ranunculus amplo, 
 Quaeque relicta perit, visdum matura feratur 
 Primula: quique ebeno distinctus, csetera flavet 
 Flos, et qui specie nomen detrectat eborna. 
 Ardenti violae rosa proxima fundat odores; 
 Serpyllumque placens, et accrbo flexile vultu 
 Verbascum, ac tristem si quid sibi legit amietum.
 
 124 TRANSLATIONS 
 
 To strow the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 
 
 For so to interpose a little ease, 
 
 Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 
 
 Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
 
 "Wash far away, where ere thy bones are hurled, 
 
 "Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 
 
 Where thou, perhaps, under the whelming tide 
 
 Visit' st the bottom of the monstrous world; 
 
 Or whether thou to our moist vows denied, 
 
 Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 
 
 "Where the great vision of the guarded mount 
 
 Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold; 
 
 Look homeward, angel now, and melt with ruth: 
 
 And, ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 
 
 "Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more. 
 For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead. 
 Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor; 
 So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed. 
 And yet anon repairs his drooping head.
 
 LYCIBAS. 125 
 
 Quicquid habes pulcri fundus, amarante : coronent 
 Lilia jam lacrymis calyces, sternantque feretrum 
 Tectus ubi lauro Lycidas jacet : adsit ut oti 
 Saltern aliquid, ficta ludantur imagine mentes. 
 Me miserum ! Tua nam litus, pelagusque sonorum 
 Ossa ferunt, queiscunque procul jacteris in oris; 
 Sive procellosas ultra Symplegadas ingens 
 Jam subter mare visis, alit quae monstra profundum ; 
 Sive (negavit enim precibus te Jupiter udis) 
 Cum sene Bellero, veterum qui fabula, dermis, 
 Qua custoditi montis prsegrandis imago 
 Namancum atque arces longe prospectat Iberos. 
 Verte retro te, verte deum, moUire precando : 
 Et vos infaustum juvenem delphines agatis. 
 
 Ponite jam lacrymas, sat enim ilevistis, agrestes. 
 jS'on periit Lycidas, vestri mceroris origo, 
 Marmorei quanquam fluctus haiisere cadentem. 
 Sic et in aequoreum se condere ssepe cubile 
 Luciferum videas; nee longum tempus, et eifert
 
 126 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: 
 So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
 Through the dear might of him that walked the 
 
 waves, 
 "Where other groves and other streams along. 
 With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves. 
 And hears the unexpressive nuptial song. 
 In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
 There entertain him all the saints above. 
 In solemn troops, and sweet societies. 
 That sing, and singing in their glory move. 
 And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. 
 Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 
 Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore, 
 In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 
 To all that wander in that perilous flood. 
 
 Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 
 While the still mom went out with sandals gray.
 
 LYCIBAS. 127 
 
 Demissum caput, igne novo vestitus ; et, aurum 
 Ceu rutilans, in fronte poll splendescit Eoi. 
 Sic obiit Lycidas, sic assurrexit in altum; 
 Illo, quern peditcm mare sustulit, usus amico. 
 Nunc campos alios, alia errans stagna secundum, 
 Eorantesque lavans integro nectare crines, 
 Audit inauditos nobis cantari Hymenaeos, 
 Fortunatorum sedes ubi mitis amorem 
 Lsetitiamque affert. Hie ilium, quotquot Olympum 
 Prsedulces habitant turbso, venerabilis ordo, 
 Circumstant : aliaeque canunt, interque canendum 
 Majestate sua veniunt abeuntque catervae, 
 Omnes ex oculis laciymas arcere paratse. 
 Ergo non Lycidam jam lamentantur agrestes. 
 Divus eris ripse, puer, hoc ex tempore nobis, 
 Grande, nee immerito, veniens in munus ; opemquo 
 Poscent usque tuam, dubiis quot in oestubus errant. 
 
 Haec incultus aquis puer ilicibusque canebat; 
 Processit dum mane silens talaribus aureis.
 
 1 2 8 TRANS LA TIONS. 
 
 He touched the tender stops of various quills, 
 With eager thought warbling his Doric lay : 
 And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 
 And now was dropped into the western bay; 
 At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue, 
 To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.
 
 LYCIBAS. 129 
 
 Multa manu teneris discrimina tentat avenis, 
 Dorica non studio modulatus carmina segni : 
 Et jam sol abiens colles extenderat omnes, 
 Jam que sub Hesperium se praecipitaverat alveum. 
 Surrexit tandem, glaucumque retraxit amictum ; 
 Cras luces, reor, ille noros, nova pascua qusDret.
 
 130 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 CVI. 
 
 'T^HE time admits not flowers or leaves 
 To deck the banquet. Fiercely flies 
 The blast of North and East, and ice 
 
 Makes daggers at the sharpen' d eaves, 
 
 And bristles all the brakes and thorns 
 To yon hard crescent, as she hangs 
 Above the wood which grides and clangs 
 
 Its leafless ribs and iron horns 
 
 Together, in the drifts that pass, 
 To darken on the rolling brine 
 That breaks the coast. But fetch the wine, 
 
 Arrange the board and brim the glass;
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 131 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 "^TON hora myrto, non violis sinit 
 Mtere mensas. Trux Aquilo foras 
 Bacchatur, ac passim pruina 
 Tigna sagittifera coruscant; 
 
 Horretque saltus spinifer, algidse 
 Sub falee luna3 ; duni nemori imminet, 
 Quod stridet illiditque costis 
 Cornua, jam vacuis honor um, 
 
 Ferrata; nimbis praDtcreuntibus, 
 TJt incubent tandem implacido sali 
 Qui curvat oras. Tu Falcrnum 
 Prome, dapcs strue, die coronent
 
 132 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Bring in great logs and let them lie, 
 To make a solid core of heat; 
 Be cheerful-minded, talk and treat 
 
 Of all things ev'n as he were by : 
 
 We keep the day with festal cheer, 
 
 "With books and music. Surely we 
 "WiU drink to him whate'er he be, 
 
 And sing the songs he loved to hear.
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 133 
 
 Crateras: ignis cor solidum, graves 
 Eepone ramos. Jamque doloribus 
 Loquare securus fugatis 
 Quse socio loquereris illo; 
 
 Hunc dedicamus laetitise diem 
 Lyrseque musisque. Illius, illius 
 Da, quicquid audit: nee silebunt 
 Qui numeri placuere vivo.
 
 134 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 LAURA MATILDA'S DIRGE. 
 
 From 'Rejected Addresses.' 
 
 ■pALMY Zephyrs, lightly flitting, 
 
 Shade me with youi" azure wing; 
 On Parnassus' summit sitting, 
 Aid me, Clio, while I sing. 
 
 Softly slept the dome of Drury 
 
 O'er the empyreal crest, 
 When Alecto's sister- fury 
 
 Softly slumb'ring simk to rest. 
 
 Lo ! from Lemnos limping lamely, 
 Lags the lowly Lord of Fire, 
 
 Cytherea yielding tamely 
 
 To the Cyclops dark and dire.
 
 N^IilA. 135 
 
 f\ QrOT odoriferi volitatis in aere venti, 
 Caeruleum tegmen vestra sit ala mihi : 
 
 Tuque sedens Parnassus ubi caput erigit ingcns, 
 Dextra veni, Clio : teque docente canam. 
 
 Jam suaves somnos Tholus affectare Theatri 
 Coeperat, igniflui trans laqueare poli : 
 
 Alectus consanguineam quo tempore Erinnyn, 
 Suave soporatam, ccopit adire quies. 
 
 Lustra sed ecce labans claudo pede Lorania linquit 
 Luridus (at lente lugubriterque) Dcus: 
 
 Amisit veteres, amisit inultus, amores; 
 Tetcr habet Yenerem tcrribilisquc Cyclops.
 
 136 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Clouds of amber, dreams of gladness, 
 Dulcet joys and sports of youth, 
 
 Soon must yield to haughty sadness; 
 Mercy holds the veil to Truth. 
 
 See Erostratus the second 
 Fires again Diana's fane; 
 
 By the Fates from Orcus beckon'd, 
 Clouds envelop Drury Lane. 
 
 Where is Cupid's crimson motion? 
 
 Billowy ecstasy of woe, 
 Bear me straight, meandering ocean, 
 
 "Where the stagnant torrents flow. 
 
 Blood in every vein is gushing, 
 Vixen vengeance lulls my heart; 
 
 See, the Gorgon gang is rushing ! 
 Never, never let us part.
 
 NJENIA. 137 
 
 Electri nebulas, potioraque somnia vero; 
 
 Quoique placent pueris gaudia, quotque joci; 
 Omnia tristitise fas concessisse superba3 : 
 
 Admissum Pietas scitque premitque nefas. 
 
 Eespice ! Nonne vides ut Erostratus alter ad sedem 
 Riirsus agat flammas, spreta Diana, tuam ? 
 
 Mox, Acheronteis qnas Parca eduxit ab antris, 
 Druriacam nubes corripuere domum. 
 
 ubi purpura! mot us pueri alitis? o qui 
 Me mihi turbineis surripis, angor, aquis ! 
 
 Due, labyrintheura, due me, mare, tramite recto 
 Quo rapidi fontes, pigra caterva, ruunt! 
 
 Jamque — soporat enim pectus Vindicta Virago; 
 
 Omnibus a venis sanguinis unda salit ; 
 Gorgoneique greges prseceps (adverte !) fcruntur — 
 
 Sim, precor, o ! semper sim tibi junctus ego.
 
 138 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 "LEAVES HAVE THEIR TIME TO FALL." 
 
 Felicia Hemans. 
 
 J^EAVES have their time to faU, 
 
 And flowers to wither at the North-wind's breath, 
 And stars to set: but all, 
 
 Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! 
 
 Day is for mortal care, 
 
 Eve for glad meetings at the joyous hearth, 
 Night for the dreams of sleep, the voice of prayer ; 
 
 But all for thee, thou mightiest of the earth ! 
 
 The banquet has its hour, 
 
 The feverish hour of mirth and song and wine : 
 There comes a day for grief's overwhelming shower, 
 
 A time for softer tears : but all are thine.
 
 ''FROXDES EST UBI DEClBANTr 139 
 
 "FRONDES EST UBI DECIDANT." 
 
 "PROi^DES est ubi decidant, 
 Marceseantque rosse flatu Aquilonio : 
 
 Horis astra cadunt suis; 
 Sed, Mors, cuncta tibi tempora vindicas. 
 
 Curis nata virum dies; 
 Vesper colloquiis dulcibus ad focum; 
 
 Somnis nox magis, et preci : 
 Sed nil, Terrigenum maxima, non tibi. 
 
 Festis bora epulis datur, 
 (Fervens bora jocis, carminibus, mero;) 
 
 Fusis altera lacrymis 
 Aut fletu tacito: quseque tamen tua.
 
 140 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Youth and the opening rose 
 
 May look like things too glorious for decay, 
 And smile at thee! — but thou art not of those 
 
 That wait the ripen'd bloom to seize their prey !
 
 ''FRONDES EST UBI BECIBANT." 141 
 
 Virgo, seu rosa pullulans, 
 Tantum quippe nitent ut nequeant mori? 
 
 Rident te? Neque enim soles 
 Praedae parcere, dum flos adoleverit.
 
 142 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 "LET US TURN HITHERWARD OUR BARK." 
 R. C. Trenxh. 
 
 •'T ET us turn hitherward our bark," they cried, 
 "And, 'mid the blisses of this happy isle, 
 
 Past toil forgetting and to come, abide 
 In joyfulness awhile. 
 
 And then, refreshed, our tasks resume again. 
 If other tasks we yet are bound unto. 
 
 Combing the hoary tresses of the main 
 "With sharp swift keel anew." 
 
 heroes, that had once a nobler aim, 
 
 heroes, sprung from many a god-like line. 
 
 What will ye do, unmindful of your fame, 
 And of your race divine?
 
 ''QUIN EUC," ETC. 143 
 
 "QUIN HUC, FREMEBAXT." 
 
 "QTJIIS' hue," fremebant, "dirigimus ratem : 
 Hie, dote loeti divitis insulcc, 
 PauUisper haeremus, futuri 
 Nee memores operis, nee aeti : 
 
 " Curas refeeti eras iterabimus, 
 Si quae supersunt emeritis; cita 
 Acrique peetentes, ut olim, 
 Canitiem pelagi earina." 
 
 rebus olim nobilioribus 
 Pares: origo Di quibus ac Dea3 
 Heroes ! oblitine famoD 
 
 HaDc struitis, generisque summi?
 
 144 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 But they, by these prevailing Toices now 
 Lured, evermore draw nearer to the land, 
 
 Nor saw the wrecks of many a goodly prow, 
 That strewed that fatal strand j 
 
 Or seeing, feared not — "warning taking none 
 From the plain doom of aU who went before. 
 
 Whose bones lay bleaching in the wind and sun, 
 And whitened aU the shore.
 
 " Q UIN EUC;' ETC. 145 
 
 Atqui propinquant jam magis ac magis, 
 Ducti magistra voce, solum : neque 
 Videre prorarum nefandas 
 Undique nobilium per oras ; 
 
 Vidisse seu non pcenitet — ominis 
 Incuriosos tot praeeuntium, 
 
 Quorum ossa sol siccantque venti, 
 Candet adhuc quibus omnis ora.
 
 CARMEN SJECULARE. 
 
 MDCCCLIII. 
 
 "Quicquid agunt homines, nostri est farrago libelli." 
 
 A CEIS hyems jam venit : hyems genus omne 
 perosa 
 Foemineum, et senibus glacies non aequa rotundis : 
 Apparent rari stantes in tramite glauco; 
 Radit iter, cogitque nives, sua tela, juTentus. 
 Trux matrona ruit, multos dominata per annos, 
 Digna indigna minans, gl'>meratque volumina crurum ; 
 Ilia parte senex, amisso forte galcro. 
 Per plateas bacchatur; eura chorus omnis agrestum 
 Ridet anhelantera frustra, et jam jamque tenentem 
 Quod petit ; illud agunt venti prensu'mque resorbent. 
 Post, ubi compositus tandem votique potitus 
 Sedit humi; flet crura tuens nive Candida lenta,
 
 CARMEN SJECULAEE. 147 
 
 Et vestem laceram, et venturas conjugis iras : 
 Itque domum tendens duplices ad sidera palmas, 
 Corda miser, desiderio perfixa galeri. 
 
 At juvenis (sed cruda viro Tiridisque juventus) 
 Quserit bacciferas, tunica pendente,^' tabernas : 
 Pervigil ecce Baco furva deprotnit ab area 
 Splendidius quiddam solito, plenumque saporem 
 Laudat, et antiqua jurat de stirpe Jamaicse. 
 fumose puer, niminm ne crede Baconi : 
 Manillas vocat ; hoc prsetexit nomine caules. 
 
 Te vero, cui forte dedit maturior aetas 
 Scire potestates herbarum, te quoque quanti 
 Circumstent casus, paucis (adverte) docebo. 
 Prsecipue, seu raptat amor te simplicis herbae,! 
 Seu potius tenui Musam meditaris avena, 
 Procuratorem fugito, nam ferrous idem est. 
 
 * tunica pendente: h. e. 'suspensa e brachio.' Quod proeura- 
 toribus illis valde, ut ferunt, displicebat. Dicunt vero morcm a barbaris 
 tractuni, urbem Hospoiiam in fl, Iside habitantibus. Bacciferas taber- 
 nas: id q. nostri vocant "tobacco-shops." 
 
 + hericE-avend. Duo quasi genera artis poeta vidctur distinguerc. 
 ' Weed,' ' pipe,' recte Scaliger.
 
 148 CARMEN SJEGULARE. 
 
 Vita semiboves catulos, redimicula vita 
 Candida : de ccelo descendit crw^e creavrov. 
 'Nuhe vaporis item conspergere praeter euntes 
 Jura vetant, notumque furens quid femina possit : 
 Odit enim dulces succos anus, odit odorem; 
 Odit Lethasi diffusa volumina fumi. 
 
 Mille modis reliqui fugiuntque feruntque laborem. 
 Hie Tir ad Eleos, pedibus talaria gestans, 
 Fervidus it latices, et nil acquirit eundo :* 
 Hie petit virides (sed non e gramine) mensas, 
 PoUicitus meliora patri, tormentaquef flexus 
 Per labyiintheos plus quam mortalia tentat, 
 Acre tuens, loculisque pilas immittit et aufert. 
 
 Sunt alii, quos frigus aqua3, tenuisque phaselus 
 Captat, et tequali surgentes ordine remi. 
 
 » nil acquirit eundo. Aqua enim aspera, et radentibus parum 
 habilis. Immersum hie aliquem et vlx aut ne vix qiiidem extractum 
 refert schol. 
 
 + tormcnta p. q. mortalia. Eleganter, ut solet, Peile, 'unearthly 
 cannons.' (Cf. Ainsw. D. s. t.) Perrecondita autem est quiPstio de 
 lusibus illorum temponim, neque in Smithii Diet. Class, satis elucidata. 
 Consule omnino Kentf. de Bill. Loculis, bene vertas, 'pockets.'
 
 CARMEN SECULARS. 149 
 
 His edura cutis, nee ligno rasile tergum; 
 Par saxi caput : esca boves cum robore Bassi. 
 Tollmit in numerum fera brachia, vique feruntur 
 Per fluctus : sonuere vise clamore secundo : 
 Et picea de puppe freraens immane bubulcus 
 Invocat exitium cunctis, et verbera rapto 
 Stipite defessis onerat graviora caballis. 
 
 Nil humoris egent alii. Labor arva vagari, 
 Flectere ludus equos, et ainautem devia"'-' curruia. 
 ISTosco purpureas vestes, clangentia nosco 
 Signa tubae, et caudas inter virgulta caninas. 
 Stat vcnator equus, tactoque ferocior armo 
 Sui-git in arrectura, vix auditurus habenam; 
 Et jam prata fuga superat, jam flumina saltu. 
 Aspicias alios ab iniqua sepe rotari 
 In caput, ut scrobibus qute sint fastigia quadrant; 
 Eque rubis aut amne pigro trabere liuinida crura, 
 Et fojdam facicm, dcfloccatumque galerum. 
 
 * amantcm dcvin. Guorsxun hoc, quirrunt Interpretes. Suspicor 
 cquidcm vespicicndos, vv. 19—23, dc prociu'utoribus.
 
 150 CARMEN' SJECULARE. 
 
 Sanctius his animal, cui quadra visse rotxmdum* 
 Musse suadet amor, Camique ardentis imago, 
 Inspicat calamos contracta fronte malignos, 
 Perque Mathematicum pelagus, loca turbida, anhelat. 
 Circum dirus " Hymers," nee pondus inutile, 
 
 "Lignum," 
 " Salmoque," et pueris tu detestate, " Colenso," 
 Horribiles visu formse; livente notatae 
 Ungue omnes, omnes insignes aure canina.f 
 Fervet opus; taciturn pertentant gaudia pectus 
 Tutorum; " pulchrumque mori," dixere, "legendo." 
 
 Nee vero juvenes facere omnes omnia possunt. 
 Atque unum memini ipse, deus qui dictus amicis, 
 Et multum referens de rixatorej secundo, 
 Nocte terens ulnas ac scrinia, solus in alto 
 Degebat tripode; arcta viro vilisque supellex; 
 
 * quadr. rot''. — Cami ard. im'. Quadrando enim rotundum (Ang'. 
 
 'squaring the circle') Camum accendcre, juvenes Lngenui semper 
 
 nitebantur. Fecisse vero aliquem non liquet. 
 
 + aurc canind. Iterum audi Peile, ' dog's-eared.' 
 
 t rixatore. non male Ileins. cum Aldina, ' vprangler.'
 
 CARMEN S^CTILABE. 151 
 
 Et sic torva tuens, pedibus per mutua nexis, 
 Sedit, lacte mero mentem mulcente tenellam. 
 Et fors ad summos tandem venisset honores; 
 Sed rapidi juvenes, queis gratior usus equorum, 
 Subveniunt, siecoque vetant inolescere libro. 
 Improbus bos Lector pueros, mentumque virili 
 Laevius, et durse gravat inclementia Mortis :* 
 Agmen iners; queis mos aliena vivere quadra,f 
 Et lituo vexare viros, calcare caballos. 
 Tales mane novo saepc admiramur eimtes 
 Torquibus in rigidis et pelle Libystidis ui'sa^; 
 Admii-amur opusj' tunicae, vestemque|| sororem 
 Iridis, et crurum non cnarrabile tegmcn. 
 
 » Mortis. Verbum generali fere sensu dictum inveni. Suspicor 
 autera poetam virivm qiiendam innuisse, qui currus, caballos, id genus 
 oinnc, mercede non minima locaret. 
 
 t alicnd quadril. Sunt qui de pileis Acadcmicis accipiunt. Kapi- 
 orcs cnim suas fere amittcbant. Scd judicet sibi lector. 
 
 % opus tunica-, ' sUiit-work.' Alii o;;c4. rcr])cram. 
 
 II vcstcm. Nota propviotatcm verbi. 'Vest,' cnim ap\id politos id. 
 q. vulgo 'waistcoat' appellatur. Quod et femina; usurpabant, ut 
 hodicnnr, fibula revinctum, teste Virgilio : 
 
 ' ciincs nodantur in auruni, 
 Aurea piirpuream subncctit fibula vcstcm.'
 
 152 CARMEN SJECULARE. 
 
 Hos inter comites implebat pocula sorbis 
 Infelix puer, et sese recreabat ad ignem, 
 " Evoe, *Basse," freraens : dum velox proeterit setas ; 
 Venit summa dies; et Junior Optimus exit. 
 
 Saucius at juvenis nota intra tecta refugit, 
 Horrendum ridens, lucemque miserrimus edit : 
 Informem famulus laqueum pendentiaque ossa 
 Mane videt, refugitque feri meminisse magistri. 
 
 Di nobis meliora ! Modum re servat in omni 
 Qui sapit : baud ilium semper recubare sub umbra, 
 Hand semper madidis juvat impallescere cbartis. 
 Nos numerus sumus, et libros consumere nati; 
 Sed requies sit rebus; amant altema Camense. 
 Nocte dieque legas, cum tertius advenit annus : 
 Turn libros cape; claude fores, et prandia defer. 
 Quartus venit: ini,-|- rebus jam rite paratis, 
 Exultans, et coge gradum conferre magistros. 
 
 * Basse, eft. Interpretes illud Horatianum, " Bassum Thi'eicia 
 vincat amystide." Non perspexere vii-i docti altei-um hie alludi, Angli- 
 canae originis, neque ilium, ut perhibent, a potu aversum. 
 
 ■^ Int. Sic nostri, ' Go in and Man.' re6ws, 'subjects,'
 
 CAR3IEN S^CULARE. 153 
 
 His animadversis, fugies immane Barathrum. 
 His, operose puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas, 
 Tu rixator eris. Saltern non crebra revises 
 Ad stabulum,*' et tota moerens cai'pere juvcnta; 
 Classe nee amisso nil profectura dolentem 
 Tradet ludibriis te plena leporis HiKUDO.f 
 
 * crebra r. a. stabulum. "Turn up year after year at the old 
 diggings, {i.e. the Senate House,) and be plucked," &c. Peile. Quo 
 quid jejimius? 
 
 t Classe — Hii-udo. Obscurior allusio ad picturam quandam (ui col- 
 lectione vvn, vel plusquam viri, Punchii repositam,) in qua juvenis 
 custodem stationis moerens alloquitur.
 
 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 TO A SHIP. 
 
 Od. i. U. 
 
 TTET on fresh billows seaward wilt thou ride, 
 ship ? What dost thou ? Seek a hav'n, and there 
 Rest thee : for lo ! thy side 
 Is oarless all and bare. 
 
 And the swift south-west-wind hath maimed thy 
 
 mast, 
 And thy yards creak, and, every cable lost. 
 Yield must thy keel at last 
 On pitiless sea-waves tossed
 
 TO A SHIP. 155 
 
 Too rudely. Goodly canvass is not thine, 
 Nor gods, to hear thee now, when need is sorest : — 
 Though thou — a Pontic pine, 
 Child of a stately Forest, — 
 
 Boastest high name and empty pedigree. 
 Pale seamen little trust the gaudy sail: 
 Stay, unless doomed to be 
 The plaything of the gale. 
 
 j-lee — what of late sore burden was to me, 
 Now a sad memory and a bitter pain, — 
 Those shining Cyclads flee 
 That stud the far-off main.
 
 156 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 TO YIRGIL. 
 
 Od. i. 24. 
 
 TTNSHAMED, uncliecked, for one so dear 
 We sorrow. Lead tlie mournful choir, 
 Melpomene, to whom thy sire 
 
 Gave harp, and song-notes liquid-clear! 
 
 Sleeps He the sleep that knows no morn? 
 Oh Honour, oh twin-horn with Eight 
 Pure Faith, and Truth that loves the light, 
 
 When shall again his like be born? 
 
 Many a kind heart for Him makes moan ; 
 Thine, Virgil, first. But ah! in vain 
 Thy love bids heaven restore again 
 
 That which it took not as a loan:
 
 TO VIRGIL. 157 
 
 Were sweeter lute than Orpheus given 
 To thee, did trees thy voice ohey; 
 The blood revisits not the clay 
 
 Which He, with lifted wand, hath driven 
 
 Into his dark assemblage, who 
 
 Unlocks not fate to mortal's prayer. 
 
 Hard lot! Yet light their griefs who bear 
 
 The ills which they may not undo.
 
 158 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 TO THE POUNTAIN OF BANDTJSIA. 
 
 Od. iii. 13. 
 
 T) ANDUSIA, stainless mirror of the sky ! 
 Thine is the flower-crown'd bowl, for thee shall die, 
 
 "When dawns again yon sun, the kid; 
 
 Whose budding horns, half-seen, half-hid. 
 
 Challenge to dalliance or to strife — in vain ! 
 Soon must the hope of the wild herd be slain, 
 
 And those cold springs of thine 
 
 "With blood incarnadine. 
 
 Fierce glows the Dogstar, but his fiery beam 
 Toucheth not thee : still grateful thy cool stream 
 
 To labour-wearied ox, 
 
 Or wanderer from the flocks :
 
 TO THE FOUNTAIN OF BANDUSIA. 159 
 
 And hencefortli thou shalt be a royal fountain: 
 My harp shall tell how from yon cavernous mountain, 
 
 Topt by the brown oak-tree, 
 
 Thou breakest babblingly.
 
 1 60 TEANSLA TIOKS FROM SOMA CE. 
 
 TO IBYCUS'S WIFE. 
 
 Od. ii. 15. 
 
 QPOIJSE of penniless Ibycus, 
 Thus late, bring to a close all thy delinquencies, 
 
 All thy studious infamy : — 
 Nearing swiftly the grave — (that not an early one) — 
 
 Cease girls' sport to participate, 
 Blurring stars which were else cloudlessly brilliant. 
 
 "What suits her who is beautiful 
 Suits not equally thee: rightfully devastates 
 
 Thy fair daughter the homes of men, 
 Wild as Thyad, who wakes stirred by the kettle- 
 drums. 
 
 I^othus' beauty constraining her, 
 Like some kid at his play, holds she her revelry :
 
 TO IBYCUS'S WIFE. ' 161 
 
 Thy years stately Luceria's 
 Wools more fitly become — not din of harpsichords, 
 
 Not pink-petalled roseblossoms, 
 Not casks drained by an old lip to the sediment. 
 
 M
 
 162 TBANSLATIOKS FROM HORACE. 
 
 SORACTE. 
 
 Od. i. 9. 
 
 r^NE dazzling mass of solid snow 
 
 Soracte stands; the bent woods fret 
 Beneath their load; and, sharpest-set 
 
 "With frost, the streams have ceased to flow. 
 
 Pile on great faggots and break up 
 
 The ice : let influence more benign 
 Enter with four-years-treasured wine, 
 
 Fetched in the ponderous Sabine cup : 
 
 Leave to the gods all else. When they 
 Have once bid rest the winds that war 
 Over the passionate seas, no more 
 
 Grey ash and cypress rock and sway.
 
 SOEACTE. 163 
 
 Ask not what future suns shall bring, 
 
 Count to-day gain, whate'er it chance 
 To be: nor, young man, scorn the dance, 
 
 Nor deem sweet Love an idle thine:. 
 
 Ere Time thy April youth hath changed 
 To sourness. Park and public walk 
 Attract thee now, and whispered talk 
 
 At twilight meetings pre-arranged; 
 
 Hear now the pretty laugh that tells 
 In what dim corner lurks thy love; 
 And snatch a bracelet or a glove 
 
 From wrist or hand that scarce rebels.
 
 164 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 TO LEUCONOE. 
 
 Od. i. 11. 
 
 QEEK not, for thou slialt not find it, what my 
 
 end, what thine shall be; 
 Ask not of Chaldsea's science what God wills, 
 
 Leuconoe : 
 Better far, what comes, to bear it. Haply many 
 
 a wintry blast 
 "Waits thee still ; and this, it may be, Jove ordains 
 
 to be thy last. 
 Which flings now the flagging sea-wave on the 
 
 obstinate sandstone-reef. 
 Be thou wise: fill up the wine- cup; shortening, 
 
 since the time is brief, 
 Hopes that reach into the future. While I speak, 
 
 hath stol'n away 
 Jealous Time. Mistrust To-morrow, catch the 
 
 blossom of To-day.
 
 JUNO'S SPEECH. 165 
 
 JUI^O'S SPEECH. 
 
 Od. iii. 3. 
 
 HHHE just man's single -purposed mind 
 Not furious mobs that prompt to ill 
 May move, nor kings' frowns shake his will 
 
 Which is as rock; not warrior- winds 
 
 That keep the seas in wild unrest; 
 
 Nor bolt by Jove's own finger hurled : 
 The fragments of a shivered world 
 
 Would crash round him still self-possest. 
 
 Jove's wandering son reached, thus endowed, 
 The fiery bastions of the skies; 
 Thus Pollux; with them Caesar lies 
 
 Beside his nectar, radiant-browed.
 
 166 TBANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 Tor this rewarded, tiger-drawn 
 
 Eode Bacchus, reining necks before 
 Untamed; for this "War's horses bore 
 
 Quirinus up from Acheron, 
 
 When in heav'n's conclave Juno said, 
 
 Thrice welcomed: ''Troy is in the dust; 
 Troy, by a judge accursed, unjust, 
 
 And that strange woman prostrated. 
 
 " The day Laomedon ignored 
 
 His god-pledged word, resigned to me 
 And Pallas ever-pure, was she. 
 
 Her people, and their traitor lord. 
 
 " No more the Greek girl's guilty guest 
 
 Sits splendour-girt: Priam's perjured sons 
 Find not against the mighty ones 
 
 Of Greece a shield in Hector's breast:
 
 JUNO'S SFEECE. 161 
 
 ''And, long drawn out by private jars, 
 
 The war sleeps. Lo! my wrath is o'er: 
 And him the Trojan vestal bore 
 
 (Sprung of that hated line) to Mars, 
 
 "To Mars restore I. His be rest 
 
 In halls of light: by him be drained 
 The nectar-bowl, his place obtained 
 
 In the calm companies of the blest. 
 
 " While betwixt Rome and Ilion raves 
 A length of ocean, where they will 
 llisc empires for the exiles still : 
 
 While Paris' s and Priam's graves 
 
 " Are hoof-trod, and the she- wolf breeds 
 Securely there, unharmed shall stand 
 Bome's lustrous Capitol, her hand 
 
 Impose proud laws on trampled Modes.
 
 168 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 " Wide-feared, to far-off climes be borne 
 Her storv; where the central main 
 Europe and Libya parts in twain, 
 
 Where full Nile laves a land of corn: 
 
 " The buried secret of the mine, 
 
 (Best left there) resolute to spurn, 
 And not to man's base uses turn 
 
 With hand that spares not things divine. 
 
 " Earth's utmost end, where'er it be, 
 
 May her hosts reach; careering proud 
 O'er lands where watery rain and cloud. 
 
 Or where wild suns hold revelry. 
 
 "But, to the soldier-sons of Eome, 
 
 Tied by this law, such fates are willed; 
 That they seek never to rebuild, 
 
 Too fond, too bold, their grandsires' home.
 
 JUJSraS SPEECH. 169 
 
 " With darkest omens, deadliest strife, 
 Shall Troy, raised up again, repeat 
 Her history; I the victor-fleet 
 
 Shall lead, Jove's sister and his wife. 
 
 " Thrice let Apollo rear the wall 
 
 Of brass; and thrice my Greeks shall hew 
 The fabric down ; thrice matrons rue 
 
 In chains their sons', their husbands' fall." 
 
 lU my light lyre such notes beseem. 
 
 Stay, Mase; nor, wayward still, rehearse 
 
 God-utterances in puny verse 
 That may but mar a mighty theme.
 
 170 TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. 
 
 TO A FAIJN". 
 
 Od. iii. 18. 
 
 TyOOER of young Nymphs who fly thee, 
 
 Lightly o'er my sunlit lawn 
 Trip, and go, nor injured by thee 
 
 Be my weanling herds, oh Faun : 
 
 If the kid his doomed head bows, and 
 Brims with wine the loying cup. 
 
 When the year is full; and thousand 
 Scents from altars hoar go up. 
 
 Each flock in the rich grass gambols 
 When the month comes which is thine; 
 
 And the happy village rambles 
 Fieldward with the idle kine:
 
 TO A FAUN. 171 
 
 Lambs play on, the wolf their neighbour: 
 Wild woods deck thee with their spoil; 
 
 And with glee the sons of labour 
 Stamp thrice on their foe, the soil.
 
 1 72 TRANSLA TIOXS FROM EORA CE. 
 
 TO LYCE. 
 
 Od. iv. 13. 
 
 T TCE, the gods have listened to my prayer : 
 The gods have listened, Lyce. Thou art grey, 
 And stiU would' st thou seem fair; 
 Still unshamed drink, and play, 
 
 And, wine-flushed, woo slow-answering Love with 
 
 weak 
 Shrill pipings. "With young Chia He doth dwell, 
 Queen of the harp ; her cheek 
 
 Is his sweet citadel : — 
 
 He marked the withered oak, and on he flew 
 Intolerant; shrank from Lyce grim and wrinkled, 
 Whose teeth are ghastly-blue. 
 
 Whose temples snow -besprinkled : —
 
 TO LYCE. 173 
 
 Not purple, not the brightest gem that glows, 
 Brings back to her the years which, fleeting fast. 
 Time hath once shut in those 
 Dark annals of the Past. 
 
 Oh, where is all thy loveliness? soft hue 
 And motions soft? Oh, what of Her cloth rest, 
 Her, who breathed love, who drew 
 My heart out of my breast? 
 
 Fair, and far-famed, and subtly sweet, thy face 
 Eanked next to Cinara's. But to Cinara fate 
 Gave but a few years' grace; 
 And lets live, all too late, 
 
 Lyce, the rival of the beldam crow : 
 That fiery youth may see with scornful brow 
 The torch that long ago 
 
 Beamed bright, a cinder now.
 
 1 74 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 TO HIS SLAVE. 
 
 Od. i. 38. 
 
 TDERSIAN grandeur I abhor; 
 Linden-wreathed crowns, avaunt : 
 Boy, I bid thee not explore 
 Woods which latest roses haunt: 
 
 Try on nought thy busy craft 
 Save plain myrtle ; so arrayed 
 Thou shalt fetch, I drain, the draught 
 Fitliest 'neath the scant vine- shade.
 
 VIRGIL. 175 
 
 THE DEAD OX. 
 
 GeORG. IV. 
 
 T ! smoking in the stubborn plough, the ox 
 Falls, from his lip foam gushing crimson-stained. 
 And sobs his life out. Sad of face the ploughman 
 Moves, disentangling from his comrade's corpse 
 The lone survivor: and its work half-done, 
 Abandoned in the furrow stands the plough. 
 jS'ot shadiest forest- depths, not softest lawns, 
 May move him now : not river amber-pure. 
 That volumes o'er the cragstones to the plain. 
 Powerless the broad sides, glazed the rayless eye, 
 And low and lower sinks the ponderous neck. 
 What thank hath he for all the toil he toiled, 
 The heavy- clodded land in man's behoof
 
 1 76 TRANS LA TIONS. 
 
 Upturning? Yet the grape of Italy, 
 The stored-up feast hath wrought no harm to him : 
 Green leaf and taintless grass are all their fare; 
 The clear rill or the travel-freshened stream 
 Their cup : nor one care mars their honest sleep.
 
 THEOCRITUS. 177 
 
 FROM THEOCRITUS. 
 
 Idyll. VII, 
 
 ^CARCE midway -vrere we jet, nor yet descried 
 The stone that hides what once was Brasidas : 
 When there drew near a wayfarer from Crete, 
 Young Lycidas, the Muses' votary. 
 The horned herd was his care : a glance might tell 
 So much : for every inch a herdsman he. 
 Slang o'er his shoulder was a ruddy hide 
 Torn fi'om a he-goat, shaggy, tangle-haii-ed, 
 That reeked of rennet yet: a broad belt clasped 
 A patched cloak round his breast, and for a staff 
 A gnarled wild -olive bough his right hand bore. 
 Soon with a quiet smile he spoke — his eye 
 Twinkled, and laughter sat upon his lip : 
 " And whither ploddcst thou thy weary way
 
 178 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Beneath the noontide sun, Simichides? 
 
 For now the Kzard sleeps upon the wall, 
 
 The crested lark hath closed his wandering wing. 
 
 Speed' st thou, a bidd'n guest, to some reveller's 
 
 hoard ? 
 Or townwards, to the treading of the grape? 
 For lo! recoiling from thy hurrying feet 
 The pavement-stones ring out right merrily."
 
 SPEECH OF AJAX. 179 
 
 SPEECH OF AJAX. 
 
 Soph. Aj. 645. 
 
 A LL strangest things the multitudinous years 
 Bring forth, and shadow from us all we know. 
 Falter alike great oath and steeled resolve; 
 And none shall say of aught, ' This may not he.' 
 Lo ! I myself, but yesterday so strong. 
 As new-dipt steel am weak and all unsexed 
 By yonder woman: yea I mourn for them, 
 Widow and orphan, left amid their foes. 
 But I wiU journey seaward — where the shore 
 Lies meadow-fringed — so haply wash away 
 My sin, and flee that wrath that weighs me down. 
 And, lighting somewhere on an untrodden way, 
 I will bury this my lance, this hateful thing, 
 Deep in some earth-hole where no eye shall see —
 
 180 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Night and Hell keep it in the underworld! 
 For never to this day, since first I grasped 
 The gift that Hector gave, my bitterest foe. 
 Have I reaped aught of honour from the Greeks. 
 So true that byword in the mouths of men, 
 "A foeman's gifts are no gifts, but a curse." 
 
 Wherefore henceforward shall I know that God 
 Is great; and strive to honour Atreus' sons. 
 Princes they are, and should be obeyed. How else ? 
 Do not all terrible and most puissant things 
 Yet bow to loftier majesties? The "Winter, 
 "Who walks forth scattering snows, gives place anon 
 To fruitage-laden Summer; and the orb 
 Of weary Night doth in her turn stand by, 
 And let shine out, with her white steeds, the Day : 
 Stern tempest-blasts at last sing lullaby 
 To groaning seas : even the archtyrant. Sleep, 
 Doth loose his slaves, not hold them chained for 
 ever.
 
 SPEECH OF AJAX. 181 
 
 And shall not mankind too learn discipline? 
 / know, of late experience taught, that him 
 Who is my foe I must but hate as one 
 "Whom I may yet call Friend : and him who loves 
 
 me 
 WiU I but serve and cherish as a man 
 "Whose love is not abiding. Few be they 
 Who, reaching Friendship's port, have there found 
 
 rest. 
 But, for these things, they shall be well. Go 
 
 thou, 
 Lady, within, and there pray that the Gods 
 May fill unto the full my heart's desire. 
 And ye, my mates, do unto me with her 
 Like honour: bid young Teucer, if he come, 
 To care for me, but to be your friend still. 
 For where my way leads, thither I shall go : 
 Do ye my bidding; haply yc may hear. 
 Though now is my dark hour, that I have peace.
 
 182 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 FROM LUCRETIUS. 
 
 Book II. 
 
 gWEET, when the great sea's water is stirred 
 
 to his depths by the storm-winds, 
 Standing ashore to descry one afar-off mightily 
 
 struggling : 
 Not that a neighbour's sorrow to you yields dulcet 
 
 enjoyment ; 
 But that the sight hath a sweetness, of ills our- 
 selves are exempt from. 
 Sweet 'tis too to behold, on a broad plain mustering, 
 
 war-hosts 
 Arm them for some great battle, one's self un- 
 scathed by the danger: — 
 Yet still happier this: — To possess, impregnably 
 guarded,
 
 LUCRETIUS. 183 
 
 Those calm heights of the sages, which have for 
 
 an origin "Wisdom ; 
 Thence to survey our fellows, observe them this 
 
 way and that way 
 Wander amidst Life's paths, poor stragglers seeking 
 
 a highway: 
 Watch mind battle with mind, and escutcheon rival 
 
 escutcheon ; 
 Gaze on that untold strife, which is waged 'neath 
 
 the sun and the starlight. 
 Up as they toil to the surface whereon rest Eiches 
 
 and Empire. 
 Oh race bom unto trouble ! oh minds all lacking 
 
 of eyesight ! 
 'Keath what a vital darkness, amidst how terrible 
 
 dangers, 
 Move ye thro' this thing, Life, this fragment! Fools, 
 
 that ye hear not 
 Nature clamo\ir aloud for the one thing only : that, 
 
 all pain
 
 1 8 4 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 Parted and past from the Body, the Mind too bask 
 
 in a blissful 
 Dream, all fear of the future and all anxiety over ! 
 So, as regards Man's Body, a few things only 
 
 are needful, 
 (Few, tho' we sum up all,) to remove all misery 
 
 from him; 
 Aye, and to strew in his path such a lib'ral carpet 
 
 of pleasures, 
 That scarce Nature herself would at times ask 
 
 happiness ampler. 
 Statues of youth and of beauty may not gleam 
 
 golden around him, 
 (Each in his right hand bearing a great lamp 
 
 lustrously burning, 
 Whence to the midnight revel a light may be 
 
 furnished always) ; 
 Silver may not shine softly, nor gold blaze bright, 
 
 in his mansion.
 
 LUCRETIUS. 185 
 
 Nor to the noise of the tabret his halls gold- 
 corniced echo : — 
 Yet stUl he, with his feUow, reposed on the velvety 
 
 greensward, 
 N'ear to a rippling stream, by a tall tree canopied 
 
 over, 
 Shall, though they lack great riches, enjoy all 
 
 bodily pleasure. 
 Chiefliest then, when above them a fair sky smiles, 
 
 and the young year 
 Flings with a bounteous hand over each green 
 
 meadow the wild-flowers : — 
 Not more quickly depart from his bosom fiery fevers. 
 Who beneath crimson hangings and pictures 
 
 cunningly broidercd 
 Tosses about, than from him who must lie in 
 
 beggarly raiment. 
 Therefore, since to the Body avail not Riches, 
 
 avails not
 
 186 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Heraldry's utmost boast, nor the pomp and the pride 
 
 of an Empire; 
 Next shall you own, that the Mind needs likewise 
 
 nothing of these things. 
 Save if — when, peradventure, your armies over the 
 
 champaign 
 Spread with a stir and a ferment, and bid War's 
 
 image awaken. 
 Or when vsdth stir and with ferment a fleet sails 
 
 forth upon Ocean — 
 Cowed before these brave sights, pale Superstition 
 
 abandon 
 Straightway your mind as you gaze, Death seem no 
 
 longer alarming. 
 Trouble vacate your bosom, and Peace hold holiday 
 
 in you. 
 But, if (again) all this be a vain impossible 
 
 fiction ; 
 If of a truth men's fears, and the cares which hourly 
 beset them.
 
 LUCRETIUS. 187 
 
 Heed not the jav'lin's fury, regard not clashing 
 
 of broadswords ; 
 But ail-boldly amongst crowned heads and the rulers 
 
 of empires 
 Stalk, not shrinking abashed from the dazzling 
 
 glare of the red gold, 
 Not from the pomp of the monarch, who walks forth 
 
 purple-apparelled. 
 These things shew that at times we are bankrupt, 
 
 surely, of Reason; 
 When too all Man's life through a great Dark 
 
 laboureth onward. 
 jFor, as a young boy trembles, and in that mystery, 
 
 Darkness, 
 Sees all terrible things : so do we too, ev'n in the 
 
 daylight, 
 Ofttimes shudder at that, which is not more really 
 
 alarming 
 Than boys' fears, when they waken, and say 
 
 some danger is o'er them.
 
 1 8 8 TRANS LA TIONS. 
 
 So this panic of mind, these clouds which gather 
 around us, 
 
 Fly not the bright sunbeam, nor the ivory shafts of 
 the Day-star : 
 
 Nature, rightly revealed, and the Keason only, 
 dispel them. 
 Now, how moving about do the prime material atoms 
 
 Shape forth this thing and that thing; and, once 
 shaped, how they resolve them; 
 
 What power says unto each, This must be ; how an 
 inherent 
 
 Elasticity drives them about Space vagrantly on- 
 ward ; — 
 
 I shall unfold : thou simply give all thyself to my 
 teaching. 
 Matter mingled and massed into indissoluble union 
 
 Does not exist. For we see how wastes each 
 separate substance; 
 
 So flow piecemeal away, with the length'ning cen- 
 turies, all things.
 
 LUCRETIUS. 189 
 
 Till from our eye by degrees that old self passes, 
 
 and is not. 
 Still Universal Nature abides unchanged as aforetime. 
 Whereof this is the cause. When the atoms part 
 
 fi'om a substance, 
 That suffers loss ; but another is elsewhere gaining 
 
 an increase : 
 So that, as one thing wanes, still a second bursts 
 
 into blossom, 
 Soon, in its turn, to be left. Thus draws this 
 
 Universe always 
 Gain out of loss ; thus live we mortals one on another. 
 Bourgeons one generation, and one fades. Let but 
 
 a few years 
 Pass, and a race has arisen which was not : as in 
 
 a racecourse. 
 One hands on to another the burning torcli of 
 
 Existence,
 
 190 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 FEOM HOMER. 
 
 IL. I. 
 
 QING, oil daughter of heaven, of Peleus' son, of 
 
 Achilles, 
 Him whose terrible wrath brought thousand woes 
 
 on Achaia. 
 Many a stalwart soul did it hurl untimely to Hades, 
 Souls of the heroes of old : and their bones lay 
 
 strown on the sea-sands, 
 Prey to the vulture and dog. Yet was Zeus ful- 
 filling a purpose ; 
 Since that far-off day, when in hot strife parted 
 
 asunder 
 Atreus' sceptred son, and the chos'n of heaven, 
 
 Achilles. 
 Say then, which of the gods bid arise up battle 
 
 between them?
 
 HOMER. 191 
 
 Zeus' s and Leto's son, "With the king was kindled 
 
 his anger: 
 Then went sickness abroad, and the people died 
 
 of the sickness : 
 For that of Atreus' son had his priest been lightly 
 
 entreated, 
 Chryses, Apollo's priest. For he came to the ships 
 
 of Achaia, 
 Bearing a daughter's ransom, a sum not easy to 
 
 number : 
 And in his hand was the emblem of Him, far- 
 darting Apollo, 
 High on a sceptre of gold : and he made his prayer 
 
 to the Grecians; 
 Chiefly to Atreus' sons, twin chieftains, ordering 
 
 armies. 
 " Chiefs sprung of Atreus' loins ; and ye, brazen- 
 
 greaved Achaians! 
 ! So may the gods this day, the Olympus-palace d, 
 
 grant you
 
 192 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Priam's city to raze, and return unscathed to your 
 
 homesteads : 
 Only my own dear daughter I ask; take ransom 
 
 and yield her, 
 Eev'rencing His great name, son of Zeus, far- 
 darting Apollo." 
 Then from the host of Achaians arose tumultuous 
 
 answer : 
 "Due to the priest is his honour; accept rich 
 
 ransom and yield her." 
 But there was war in the spirit of Atreus' son, 
 
 Agamemnon ; 
 Disdainful he dismissed him, a right stern fiat 
 
 appending : — 
 " "Woe be to thee, old man, if I find thee lingering 
 
 longer, 
 Yea or returning again, by the hollow ships of 
 
 Achaians ! 
 Scarce much then will avail thee the great god's 
 
 sceptre and emblem.
 
 HOMER. 193 
 
 Her will I never release. Old age must first come 
 
 upon her, 
 In my own home, yea in Argos, afar from the land 
 
 of her fathers. 
 Following the loom and attending upon my bed. 
 
 But avaunt thee — 
 Go, and provoke not me, that thy way may be haply 
 
 securer." 
 These were the words of the king, and the old 
 
 man feared and obeyed him : 
 Sadly he strode by the shore of the myriad-melodied 
 
 ocean. 
 Long, lone-wandering there, did the sage of many 
 
 a winter 
 Pray to Apollo his Lord, son of golden-ringleted Leto. 
 " Lord of the silver bow, whose arm girds Chryse 
 
 and Cilia, — 
 Cilia, loved of the gods, — and in might sways 
 
 Tenedos, hearken! 
 

 
 194 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Oh ! if, in days gone by, I have built from floor 
 
 unto cornice, 
 Smintheus, a fair shrine for thee ; or burned in the 
 
 flames of the altar 
 Fat flesh of bulls and of goats ; then do this thing 
 
 that I ask thee : 
 Hurl on the Greeks thy shafts, that thy servant's 
 
 tears be avenged!" 
 So did he pray, and his prayer reached the ears 
 
 of Phoebus Apollo. 
 Dark was the soul of the god as he moved from the 
 
 heights of Olympus, 
 Shouldering a bow, and a quiver on this side fast 
 
 and on that side. 
 Onward in anger he moved. And the arrows, 
 
 stirred by the motion. 
 Rattled and rang on his shoulder: he came, as 
 
 Cometh the midnight.
 
 HOMER. 195 
 
 Hard by the ships he stayed him, and loosed one 
 
 shaft from the bow-string ; 
 Harshly the stretched string twanged of the bow 
 
 all royally-radiant; 
 First fell his wrath on the mules, and the swift- 
 footed hound of the herdsman ; 
 Afterward smote he the host. "With a rankling 
 
 arrow he smote them 
 Aye; and the morn and the even were red with the 
 
 glare of the corpse-fires. 
 Nine days over the host sped the shafts of the 
 
 god : and the tenth day 
 Dawned; and Achilles said, "Be a council called 
 
 of the people." 
 (Such thought came to his mind from the goddess, 
 
 Hera the white-armed, 
 Hera who loved those Greeks, and who saw them 
 
 dying around her.)
 
 1 9 6 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 So when all were collected, and ranged in a solemn 
 
 assembly, 
 Straightway rose up amidst them and spake swift- 
 footed Achilles. 
 "Atreus' son! It were better, I think this day, 
 
 that we wandered 
 Back, re-seeking our homes, (if a warfare may be 
 
 avoided) ; 
 Now when the sword and the plague, these two 
 
 things, fight with Achaians. 
 Come, let us seek out now some priest, some seer 
 
 amongst us. 
 Tea or a dreamer of dreams — for a dream too cometh 
 
 of God's hand — 
 Whence we may learn what hath angered in this 
 
 wise Phoebus Apollo. 
 "Whether mayhap he reprove us of prayer or of 
 oxen unofFered;
 
 HOMER. 197 
 
 "Whether, accepting the incense of lambs and of 
 
 blemishless he-goats, 
 Yet it be his high will to remove this misery from 
 
 us." 
 Down sat the prince : he had spoken. And 
 
 uprose to them in answer 
 Kalchas Thestor's son, high chief of the host of the 
 
 augurs. 
 "Well he knew what is present, what will be, and 
 
 what was aforetime ; 
 He into Ilion's harbour had led those ships of 
 
 Achaia, 
 All by the Power of the Art, which he gained from 
 
 Phoebus Apollo. 
 Thus then, kindliest-hearted, arose and spake he 
 
 before them. 
 "Peleus' son! Thou demandest, a man heaven- 
 favor' d, an answer
 
 1 9 8 TRANSLA TIONS. 
 
 Touching the Great King's wrath, the afar-ofF- 
 
 aiming Apollo: 
 Therefore I lift up my voice. Swear thou to me, 
 
 duly digesting 
 All, — that with right good will, by word and by 
 
 deed, thou wilt aid me. 
 Surely the ire will awaken of one who mightily 
 
 ruleth 
 Over the Argives all : and upon him wait the 
 
 Achaians : 
 Aye is the battle the king's, when a poor man 
 
 kindleth his anger : 
 For, if but this one day he devour his indignation. 
 Still on the morrow abideth his rage, that its end 
 
 be accomplished. 
 Deep in the soul of the king. So bethink thee, 
 
 wilt thou deliver." 
 Then unto him making answer arose swift- 
 footed Achilles:
 
 HOMER. 199 
 
 "Fearing nought, up and open the god's -will, all 
 
 that is told thee : 
 For by Apollo's self, heaven's favorite, whom thou, 
 
 Kalchas, 
 Serving aright, to the armies aloud God-oracles 
 
 op'nest : 
 None — while that yet I breathe upon earth, and 
 
 walk in the daylight — 
 Shall, at the hollow ships, lift hand of oppression 
 
 against thee. 
 None out of all yon host — not and if thou said'st 
 
 Agamemnon, 
 "Who now sits in his glory, the topmost flower of 
 
 the armies." 
 Then did the blameless prophet at last wax 
 
 valiant and answer : 
 " Lo ! He doth not reprove us of prayer or of oxen 
 
 unofFered ;
 
 200 TRAiWSLATIOXS. 
 
 But for his servant's sake, the disdained of king 
 
 Agamemnon, 
 (In that he loosed not his daughter, and gave not 
 
 his ear to a ransom,) — 
 Therefore the Far-darter sendeth, and yet shall send 
 
 on us, evil. 
 Nor shall he stay from the slaughter the hand 
 
 that is heavy upon you, 
 Till to her own dear father the bright-eyed maiden 
 
 is yielded. 
 No price asked, no ransom ; and ships bear hallowed 
 
 oxen 
 Towards Chryse :— then, it may be, will he shew 
 
 mercy and hear us." 
 These words said, sat he down. Then rose in 
 
 his place and addressed them 
 Atreus* warrior son, Agamemnon king of the 
 
 nations,
 
 EOMER. 201 
 
 Sore grieved. Fury was working in each dark cell 
 
 of his bosom, 
 And in his eye was a glare as a burning fiery 
 
 furnace : 
 First to the priest he addressed him, his whole 
 
 mien boding a mischief, 
 "Priest of ill luck! jS'e'er heard I of aught 
 
 good from thee, but evil. 
 Still doth the evil thing unto thee seem sweeter 
 
 of utt'rance; 
 Leaving the thing which is good all unspoke, all 
 
 unaccomplished, 
 Lo ! this day to the people thou say'st, God-oracles 
 
 opening, 
 A^Tiat, but that / am the cause why the god's hand 
 
 worketh against them, 
 For that in sooth I rejected a ransom, aye and 
 
 a rich one,
 
 202 TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Brought for the girl Briseis. I did. For I chose 
 
 to possess her, 
 Rather, at home : less favour hath Clytemnestra 
 
 before me, 
 Clytemnestra my wife: unto her Briseis is equal, 
 Equal in form and in stature, in mind and in 
 
 womanly wisdom. 
 Still, even thus, am I ready to yield her, so it be 
 
 better : 
 Better is saving alive, I hold, than slaying a 
 
 nation. 
 Meanwhile deck me a guerdon in her stead, lest of 
 
 Achaians 
 I should alone lack honour; an unmeet thing and 
 
 a shameful. 
 See all men, that my guerdon, I wot not whither 
 
 it goeth." 
 Then unto him made answer the swift-foot 
 
 chieftain Achilles :
 
 HOMER. 203 
 
 k 
 
 "Oh most vaunting of men, most gain-loving, off- 
 spring of Atreus ! 
 
 How shall the lords of Achaia bestow fresh guerdon 
 [ upon thee? 
 
 Surely we know not yet of a treasure piled in 
 abundance : 
 
 That which the sacking of cities hath brought to 
 us, all hath an owner. 
 
 And it were all unfit that the host make re- 
 distribution. 
 
 Yield thou the maid to the god. So threefold 
 surely and fourfold 
 
 All we Greeks will requite thee, should that day 
 dawn, when the great gods 
 
 Grant that of yon proud walls not one stone rest 
 on another." 
 
 TIIK END.
 
 Cambritrg^ : 
 
 ^ JONATHAN PALMKR, PRINTER, SIU.NKV STIiKF.T.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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