Jam pene totis finibus Angligenum;
Immundasque volucres,
Unguibus imminentes,
Figat Apollinea pharetra,
Phineamque abigat pestem procul amne Pegaseo?
Quin tu, libelle, nuntii licet mala
Fide, vel oscitantia,
Semel erraveris agmine fratrum, Seu quis te teneat specus,
Seu qua te latebra, forsan unde vili Callo terreris institoris insulsi, Lætare felix: en iterum tibi
Spes nova fulget, posse profundam Fugere Lethen, vehique superam In Jovis aulam, remige penna :
Nam te Roüsius sui
Optat peculi, numeroque justo Sibi pollicitum queritur abesse ; Rogatque venias ille, cujus inclyta Sunt data virum monumenta curæ : Teque adytis etiam sacris
Voluit reponi, quibus et ipse præsidet Æternorum operum custos fidelis ; Quæstorque gazæ nobilioris, Quam cui præfuit Iön,
Clarus Erechtheides,
Opulenta dei per templa parentis,
Fulvosque tripodas, donaque Delphica,
Ion Acta genitus Creusa.
Ergo, tu visere lucos
Musarum ibis amoenos;
Diamque Phœbi rursus ibis in domum,
Oxonia quam valle colit,
Delo posthabita,
Bifidoque Parnassi jugo :
Ibis honestus,
Postquam egregiam tu quoque sortem
Nactus abis, dextri prece sollicitatus amici.
Illic legeris inter alta nomina
Authorum, Graiæ simul et Latina
Antiqua gentis lumina, et verum decus.
Vos tandem, haud vacui mei labores, Quicquid hoc sterile fudit ingenium,
Jam sero placidam sperare jubeo
Perfunctam invidia requiem, sedesque beatas, Quas bonus Hermes,
Et tutela dabit solers Roüsi;
Quo neque lingua procax vulgi penetrabit, atque longe Turba legentum prava facesset :
At ultimi nepotes,
Et cordatior ætas,
Judicia rebus æquiora forsitan Adhibebit, integro sinu.
Tum, livore sepulto,
Si quid meremur sana posteritas sciet, Rousio favente.
The foreign poems of Milton, with a few exceptions, were translated by the poet Cowper, whose versions are given in the ensuing pages.
TRANSLATIONS OF THE ITALIAN POEMS.
FAIR Lady! whose harmonious name the Rhine, Through all his glassy vale, delights to hear, Base were indeed the wretch who could forbear To love a spirit elegant as thine,
That manifests a sweetness all divine,
Nor knows a thousand winning acts to spare, And graces, which Love's bow and arrows are, Tempering thy virtues to a softer shine. When gracefully thou speak'st, or singest gay Such strains as might the senseless forest move, Ah then-turn each his eyes and ears away Who feels himself unworthy of thy love! Grace can alone preserve him, ere the dart Of fond desire yet reach his inmost heart.
As on a hill-top rude, when closing day Imbrowns the scene, some pastoral maiden fair Waters a lovely foreign plant with care, Borne from its native genial airs away, That scarcely can its tender bud display, So, on my tongue these accents, new and rare, Are flowers exotic, which Love waters there,
While thus, O sweetly scornful! I essay
Thy praise, in verse to British ears unknown, And Thames exchange for Arno's fair domain; So Love has willed, and ofttimes Love has shown That what he wills he never wills in vain. Oh that this hard and sterile breast might be To Him who plants from heaven a soil as free!
THEY mock my toil-the nymphs and amorous swains— "And whence this fond attempt to write," they cry, Love-songs in language that thou little know'st? How darest thou risk to sing these foreign strains? Say truly,-find'st not oft thy purpose crossed, And that thy fairest flowers here fade and die?" Then with pretence of admiration high- "Thee other shores expect, and other tides; Rivers, on whose grassy sides
Her deathless laurel leaf, with which to bind Thy flowing locks, already Fame provides; Why then this burthen, better far declined?"
Speak, Muse! for me.-The fair one said, who guides My willing heart, and all my fancy's flights, "This is the language in which Love delights."
CHARLES-and I say it wondering-thou must know That I, who once assumed a scornful air, And scoffed at Love, am fallen in his snare. (Full many an upright man has fallen so.) Yet think me not thus dazzled by the flow Of golden locks, or damask cheek; more rare The heartfelt beauties of my foreign fair,— A mien majestic, with dark brows that show The tranquil lustre of a lofty mind; Words exquisite of idioms more than one, And song, whose fascinating power might blind And from her sphere draw down the labouring Moon, With such fire-darting eyes that, should I fill My ears with wax, she would enchant me still.
LADY! it cannot be but that thine eyes
Must be my sun, such radiance they display, And strike me even as Phoebus him whose way Through horrid Libya's sandy desert lies. Meantime, on that side steamy vapours rise Where most I suffer. Of what kind are they, New as to me they are, I cannot say,
But deem them, in the lover's language-sighs. Some, though with pain, my bosom close conceals, Which, if in part escaping thence they tend To soften thine, thy coldness soon congeals. While others to my tearful eyes ascend,
Whence my sad nights in showers are ever drowned, Till my Aurora come, her brow with roses bound.
ENAMOURED, artless, young, on foreign ground Uncertain whither from myself to fly,
To thee, dear Lady, with an humble sigh Let me devote my heart, which I have found By certain proofs, not few, intrepid, sound, Good, and addicted to conceptions high: When tempests shake the world, and fire the sky, It rests in adamant self-wrapt around; As safe from envy, and from outrage rude, From hopes and fears that vulgar minds abuse, As fond of genius and fixt fortitude,
Of the resounding lyre, and every Muse. Weak you will find it in one only part, Now pierced by Love's immedicable dart.
TRANSLATIONS OF THE LATIN POEMS.
ELEGY I.-To CHARLES DEODATI.
AT length, my friend, the far-sent letters come, Charged with thy kindness, to their destined home; They come, at length, from Deva's western side, Where prone she seeks the salt Vergivian tide. Trust me, my joy is great that thou shouldst be, Though born of foreign race, yet born for me, And that my sprightly friend, now free to roam, Must seek again so soon his wonted home. I well content where Thames with influent tide My native city laves meantime reside. Nor zeal nor duty now my steps impel To reedy Cam, and my forbidden cell; Nor aught of pleasure in those fields have I That to the musing bard all shade deny. 'Tis time that I a pedant's threats disdain, And fly from wrongs my soul will ne'er sustain. If peaceful days, in lettered leisure spent Beneath my father's roof, be banishment, Then call me banished; I will ne'er refuse A name expressive of the lot I choose. I would that, exiled to the Pontic shore, Rome's hapless bard had suffered nothing more; He then had equalled even Homer's lays, And, Virgil! thou hadst won but second praise. For here I woo the Muse, with no control;
And here my books-my life-absorb me whole. Here too I visit, or to smile or weep, The winding theatre's majestic sweep;
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