IMPROVISO TRANSLATION Of the following Distich on the Duke of Modena's

running away from the Comet in 1742 or 1743. Se al venir vostro i principi se n' vanno Deh venga ogni di durate un anno. Įr at your coming princes disappear, Comets ! come ev'ry day and stay a year.

IMPROVISO TRANSLATION
Of the following Lines of M. Benserade à son Lit.

Theatre des ris, et des pleurs,
Lit! où je nais, et où je meurs,
Tu nous fais voir comment voisins,
Sont nos plaisirs, et nos chagrins.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry,
And born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe.

EPITAPH FOR MR. HQGARTH.
The hand of him here torpid lies,

That drew th' essential form of grace;
Here clos'd in death th' attentive eyes,

That saw the manners in the face.

TRANSLATION Of the following Lines written under a Print repre.

senting Persons skaiting, Sur un mince chrystal l'hyver conduit leurs pas,

Le précipice est sous la glace :

Telle est de nos plaisirs la legere surface : Glissez, mortels, n'appuyez pas. ..

O’Er ice the rapid skaiter flies,

With sport above, and death below;
Where mischief lurks in gay disguise,

Thus lightly touch and quickly go.

· IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION

or THE SAME. O’er crackling ice, o'er gulphs profound, · With nimble glide the skaiters play ; O'er treach'rous Pleasure's flow'ry ground

Thus lightly skim and haste away.

TO MRS. THRALE,
On her completing her thirty-fifth Year,

AN IMPROMPTU.
Ort in danger, yet alive,
We are come to thirty-five;
Long may better years arrive,
Better years than thirty-five !

Could philosophers contrive
Life to stop at thirty-five,
Time his hours should never drive
O'er the bounds of thirty-five.
High to soar, and deep to dive,
Nature gives at thirty-five.
Ladies, stock and tend your hive,
Trifle not at thirty-five ;
For, howe'er we boast and strive,
Life declines from thirty-five.
He that ever hopes to thrive
Must begin by thirty-five;
And all who wisely wish to wive
Must look on Thrale at thirty-five.

IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION

Of an Air in the ClEMENZA Df Tito of METAS-
TASIO, beginning, “ Deh se piacermi vuoi."

Would you hope to gain my heart,
Bid your teasing doubts depart;
He, who blindly trusts, will find
Faith from ev'ry gen'rous mind i
He, who still expects deceit,
Only teaches how to cheat.

TRANSLATION

of the Seeech of AQUILEIQ in the ADRIANO of • METASTASIO, beginning " Tu che in Corte

" invechiasti." GROWN old in courts, thou surely art not one Who keeps the rigid rules of antient honour ; Well skill'd to soothe a foe with looks of kindness, To sink the fatal precipice before him, And then lament his fall with seeming friendship : Open to all, true only to thyself, Thou know'st those arts which blast with envious

praise, Which aggravate a fault with feign'd excuses, And drive discountenanc'd virtue from the throne; That leave the blame of rigour to the prince, And of his ev'ry gift usurp the merit; That hide in seeming zeal a wicked purpose, And only build upon another's ruin.

Ex alieno ingenio poeta, ex suo tantum versificator.

SCALIG. Poet.

TOLLITE concentun, Solymza tollite nymphæ
Nil mortale loquor; cælum mihi carminis alta
Materies ; poscunt gravius cælestia plectrum.
Muscosi fontes, sylvestria tecta valete,
Aonidesque Deæ, et mendacis somnia Pindi :
Tu, mihi, qui flammâ movisti pectora sancti
Sidereâ Isaiæ, dignos accende furores!

Immatura calens rapitur per secula vates
Sic orsus-Qualis rerum mihi nascitur ordo !
Virgo ! virgo parit! felix radicibus arbor
Jessæis surgit, mulcentesque æthera flores
Cælestes lambunt animæ, ramisque columba,
Nuncia sacra Dei, plaudentibus insidet alis.
Nectareos rores, alimentaque mitia ccelum
Præbeat, et tacite fæcundos irriget imbres.
Huc, fædat quos lepra, urit quos febris, adeste,
Dia falutares spirant medicamina rami;
Hic requies fessis : non sacra sævit in umbra
Vis Boreæ gelida, aut rapidi violentia solis.

* This translation has been severely criticised by Dr. War. ton, in his edition of Pope, vol, i. p. 105. 8vo. 1797. It certainly contains some expressions that are not classical. Let it be remembered, however, that it was a college-exercise, performed with great rapidity, and was at first praised beyond all suspicion of defect.