TRANSLATED FROM THE FOURTH GEORGIC OF

VIRGIL.

Fair às summer's evening skies,

Beneath his feet eternal snows were spread, En Is thy life serene, and glorious ;

And airy rocks hang nodding o'er bis head, Happy hero, great and wise,

The savage beasts in circles round him play, O'er thy foes, and self victorious.

And rapid streams stand list’ning to the lay.

So when the shepherd swain with curious eyes Marks the fair nest, and makes the young his

Sad Philomel, in poplar shades alone, (prize: THE EPISODE OF ORPHEUS AND lv vain renews her lamentable moan. EURYDICE,

From night to morn she chants her tender love,
And mournful music dies along i he grove.

No thonghts of pleasure now his soul employ,

Averse to Venus and the nuptial joy :
At chorus æqualis Dryadum-

Wild as the winds o'er Thracia's plains he roves,

O'er the bleak mountains, and the leafless groves. Her suddeu death the mountain-Dryads mourn’d When stung with rage the Bacchanalian train And Rhodope's high brow the dirge return’d: Rush'd to the bard, and stretch'd him on the Bleak Orythya trembled at their woe,

plain ; And silver Hebrus inurmur'd in his flow.

(Nor sounds, nor pray’rs their giddy fury move, While to his mournful herp, unseen, alone, And he must cease to live, or learn to love) Despairing Orpheus warbled out his moan. See, from his shoulders in a moment fies With rosy dawn his plaintive lays begun,

His bleeding head, and now, ah now he dies ! His plaintive voice sung down the setting Sun. Yet as he dy'd, Eurydice he mourn'd, Now in the frantic bitterness of woe

Eurydice, the treinbling banks return’d; Silent he treads the dreary realms below,

Eurydice, with hollow voice he cry'd, His loss in tender numbers to deplore,

Eurydice, ran murm’ring down the tide. And touch'd the souls who ne'er were touch'd

before. Mov'd with the pleasing harmony of song, TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY 'The shadowy spectres round the poet throng: Num'rous as birds that o'er the forest play,

HERTFORD, (When evening Phæbus rolls the light away :

UPON THE BIRTH OP LORD BEAUCHAMP. Or when high Jove in wintry seasons pours A sudden deluge from descending show'rs.)

Once more inspir'd, I touch the trembling The mother's ghost, the father's rev'rend shade,

string ; The blooming hero, and th' unmarry'd maid:

What Muse for Hertford will refuse to sing ? The new-born heir who soon lamented dies,

Thine are the fav'rite strains, and may they be And feeds the flames before bis parent's eyes;

Sacred to praise, to beauty, and to thee! All whom Cocytus' sable water bounds,

Sudden, methinks, in vision I survey And Styx with thrice three wand'ring streams The glorious triumphs of th' expected day: surrounds.

Fair lovely sights in opening scenes appear, See, the dread regions tremble and arlmire! And airy music trembles on iny ear; Fr'n Pain unmov'd stands heark’ning to the lyre. Surrounding eyes devour the beauteous boy, Intent, Ixion stares, nor seems to feel

And ev'ry bosom beats with sounds of joy. The rapid motions of the wbirling wheel.

Rise from thy slumbers, gentle infant, rise! Th' unfolding snakes around the furies play,

Lift thy fair head, unfold thy radiant eyes, As the pale sisters listen to the lay.

Whose lovely light must other couits adorn, Nor was the poet's moving suit deny’d,

And wound the hearts of beauties yet unborn, Again to realms above he bears his bride,

Subdue the sex, that triumphs in its pride, Wben (stern decree !) he turns his longing eyes... And humble those, who charm the world beside, "Tis done, she's lost, for ever ever fies

Descend, ye gentle Nine ! descend, and spread Too small the fault, too lasting was the pain, Laurels and bays around his infant-head. Could love but judge, or Hell relent again ! Bid noble passions in his bosom roll, Amaz'd he stands, and by the glimpse of day

And beams of fancy dawn upon his soul; Just sees th' unbody'd shadow Ait away.

In soften'd music bid his accents flow, When thus she cry'd—“Ah, too unthoughtful Piercing, and gentle as descending snow : Thus for one look to violate thy vows ! [spouse, Bid bim be all that can bis birth commend; Fate bears me back, again to Hell I fly,

The daring patriot, and unshaken friend; Eternal darkness swims before my eye!

Admir'd, yet humble, modest, though severe, Again the melancholy plains I see, (thee!" | Abroad obliging, and at home sincere; Ravish'd from life, from pleasure, and from Good, just, and affable in each degree: She said, and sinking into endless night, Such is the father, such the son shall be! Like exhalations vanish'd from the sight.

These humble strains, indulgent Hertford, In vain he sprung to seize her, wept, or pray'd,

spare ; Swift glides away the visionary shade.

Forgive the Muse, O fairest of the fair! How wilt thou now, unhappy Orpheus, tell

First in thy shades (where silver Kennet glides, Thy second loss, and melt the pow'rs of Hell? Fair Marlbro's turrets trembling in his tides: Cold are those lips that blest thy soul before, Where Peace and Plenty hold their gentle reign, And her fair eyes must roll on thine no more. And lavish Nature decks the fruitful plain : Sev'n tedious moons despairing, wild he stood, Where the fam'd mountain lifts its walks on bigh, and told his woes to Strymon's freezing flood. As varying prospects open on the eye)

To love's soft theme I tund the warbling lyre, The dapper elfins theyr queint festes bedight And borrow'd from thy eyes poetic fire.

Wyth mickle plesaunce on a mushroom lite: September the

In acorne cuppes they quaffen daint liquere, 30th, 1725.

And rowle belgardes, and defflie daunce yfere;
Ful everidele they makin muskie sote,

And sowns aeriall adowne the grene woode flote.
THE ARMY OF ADRASTUS,

AND HIS ALLIES, DE ARCHING FROM ARGOS

TO THE SIEGE OP THEBES,

A SOLILOQUY,

FROM

THE 4T11 THEBIAD OF STATIUS.

OCCASIONED BY THE CHIRFISG OF A GRASSHOPPEN.

Jamque snos circum

Happy insect! ever blest AROUND the pomp in morirning weeds array'd,

With a more than mortal rest,

Rosy deus the leaves among, Weeps the pale father, and the trembling maid:

Humble joys, and gentle song ! The screaming infants at the portals stand,

Wretched poet! ever curst, And clasp, and stop the slow-proceeding band.

With a life of lives the worst, Each parting face a settled horrour wears,

Sad despondence, restless fears, Each low-held shield receives a flood of tears.

Endless jealousies and tears. Some with a kiss (sad sign of future harms)

In the burning summer, thou Round the clos'd beaver glue their clasping arms,

Warblest on the verdant bough,
Hang on the spear, detain 'em as they go.

Meditating cbearful play,
With lifted eyes, and eloquence of woe.
Those warlike chiefs, whom dread Bellona steel'd, Scorch'd in Cupid's fervours, 1

Mindless of the piercing ray;
And arm'd with souls unknowing once to yield,

Ever weep and ever die. Now touch'd with sorrows, hide their tearful

Proud to gratify thy will,
eyes,

Ready Nature waits thee still:
And all the hero melts away and dies.
So the pale sailor lanching from the shore,

Balmy wines to thee she pours,
Leaves the dear prospects that must charm no

Weeping through the dewy flow'rs :

Rich as those by Hebe giv'n Here shrieks of anguish pierce his pitying ears—

To the thirsty sons of Heav'n.

Yet alas, we both agree,
There strangely wild, a floating world appears-

Miserable thou like me!
Swift the fair vessel wings her watry fight,
And in a mist deceives the aking sight :

Each alike in youth rehearses

Gentle strains, and tender verses;
The native train in sad distraction weep,
Now beat their breasts, now trembleo'er the deep, Mindless of the days to come,

Ever wand'ring far from home;
Curse ev'ry gale that wafts the fleet from land,
Breathe the last sigh, and wave the circling hand.

(Such as aged Winter brings

Trembling on bis icy wings)
You now, fair ancient Truth! conduct along

Both alike at last we die;
Th’advent'rous bard, and animate his song:
Each godlike man in proper lights display,

Thou art starv'd, and so am I!
And open all the war in dread array.
You too, bright mistress of th’ Aonian quire,
Divine Calliope! resume the lyre:

THE STORY OF ARETHUSA.
The lives and deaths of mighty chiefs recite,
The waste of nations, and the rage of fight.

TRANSLATED FROM THE 5TH BOOK OF OVID'S

more:

METAMORPHOSES.

Connection to the former.
The poet describes Ceres wandering over the

world in great affliction, to search after her
daughter Proserpina, who was then lost. At
last Arethusa (a river of Sicily) informs the
goddess that her daughter was stolen away by
Pluto, and carried down into Hell. Now it
was ordained by fate, that Prosperine should
return again, if she tasted not of any fruit in
the other world. But temptations were strong,
and the woman could not resist eating six or
seven kernels of a pomegranate. However,
to mitigate the sentence, Jupiter decreed that
she should reside but half the year with Pluto,
and pass the rest with her mother. Upon these
terms Сeres is very well pacified, and in com-
plaisance desires Arethusa to relate her life,
and for what reasons she was changed into a
river.

THE SAME.
DIVEESIFYED IN AUNCIENT METRE.
So, yf deepe clerkes in tymes of yore saine trew,
Or poets eyne, perdie, muught sothly vew,

CERIANUS.

IMITATED AND ENLARGED.

“The god soon saw me floating o'er the plain, Hush'd in suspence the gath'ring waters stood,

And straight resum'd bis warry form again When thus began the parent of the food;

Instant, Diana smote the trembling ground; Wbat time emerging from the wave, she prest

Down rush my waters with a murm'ring sound; Her verdant tresses dropping on her breast. "Of all the nymphs Achaia boasts,” (she said) And in the Delian plains review the day.”

Thence darkling thro' th' infernal regions stray, "Was Arethusa once the fairest maid. None lov'd so well, to spread in early dawn The trembling meshes o'er the dewy lawn: Tho' dress and beauty scarce deserv'd my care, ANGERIANUS DE CÆLIA, Yet ev'ry tongue confess'd me to be fair. The charms which others strive for, I resign,

(EPIG. 40.) And think it ev'n a crime to find them mine!

" It chanc'd one morn, returning from the Quum dormiret Amor, rapuit clam pulchra Weary lwander'd by a silver flood: (wood,

pharetram

Cælia, surreptâ flevit Amor pharetra. The gentle waters scarce were seen to glide,

“ Noli (Cypris ait) sic flere Cupido ; pharetram And a calm silence stillid the sleeping tide;

Pulchra tibi rapuit Cælia, restituet, High o'er the banks a grove of watry trees

Non opus est illi calamis, non ignibus : urit Spread its dark shade that treinbled to the breeze.

Vuce, manu, gressu, pectore, fronte, oculis."
·(My vest suspended on the boughs) I lave
My chilly feet, then plunge beneath the wave;
A ruddy light my blushing limbs dispread,
And the clear stream half glows with rosy-red.

CUPID MISTAKEN.
When from beneath in awful murmurs broke
A hollow voice, and thus portentous spoke:

FROM THE SPORTS OF CUPID, WRITTEN BY AN. “My lovely nymph, my Arethusa stay, Alpheüs calls ;'it said, or seem'd to say,

Naked and swift I Hew, (my clothes behind) | As fast beside a murm’ring stream, Fear strung my nerves, and shame enrag'd my mind :

In blissful visions Cupid lay, So wing'd with hunger the fierce eagle fies,

Chloë, as she softly came, To drive the trembling turtles through the skies:

Snatch'd his golden shafts away. So wing'd with fear the trembling turtles spring, from place to place in sad surprize When the fierce eagle shoots upon the wing. The little angry godhead flew:

“ Swift-bounding from the god, I now survey Trembling in his ruddy eyes Where breezy Psophis and Cyllene lay.

Hung the pearly drops of dew. Elis' fair structures open'd on my eyes;

So on the rose (in blooming May, And waving Erymanthus cools the skies.

When purple Phæbus rises bright) At length unequal for the rapid chase

Liquid gems of silver lay,
Tremble my limbs, the god maintains the race:

Pierc'd with glitt'ring streams of light.
O’er hills and vales with furious haste I flew :
O'er hills and vales the god behind me drew. Fair Venus with a tender languish
Now hov'ring o'er, bis length’ning shadow bends, Smiling, thus her son addrest,
(His length’ning shadow the low Sun extends) As he murmur'd out bis anguish
And sudden now, his sounding steps drew near; Trembling on her snowy breast:
At least I seem'd his sounding steps to lear.

“ Peace, gentle infant, I implore, Now sinking, in short sobs I gasp'd for breath,

Nor lavish precious tears in vain; Just in the jaws of violence and death.

Chloë, when the jest is o'er, Ah,Cynthia help!'('twas thus in thought I pray'd)

Brings the useless shafts again. • Ah, help a ravish'd, miserable maid!' The virgin-pow'r consenting to my pray'r,

" Can Chloë need the shafts of love, Diffus'd around a veil of clouded air:

Young, blooming, witty, pluinp, and fair? Lost in the gloom he wanders o'er the plain,

Charms and raptures round her move,
And Arethusa calls, but calls in vain;

Murm’ring sighs, and deep despair.
In misty steams th’impervious vapours rise, “ Millions for her unheeded dic,
Perplex his guesses, and deceive his eyes. Millions to her their blessings owe;
" What fears I felt as thus enclos'd I stood,

Ev'ry motion of her eye
What chilling horrours trembled thro' my blood?

Murders more than Cupid's bow."
So pants the fawn in silence and despair,
When the grim wolf runs howling thro' the lair :
So sits the lev’ret, when the hound pursues

TO A YOUNG LADY,
His trembling prey, and winds the tainted dew's.
"Sudden my cheek with flashing colour burns,

WITH MR. FENTON'S MISCELLANY. Pale swoons,

and sickly fears succeed by turns: Cold creeps my blood, its pulses beat no more: These various strains, where ev'ry talent charms, Big drops of sweat ascend from ev'ry pore; Where humour pleases, or where passion warms: Adown my locks the pearly dews distill,

(Strains ! where the tender and sublime conspire, And each full eye pours forth a gushing rill; A Sappho's sweetness, and a Homer's fire Now all at once my melting limbs decay, Attend their doom, and wait with glad surprise In one clear stream dissolving fast away," Th' impartial justice of Cleora's eyes.

'Tis hard to say, what mysteries of fate,

'Tis yours, like these, with curious toil to trace What turns of fortune on good writers wait, The pow'rs of language, liarmony, and grace, The party-slave will wound 'em as he cau, How nature's self with living lustre sbines; And damns the inerit, if he hates the man. How judgment strengthens, and how art refines; Nay, ev'n the bards with wit and laurels crown'd, How to grow bold with conscious sense of fame, Bless'd in each strain, in ev'ry art renown'd, And force a pleasure which we dare not blame: Misled by pride, and taught to sin by pow'r, To charm us more thro' negligence than pains, Still search around for those they may devour; And give ev'n life and action to the strains : Like savage monarchs on a guilty throne, Led by some law, whose pow'rful impulse guides Who crush all might that can invade their own. Each happy stroke, and in the soul presides :

Others who hate, yet want the soul to dare, Some fairer image of perfection, giv'n So ruin bards-as beaus deceive the fair: T'inspire mankind, itself deriv'd from Hear'n On the pleas'd ear their soft deceits employ ; O ever worthy, ever crown'd with praise ; Smiling they wound, and praise but to destroy. Blest in thy life, and blest in all thy lays! These are th' unhappy crimes of modern days, Add that the sisters ev'ry thought reține; Aud can the best of poets bope for praise ? Or er's thy life be faultless as thy line;

How small a part of human blessings share Yet envy still with fiercer rage pursues, The wi:e, the good, the noble, or the fair! Obscures the virtue, and defames the Muse. Short is the date unhappy wit can boast, A soul like thine, in pains, in grief resignd, A blaze of glory in a moment lost,

Views with vain scorn the malice of mankind : Fortuue, stili envious of the great man's praise, Not critics, but their planets prove unjust : Curses the coxcomb with a length of days. And are they blam'd who sin because they must ? So (Hector dead) amid the female quire,

Yet sure not so must all peruse thy lays; Unmanly Paris tund the silver lyre,

I cannot rival--and yet dare to praise. Attend ye Britons! in so just a cause

A thousand charms at once my thoughts engage, 'Tis sure a scandal, to withhold applause ; Sappho's soft sweetness, Pindar's warmer rage, Nor let posterity reviling say,

Statius' free vigour, Virgil's studious care, Thus unregarded Fenton pass'd away!

And Homer's force, and Ovid's easier air. Yet if the Muse may faith or merit claim,

So seems some picture, where exact design, (A Muse 100 just to bribe with venal fame) Aud curious pains, and strength and sweetness Soon shalt thou shine “in majesty avow'd ;

join :

[tows, As ihy own goddess breaking thro'a cloud.'' 1 Where the free thought its pleasing grace besFame, like a nation-debt, tho' long delay'd, And each warm stroke with living colour glows: With mighty int'rest must at last be paid. Soft without weakness, without labour fair ;

Like Vinci's strokes, thy verses we behold; Wrought up at once with happiness and care ! Correctly graceful, and with tabour bold.

How blest the man that from the world removes At Sappho's woes we breathe a tender sigh, To joys that Mordaunt, or his Pope approves ; And the soft sorrow steals from ev'ry eye. Whose taste exact cach aut bor can explore, Here Spenser's thoughts in solemn numbers roll, And live the present and past ages o’er: Here lofty Milion seems to lift the soul.

Who free froin pride, from penitence, or strife, There sprightly Chaucer charms our hours away More calmly forward to the verge of life. With stories quaint, and gentle roundelay. Such be my days, and such my fortunes be, Muse! at ibat name each thought of pride To live by reason, and to write by thee ! r call,

Nor deem this verse,tbo' bumble, thy disgrace; Ah, think now soon the wise and glorious fall! All are pot born the glory of their race: What though the sisters ev'ry grace impart,

Yet all are born t'adore the great man's pame, To smooth thy verse, and captivate the heart: And trace his footsteps in the paths to fame. What though your charins, my fair Cleora ! shine The Muse, who now this early homage pays, Bright as your eyes, and as your sex divine : First learn'd from thee to animate her lays: Yet shall the verses, and the charms decay, A Muse as yet unbonourd, but unstain'd, The boast of youth, the blessing of a day! Who prais'd no vices, no preferment gain'd; Noi Chaucer's beautjes could survive the rage Unbiass'd or to censure or commend, Of wasting envy, and devouring age:

Who kvows no envy, and who grieves no friend; One mingled heap of ruin now we see:

Perhaps too fond to make those virtues known, Thus Chaucer is, and Fenton thus shall be ! And tix her fame immortal ou thy own.

TO MR, POPE.

THE SIXTH THEBAID OF STATIUS. To move the springs of nature as we please,

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH; WITH NOTES. To think with spirit, but to write with ease: With living words to warm the conscious heart, Thebaïdos, lætam fecit cum Statius urbem,

Curritur ad vocem jucundam, carmen anuicæ
Or please ibe soul with nicer charms of art,
For this the Grecian soar' in epic strains,

Promisitque diem: tanta dulcedine captos
Afficit ille animos-

Juv. Sat.1
And softer Maro left the Mantuan plains :
Melodious Spepser felt the lover's fire,
And awful Milton strung bis Heav'nly lyre.
• Epistle to Southerne,

OEDIPUS the son of Laius, king of Thebes, was

ARGUMENT TO THE WHOLE THEBAID.

in his infancy expos’d to wild beasts upon the foot-race, the discus, the fight with the cæstus, mountains ; but by some miraculous preser

the wrestling, and shooting of arrows; which vation he escaped this danger, and afterwards, last ends with a prodigy, foreboding that none by mistake, slew his own father, as they con

of the confederate princes should return from tended for the way. He then married Jocasta, the war, except Adrastus. queen of Thebes, whom he knew not to be his mother, and had by her two sons, Etheocles and Polynices; who, after their father had put out his eyes, and banished himself from Soon mournful fame through ev'ry town proThebes, agreed between themselves to govern

claims year by year interchangeably. But this agree | The rites of sepulture, and Grecian games : ment was ill observed. Etheocles, when his What mighty chiefs should glory give or gain, date of government was expired, refused to

Preparò to combat on the listed plain. resign it to Polynices: who, in his rage, Aed Theie honours first the great Alcides paid to Adrastus, king of Argos, to inplore assist

To please old Pelop's venerable shade: ance agaiost his brother. Adrastus received What time near Pisa he inhum'd the dead, the young prince with all imaginable tender- | And bound with olive-wreaths his dusty head. ness, and gave him in marriage to his fair These, with new hopes glad Phocis next bestow'd, daughter Deipyle, as the oracles had appoint. When Python sunk beneath her bowyer gud. ed. He then, with the assistance of his allies, | These still religion to Palamon pays undertakes to settle Polynices on the throne, (Religion blinded with a length of days) and to depose Etheocles. Upon this, Thebes When hanging o'er the deep in anguish raves is besieged, and after several encounters, His royal muther' to the sounding waves; the difference is at last decided by the duel O'er either Isthmus floats the mingled moan, and death of the two brothers. This is the | And distant Thebe answers groan for groan. main action of the poem.

The pious games begin, with loud alarms, Besides this, by way of an under-action, the Here the young warriours first prelude in arms:

poet has interwoven another distinct story. Each blooming youth Aunia senils to fame, The goddess Venus is resolved to revenge her- And each dear object to the lyrian dame; self upon the Lemnians, because they neg- Who once embrud in blood, shall heap around Jected all sacrifices to her. She first disgusts ( High hills of stain, and deluge all the ground. the men with their wives, and then in return The youthful sailors thus with early care spirits up the women into a resolution of mur- Their arms experience, and for sea prepare : dering their husbands. This horrible design On some smooth lake their lighter oars essay, was executed by each of them, except Hyp- and learn the dangers of the watry way; sipyle, who saved her father Thoas. Some But once grown bold, they lanch before the time afterwards this also was discovered.

wind Hypsipyle, to avoid the fury of the women Eager and swift, nor turn their eyes behind. fled to the sea-shore; where she was taken Aurora now, fair daughter of the day, by the pirates, and presented by them to king Warm’d the clear orient with a blushing ray; Lycurgus, who made her nurse to his son Swift froin mankind the pow'r of slumbers Hew; Archemorus. The dominions of this prince lay And the pale Moon her glimm’ring beams with. directly in the way from Argos to Thebes.

drew. As Adrastus and his allies were marching ('er the long woods the matin dirges run, thither, the troops were ready to perish for And shrieks of sorrow wake the rising Sun, want of water. They chanced in a wood to Th' unhappy father, father now no more, meet Hypsipyle, who pitying their misfortunes, His bosom beat, his aged hairs be tore: Jays down in baste her young child, and shows Beside him lay each ornament of state, them a spring that could never be drained. To make him wretched, as they inade him great, She receives the thanks of Adrastus, and With more than feinale grief the mother cries, having at his request recited her own adven- | And wringing both her hands, obtests the skies ; tures, returns back, and finds the young in-Bending she weeps upon th' extended slain, fant Archemorus just kill'd by a serpent. Her Bathes ev'ry wound, returns, and weeps again. confusion and fears are described in an excel- But when the kings in sad and soleinn woe, lent speech upon that occasion. The Grecians Enter'd the dome, majestically slow : kill the serpent, and in honour of the dead (As if just then the trembling babe was found, prince perform all the rites of burial; wbich And life's last blood came issuing thro' the wound) is the subject of this present book.

Breast took from breast the melancholy strain, First of all it begins with an historical account And pausing nature wept, and sob’d again.

of the Nemzan games, then follows the fu- Confus'd each Grecian hangs nis guilty head, neral, with a more particular description of And weeps a flood of tears to wail the dead. hewing the forests, and offering their hair to Mean wbile Adrastus bears the friendly part, the deceased. The anguish of Adrastus, the And with kind words consoles the father's heart. lamentations of Eurydice, and the silence of He marks th' eternal orders of the sky, Hypsipyle, are extremely well adapted to na- And proves that man was born to grieve and die; ture. A monument is erected to the memory Now tells him Heav'n will future cbildren seud of Archemorus, which is ornamented with the To heir his kingdom, and his years defend. whole story in sculpture. After this succeed the funeral games; the chariot-race, the

Leucothöe.