FROM THE TWENTY-THIRD IDYLLIUM OF THEOCRITUS.
WITH inauspicious love, a wretched swain
Pursu'd the fairest nymph of all the plain;
Fairest indeed, but prouder far than fair,
She plung'd him hopeless in a deep despair:
Her heavenly form too haughtily she priz'd,
His person hated, and his gifts despis'd;
Nor knew the force of Cupid's cruel darts,
Nor fear'd his awful power on human hearts;
But either from her hopeless lover fled,
Or with disdainful glances shot him dead.
No kiss, no look, to cheer the drooping boy;
No word she spoke, she scorn'd e'en to deny.
But, as a hunted panther casts about [scout,
Her glaring eyes, and pricks her listening ears to
So she, to shun his toils, her cares employ'd,
And fiercely in her savage freedom joy'd.
Her mouth she writh'd, her forehead taught to frown,
Her eyes to sparkle fires to love unknown:
Her sallow cheeks her envious mind did show,
And every feature spoke aloud the curstness of a
Yet could not he his obvious fate escape; [shrew.
His love still dress'd her in a pleasing shape;
And every sullen frown, and bitter scorn,
But fann'd the fuel that too fast did burn.
Long time, unequal to his mighty pain,
He strove to curb it, but he strove in vain :
At last his woes broke out, and begg'd relief
With tears, the dumb petitioners of grief:
With tears so tender, as adorn'd his love,
And any heart, but only hers, would move.
Trembling before her bolted doors he stood,
And there pour'd out the unprofitable flood:
Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look;
Then, kissing first the threshold, thus he spoke.
Ah, nymph, more cruel than of human race!
Thy tigress heart belies thy angel face:
Too well thou show'st thy pedigree from stone:
Thy grandame's was the first by Pyrrha thrown:
Unworthy thou to be so long desir'd;
But so my love, and so my fate requir❜d.
I beg not now (for 'tis in vain) to live;
But take this gift, the last that I can give.
This friendly cord shall soon decide the strife
Betwixt my lingering love and loathsome life:
This moment puts an end to all my pain;
I shall no more despair, nor thou disdain.
Farewell, ungrateful and unkind! I go
Condemn'd by thee to those sad shades below.
the extremest remedy to prove,
To drink oblivion, and to drench my love:
There happily to lose my long desires:
But ah! what draught so deep to quench my fires?
Farewell, ye never-opening gates, ye stones,
And threshold guilty of my midnight moans!
What I have suffer'd here ye know too well;
What I shall do the gods and I can tell.
The rose is fragrant, but it fades in time:
The violet sweet, but quickly past the prime;
White lilies hang their heads, and soon decay,
And whiter snow in minutes melts away:
Such is your blooming youth, and withering so:
The time will come, it will, when you shall know
The rage of love; your haughty heart shall burn
In flames like mine, and meet a like return.
Obdurate as you are, oh! hear at least
My dying prayers, and grant my last request.
When first you ope your doors, and, passing by,
The sad ill-omen'd object meets your eye,
Think it not lost, a moment if you stay;
The breathless wretch, so made by you, survey:
Some cruel pleasure will from thence arise,
To view the mighty ravage of your eyes.
I wish (but oh! my wish is vain, I fear)
The kind oblation of a falling tear:
Then loose the knot, and take me from the place, And spread your mantle o'er my grizly face;
Upon my livid lips bestow a kiss :
envy not the dead, they feel not bliss! Nor fear your kisses can restore my breath; E'en you are not more pitiless than death. Then for my corpse a homely grave provide, Which love and me from public scorn may hide, Thrice call upon my name, thrice beat your breast, And hail me thrice to everlasting rest:
Last let my tomb this sad inscription bear:
A wretch whom love has kill'd lies buried here; passengers, Aminta's eyes beware.
Thus having said, and furious with his love, He heav'd with more than human force to move A weighty stone (the labour of a team) [beam: And rais'd from thence he reach'd the neighb'ring Around its bulk a sliding knot he throws, And fitted to his neck the fatal noose: Then spurning backward, took a swing, till death Crept up, and stopp'd the passage of his breath. The bounce burst ope the door; the scornful fair Relentless look'd, and saw him beat his quivering feet in air;
Nor wept his fate, nor cast a pitying eye,
Nor took him down, but brush'd regardless by: And, as she pass'd, her chance of fate was such, Her garments touch'd the dead, polluted by the
Next to the dance, thence to the bath did move ;
The bath was sacred to the god of Love;
Whose injur❜d image, with a wrathful eye,
Stood threat'ning from a pedestal on high:
Nodding awhile, and watchful of his blow,
He fell; and falling crush'd the ungrateful nymph
Her gushing blood the pavement all besmear'd; And this her last expiring voice was heard; Lovers, farewell, revenge has reach'd my scorn; Thus warn'd, be wise, and love for love return.
TRANSLATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS.
THE FIRST BOOK OF LUCRETIUS.
DELIGHT of humankind, and gods above,
Parent of Rome, propitious Queen of Love,
Whose vital power, air, earth, and sea supplies,
And breeds whate'er is born beneath the rolling
For every kind, by thy prolific might, [skies:
Springs, and beholds the regions of the light.
Thee, goddess, thee the clouds and tempests fear,
And at thy pleasing presence disappear:
For thee the land in fragrant flowers is dress'd;
For thee the ocean smiles, and smooths her wavy
[is blest. And heaven itself with more serene and purer light
For when the rising spring adorns the mead,
And a new scene of nature stands display'd,
When teeming buds, and cheerful greens appear,
And western gales unlock the lazy year:
The joyous birds thy welcome first express,
Whose native songs thy genial fire confess;
Then savage beasts bound o'er their slighted food,
Struck with thy darts, and tempt the raging flood.
All nature is thy gift; earth, air, and sea:
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