TRANSLATIONS OF ENGLISH VERSES. FROM THE FABLES OF GAY. LEPUS MULTIS AMICUS. LUSUS amicitia est, uni nisi dedita, ceu fit, Comis erat, mitisque, et nolle et velle paratus Et quisque innocuo, invitoque lacessere quenquam Viribus at fractis tandem se projicit ultro Vix ibi stratus, equi sonitum pedis audit, et, oh spe Dorsum (inquit) mihi, chare, tuum concede, tuoque Me meus, ut nôsti, pes prodit-fidus amicus Fert quodcunque lubens, nec grave sentit, onus. Belle miselle lepuscule (equus respondet), amara Omnia quæ tibi sunt, sunt et amara mihi. Verum age-sume animos-multi, me pone, bonique Quando quadrupedum, quot vivunt, nullus amicum IO 20 30 Libertate æquus, quam cedit amicus amico, Hinc me mandat amor. Juxta istum messis acervum Et quis non ultro quæcunque negotia linquit, Febrem (ait hircus) habes. Heu, sicca ut lumina languent! Utque caput, collo deficiente, jacet ! Hirsutum mihi tergum; et forsan læserit ægrum; Vellere eris melius fultus, ovisque venit. Me mihi fecit onus natura, ovis inquit, anhelans Me nec velocem nec fortem jacto, solentque Ultimus accedit vitulus, vitulumque precatur Remne ego, respondet vitulus, suscepero tantam, Te, quem maturi canibus validique relinquunt, Præterea tollens quem illi aversantur, amicis Ignoscas oro. Fidissima dissociantur Corda, et tale tibi sat liquet esse meum. Ecce autem ad calces canis est! te quanta perempto 40 50 60 AVARUS ET PLUTUS. ICTA fenestra Euri flatu stridebat, avarus Ad vectes, obices, fertque refertque manum. Queis sua res tenuis creverat in cumulum, O mihi, ait, misero mens quam tranquilla fuisset, O inimicum aurum ! O homini infestissima pestis, ΙΟ Aurum homines suasit contemnere quicquid honestum est, Aurum cuncta mali per terras semina sparsit ; Bella docet fortes, timidosque ad pessima ducit, Nec vitii quicquam est, quod non inveneris ortum Dixit, et ingemuit; Plutusque suum sibi numen Arcam clausit avarus, et ora horrentia rugis 20 Questibus his raucis mihi cur, stulte, obstrepis aures? 30 Ista tui similis tristia quisque canit. Commaculavi egone humanum genus, improbe? Culpa, Mene execrandum censes, quia tum pretiosa Criminibus fiunt perniciosa tuis? Virtutis specie, pulchro ceu pallio amictus Atque suis manibus com missa potentia, durum 40 Hinc, nimium dum latro aurum detrudit in arcam, Nutrit avaritiam et fastum, suspendere adunco Suadet naso inopes, et vitium omne docet. Auri at larga probo si copia contigit, instar Tum, quasi numen inesset, alit, fovet, educat orbos, Et viduas lacrymis ora rigare vetat. Quo sua crimina jure auro derivet avarus, Aurum animæ pretium qui cupit atque capit? 50 Lege pari gladium incuset sicarius atrox Cæso homine, et ferrum judicet esse reum. PAPILIO ET LIMAX. QUI subito ex imis, rerum in fastigia surgit NOTES. [The authorities for those poems which were not published by the author himself, are given between brackets in small capitals.] Page 1 (HAYLEY, i. 89), / 17. "Exhale," to draw out meaning now obsolete. So Shak speare: "See, dead Henry's wounds Open their congealed mouths and bleed afresh! The allusion at the end of this poem is probably to Lord Chesterfield, who resigned the Seals of Secretary of State, Feb. 6th, 1748. See Mahon's Hist. ch. xxx.,or Student's Hume, p. 608. Page 2. All the pieces from this to p. 8 are from EARLY POEMS. Page 3. Cowper is curiously defective in his rhymes. The following rhymes will be found in this one page:-Death, beneath; fled, speed; prey, sea; wretch, beach; guard, prepared; spirit, bear it; had, said; perter, smarter; do, so; shapes, relapse; foolish, polish; alone, gun. Page 4. Cutfield, or rather Catfield, was the parish of Cowper's uncle, Rev. Roger Donne. Cowper visited it often in youth. Page 6. "Sir C. Grandison" was published in the autumn of 1753. Page 8, last stanza. "Prune, to dress, to prink. A ludicrous word." (Johnson's Dictionary.) "Every scribbling inan Grows a fop as fast as e'er he can, If pink or purple best become his face."-Dryden. Page 9. (HAYLEY, i. 82.) Written the year he was called to the bar, 1754. Contains the first allusion to his fits of melancholy. "Pitch-kettled, a favourite phrase at the time this Epistle was written, expressive of being puzzled, or what in the Spectator's time would have been called bamboozled." (Hayley.) The illustration of Dame Gurton and her son is taken from the celebrated comedy of Gammer Gurton's needle, said to have been written by Bishop Still, about the year 1565. Pages 10-14. (All from EARLY POEMS.) Page 10, 1st and 2nd stanzas. Hebrus was the principal river in Thrace. On its banks Orpheus was torn in pieces by the Thracian women, because of his grief for his lost Eurydice. Page 12. R. S. S. I have not a notion of the meaning of these letters. Page 15. (HAYLEY, i. 79.) Sir William Russell was drowned whilst bathing in the Thames, 1757. The Page 16. (This and the following Satire were printed in Duncombe's Horace, 1757. Duncombes, father and son, were of Hertford shire, and the elder was an intimate friend of Cowper's father. At the time this translation was made, its author was leading a dilettante life at the Temple, amusing himself with such matters, and always ready to furnish them to any friend who asked his help.) Mæcenas was sent to Brundusium A.U.C. 715, to arrange differences between Augustus and M. Antony, and, in order to beguile the tediousness of the expedition, summoned Horace and other literary friends. Horace wrote this account of his own journey to amuse Mæcenas. Of Heliodorus nothing is known. Aricia was 16 miles from Rome, and Appii Forum 20 miles further on. Here they take barges on the canal for 20 miles to Terracina. Page 17, col. 1. Feronia, an ancient Sabine goddess, introduced by the Sabines among the Romans. Her chief temple was at Terracina where a well of pure water, sacred to her, flowed down Mount Soracte. It is "the pure and glassy stream" here referred to. Cocceius was a common friend of Cæsar and Antony. His presence with Mæcenas was therefore a sign of peace. They had already effected the treaty of Brundusium. My eyes, by watery," &c. This was owing to having slept in the open air, in the marshes. Capito Fonteius was Antony's legate in Asia. Fundi, 9 miles from Terracina. Aufidius, prætor of Fundi. The original here is very humorous and sarcastic. A scribe was a clerk. Muræna was Mæcenas' brother-in-law. Plotius and Varius, the two most intimate friends of "the bard of Mantua," Virgil. Formia is the modern Gaeta, 80 miles from Rome LL Sinuessa, 18 miles from Formia, on the coast. Page 17, col. 2. Caudium was the scene of the celebrated humiliation of the Roman army, known as the "Caudine Forks." The "tavern" probably lay beside the road; and the villa of Cocceius on the hill above. Oscian, that is, Campanian. "True Oscian breed" is a satirical way of saying that he was a low and mean fellow-just as we might talk of "genuine Seven Dials poetry." "For carbuncles," &c. The people of Campania were subject to the growth of great warts or wens on their foreheads, which, when cut out, left great scars behind. Page 18, col. 1. "Nor does your phiz," &c., i.e. because your face is so ugly. "Of you, sir," &c. It was the custom, when any one had received any deliverance or other piece of good fortune, to leave some offering representing it in the temple of the gods. Boys and girls, on growing up, are said to have left their toys and dolls as offerings to the Lares, or household gods. Cicirrus jocosely asks Sarmentus when he hung up his chains, implying that he is a runaway slave, and that his former mistress has still a title to him. Trivicus, a little village still called Trivico. col. 2. "Whose name my verse," &c. The name was Equotuticum, which could not anyhow be got into an hexameter verse. Fishy Barium. On the Adriatic. habitants still live by fishing. The in "That incense," &c. Pliny, in his Natural History (ii. 111), mentions this supposed miracle, and believes in it. It was not likely to find favour with Epicurean Horace. Page 19, col. 1. Beard, manager of Covent Garden Theatre. He had just achieved great success with his "Opera of Artaxerxes.' "Well, I'm convinced my time is come," &c. The poet has hitherto tried to be civil, but, finding this of no use, tries insulting his tormentor, by inventing this prophecy for the nonce. col. 2. "Rufus Hall." In the original, Temple of Vesta," which was by the Forum, as Westminster Hall was by the law courts. Newcastle, the then Prime Minister, is in the original "Mæcenas." Page 20. (JOHNSON'S COWPER, iii. 27.) The Prayer for Indifference appeared in the Annual Register for 1762, p. 202. The writer addresses it to Oberon, and declares that she prays not for iove-charms, nor ease, nor peace, but for the nymph Indifference. The following extract will convey a fair idea of it, and show the point of Cowper's reply: "At her approach, see hope, see fear, With disappointment in the rear, "The tears which pity taught to flow The heart which throbbed for others' woe "The wounds which now each moment bleed, Page 21. An Ode, &c. This Mock Ode appeared in the St. James' Magazine for Nov. 1763, where it was signed "L." Lloyd was the editor of that magazine, and his old Westminster friends contributed. At the beginning Cowper wrote nothing for it, being at Brighton: but soon he furnished a paper, signed "W. C.," on English Pindaric odes, and promised to furnish one according to rule. On this ground Southey identified the present ode as his, which appeared a few months after; but there is no further proof of the authorship. Page 23. (COWPER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.) The circumstances under which he wrote these appalling sapphics are told in the Introductory Memoir, p. xxx. Southey says of the third lines in the two last stanzas respectively, that they are both " 'evidently corrupt," and suggests that in the former, instead of "if vanquished," the author may have written "in anguish." But the text is probably right. He had an idea that there was a bare chance for him in the strife with the Avenging Deity. The expression, "fed with judgment," is taken from Ezek. xxxiv. 16. Page 24. On the OLNEY HYMNS generally, see Introductory Memoir, p. xxxviii. H. i. 5th stanza. Several modern editions have altered "thy throne," in the third line, to "its throne.' But this is quite wrong. The poet is regarding his own heart as the rightful throne of the Holy Ghost, and the idol as usurping it. H. ii. 3rd stanza; 1 Sam. xxiii. 27. Page 27. Page 30. H. xx. 2nd stanza. sacrifice," &c. 3rd stanza. 4th stanza. xvi. 21. "The paschal "The Lamb," &c. Lev. xii. 6. "The scape-goat," &c. Lev. |