GALATEA.

BOOK I.

The Songs of Elicio.-Appearance of Erastro, rival of Elicio for the hand of Galatea.-Alternate ditties of Elicio and Erastro.-A murder of one shepherd by another, to avenge Leonida.-Song of Lisandro.- Letter of Leonida to Lisandro. - Presence of Crisalvo.Account of the murder.-Appearance of Galatea.-Conference of Elicio and Galatea.-Song of Galatea.-Galatea and Florisa refresh themselves in a stream.-Song of a shepherdess unknown, and interchange of conversation with Galatea.-Narrative of the shepherdess, who recites Antidoro's verses.-Introduction of Galatea's father, who invites his daughter and others to a repast.-Song of Lenio.-Conversation of Erastro and Lenio.-Ditty of Florisa.-Elicio returns to his Cottage.-Galatea, with Florisa, hear the result of Teolinda's loves in an extended narrative.

1. WHILST to the sorrowful and mournful plaints,
Of the too ill assorted sound of my set strain,
In bitter echo of the exhausted breast
Reply the mountains, meadows, plain and stream.
To deaf and hasty winds complaints we throw
Which from the burning and the frigid breast
Arise to my discomfort asking in vain

Aid from the stream, the hill, meadow and plain.
2. Augment the humour of my wearied eyes,
The water of this stream, and of this mead
The variegated flowers brambles are

And thorns, which in my soul entrance have found.
The lofty mount lists not to my ennui,
The very plains are wearied with the same;
Not e'en a slight cessation of my pain

Is found in mount, in plain, in mead or rill.

3. I thought the flame which in my soul awakes

The winged boy-the noose with which he binds-
The subtle net wherewith the gods he takes,
The fury and the vigour of his shaft,
Which would offend, as it offended me.
And me subjects to one who unequal is-
But 'gainst a soul which is of marble framed,
Nor net, nor fire, noose, arrow compass can.
4. Yet in a fire I burn and am consumed,

And round my neck I meekly place the noose,
Fearing but little the invisible net,
The shaft's dread vigour gives me no alarm,
To such extremity am I arrived for this,
To such a grief, a misadventure such,
That for my glory and my solace too

I bear the net, the arrow, noose and fire.

Thus sang Elicio, a shepherd, on the banks of the Tagus, to whom Nature had been as liberal as fortune, and love had been wanting, although the course of time, the consumer and restorer of all human actions, had brought him to a crisis, in which his wish had placed him on account of the incomparable beauty of Galatea, one without an equal, as shepherdess, born in the same coasts; and although she had been educated in rustic and pastoral exercises, yet was she so exalted in intelligence that discreet women, brought up in royal palaces and used to the judicious conduct of a court, considered themselves fortunate to resemble her in discretion as well as beauty, by reason of the many and rich gifts with which heaven had adorned Galatea.

She was beloved, and with a sincere earnestness, too, by many shepherds and herdsmen, who fed their flocks on Tagus' banks.

Among these the gay Elicio presumed to solicit her with a pure and anxious love such as the virtue and propriety of Galatea allowed.

We must not infer that Galatea disregarded Elicio, or that she actually loved him, for sometimes as one overwhelmed by his many services, with an honest zeal she raised him upwards, and again, without rendering reason, she would so neglect him that the enamoured shepherd could

scarce comprehend his lot. The good qualities of Elicio. were not to be despised-neither were the beauty, grace and goodness of Galatea not to be loved.

In fine, Galatea did not reject Elicio, nor could Elicio, nor ought he, nor wished he, to forget Galatea. It seemed to Galatea that as Elicio showed her so much preference it would be excess of ingratitude if she did not requite his honest thoughts. Elicio concluded, since Galatea did not disdain his services, that his desires tended to a favourable issue; and when these thoughts reanimated hope, he was so content and emboldened in himself, that a thousand times he wished to disclose to Galatea what he with such difficulty had concealed.

But the perspicacity of Galatea detected in the motions of his countenance what Elicio contained in his soul, and she evinced such condescension that the words of the enamoured shepherd congealed in his mouth, and he remained in the joy alone of a first motion, though it appeared to him that he had done an injury to her, even to treat of what might not have the semblance of rectitude.

With these downright (antibaxos) strokes of his life the shepherd passed it so uncomfortable that he thought even the loss of her might be a gain, instead of feeling what had caused his miscarriage.

So one day, having reviewed his sentiments variously, and being in a delightful meadow, invited by solitude, and the murmurs of a brawling brook which through it ran, drawing from his scrip a polished rebeck, whereby he communicated his plaints to heaven, at the top of his voice he sang the sequent verses :—

Will pay for these doubts.

3. From it wert thou born, and in birth
Thou sinnest, and it paid itself-
Thou fliest it, and if I pretend
To gather you up in it even a little,
I do not reach you, or understand
This dangerous flight

Whereby you mount to heaven-
Unless thou art fortunate

There will be lodged on the soil
My ease and thy repose.

4. Thou wilt say who well employs himself
And delivers himself to chance,

That it is not possible he

Of such an opinion be madly judged

From the sprightliness in which it is arrayed

In that lofty occasion

There is a glory without equal,

In holding such presumption-
And the more so if it agree
With the soul and the heart.

5. So I understand it,

But I would undeceive you,
Which is a sign of boldness,
To have less part in love
Than the humble and bashful,
You rise behind a beauty
Which cannot be greater-
I understand not your capacity
Which can hold love

With so much inequality.