Come, I say, thou powerful god,
And thy leaden charming rod, Dipt in the Lethéan lake, O'er his wakeful temples shake,
Lest he should sleep, and never wake.
Nature (alas!) why art thou so Obliged to thy greatest foe? Sleep that is thy best repast, Yet of death it bears a taste, And both are the same thing at last.
MR. JOHN FLETCHER'S WORKS. So shall we joy, when all whom beasts and worms Have turu'd to their own substances and forms: Whom earth to earth, or fire hath chang'd to fire,
We shall behold more than at first entire; As now we do, to see all thine thy own In this my Muse's resurrection,
Free from the blemish of an artless hand, Secure of fame, thou justly dost esteem Less honour to create, than to redeem. Nor ought a genius less than his that writ, Attempt translation; for transplanted wit, All the defects of air and soil doth share, And colder brains like colder climates are ; In vain they toil, since nothing can beget A vital spirit but a vital heat.
That servile path thou nobly dost decline Of tracing word by word, and line by line. Those are the labour'd births of slavish brains, Not the effect of poetry, but pains; Cheap vulgar arts, whose narrowness affords No flight for thoughts, but poorly sticks at words.
A new and nobler way thou dost pursue To make translations and translators too. They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame,
Whose scatter'd parts from thy own race, more True to his sense, but truer to his fame.
Hath suffer'd, than Acteon from his hounds; Which first their brains, and then their belly fed,
And from their excrements new poets bred. But now thy Muse enraged, from her urn, Like ghosts of murder'd bodies, does return T'accuse the murderers, to right the stage, And undeceive the long-abused age,
Which casts thy praise on them, to whom thy wit
Gives not more gold than they give dross to it: Who, not content, like felons, to purloin, Add treason to it, and debase the coin. But whither am I stray'd? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise; Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built, Nor need thy juster title the foul guilt Of eastern kings, who, to secure their reign, Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred slain. Then was Wit's empire at the fatal height, When labouring and sinking with its weight, From thence a thousand lesser poets sprung, Like petty princes from the fall of Rome; When Jonson, Shakespeare, and thyself did sit, And sway'd in the triumvirate of wit- Yet what from Jonson's oil and sweat did flow, Or what more easy Nature did bestow
On Shakespeare's gentler Muse, in thee full grown
Fording his current, where thou find'st it low, Let'st in thine own to make it rise and flow; Wisely restoring whatsoever grace
It lost by change of times, or tongues, or place. Nor fetter'd to his numbers and his times, Betray'st his music to unhappy rhymes. Nor are the nerves of his compacted strength Stretch'd and dissolv'd into unsinew'd length: Yet after all, (lest we should think it thine) Thy spirit to his circle dost confine. New names, new dressings, and the modern cast, Some scenes, some persons alter'd, and out- fac'd [known The world, it were thy work for we have Some thank'd and prais'd for what was less their
That master's hand which to the life can trace The airs, the lines, and features of the face, May with a free and bolder stroke express A vary'd posture or a flattering dress;
He could have made those like, who made the rest,
But that he knew his own design was best.
HAVING at large declar'd Jove's embassy, He loth to disobey the god's command, Cyllenius from Æneas straight doth fly: Nor willing to forsake this pleasant land, Asham'd the kind Eliza to deceive,
But more afraid to take a solemn leave; He many ways his labouring thoughts revolves, But fear o'ercoming shame at last resolves (Instructed by the god of thieves') to steal Himself away, and his escape conceal. He calls his captains, bids them rig the fleet, That at the port they privately should meet; And some disembled colour to project, That Dido should not their design suspect: But all in vain he did his plot disguise; No art a watchful lover can surprise. She the first motion finds; love though most That wicked fame which their first love pro. Yet always to itself seems unsecure. [sure, claim'd,
Foretells the end; the queen with rage inflam'd Thus greets him: "Thou dissembler, would'st thou Out of my arms by stealth perfidiously? Could not the hand I plighted, nor the love, Nor thee the fate of dying Dido move? And in the depth of winter, in the night, Dark as thy black designs to take thy flight, To plow the raging seas to coasts unknown, The kingdom thou pretend'st to, not thy own! Were Troy restor'd thou should'st mistrust a wind
False as thy vows, and as thy heart unkind. Fly'st thou from me? By these dear drops of
I thee adjure, by that right hand of thine, By our espousals, by our marr ́uge-bed, If all my kindness aught have merited; If ever I stood fair in thy esteem, From ruin me and my lost house redeem. Cannot my prayers a free acceptance find, Nor my tears soften an obdurate mind?
My fame of chastity, by which the skies
I reach'd before, by thee extinguish'd dies.
Into my horders now Iarbus falls,
And my revengeful brother scales my walls; The wild Numidians will advantage take, For thee both Tyre and Carthage me forsake. Hadst thou before thy flight but left with me A young Æneas, who, resembling thee, Might in my sight have sported, I had then Not wholly lost, nor quite deserted been ; By thee, no more my husband, but my guest, Betray'd to mischiefs, of which death's the least."
With fixed looks he stands, and in his breast By Jove's command, his struggling care sup- prest.
"Great queen, your favours and desert so great, Though numberless, I never shall forget; No time, until myself I have forgot,
Out of my heart Eliza's name shall blot : But my unwilling flight the gods inforce, And that must justify our sad divorce. Since I must you forsake, would Fate permit, To my desires I might my fortune fit; Troy to her ancient splendour I would raise, And where I first began, would end my days. But since the Lycian lots, and Delphic god Have destin'd Italy for our abode;
Since you proud Carthage (fled from Tyre) enjoy,
Why should not Latium us receive
As for my son, my father's angry ghost Tells me his hopes by my delays are crost, And mighty Jove's ambassador appear'd With the same message, whom I saw and heard;
We both are griev'd when you or I complain, But much the more when all complaints are vain:
I call to witness all the gods, and thy Beloved head, the coast of Italy Against my will I seek."
[eyes, Whilst thus he speaks, she rolls her sparkling Surveys him round, and thus incens'd replies; "Thy mother was no goddess, nor thy stock From Dardanus, but in some horrid rock, Perfidious wretch, rough Caucasus thee bred, And with their milk Hyrcanian tigers fed. Dissimulation I shall now forget, And my reserves of rage in order set, Could all my prayers and soft entreaties force Sighs from his breast, or from his look remorse. Where shall I first complain? can mighty Jove Or Juno such impieties approve? The just Astræa sure is fled to Hell;
Nor more in Earth, nor Heaven itself will dwell. Oh Faith! him on my coasts by tempest cast, Receiving madly, on my throne I plac'd; His men from famine, and his fleet from fire I rescued: Now the Lycian lots conspire
I'll follow thee in funeral flames, when dead My ghost shall thee attend at board and bed, And when the gods on thee their vengeance
That welcome news shall comfort me below." This saying, from his hated sight she fled, Conducted by her damsels to her bed; Yet restless she arose, and, looking out, Beholds the fleet and hears the seamen shout, When great Æneas pass'd before the guard, To make a view how all things were prepar'd. Ab, cruel Love, to what dost thou inforce Poor mortal breasts! Again she hath recourse To tears and prayers, again she feels the smart Of a fresh wound from his tyrannic dart. That she no ways nor means may leave untry'd, Thus to her sister she herself apply'd ; "Dear sister, my resentinent had no been So moving, if this fate I had foreseen; Therefore to me this last kind office do, Thou hast some interest in our scornful foe, He trusts to thee the counsels of his mind, Thou his soft hours, and free access canst find; Tell him I sent not to the Ilian coast My fleet to aid the Greeks; his father's ghost I never did disturb; ask him to lend To this, the last request that I shall send, A gentle ear; I wish that he may find A happy passage, and a prosperous wind. The contract I don't plead, which he betray'd, Nor that his promis'd conquest be delay'd; All that I ask is but a short reprieve, Till I forget to love, and learn to grieve; Some pause and respite only I require, Till with my tears I shall have quench'd my fire. If thy address can but obtain one day Or two, my death that service shall repay." Thus she entreats; such messages with tears Condoling Anne to him, and from him, bears, But him no prayers, nor arguments can move; The Fates resist, his ears are stopt by Jove. As when fierce northern blasts from th' Alps descend,
From his firm roots with struggling gusts to An aged sturdy oak, the rattling sound [rend Grows loud, with leaves and scatter'd arnis the Is over-laid; yet he stands fixt, as high [ground As his proud head is rais'd towards the sky, So low towards Hell his roots descend. With prayers
And tears the hero thus assail'd, great cares He smothers in his breast, yet keeps his post, All their addresses and their labour lost. Then she deceives her sister with a smile: "Anne, in the inner court erect a pile; Thereon his arms and once-lov'd portrait lay, Thither our fatal marriage-bed convey; All cursed monuments of him with fire We must abolish (so the gods require.");
With Phoebus; now Jove's envoy though the She gives her credit for no worse effect
Brings dismal tidings; as if such low care Could reach their thoughts, or their repose dis-
Thou art a false impostor, and a fourbe; Go, go, pursue thy kingdom through the main, I hope, if Heaven her justice still retain, Thou shalt be wreck'd, or cast upon some rock, Where thou the name of Dido shalt invoke:
Than from Sichæus' death she did suspect, And her commands obeys.
Aurora now had left Tithonus' bed, And o'er the world her blushing rays did spread; The queen beheld, as soon as day appear'd, The navy under sail, the haven clear'd; Thrice with her hand her naked breast she
And from her forehead tears her golden locks.
"O Jove," she cry'd, " and shall he thus delude Me and my realm! why is he not pursued? Arm, arm," she cry'd," and let our Tyrians board With ours his fleet, and carry fire and sword; Leave nothing unattempted to destroy That perjur'd race, then let us die with joy. What if th' event of war uncertain were? Nor death, nor danger, can the desperate fear. But, oh, too late! this thing I should have done, When first I plac'd the traitor on my throne, Behold the faith of him who sav'd from fire His honour'd household gods, his aged sire His pious shoulders from Troy's flames did bear; Why did I not his carcase piece-meal tear, And cast it in the sea? why not destroy All his companions, and beloved boy Ascanius; and his tender limbs have drest, And made the father on the son to feast? Thou Sun, whose lustre all things here below Surveys; and Juno, conscious of my woe; Revengeful Furies, and queen Hecate, Receive and grant my prayer? if he the sea Must needs escape, and reach th' Ausonian land, If Jove decree it, Jove's decree must stand; When landed, may he be with arms opprest By his rebelling people, be distrest By exile from his country, be divorc'd From young Ascanius' sight, and be enforc'd To implore foreign aids, and lose his friends By violent and undeserved ends! When to conditions of unequal peace He shall submit, then may he not possess Kingdom nor life, and find his funeral
I' th' sands, when he before his day shall fall! And ye, oh Tyrians, with immortal hate Pursue this race, this service dedicate To my deplored ashes, let there be 'Twixt us and them no league nor amity. May from my bones a new Achilles rise, That shall infest the Trojan colonies With fire, and sword, and famine, when at length Time to our great attempts contributes strength; Our seas, our shores, our armies theirs oppose, And may our children be for ever foes!"
A ghastly paleness death's approach portends, Then trembling she the fatal pile ascends; Viewing the Trojan reliques, she unsheath'd Æneas' sword, not for that use bequeath'd; Then on the guilty bed she gently lays
Herself, and softly thus lamenting prays: "Dear reliques, whilst that Gods and Fates give leave,
Free me from care, and my glad soul receive. That date which Fortune gave, I now must end; And to the shades a noble ghost descend. Sichæus' blood, by his false brother spilt, I have reveng'd, and a proud city built. Happy, alas; too happy I had liv'd, Had not the Trojan on my coast arriv'd. But shall I die without revenge? yet die Thus, thus with joy to thy Sichæus fly. My conscious foe my funeral fire shall view From sea, and may that omen him pursue!" Her fainting hand let fall the swor'd besmear'd With blood, and then the mortal wound ap- pear'd;
Through all the court the fright and clamours rise,
Which the whole city fills with fears and cries
| As loud as if her Carthage, or old Tyre The foe had entered, and had set on fire. Amazed Anne with speed ascends the stairs And in her arms her dying sister rears: "Did you for this, yourself and me beguile? For such an end did I erect this pile? Did you so much despise me, in this fate Myself with you not to associate? Yourself and me, alas! this fatal wound The senate, and the people, doth confound. I'll wash her wound with tears, and at her death
My lips from hers shall draw her parting
Then with her vest the wound she wipes and dries ;
Thrice with her arm the queen attempts to rise,
But her strength failing, falls into a swound, Life's last efforts yet striving with her wound; Thrice on her bed she turns, with wandering sight
Seeking, she groans when she beholds the light. Then Juno pitying her disastrous fate, Sends Iris down, her pangs to mitigate. (Since, if we fall before th' appointed day, Nature and Death continue long their fray.) Iris descends; "This fatal lock (says she) To Pluto I bequeath, and set thee free;" Then clips her hair: cold numbness straight be-
Her corpse of sense, and th' air her soul receives.
Going this last summer to visit the Wells, I took an occasion (by the way) to wait upon an ancient and honourable friend of mine, whom I found diverting his (then solitary) retirement with the Latin original of this translation, which (being out of print) I had never seen before when I looked upon it, I saw that it had formerly passed through two learned hands not without approbation; which were Ben Johnson and Sir Kenelm Digby; but I found it (where I shall never find myself) in the service of a better master, the earl of Bristol, of whom I shall say no more; for I love not to improve the honour of the living by impairing that of the dead; and my own profession hath taught me not to erect new superstructures upon an old ruin. He was pleased to recommend it to me for my companion at the Wells, where I liked the entertainment it gave me so well, that I undertook to redeem it from an obsolete English disguise, wherein an old monk had clothed it, and to make as becoming a new vest for it as I could. The author was a person of quality in Italy, his name Mancini, which family matched since with the sister of cardinal Mazarine; he was contemporary to Petrarch and Mantuan, and not long before Torquato Tasso; which shows that the age they lived in was not so unlearned as that which preceded, or that which followed.
The author wrote upon the four cardinal vir
tues; but I have translated only the two first, not to turn the kindness I intended to him into an injury; for the two last are little more than repetitions and recitals of the first; and (to make a just excuse for him) they could not well be otherwise, since the two last virtues are but descendants from the first; Prudence being the true mother of Temperance, and true Fortitude the child of Justice.
WISDOM's first progress is to take a view What's decent or indecent, false or true. He's truly prudent, who can separate Honest from vile, and still adhere to that; Their difference to measure, and to reach, Reason well rectify'd must Nature teach. And these high scrutinies are subjects fit For man's all-searching and inquiring wit ; That search of knowledge did from Adam flow; Who wants it, yet abhors his wants to show. Wisdom of what herself approves, makes choice, Nor is led captive by the common voice. Clear-sighted Reason, Wisdom's judgment leads, And Sense, her vasşal, in her footsteps treads. That thou to Truth the perfect way may'st know,
To thee all her specific forms I'll show ; He that the way to honesty will learn, First what's to be avoided must discern. Thyself from flattering self-conceit defend, Nor what thou dost not know, to know pretend. Some secrets deep in abstruse darkness lie; To search them thou wilt need a piercing eye. Nor rashly therefore to such things assent, Which undeceiv'd, thou after may'st repent; Study and time in these must thee instruct, And others old experience may conduct. Wisdom herself her ear doth often lend To counsel offer'd by a faithful friend. In equal scales two doubtful matters lay,
Those who are generous, humble, just, and wise, Who not their gold, nor themselves idolize; To form thyself by their example learn (For many eyes can more than one discern); But yet beware of counsels when too full, Number makes long disputes and graveness dull;
Though their advice be good, their counsel wise,
Yet length still loses opportunities: Debate destroys dispatch; as fruits we see Rot, when they hang too long upon the tree; In vain that husbandman his seed doth sow, If he his crop not in due season mow. A general sets his army in array
In vain, unless he fight, and win the day. 'Tis virtuous action that must praise bring forth, Without which slow advice is little worth. Yet they who give good counsel, praise deserve, Though in the active part they cannot serve: In action, learned counsellors their age, Profession, or disease, forbids t' engage. Nor to philosophers is praise deny'd, Whose wise instructions after-ages guide; Yet vainly most their age in study spend ; No end of writing books, and to no end: Beating their brains for strange and hidden things,
Whose knowledge, nor delight nor profit brings: Themselves with doubt both day and night per-
Nor gentle reader please, or teach, but vex. Books should to one of these four ends conduce, For wisdom, piety, delight, or use. What need we gaze upon the spangled sky ?✔ Or into matter's hidden causes pry, To describe every city, stream, or hill
I' th' world, our fancy with vain arts to fill? What is 't to hear a sophister, that pleads, Who by the ears the deceiv'd audience leads? If we were wise, these things we should not mind,
Thou may'st choose safely that which most doth But more delight in easy matters find.
Tis not secure this place or that to guard, If any other entrance stand unbarr'd;' He that escapes the serpent's teeth may fail, If he himself secures not from his tail. Who saith, Who could such ill events expect? With shame on his own counsels doth reflect. Most in the world doth self-conceit deceive, Who just and good, whate'er they act believe; To their wills wedded, to their errours slaves, No man (like them) they think himself behaves. This stiff-neck'd pride nor art nor force can bend, Nor high-flown hopes to Reason's lure descend. Fathers sometimes their children's faults re- gard
With pleasure, and their crimes with gift reward.
Ill painters, when they draw, and poets write, Virgil and Titian (self-admiring) slight; Then all they do, like gold and pearl appears, And other actions are but dirt to theirs. They that so highly think themselves above All other men, themselves can only love; Reason and virtue, all that man can boast O'er other creatures, in those brutes are lost, Observe (if thee this fatal error touch, Thou to thyself contributing too much)
Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too; To live and die is all we have to do: The way (if no digression's made) is even, And free access, if we but ask, is given. Then seek to know those things which make us
And having found them, lock them in thy breast;
Inquiring then the way, go on, nor slack, But mend thy pace, nor think of going back. Some their whole age in these inquiries waste, And die like fools before one step they've past. 'Tis strange to know the way, and not t' advance, That knowledge is far worse than ignorance. The learned teach, but what they teach, not do, And standing still themselves, make others go. In vain on study time away we throw, When we forbear to act the things we know. The soldier that philosopher well blam'd, Who long and loudly in the schools declaim'd; "Tell" (said the soldier) "venerable sir, Why all these words, this clamour, and this stir? Why do disputes in wrangling spend the day? Whilst one says only yea, and t'other nay." "Oh," said the doctor, "we for wisdom toil'd, For which none toils too much": the soldier
« PoprzedniaDalej » |