(5) The same idea is found in Stanzas to Jessy, stanza 1: There is a mystic thread of life So dearly wreath'd with mine alone, At once must sever both, or none. (6) From The Curse of Minerva, 11. 289-290: The hero bounding at his country's call, See Carm. 3. 2. 13: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. (7) From The Bride of Abydos 2. 2: That field with blood bedewed in vain, See Carm. 2. 1. 29-32: Quis non Latino sanguine pinguior (8) From Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 2. 8: Sophists, madly vain of dubious lore. See Carm. 1. 34. 2-3: Insanientis dum sapientiae Consultus erro. (9) From The Two Foscari 4. 1. 129-130: To lash up from the deep the Adrian waves, See Carm. 3. 3. 4-5: Auster, Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae. Also Carm. 4. 14. 20-21: Indomitas prope qualis undas (10) From Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 2. 39: Dark Sappho! could not Verse immortal save See Carm. 4. 9. 10-12: Spirat adhuc amor Vivuntque commissi calores (11) From Don Juan 15. 8: O death! thou dunnest of all duns! thou daily See Carm. 1. 4. 13-14: Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas (12) Sub-title to The Age of Bronze: Carmen Seculare et Annus Haud Mirabilis. The first part of this is probably an echo of Horace's Carmen Saeculare. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY I. A Paraphrase Attributed to Shelley In the discussion of the influence of Horace upon Shelley, first place must be given to an anonymous paraphrase of Carm. 3. 19 which Mr. H. Buxton Forman concludes to be a genuine Shelleyan production, and which he prints in the appendix to his library edition of Shelley's poems. I quote his argument in favor of the paraphrase:1 'The story of this paraphrase, not hitherto known as a work of Shelley's, is somewhat complicated. Among the Leigh Hunt MSS. placed at my disposal by Mr. S. R. Townshend Mayer, are two sheets of extremely thin foreign paper such as numerous poems of Shelley's were written upon for convenience of transit through the post, on which sheets, in Mrs. Shelley's writing, are this paraphrase from Horace, and The Magic Horse, from Christofano Bronzino. The sheets have been folded in three as they would be if enclosed in a letter. Had this been all that was known of the MS., I should scarcely have hesitated, looking at the internal evidence, and considering that the paper was found among other transcripts of Shelley's works by his wife, to have attributed the translations positively to him; and I do not, in fact, doubt that they are his. But in a periodical of Leigh Hunt's, The Companion, for the 26th of March, 1828 (the number, as originally printed), this paraphrase from Horace appears, without any translator's name. If there were any intrinsic quality in this poem to countenance for a moment the supposition that it came from Hunt's pen-and I do not think there is,- such a notion would be disposed of by the fact that when he printed The Companion as a book, he omitted this piece, and that he did not print it among his translations, admirable as it is. In the weekly number of The Companion following that which contains this paraphrase, he apologizes, on the plea of illness, for using something of Procter's, sent to him "for another purpose"; and the presumption is that he used a translation of Shelley's under like circumstances. Following the search further, Mr. Mayer and I discovered Leigh Hunt's own copy of this paraphrase "copy" that has evidently been used to print from.. The ode has there been introduced as the first of a series of articles to be called The Dessert and to consist of compositions "not large enough to stand by themselves"; and this introduction, which after all did not appear with the ode, concludes with the words, "Here have we been going to heaven, when our sole design was to introduce a thing no less earthly than one of Horace's odes. But if ever heaven and earth meet (not to speak it profanely), it is at the table of a wit and good fellows; and so, finding ourselves right in that matter, we call upon Horace for his ode." After the last line of the ode, Hunt has written, "The 1 Shelley's Poetical Works, ed. Forman, 4. 540 (note). following is a portrait from the life, and comes well after our dinnerparty. The subject is not a beau ideal, like Telephus; but he is human and Horatian, and might illustrate a series of odes, from the mox reficit rates of the beginning, to the est mihi nonum of Book the fourth." Then follows the heading, “Sketches from the Club-Book-No. 1. Old Charlton," such being the title of the composition of Procter's used with the apology already referred to. It is to be noted further that, whereas in Mrs. Shelley's transcript we read, I have given myself up to the spirit of the occasion, in the argument as published by Hunt we read, The translator has given himself up, etc. The word somewhere, after dinner party, is omitted in Hunt's copy, where we also read, after enjoyment, the words drinking their toasts and discussing their mistresses. He inserts further, before the word Commentators, the following: His proposal to torment the old fellow next door, who envies them their good humor, is very pleasant. I should say from the writing that this translation belongs to about the year 1820.' Subsequently Mr. Forman remarks:1 'I have already said that the handwriting of Mrs. Shelley in this MS. seems to be of about the year 1820; and it may be added that the playful style of both pieces [viz., the paraphrase of Horace and the translation from Bronzino] corresponds with the treatment of the Hymn to Mercury and The Witch of Atlas-both compositions of 1820.' The ode in question (3. 19) runs as follows: Quantum distet ab Inacho Codrus pro patria non timidus mori Narras et genus Aeaci Et pugnata sacro bella sub Ilio; Quo Chium pretio cadum Mercemur, quis aquam temperet ignibus, Quo praebente domum et quota Paelignis caream frigoribus, taces. Da lunae propere novae, Da noctis mediae, da, puer, auguris Miscentur cyathis pocula commodis. Qui Musas amat imparis, Ternos ter cyathos attonitus petet Vates; tris prohibet supra Rixarum metuens tangere Gratia Nudis iuncta sororibus. Insanire iuvat: cur Berecyntiae Cessant flamina tibiae? Cur pendet tacita fistula cum lyra? 1Shelley's Poetical Works, ed. Forman, 4. 542 (note). Parcentis ego dexteras Odi: sparge rosas; audiat invidus Et vicina seni non habilis Lyco. Puro te similem, Telephe, Vespero The paraphrase: Me lentus Glycerae torret amor meae. THE DINNER PARTY ANTICIPATED Argument.—The Poet rallies his young friend Telephus upon his fondness for talking of genealogy and antiquities, and complains that he does not fix a day for having a dinner-party somewhere. The thought of such a meeting fires his imagination, and he supposes them all in the midst of their enjoyment, and talking of their mistresses. Commentators differ, as usual, upon passages in this ode. I have given myself up to the spirit of the occasion, as the most likely, if not the most learned, guide. Dear Telephus, you trace divinely Feel every blow bestowed at Troy: Not one about a little stock Of neat, you rogue; nor what o'clock Some four of us may come together, And shut the cold out this strange weather. Good Gods! I feel it done already! More wine, my boy! There-steady, steady: 'Whose health?' whose health! why here's the moon: She's young: may she be older soon: 'Whose next?' Why next, I think, it's clear Comes Mother Midnight-Here's to her: And after her, with three at least, Our reverend friend the new-made priest. |