Grieved at long civil feuds, from thee a change The weeping Female Train, with clamour loud, Weak Age and Childhood, whom the light of day Grieves, and whate'er abhorr'd Existence shews; Religious Brothers, white, and black, and gray; And all, however by Affliction bow'd, Call out "O mighty Chief, relieve our woes!" The wretches such unnumber'd harms disclose, As in a ruthless Hannibal, would wake Pity for hated Rome: and, if we search Around the fire that wraps the holy church, Soon shall we see the fuel whence to take, Though bears, wolves, lions, eagles, serpents, all * The bears mean the Orsini family, from the word Orso. The rest are supposed to mean those families who united with them, in opposition to the Column, Colonna. Thy succour bring; for such good deeds, by one She claims alike, * will now be left undone. Seldom it happens that, to high designs Propitious, Fortune cares the just reward Of worth to allot, as she now seeks to do: But favours with her rule that ill accord, Scarce granted thee, to pardon so inclines, I see her wrongs with patience, though not few. The worthies of whom History boasts, ne'er knew A road so clear to everliving Fame; For thou preparest the Monarchy's return To former greatness, if I well discern True merit, kindled by its generous aim. How will this praise exalt thy name, "Others, its youth assisting, raised the state; " He, while it totter'd beneath age's weight ?" * "The Pope," as Gesualdo explains in his note, " who lives at Avignon, attentive to the spiritual go"vernment, and not the republic, and is quite given up " to luxury, indifferent to the fate of Rome and Italy." On the Tarpeian hill thou wilt behold, MADRIGAL. A FOREIGN beauty touch'd my heart, whose face, Love's genuine badge, declared her of his train. (All others seem'd less worthy of her place.) Whom following along the verdant grass, These words I caught, at distance utter'd plain. "Thou with lost labour through the wood wilt pass * Supposed the description of a warning, which he thinks effectual, from his confessor, father Dennis; who wrote to him, that it was unbecoming to lose his time, by the consequences of his passion. "On this pursuit." Then in the shade I stood SONNET. + ON A MINIATURE OF LAURA, PAINTED FOR PETRARCH BY SIMON, A DICIPLE OF GIOтто. THAT master, Policletus, and the rest * This allegory had been used by Dante. He means by Noon, the age of thirty-five years, as being half the age of a man, and likewise his own at that time. + This and the following sonnet, are those which Vasari speaks of, as a modern connoisseur would of Pope's epistle to Jervis; or, in other words, as a compliment paid by an eminent poet to an indifferent artist. |