The Oxford Book of Latin Verse Part 73

For whom retired to secret shade, Soft on thy panting bosom laid, Set'st thou thy looks with nicest care, O neatly plain? How oft shall he Bewail thy false inconstancy!

Condemned perpetual frowns to prove, How often weep thy altered love, Who thee, too credulous, hopes to find, As now, still golden and still kind!

W. HAMILTON.

_126_

Of this often-translated poem I give first the version of Herrick and then that of Gladstone. There is an amusing adaptation in the Poems of Soame Jenyns, _Dialogue between the Rt. Hon. Henry Pelham and Modern Popularity_.

_Hor._ WHILE, Lydia, I was lov'd of thee, Nor any was preferr'd 'fore me To hug thy whitest neck: than I, The Persian King liv'd not more happily.

_Lyd._ While thou no other didst affect, Nor Cloe was of more respect; Then Lydia, far-fam'd Lydia, I flourish't more than Roman Ilia.

_Hor._ Now Thracian Cloe governs me, Skilfull i' th' Harpe, and Melodie: For whose affection, Lydia, I (So Fate spares her) am well content to die.

_Lyd._ My heart now set on fire is By Ornithes sonne, young Calais; For whose commutuall flames here I (To save his life) twice am content to die.

_Hor._ Say our first loves we sho'd revoke, And sever'd, joyne in brazen yoke: Admit I Cloe put away, And love again love-cast-off Lydia?

_Lyd._ Though mine be brighter than the Star; Thou lighter than the Cork by far; Rough as th' Adratick sea, yet I Will live with thee, or else for thee will die.

HERRICK.

_Hor._ WHILE no more welcome arms could twine Around thy snowy neck than mine, Thy smile, thy heart while I possessed, Not Persia's monarch lived as blessed.

_Lyd._ While thou didst feed no rival flame, Nor Lydia after Chloe came, Oh then thy Lydia's echoing name Excelled ev'n Ilia's Roman fame.

_Hor._ Me now Threician Chloe sways, Skilled in soft lyre and softer lays; My forfeit life I'll freely give So she, my better life, may live.

_Lyd._ The son of Ornytus inspires My burning breast with mutual fires; I'll face two several deaths with joy So Fate but spare my Thracian boy.

_Hor._ What if our ancient love awoke, And bound us with its golden yoke?

If auburn Chloe I resign And Lydia once again be mine?

_Lyd._ Though fairer than the stars is he, Thou rougher than the Adrian sea And fickle as light cork, yet I With thee would live, with thee would die.

GLADSTONE.

Prior's 'echo' of this poem is well known:

'SO when I am weary of wandering all day, To thee, my delight, in the evening I come; No matter what beauties I saw in my way, They were but my visits, but thou art my home.

Then finish, dear Cloe, this pastoral war, And let us, like Horace and Lydia, agree; For thou art a girl as much brighter than her As he was a poet sublimer than me.'

(_Answer to Chloe Jealous_).

_127_

O CRUEL, still and vain of beauty's charms, When wintry age thy insolence disarms,[10]

When fall those locks that on thy shoulders play, And youth's gay roses on thy cheeks decay, When that smooth face shall manhood's roughness wear, And in your gla.s.s another form appear, Ah, why, you'll say, do I now vainly burn, Or with my wishes not my youth return?

FRANCIS.

_135_

I print Dryden's version in its entirety. 'I have endeavoured to make it my masterpiece in English,' he says. It is perhaps the only translation of the _Odes_ which retains what Dryden calls their 'n.o.ble and bold purity' and at the same time keeps the friendly and familiar strokes of style which lighten Horace's graver moods.

DESCENDED of an ancient line, That long the Tuscan sceptre swayed, Make haste to meet the generous wine Whose piercing is for thee delayed.

The rosie wreath is ready made And artful hands prepare The fragrant Syrian oil that shall perfume thy hair

When the wine sparkles from afar And the well-natured friend cries 'Come away', Make haste and leave thy business and thy care, No mortal interest can be worth thy stay.

Leave for awhile thy costly country seat, And--to be great indeed--forget The nauseous pleasures of the great: Make haste and come, Come, and forsake thy cloying store, Thy turret that surveys from high The smoke and wealth and noise of Rome, And all the busie pageantry That wise men scorn and fools adore: Come, give thy soul a loose, and taste the pleasures of the poor.

Sometimes 'tis grateful to the rich to try A short vicissitude and fit of Poverty; A savoury dish, a homely treat, Where all is plain, where all is neat, Without the stately s.p.a.cious room, The Persian carpet or the Tyrian loom Clear up the cloudy foreheads of the great.

The Sun is in the Lion mounted high, The Syrian star Barks from afar, And with his sultry breath infects the sky; The ground below is parched, the heavens above us fry; The shepherd drives his fainting flock Beneath the covert of a rock And seeks refres.h.i.+ng rivulets nigh.

The Sylvans to their shade retire, Those very shades and streams new streams require, And want a cooling breeze of wind to fan the raging fire.

Thou, what befits the new Lord May'r, And what the City Faction dare, And what the Gallique arms will do, And what the quiverbearing foe, Art anxiously inquisitive to know.

But G.o.d has wisely hid from human sight The dark decrees of future fate, And sown their seeds in depth of night: He laughs at all the giddy turns of state When mortals search too soon and learn too late.

Enjoy the present smiling hour, And put it out of Fortune's power.

The tide of business, like the running stream, Is sometimes high and sometimes low, A quiet ebb or a tempestuous flow, And always in extreme.

Now with a noiseless gentle course It keeps within the middle bed, Anon it lifts aloft its head And bears down all before it with tempestuous force;

And trunks of trees come rolling down, Sheep and their folds together drown, Both house and homestead into seas are borne, And rocks are from their old foundations torn, And woods, made thin with winds, their scattered honours mourn.

Happy the man--and happy he alone,-- He who can call to-day his own, He who, secure within, can say 'To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day: Be fair or foul or rain or s.h.i.+ne, The joys I have possessed in spite of Fate are mine, Not Heaven itself upon the Past has power, But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.'

Fortune, that with malicious joy Does Man, her slave, oppress, Proud of her office to destroy, Is seldom pleased to bless; Still various and unconstant still, But with an inclination to be ill, Promotes, degrades, delights in strife And makes a lottery of life.

I can enjoy her while she's kind, But when she dances in the wind, And shakes the wings and will not stay, I puff the prost.i.tute away.

The little or the much she gave is quietly resigned: Content with poverty my soul I arm, And Vertue, tho' in rags, will keep me warm.

What is't to me, Who never sail in her unfaithful sea, If storms arise and clouds grow black, If the mast split and threaten wrack?

Then let the greedy merchant fear For his ill-gotten gain, And pray to G.o.ds that will not hear, While the debating winds and billows bear His wealth into the main.

For me, secure from Fortune's blows, Secure of what I cannot lose, In my small pinnace I can sail, Contemning all the bl.u.s.tering roar: And running with a merry gale With friendly stars my safety seek Within some little winding creek, And see the storm ash.o.r.e.

DRYDEN.

_136_

O PRECIOUS Crock, whose summers date, Like mine, from Manlius' consulate, I wot not whether in your breast Lie maudlin wit or merry jest, Or sudden choler, or the fire Of tipsy Love's insane desire, Or fumes of soft caressing sleep, Or what more potent charms you keep; But this I know, your ripened power Befits some choicely festive hour!

A cup peculiarly mellow Corvinus asks: so come, old fellow, From your time-honoured bin descend, And let me gratify my friend!

No churl is he your charms to slight, Though most intensely erudite: And ev'n old Cato's worth, we know, Took from good wine a n.o.bler glow.