Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Istis illa solet loca luce carentia sæpe
Perlustrare, etiam radianti impervia soli:
Millenisque loquax auditaque visaque linguis
Cuilibet effundit temeraria; veraque mendax
Nunc minuit, modo confictis sermonibus auget.

Sed tamen a nostro meruisti carmine laudes,
Fama, bonum quo non aliud veracius ullum,
Nobis digna cani, nec te memorasse pigebit
Carmine tam longo; servati scilicet Angli
Officiis, vaga diva, tuis, tibi reddimus æqua.
Te Deus, æternos motu qui temperat ignes,
Fulmine præmisso alloquitur, terraque tremente:
"Fama, siles? An te latet impia Papistarum
Conjurata cohors in meque meosque Britannos,
Et nova sceptrigero cædes meditata Iacobo?"

Nec plura; illa statim sensit mandata Tonantis,
Et, satis ante fugax, stridentes induit alas,
Induit et variis exilia corpora plumis:
Dextra tubam gestat Temesæo ex ære sonoram.1
Nec mora jam pennis cedentes remigat auras,
Atque parum est cursu celeres prævertere nubes:
Jam ventos, jam solis equos, post terga reliquit:
Et primo Angliacas, solito de more, per urbes
Ambiguas voces, incertaque murmura, spargit;
Mox arguta dolos, et detestabile vulgat
Proditionis opus, necnon facta horrida dictu,
Auctoresque addit sceleris, nec garrula cæcis
Insidiis loca structa silet; stupuere relatis
Et pariter juvenes, pariter tremuere puellæ,
Effoetique senes pariter; tantæque ruinæ
Sensus ad ætatem subito penetraverat omnem.
Attamen interea populi miserescit ab alto
Æthereus Pater, et crudelibus obstitit ausis
Papicolum capti pœnas raptantur ad acres ;
At pia thura Deo, et grati solvuntur honores;
Compita læta focis genialibus omnia fumant;
Turba choros juvenilis agit: Quintoque Novembris
Nulla dies toto occurrit celebratior anno.

IN OBITUM PRÆSULIS ELIENSIS.

ANNO ETATIS 17.

ADHUC madentes rore squalebant genæ,
Et sicca nondum lumina

190

185

200

205

210

215

220

225

t Dextra tubam gestat Temesco ex ære sonoram Temese is a city on the coast of the Tyrrhene sea, famous for its brass.-T. WARTON Nicholas Felton, bishop of Ely, died October 5, 1626, not many days after bishop Andrewes, before celebrated: he had been also master of Pembroke-hall, as well as bishop Andrewes; and bishop of Bristol: he was nominated to the see of Litchfield, but was translated to that of Ely in 1618-19. He is said to have been a pious, learned, and judicious man.-TODD.

Adhuc liquentis imbre turgebant salis,
Quem nuper effudi pius,

Dum mosta caro justa persolvi rogo

Wintoniensis Præsulis;

Cum centilinguis Fama, pro! semper mali
Cladisque vera nuntia,

Spargit per urbes divitis Britanniæ,

Populosque Neptuno satos,

Cessisse morti, et ferreis sororibus,
Te, generis humani decus,

Qui rex sacrorum illa fuisti in insula
Quæ nomen Anguillæ tenet.▾
Tunc inquietem pectus ira protinus
Ebulliebat fervida,

Tumulis potentem sæpe devovens deam:
Nec vota Naso in Ibida

Concepit alto diriora pectore;
Graiusque vates parcius

Turpem Lycambis execratus est dolum,
Sponsamque Neobulen suam.

At, ecce! diras ipse dum fundo graves,
Et imprecor neci necem,

Audisse tales videor attonitus sonos
Leni, sub aura, flamine:

"Cæcos furores pone; pone vitream

Bilemque, et irritas minas:

Quid temere violas non nocenda numina,
Subitoque ad iras percita?

Non est, ut arbitraris elusus miser,
Mors atra Noctis filia,

Erebove patre creta, sive Erinnye,
Vastove nata sub Chao:
Ast illa, cœlo missa stellato, Dei
Messes ubique colligit;

Animasque mole carnea reconditas
In lucem et auras evocat:

Ut cum fugaces excitant Horæ diem,
Themidos Jovisque filliæ;

Et sempiterni ducit ad vultus Patris:
At justa raptat impios

Sub regna furvi luctuosa Tartari,
Sedesque subterraneas.”

Hanc ut vocantem lætus audivi, cito
Foedum reliqui carcerem,
Volatilesque faustus inter milites

Ad astra sublimis feror;

▾ Quæ nomen Anguillæ tenet.

Ely, so called from its abundance of eels.-T. WARTON.

[blocks in formation]

Archilochus, who killed Lycambes by the severity of his iambics. Lycambes had espoused his daughter Neobule to Archilochus, and afterwards gave her to another.T. WARTON.

[blocks in formation]

Ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam, et

Stratum smaragdis atrium.

Sed hic tacebo; nam quis effari queat,

Oriundus humano patre,

Amonitates illius loci?

Sat est in æternum frui.

Mihi

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

NATURAM NON PATI SENIUM.x

HEU, quam perpetuis erroribus acta fatiscit

Avia mens hominum, tenebris immersa profundis
Edipodioniam volvit sub pectore noctem!
Quæ vesana suis metiri facta deorum
Audet, et incisas leges adamante perenni
Assimilare suis, nulloque solubile sæclo
Consilium fati perituris alligat horis!

Ergone marcescet sulcantibus obsita rugis
Naturæ facies, et rerum publica mater
Omniparum contracta uterum sterilescet ab ævo ?
Et, se fassa senem, male certis passibus ibit
Sidereum tremebunda caput? Num tetra vetustas,
Annorumque æterna fames, squalorque, situsque,
Sidera vexabunt? An et insatiabile Tempus
Esuriet cœlum, rapictque in viscera patrem ?
Heu, potuitne suas imprudens Jupiter arces
Hoc contra munisse nefas, et Temporis isto
Exemisse malo, gyrosque dedisse perennes?
Ergo erit ut quandoque sono dilapsa tremendo
Convexi tabulata ruant, atque obvius ictu
Stridat uterque polus, superaque ut Olympius aula
Decidat, horribilisque retecta Gorgone Pallas;
Qualis in Ægæam proles Junonia Lemnon

[blocks in formation]

This was an academical exercise, written in 1628, to oblige one of the fellows of Christ's college, who having laid aside the levities of poetry for the gravity and solidity of prose, imposed the boyish task on Milton, now about nineteen years old.T. WARTON.

Deturbata sacro cecidit de limine cœli?
Tu quoque, Phoebe, tui casus imitabere nati;
Præcipiti curru, subitaque ferere ruina
Pronus, et extincta fumabit lampade Nereus,
Et dabit attonito feralia sibila ponto.
Tunc etiam aërei divulsis sedibus Hæmi
Dissultabit apex, imoque allisa barathro
Terrebunt Stygium dejecta Ceraunia Ditem,
In superos quibus usus erat, fraternaque bella.
At Pater Omnipotens, fundatis fortius astris,
Consuluit rerum summæ, certoque peregit
Pondere fatorum lances, atque ordine summo
Singula perpetuum jussit servare tenorem.
Volvitur hinc lapsu mundi rota prima diurno;
Raptat et ambitos socia vertigine cœlos.

Tardior haud solito Saturnus, et acer ut olim
Fulmineum rutilat cristata casside Mavors.
· Floridus æternum Phoebus juvenile coruscat,
Nec fovet effœtas loca per declivia terras
Devexo temone deus; sed semper amica
Luce potens, eadem currit per signa rotarum.
Surgit odoratis pariter formosus ab Indis,
Ethereum pecus albenti qui cogit Olympo,
Mane vocans, et serus agens in pascua cœli;
Temporis et gemino dispertit regna colore.
Fulget, obitque vices alterno Delia cornu,
Cæruleumque ignem paribus complectitur ulnis.
Nec variant elementa fidem, solitoque fragore
Lurida perculsas jaculantur fulmina rupes:
Nec per inane furit leviori murmure Corus,
Stringit et armiferos æquali horrore Gelonos

Trux Aquilo, spiratque hyemem, nimbosque volutat.
Utque solet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori

Rex maris, et rauca circumstrepit æquora concha
Oceani tubicen, nec vasta mole minorem

Egæona ferunt dorso Balearica cete.

Sed, neque, Terra, tibi sæcli vigor ille vetusti

[blocks in formation]

Priscus abest, servatque suum Narcissus odorem,
Et

puer ille suum tenet, et puer ille, decorem,

Phoebe, tuusque, et, Cypri, tuus; nec ditior olim
Terra datum sceleri celavit montibus aurum

Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in ævum
Ibit cunctarum series justissima rerum;

Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, late

Circumplexa polos, et vasti culmina cœli;
Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina mundi.

65

Hyacinth the favourite boy of Phœbus, Adonis of Venus : both, like Narcissus, converted into flowers.-T. WARTON.

This poem is replete with fanciful and ingenious allusions: it has also a vigour of expression, a dignity of sentiment, and elevation of thought, rarely found in very young writers.-T. WARTON.

DE IDEA PLATONICA QUEMADMODUM ARISTOTELES INTELLEXIT.

DICITE, sacrorum præsides nemorum deæ ;
Tuque, O, noveni perbeata numinis
Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul
Antro recumbis, otiosa Eternitas,
Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis,
Coelique fastos, atque ephemeridas deum;
Quis ille primus, cujus ex imagine
Natura solers finxit humanum genus,
Æternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo,
Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei?
Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ
Interna proles insidet menti Jovis;
Sed quamlibet natura sit communior,
Tamen seorsus extat ad morem unius,
Et, mira, certo stringitur spatio loci:
Seu sempiternus ille siderum comes
Coeli pererrat ordines decemplicis,
Citimumve terris incolit lunæ globum:
Sive, inter animas corpus adituras sedens,
Obliviosas torpet ad Lothes aquas:
Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga
Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas,
Et diis tremendus erigit celsum caput,
Atlante major portitore siderum.
Non, cui profundum cæcitas lumen dedit,"
Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu;
Non hunc silente nocte Plëiones nepos
Vatum sagaci præpes ostendit choro;
Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius," licet
Longos vetusti commemoret atavos Nini,
Priscumque Belon, inclitumque Osiridem;
Non ille, trino gloriosus nomine,

Ter magnus Hermes, ut sit arcani sciens,
Talem reliquit Isidis cultoribus.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small]

30

I find this poem inserted at full length, as a specimen of unintelligible metaphysics, in a scarce little book of universal burlesque, much in the manner of Tom Brown, seemingly published about the year 1715, and entitled "An Essay towards the Theory of the intelligible world intuitively considered."-T. WARTON.

a Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ, &c.

"This aboriginal man, the twin-brother of the virgin Pallas, does not remain in the brain of Jupiter where he was generated; but, although partaking of man's common nature, still exists somewhere by himself, in a case of singleness and abstraction, and in a determinate place. Whether among the stars," &c.-T. WARTON. b Tiresias of Thebes.-T. WARTON.

[blocks in formation]

& Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius.

Sanchoniathon, the eldest of the profane historians.-T. WARTON.

[blocks in formation]

Hermes Trismegistus, an Egyptian philosopher, who lived soon after Moses, as Mr.

« AnteriorContinuar »