Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Every one by nature hath--a mould which he was cast in;

I happen to be one of those--who never could write

fasting;

By a single little boy--I should be surpass'd in

Writing so

I'd just as lief-be buried, tomb'd and grass'd in.

Every one by nature hath—a gift too, a dotation:

I, when I make verses,-do get the inspiration

Of the very best of wine--that comes into the nation :

It maketh sermons to abound-for edification.

Suum cuique proprium dat natura munus,
Ego nunquam potui scribere jejunus:
Me jejunum vincere posset puer unus :
Sitim et jejunium odi tanquam funus.

Uni cuique proprium dat natura donum,
Ego versus faciens, vinum bibo bonum,
Et quod habent melius dolia cauponum ;
Tale vinum generat copiam sermonum.

Just as liquor floweth good-floweth forth my lay so; But I must moreover eat-or I could not say so; Nought it availeth inwardly--should I write all day so; But with God's grace after meat-I beat Ovidius Naso.

Neither is there given to me--prophetic animation, Unless when I have eat and drank--yea, ev'n to satu

ration;

Then in my upper story-hath Bacchus domination, And Phoebus rusheth into me, and beggareth all

relation.

Tales versus facio, quale vinum bibo;

Nihil possum scribere, nisi sumpto cibo;
Nihil valet penitus, quod jejunus scribo;
Nasonem post calices carmine præibo.

Mihi nunquam spiritus prophetiæ datur,
Nisi tunc cum fuerit venter bene satur;
Cum in arce cerebri Bacchus dominatur,
In me Phoebus irruit, ac miranda fatur.

SONG OF FAIRIES ROBBING AN ORCHARD.

FROM SOME LATIN VERSES IN THE OLD ENGLISH DRAMA OF "AMYNTAS,

OR THE IMPOSSIBLE DOWRY."

WE the Fairies, blithe and antic,

Of dimensions not gigantic,

Though the moonshine mostly keep us,

Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.

Nos beata Fauni proles,

Quibus non est magna moles,

Quamvis Lunam incolamus,

Hortos sæpe frequentamus.

Stolen sweets are always sweeter,

Stolen kisses much completer,

Stolen looks are nice in chapels,

Stolen, stolen be your apples.

When to bed the world are bobbing, Then's the time for orchard robbing; Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling, Were it not for stealing, stealing.

[blocks in formation]

PLATO'S ARCHETYPAL MAN.

ACCORDING TO THE IDEA OF IT ENTERTAINED BY ARISTOTLE.

FROM THE LATIN OF MILTON.

SAY, guardian goddesses of woods,

Aspects, felt in solitudes;

And Memory, at whose blessed knee

The Nine, which thy dear daughters be,

Learnt of the majestic past;

And thou, that in some antre vast

Leaning afar off dost lie,

Otiose Eternity,

DICITE, sacrorum præsides nemorum deæ ;

Tuque, O noveni perbeata numinis

Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul

Antro recumbis, otiosa Eternitas,*

"This," says Warton, "is a sublime personification of Eternity,

« AnteriorContinua »