1.
Ye Muses, that so oft I have repulsed,
That, now importuned, haste to cure my pain,
And to console me in my woes
With verses, rhymes, and exaltation
Such as to others ye did never show,
Who yet do vaunt themselves of laurel and of myrtle
Be near me now, my anchor and my port,
Lest I for sport should towards some others turn.
O Mount! O Goddesses! O Fountain!
Where and with whom I dwell, converse and nourish me,
Where peacefully I ponder and grow fair;
I rise, I live: heart, spirit, brows adorn;
Death, cypresses, and hells
You change to life, to laurels, and eternal stars!
It is to be supposed that he oftimes and for divers reasons had repulsed
the Muses; first, because he could not be idle as a priest of the Muses
should be, for idleness cannot exist there, where the ministers and
servants of envy, ignorance, and malignity are to be combated. Moreover,
he could not force himself to the study of philosophies, which though
they be not the most mature, yet ought, as kindred of the Muses, to
precede them. Besides which, being drawn on one side by the tragic
Melpomene, with more matter than spirit, and on the other side by the
comic Thalia, with more spirit than matter, it came to pass that,
oscillating between the two, he remained neutral and inactive, rather
than operative. Finally, the dictum of the censors, who, restraining him
from that which was high and worthy, and towards which he was naturally
inclined, sought to enslave his genius, and from being free in virtue
they would have rendered him contemptible under a most vile and stupid
hypocrisy. At last, in the great whirl of annoyances by which he was
surrounded, it happened that, not having wherewith to console him, he
listened to those who are said to intoxicate him with such exaltation,
verses, and rhymes, as they had never demonstrated to others; because
this work shines more by its originality than by its conventionality.
CIC. Say, what do you mean by those who vaunt themselves of myrtle and
laurel?
TANS. Those may and do boast of the myrtle who sing of love: if they
bear themselves nobly, they may wear a crown of that plant consecrated
to Venus, of which they know the potency. Those may boast of the laurel
who sing worthily of things pertaining to heroes, substituting heroic
souls for speculative and moral philosophy, and praising them and
setting as mirrors and exemplars for political and civil actions.