Change Nature's course; bring plagues, dearth, and decays.
This turns our lands to dust, the skies to brass,
Makes old kind blessings into curses pass:
And when we learn unknown and foreign crimes,
Brings in the vengeance due unto those climes.
The dregs and puddle of all ages now,
Like rivers near their fall, on us do flow.
Ah, happy Daphnis! who while yet the streams
Ran clear and warm, though but with setting beams,
Got through, and saw by that declining light,
His toil's and journey's end before the night.
_Damon._
A night, where darkness lays her chains and bars,
And feral fires appear instead of stars.
But he, along with the last looks of day,
Went hence, and setting--sunlike--pass'd away.
What future storms our present sins do hatch
Some in the dark discern, and others watch;
Though foresight makes no hurricane prove mild,
Fury that's long fermenting is most wild.
But see, while thus our sorrows we discourse,
Ph[oe]bus hath finish'd his diurnal course;
The shades prevail: each bush seems bigger grown;
Darkness--like State--makes small things swell and frown:
The hills and woods with pipes and sonnets round,
And bleating sheep our swains drive home, resound.
_Menalcas._
What voice from yonder lawn tends hither? Hark!
'Tis Thyrsis calls! I hear Lycanthe bark!
His flocks left out so late, and weary grown,
Are to the thickets gone, and there laid down.
_Damon._
Menalcas, haste to look them out! poor sheep,
When day is done, go willingly to sleep:
And could bad man his time spend as they do,
He might go sleep, or die, as willing too.
_Menalcas._
Farewell! kind Damon! now the shepherd's star
With beauteous looks smiles on us, though from far.
All creatures that were favourites of day
Are with the sun retir'd and gone away.
While feral birds send forth unpleasant notes,
And night--the nurse of thoughts--sad thoughts promotes:
But joy will yet come with the morning light,
Though sadly now we bid good night!
_Damon._
Good night!
FRAGMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS.
From _Eucharistica Oxoniensia in Caroli Regis nostri e Scotia Reditum
Gratulatoria_ (1641).
[TO CHARLES THE FIRST.]
As kings do rule like th' heavens, who dispense
To parts remote and near their influence;
So doth our Charles move also; while he posts
From south to north, and back to southern coasts;
Like to the starry orb, which in its round
Moves to those very points; but while 'tis bound
For north, there is--some guess--a trembling fit
And shivering in the part that's opposite.
What were our fears and pantings, what dire fame
Heard we of Irish tumults, sword, and flame!
Which now we think but blessings, as being sent
Only as matter, whereupon 'twas meant,
The British thus united might express,
The strength of joined Powers to suppress,
Or conquer foes. This is Great Britain's bliss;
The island in itself a just world is.
Here no commotion shall we find or fear,
But of the Court's removal, no sad tear
Or cloudy brow, but when you leave us. Then
Discord is loyalty professed, when
Nations do strive, which shall the happier be
T' enjoy your bounteous rays of majesty
Which yet you throw in undivided dart,
For things divine allow no share or part.
The same kind virtue doth at once disclose
The beauty of their thistle and our rose.
Thus you do mingle souls and firmly knit
What were but join'd before; you Scotsmen fit
Closely with us, and reuniter prove;
You fetch'd the crown before, and now their love.
H. Vaughan, Ies. Col.
From _Of the Benefit we may get by our Enemies_: translated from
Plutarch (1651).
1. [HOMER. ILIAD, I. 255-6.]
Sure Priam will to mirth incline,
And all that are of Priam's line.
2. [AESCHYLUS. SEPTEM CONTRA THEBES, 600-1.]
Feeding on fruits which in the heavens do grow,
Whence all divine and holy counsels flow.
3. [EURIPIDES. ORESTES, 251-2.]
Excel then if thou canst, be not withstood,
But strive and overcome the evil with good.
4. [EURIPIDES. FRAGM. MLXXI.]
You minister to others' wounds a cure,
But leave your own all rotten and impure.
5. [EURIPIDES. CRESPHONTES, FRAGM. CCCCLV.]
Chance, taking from me things of highest price,
At a dear rate hath taught me to be wise.
6. [INCERTI.]
[He] Knaves' tongues and calumnies no more doth prize
Than the vain buzzing of so many flies.
7. [PINDAR. FRAGM. C.]
His deep, dark heart--bent to supplant--
Is iron, or else adamant.
8. [SOLON. FRAGM. XV.]
What though they boast their riches unto us?
Those cannot say that they are virtuous.
From _Of the Diseases of the Mind and the Body_: translated from
Plutarch (1651).
1. [HOMER. ILIAD, XVII. 446-7.]
That man for misery excell'd
All creatures which the wide world held.
2. [EURIPIDES. BACCHAE, 1170-4.]
A tender kid--see, where 'tis put--
I on the hills did slay,
Now dress'd and into quarters cut,
A pleasant, dainty prey.
From _Of the Diseases of the Mind and the Body_: translated from Maximus
Tyrius (1651).
1. [ARIPHRON.]
O health, the chief of gifts divine!
I would I might with thee and thine
Live all those days appointed mine!
From _The Mount of Olives_ (1652).
1. [DEATH.]
Draw near, fond man, and dress thee by this glass,
Mark how thy bravery and big looks must pass
Into corruption, rottenness and dust;
The frail supporters which betray'd thy trust.
O weigh in time thy last and loathsome state!
To purchase heav'n for tears is no hard rate.
Our glory, greatness, wisdom, all we have,
If mis-employ'd, but add hell to the grave:
Only a fair redemption of evil times
Finds life in death, and buries all our crimes.
2. [HADRIAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL.]
My soul, my pleasant soul, and witty,
The guest and consort of my body.
Into what place now all alone
Naked and sad wilt thou be gone?
No mirth, no wit, as heretofore,
Nor jests wilt thou afford me more.
3. [PAULINUS. CARM. APP. I. 35-40.]
What is't to me that spacious rivers run
Whole ages, and their streams are never done?
Those still remain: but all my fathers died,
And I myself but for few days abide.
4. [ANEURIN. ENGLYNION Y MISOEDD, III. 1-4.]
In March birds couple, a new birth
Of herbs and flow'rs breaks through the earth;
But in the grave none stirs his head,
Long is the impris'ment of the dead.
5. [INCERTI.]
So our decays God comforts by
The stars' concurrent state on high.
6. [JUVENAL. SATIRE XIII. 86-8.]
There are that do believe all things succeed
By chance or fortune: and that nought's decreed
By a divine, wise Will; but blindly call
Old Time and Nature rulers over all.
7. [INCERTI.]
From the first hour the heavens were made
Unto the last, when all shall fade,
Count--if thou canst--the drops of dew,
The stars of heav'n and streams that flow,
The falling snow, the dropping show'rs,
And in the month of May, the flow'rs,
Their scents and colours, and what store
Of grapes and apples Autumn bore,
How many grains the Summer bears,
What leaves the wind in Winter tears;
Count all the creatures in the world,
The motes which in the air are hurl'd,
The hairs of beasts and mankind, and
The shore's innumerable sand,
The blades of grass, and to these last
Add all the years which now are past,
With those whose course is yet to come,
And all their minutes in one sum.
When all is done, the damned's state
Outruns them still, and knows no date.
8. [VIRGIL. GEORGICS, IV. 12-138.]
I saw beneath Tarentum's stately towers
An old Cilician spend his peaceful hours.
Some few bad acres in a waste, wild field,
Which neither grass, nor corn, nor vines would yield,
He did possess. There--amongst thorns and weeds--
Cheap herbs and coleworts, with the common seeds
Of chesboule or tame poppies, he did sow,
And vervain with white lilies caused to grow.
Content he was, as are successful kings,
And late at night come home--for long work brings
The night still home--with unbought messes laid
On his low table he his hunger stay'd.
Roses he gather'd in the youthful Spring,
And apples in the Autumn home did bring:
And when the sad, cold Winter burst with frost
The stones, and the still streams in ice were lost,
He would soft leaves of bear's-foot crop, and chide
The slow west winds and ling'ring Summer-tide!
9. [VIRGIL. AENEID, III. 515.]
And rising at midnight the stars espied,
All posting westward in a silent glide.
10. [VIRGIL. GEORGICS, II. 58.]
The trees we set grow slowly, and their shade
Stays for our sons, while we--the planters--fade.
From _Man in Glory_: translated from Anselm (1652).
1. [ANSELM.]
Here holy Anselm lives in ev'ry page,
And sits archbishop still, to vex the age.
Had he foreseen--and who knows but he did?--
This fatal wrack, which deep in time lay hid,
'Tis but just to believe, that little hand
Which clouded him, but now benights our land,
Had never--like Elias--driv'n him hence,
A sad retirer for a slight offence.
For were he now, like the returning year,
Restor'd, to view these desolations here,
He would do penance for his old complaint,
And--weeping--say, that Rufus was a saint.
From the Epistle-Dedicatory to _Flores Solitudinis_ (1654).
1. [BISSELLIUS.]
The whole wench--how complete soe'er--was but
A specious bait; a soft, sly, tempting slut;
A pleasing witch; a living death; a fair,
Thriving disease; a fresh, infectious air;
A precious plague; a fury sweetly drawn;
Wild fire laid up and finely dress'd in lawn.
2. [AUGURELLIUS.]
Peter, when thou this pleasant world dost see,
Believe, thou seest mere dreams and vanity,
Not real things, but false, and through the air
Each-where an empty, slipp'ry scene, though fair.
The chirping birds, the fresh woods' shady boughs,
The leaves' shrill whispers, when the west wind blows,
The swift, fierce greyhounds coursing on the plains,
The flying hare, distress'd 'twixt fear and pains,
The bloomy maid decking with flow'rs her head,
The gladsome, easy youth by light love led;
And whatsoe'er here with admiring eyes
Thou seem'st to see, 'tis but a frail disguise
Worn by eternal things, a passive dress
Put on by beings that are passiveless.
From a Discourse _Of Temperance and Patience_: translated from
Nierembergius (1654).
1. [INCERTI.]
The naked man too gets the field,
And often makes the armed foe to yield.
2. [LUCRETIUS, IV. 1012-1020.]
[Some] struggle and groan as if by panthers torn,
Or lions' teeth, which makes them loudly mourn;
Some others seem unto themselves to die;
Some climb steep solitudes and mountains high,
From whence they seem to fall inanely down,
Panting with fear, till wak'd, and scarce their own
They feel about them if in bed they lie,
Deceiv'd with dreams, and Night's imagery.
In vain with earnest strugglings they contend
To ease themselves: for when they stir and bend
Their greatest force to do it, even then most
Of all they faint, and in their hopes are cross'd.
Nor tongue, nor hand, nor foot will serve their turn,
But without speech and strength within, they mourn.
3. [INCERTI.]
Thou the nepenthe easing grief
Art, and the mind's healing relief.
4. [INCERTI.]
Base man! and couldst thou think Cato alone
Wants courage to be dry? and but him, none?
Look'd I so soft? breath'd I such base desires,
Not proof against this Lybic sun's weak fires?
That shame and plague on thee more justly lie!
To drink alone, when all our troops are dry.
* * * * *
For with brave rage he flung it on the sand,
And the spilt draught suffic'd each thirsty band
5. [INCERTI.]
[Death keeps off]
And will not bear the cry
Of distress'd man, nor shut his weeping eye
6. [MAXIMUS.]
It lives when kill'd, and brancheth when 'tis lopp'd.
7. [MAXIMUS.]
Like some fair oak, that when her boughs
Are cut by rude hands, thicker grows;
And from those wounds the iron made
Resumes a rich and fresher shade.
8. [GREGORY NAZIANZEN.]
Patience digesteth misery.
9. [MARIUS VICTOR.]
----They fain would--if they might--
Descend to hide themselves in Hell. So light
Of foot is Vengeance; and so near to sin,
That soon as done, the actors do begin
To fear and suffer by themselves: Death moves
Before their eyes; sad dens and dusky groves
They haunt, and hope--vain hope which Fear doth guide!--
That those dark shades their inward guilt can hide.
10. [INCERTI.]
But night and day doth his own life molest,
And bears his judge and witness in his breast.
11. [THEODOTUS.]
Virtue's fair cares some people measure
For poisonous works that hinder pleasure.
12. [INCERTI.]
Man should with virtue arm'd and hearten'd be,
And innocently watch his enemy:
For fearless freedom, which none can control,
Is gotten by a pure and upright soul.
13. [INCERTI.]
Whose guilty soul, with terrors fraught, doth frame
New torments still, and still doth blow that flame
Which still burns him, nor sees what end can be
Of his dire plagues, and fruitful penalty;
But fears them living, and fears more to die;
Which makes his life a constant tragedy.
14. [INCERTI.]
And for life's sake to lose the crown of life.
15. [INCERTI.]
Nature even for herself doth lay a snare,
And handsome faces their own traitors are.
16. [MENANDER.]
True life in this is shown,
To live for all men's good, not for our own.
17. [INCERTI.]
As Egypt's drought by Nilus is redress'd,
So thy wise tongue doth comfort the oppress'd.
18. [INCERTI.]
[Like] to speedy posts, bear hence the lamp of life.
19. [DIONYSIUS LYRINENSIS.]
All worldly things, even while they grow, decay;
As smoke doth, by ascending, waste away.
20. [INCERTI.]
To live a stranger unto life.
From a _Discourse of Life and Death_: translated from Nierembergius
(1654).
1. [INCERTI.]
Whose hissings fright all Nature's monstrous ills;
His eye darts death, more swift than poison kills.
All monsters by instinct to him give place,
They fly for life, for death lives in his face;
And he alone by Nature's hid commands
Reigns paramount, and prince of all the sands.
2. [INCERTI.]
The plenteous evils of frail life fill the old:
Their wasted limbs the loose skin in dry folds
Doth hang about: their joints are numb'd, and through
Their veins, not blood, but rheums and waters flow.
Their trembling bodies with a staff they stay,
Nor do they breathe, but sadly sigh all day.
Thoughts tire their hearts, to them their very mind
Is a disease; their eyes no sleep can find.
3. [MIMNERMUS.]
Against the virtuous man we all make head,
And hate him while he lives, but praise him dead.
4. [INCERTI.]
Long life, oppress'd with many woes,
Meets more, the further still it goes.
5. [JUVENAL. SATIRE X. 278-286.]
What greater good had deck'd great Pompey's crown
Than death, if in his honours fully blown,
And mature glories he had died? those piles
Of huge success, loud fame, and lofty styles
Built in his active youth, long lazy life
Saw quite demolish'd by ambitious strife.
He lived to wear the weak and melting snow
Of luckless age, where garlands seldom grow,
But by repining Fate torn from the head
Which wore them once, are on another shed.
6. [MENANDER. FRAGM. CXXVIII.]
Whom God doth take care for, and love,
He dies young here, to live above.
7. [INCERTI.]
Sickness and death, you are but sluggish things,
And cannot reach a heart that hath got wings.
From _Primitive Holiness, set forth in the Life of Blessed Paulinus_
(1654).
1. [AUSONIUS. EPIST. XXIV. 115-16.]
Let me not weep to see thy ravish'd house
All sad and silent, without lord or spouse,
And all those vast dominions once thine own
Torn 'twixt a hundred slaves to me unknown.
2. [AUSONIUS. EPIST. XXIII. 30-1; XXV. 5-9, 14, 17.]
How could that paper sent,
That luckless paper, merit thy contempt?
Ev'n foe to foe--though furiously--replies,
And the defied his enemy defies.
Amidst the swords and wounds, there's a salute,
Rocks answer man, and though hard are not mute.
Nature made nothing dumb, nothing unkind:
The trees and leaves speak trembling to the wind.
If thou dost fear discoveries, and the blot
Of my love, Tanaquil shall know it not.
3. [PAULINUS. CARM. XI. 1-5; X. 189-92.]
Obdurate still and tongue-tied, you accuse
--Though yours is ever vocal--my dull muse;
You blame my lazy, lurking life, and add
I scorn your love, a calumny most sad;
Then tell me, that I fear my wife, and dart
Harsh, cutting words against my dearest heart.
Leave, learned father, leave this bitter course,
My studies are not turn'd unto the worse;
I am not mad, nor idle, nor deny
Your great deserts, and my debt, nor have I
A wife like Tanaquil, as wildly you
Object, but a Lucretia, chaste and true.
4. [PAULINUS. CARM. XXXI. 581-2, 585-90, 601-2, 607-12.]
This pledge of your joint love, to heaven now fled,
With honey-combs and milk of life is fed.
Or with the Bethlem babes--whom Herod's rage
Kill'd in their tender, happy, holy age--
Doth walk the groves of Paradise, and make
Garlands, which those young martyrs from him take.
With these his eyes on the mild Lamb are fix'd,
A virgin-child with virgin-infants mix'd.
Such is my Celsus too, who soon as given,
Was taken back--on the eighth day--to heaven
To whom at Alcala I sadly gave
Amongst the martyrs' tombs a little grave.
He now with yours--gone both the blessed way--
Amongst the trees of life doth smile and play;
And this one drop of our mix'd blood may be
A light for my Therasia, and for me.
5. [AUSONIUS. EPIST. XXV. 50, 56-7, 60-2.]
Sweet Paulinus, and is thy nature turn'd?
Have I so long in vain thy absence mourn'd?
Wilt thou, my glory, and great Rome's delight,
The Senate's prop, their oracle, and light,
In Bilbilis and Calagurris dwell,
Changing thy ivory-chair for a dark cell?
Wilt bury there thy purple, and contemn
All the great honours of thy noble stem?
6. [PAULINUS. CARM. X. 110-331.]
Shall I believe you can make me return,
Who pour your fruitless prayers when you mourn,
Not to your Maker? Who can hear you cry,
But to the fabled nymphs of Castaly?
You never shall by such false gods bring me
Either to Rome, or to your company.
As for those former things you once did know,
And which you still call mine, I freely now
Confess, I am not he, whom you knew then;
I have died since, and have been born again.
Nor dare I think my sage instructor can
Believe it error, for redeemed man
To serve his great Redeemer. I grieve not
But glory so to err. Let the wise knot
Of worldlings call me fool; I slight their noise,
And hear my God approving of my choice.
Man is but glass, a building of no trust,
A moving shade, and, without Christ, mere dust.
His choice in life concerns the chooser much:
For when he dies, his good or ill--just such
As here it was--goes with him hence, and stays
Still by him, his strict judge in the last days.
These serious thoughts take up my soul, and I,
While yet 'tis daylight, fix my busy eye
Upon His sacred rules, life's precious sum
Who in the twilight of the world shall come
To judge the lofty looks, and show mankind
The diff'rence 'twixt the ill and well inclin'd.
This second coming of the world's great King
Makes my heart tremble, and doth timely bring
A saving care into my watchful soul,
Lest in that day all vitiated and foul
I should be found--that day, Time's utmost line,
When all shall perish but what is divine;
When the great trumpet's mighty blast shall shake
The earth's foundations, till the hard rocks quake
And melt like piles of snow; when lightnings move
Like hail, and the white thrones are set above:
That day, when sent in glory by the Father,
The Prince of Life His blest elect shall gather;
Millions of angels round about Him flying,
While all the kindreds of the Earth are crying;
And He enthron'd upon the clouds shall give
His last just sentence, who must die, who live.
This is the fear, this is the saving care
That makes me leave false honours, and that share
Which fell to me of this frail world, lest by
A frequent use of present pleasures I
Should quite forget the future, and let in
Foul atheism, or some presumptuous sin.
Now by their loss I have secur'd my life,
And bought my peace ev'n with the cause of strife.
I live to Him Who gave me life and breath,
And without fear expect the hour of death.
If you like this, bid joy to my rich state,
If not, leave me to Christ at any rate.
7. [PAULINUS.]
And is the bargain thought too dear,
To give for heaven our frail subsistence here?
To change our mortal with immortal homes,
And purchase the bright stars with darksome stones?
Behold! my God--a rate great as His breath!--
On the sad cross bought me with bitter death,
Did put on flesh, and suffer'd for our good,
For ours--vile slaves!--the loss of His dear blood.
8. [EPITAPH ON MARCELLINA.]
Life, Marcellina, leaving thy fair frame,
Thou didst contemn those tombs of costly fame,
Built by thy Roman ancestors, and liest
At Milan, where great Ambrose sleeps in Christ.
Hope, the dead's life, and faith, which never faints,
Made thee rest here, that thou mayst rise with saints.
9. [PAULINUS. VERSUS APUD EPIST. XXXII. 3.]
You that to wash your flesh and souls draw near,
Ponder these two examples set you here:
Great Martin shows the holy life, and white,
Paulinus to repentance doth invite;
Martin's pure, harmless life, took heaven by force,
Paulinus took it by tears and remorse;
Martin leads through victorious palms and flow'rs,
Paulinus leads you through the pools and show'rs;
You that are sinners, on Paulinus look,
You that are saints, great Martin is your book;
The first example bright and holy is,
The last, though sad and weeping, leads to bliss
10. [PAULINUS. VERSUS APUD EPIST. XXXII. 5.]
Here the great well-spring of wash'd souls with beams
Of living light quickens the lively streams;
The Dove descends, and stirs them with her wings,
So weds these waters to the upper springs.
They straight conceive; a new birth doth proceed
From the bright streams by an immortal seed.
O the rare love of God! sinners wash'd here
Come forth pure saints, all justified and clear.
So blest in death and life, man dies to sins,
And lives to God: sin dies, and life begins
To be reviv'd: old Adam falls away
And the new lives, born for eternal sway.
11. [PAULINUS. VERSUS APUD EPIST. XXXII. 12.]
Through pleasant green fields enter you the way
To bliss; and well through shades and blossoms may
The walks lead here, from whence directly lies
The good man's path to sacred Paradise.
12. [PAULINUS. VERSUS APUD EPIST. XXXII. 14.]
The painful cross with flowers and palms is crown'd,
Which prove, it springs; though all in blood 'tis drown'd;
The doves above it show with one consent,
Heaven opens only to the innocent.
13. [PAULINUS. CARM. XXVII. 387-92.]
You see what splendour through the spacious aisle,
As if the Church were glorified, doth smile.
The ivory-wrought beams seem to the sight
Engraven, while the carv'd roof looks curl'd and bright.
On brass hoops to the upmost vaults we tie
The hovering lamps, which nod and tremble by
The yielding cords; fresh oil doth still repair
The waving flames, vex'd with the fleeting air.
14. [PAULINUS. VERSUS APUD EPIST. XXXII. 17.]
The pains of Saints and Saints' rewards are twins,
The sad cross, and the crown which the cross wins.
Here Christ, the Prince both of the cross and crown,
Amongst fresh groves and lilies fully blown
Stands, a white Lamb bearing the purple cross:
White shows His pureness, red His blood's dear loss.
To ease His sorrows the chaste turtle sings,
And fans Him, sweating blood, with her bright wings;
While from a shining cloud the Father eyes
His Son's sad conflict with His enemies,
And on His blessed head lets gently down
Eternal glory made into a crown.
About Him stand two flocks of diff'ring notes,
One of white sheep, and one of speckled goats;
The first possess His right hand, and the last
Stand on His left; the spotted goats are cast
All into thick, deep shades, while from His right
The white sheep pass into a whiter light.
15. [PAULINUS.]