The Works of George Chapman ...

(Her unbent bow hung up, and casting on A gracious robe) assumes; and first sets gone

The dances' entry; to which all send forth Their heavenly voices; and advance the worth

Of her fair-ankled mother; since to light
She children brought the far most exquisite
In counsels, and performances, of all
The Goddesses that grace the heavenly
hall.

Hail then, Latona's fair-hair'd seed,
and Jove's:

My song shall ever call to mind your loves.

TO PALLAS.

PALLAS-MINERVA'S deity, the renown'd:
My Muse in her variety must resound;
Mighty in counsels; whose illustrous eyes
In all resemblance represent the skies.
A reverend maid of an inflexible mind;
In spirit and person strong; of triple
kind;

Fautress of cities that just laws maintain;

Of Jove-the-great-in-councils' very brain Took prime existence: his unbounded brows

Could not contain her; such impetuous throes

Her birth gave way to, that abroad she flew,

And stood, in gold arm'd, in her Father's view,

Shaking her sharp lance. All Olympus shook

So terribly beneath her, that it took
Up in amazes all the Deities there.

All earth resounded with vociferous fear.
The sea was put up, all in purple waves,
And settled suddenly her rudest raves.
Hyperion's radiant son his swift-hooved
steeds

A mighty time stay'd, till her arming weeds,

As glorious as the Gods', the blue-eyed Maid

Took from her deathless shoulders; but then stay'd

All these distempers; and heaven's counsellor, Jove, Rejoiced that all things else his stay could

move.

So I salute thee still; and still in praise Thy fame, and others', shall my memory raise.

TO VESTA AND MERCURY.

VESTA I sing, who, in bequest of fate,
Art sorted out an everlasting state
In all th' Immortals' high-built roofs, and
all

Those of earth-dwelling men, as general And ancient honours given thee for thy gift

Of free-lived chastity, and precious thrift. Nor can there amongst mortals banquets be,

In which, both first and last, they give not thee

Their endless gratitudes in pour'd-out wine,
As gracious sacrifice to thy divine
And useful virtues; being invoked by all,
Before the least taste of their festival
In wine or food affect their appetites.
And thou, that of th' adorn'd with all
delights

Art the most useful angel; born a God
Of Jove and Maia; of heaven's golden rod
The sole sustainer; and hast power to
bless

With all good all men, great Argicides,
Inhabit all good houses; seeing no wants
Of mutual minds' love in th' inhabitants.
Join in kind blessing with the bashful

maid

And all-loved virgin, Vesta; either's aid
Combined in every hospitable house :
Both being best seen in all the gracious
House-works of mortals. Jointly follow
then,

Even from their youths, the minds of dames and men.

Hail then, old Daughter of the oldest God

And thou great bearer of Heaven's golden rod!

Yet, not to you alone my vows belong; Others as well claim th' homage of my song.

TO EARTH, THE MOTHER OF ALL.

MOTHER of all things, the well-founded Earth,

My Muse shall memorize; who all the birth

Gives food that all her upper regions breed ;

All that in her divine diffusions feed
In under continents; all those that live
In all the seas; and all the air doth give

Wing'd expeditions; of thy bounties eat; A blaze burns from his golden burgonet

Fair children, and fair fruits, thy labour's,
sweat ;

O great in reverence; and referr'd to thee
For life and death is all the pedigree
Of mortal humans. Happy then is he
Whom the innate propensions of thy mind
Stand bent to honour. He shall all things
find

In all abundance; all his pastures yield
Herds in all plenties; all his roofs are fill'd
With rich possessions: he, in all the sway
Of laws best order'd, cuts out his own way
In cities shining with delicious dames;
And takes his choice of all those striving
flames.

High happiness and riches, like his train,
Follow his fortunes, with delights that
reign

In all their princes. Glory invests his

sons;

His daughters, with their crown'd selec-
tions

Of all the city, frolic through the meads;
And every one her call'd-for dances treads
Along the soft-flower of the clover-grass.
All this, with all those, ever comes to pass,
That thy love blesses, Goddess full of
grace,

And treasurous Angel t' all the human

race.

Hail, then, Great Mother of the Deified kind,

Wife to the cope of stars! sustain a mind

Propitious to me, for my praise; and give

(Answering my mind) my vows fit means to live.

TO THE SUN.

THE radiant Sun's divine renown diffuse
(Jove's daughter, great Calliope, my Muse),
Whom ox-eyed Euryphaëssa gave birth
To the bright seed of starry Heaven and
Earth.

For the far-famed Hyperion took to wife
His sister Euryphaëssa, that life

Of his high race gave to these lovely

three:

Aurora, with the rosy wrists, and she
That owns th' enamouring tresses (the
bright Moon)

Together with the never-wearied Sun.
Who (his horse mounting) gives both
mortals light

And all th' Immortals. Even to horror, bright

Which to behold exceeds the sharpest set
Of any eyes' intention; beams so clear
It all ways pours abroad. The glorious
cheer

Of his far-shining face up to his crown
Casts circular radiance; that comes stream.
ing down

About his temples, his bright cheeks, and all
Retaining the refulgence of their fall.
About his bosom flows so fine a weed
As doth the thinness of the wind exceed
In rich context: beneath whose deep folds
fly

His masculine horses round about the sky;
Till in this hemisphere he renders stay
T' his gold-yoked coach and coursers; and
his way,

Let down by heaven, the heavenly coach-
man makes

Down to the ocean, where his rest he takes.
My salutations then, fair King, receive,
And, in propitious returns relieve
My life with mind-fit means; and then
from thee,

And all the race of complete Deity,
My song shall celebrate those half-God
states,

That yet sad death's condition circulates,
And whose brave acts the Gods show
men, that they

As brave may aim at, since they can but die.

TO THE MOON.

THE Moon, now, Muses, teach me to resound,

Whose wide wings measure such a world of ground.

Jove's daughter, deck'd with the mellifluous tongue,

And seen in all the sacred art of song.
Whose deathless brows when she from
heaven displays,

All earth she wraps up in her orient rays.
A heaven of ornament in earth is raised
When her beams rise. The subtle air is
saised

Of delicate splendour from her crown of

gold;

And when her silver bosom is extoll'd,
Wash'd in the ocean, in day's equall

noon

Is midnight seated; but when she puts o Her far-off - sprinkling - lustre - evening weeds,

(The month in two cut; her high-breasted

steeds

TO CASTOR AND POLLUX. JOVE's fair Sons, father'd by th' Oebalian king,

Muses well-worth-all men's beholdings, sing:

The dear birth, that bright-ankled Leda bore;

Horse-taming Castor; and, the conqueror Of tooth-tongued Momus, Pollux; whom beneath

Steep-brow'd Taygetus she gave half-god breath,

In love mix'd with the black-clouds' King of heaven :

Who, both of men and ships (being tempest driven,

When Winter's wrathful empire is in force Upon th' implacable seas), preserve the

course.

CERTAIN EPIGRAMS AND OTHER POEMS OF

HOMER.

TO CUMA.

LEND hospitable rites and house-respect, You that the virgin with the fair eyes deck'd,

Make fautress of your stately-seated town:

At foot of Sardis, with the high-hair'd

crown

Inhabiting rich Cuma: where ye taste
Of Hermus' heavenly fluent, all embraced
By curl-head whirlpits; and whose waters

A MAID of brass I am, infixed here
T'eternize honest Midus' sepulchre.
And while the stream her fluent seed
receives,

And steep trees curl their verdant brows
with leaves,

While Phoebus raised above the earth gives sight,

And th' humorous Moon takes lustre from

his light,

gave me ;

In delicate and curious nursery.
Eolian Smyrna, seated near the sea,
(Of glorious empire, and whose bright
sides

Sacred Meletus' silver current glides),
Being native seat to me. Which, in the
force

Of far-past time, the breakers of wild horse,

Phriconia's noble nation, girt with towers; Whose youth in fight put on with fiery powers.

From hence, the Muse-maids, Jove's illus-
trous seed

Impelling me, I made impetuous speed,
And went with them to Cuma, with intent
T' eternize all the sacred continent

And state of Cuma. They, in proud

ascent

From off their bench, refused with usage
fierce

The sacred voice which I aver, is verse.
Their follies, yet, and madness borne by

me,

Shall by some Power be thought on futurely;

To wreak of him whoever, whose tongue sought

With false impair, my fall. What fate God brought

Upon my birth I'll bear with any pain; While floods bear waves, and seas shall But undeserved defame unfelt sustain.

wash the shore,

Nor feels my person (dear to me though poor)

Any great lust to linger any more

In Cuma's holy highways: but my mind
(No thought impair'd, for cares of any

kind

« Previous Continue »

Books