Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/388

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��LATIN POEMS

��SYLVARUM LIBER POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES IN OBITUM PROCANCELLARII MEDICI

Anno atatis 17

ON THE DEATH OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR, A PHYSICIAN (Misdated Anno cetatis 16, in editions of 1645 an ^ l &73)

��The personage here celebrated in Horatian verse was John Gostlin, M. D., twice Vice- chancellor of the University of Cambridge, whose death occurred in October, 1(326, at the beginning of Milton's third academic year. The verses are devoid of the personal accent,

PARERE Fati discite legibus, Manusque Parcse jam date supplices, Qui pendulum telluris orbem

lapeti colitis nepotes. Vos si relicto Mors vaga Taenaro Semel vocarit flebilis, heu ! morse Tentautur incassum dolique;

Per tenebras Stygis ire certum est. Si destinatam pellere dextera Mortem valeret, non ferus Hercules 10 Nessi venenatus cruore

^E mat hut jacuisset (Eta; Nee fraude turpi Palladis invidse Vidisset occisum Iliou Hectora, aut Quern larva Pelidis peremit

Ense Locro, Jove lacrymante. Si triste Fatum verba Hecateia Fugare possint, Telegoni parens Vixisset inf amis, potentique

.35giali soror usa virga. 20

Numenque trinum fallere si queant Artes medentum, ignotaque gramina, Non gnarus herbarum Machaou

Eurypyli cecidisset hast a; Lsesisset et nee te, Philyreie, Sagitta Kchidme perlita sanguine; Nee tela te fulmenque avitum,

Caese puer genetricis alvo. Tuque, O alumno major Apolline, Gentis togatse cui regimen datum, 30 Frondosa quem nunc Cirrha luget,

Et mediis Helicon in undis, Jam praefuisses Palladio gregi Laetus superstes, nee sine gloria; Nee puppe lustrasses Cbarontis Horribiles barathri recessus.

��except at the close, where we may perhaps detect a strain of warmer feeling breaking through the tone of exaggerated eulogy con- ventionally accepted as the proper one for such academic verse-tributes.

��CHILDREN of Japetus, who inhabit the pendulous orb of earth, learn to bow clown to fate, and raise hands of humble suppli- cation to the Parcae. If once wandering Death coming from Tartarus calls you, poor wretches, in vain shall you resort to stratagem and delay. Every one must go through the shades of Styx. If strength of arm availed to ward off destined death, fierce Hercules would not have fallen on Macedonian Oeta, poisoned by the blood of Nessus ; nor would Ilion have seen Hec- tor slain through the guile of envious Pal- las; nor Sarpedon, whom the phantom of Achilles slew with the Locrian sword, while Jove shed tears of blood. If words of witchcraft could forestall Fate, wicked Circe would have lived on, and Medea with the magic wand to help her. If arts of medicine and knowledge of mysterious plants could thwart the triune goddess, the son of ,<Esculapius, with all his skill in herbs, would not have fallen before the spear of Eurypylus; nor would the arrow of Hercules, smeared with the blood of Hydra, have undone thee, Cheiron; nor Jove's hated thunder thee, ^Esculapius.

And if lore in medicine availed, you, Vice-chancellor, to whom was given direc- tion over the gowned throng of the schools, and who were more learned than your tutor Apollo, would not now be mourned by the leafy city of Cirrha at Parnassus' foot, nor by Helicon sitting amid its springs. You would still survive glad and honored to have charge over Pallas's flock. You would not have gone in Charon's boat to visit the

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