Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/390

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��LATIN POEMS

��Insidiasque locat tacitas, cassesque latentes Teutlit, ut incautos rapiat, ceu Caspia

tigris 20

Insequitur trepidam deserta per avia prse-

dam

Nocte sub illuni, et somno nictantibus astris. Talibus infestat populos Sumiaanus et

urbes,

Cinctus cserulese fumanti turbine flammse. Jamque fluentisonis albentia rupibus arva Apparent, et terra Deo dilecta marino, Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia

proles, Amphitryoniaden qui non dubitavit atro-

cein,

-/Equore tranato, furiali poscere bello, Ante expugnatae crudelia ssecula Trojse. 30 At siinul hanc, opibusque et festa pace

beatam,

Aspicit, et pingues donis Cerealibus agros, Quodque magis doluit, venerantem minima

veri

Sancta Dei populum, tandem suspiria rupit Tartareos ignes et luridum olentia sulphur; Qualia Trinacrisi trux ab Jove clausus in

��Efflat tabifico monstrosus ab ore Typhceus. Ignescunt oculi, stridetque adamantiuus

ordo Dentis, ut armorum fragor, ictaque cuspide

cuspis; Atque " Pererrato solum hoc lacrymabile

mundo 40

Inveni " dixit; "gens hsec mihi sola re-

bellis, Contemtrixque jugi, nostraque potentior

arte. Ilia tamen, mea si quiequam tentamina

possunt,

Non feret hoc impune diu, non ibit inulta." Hactenus; et piceis liquido natat acre

pennis: Qua volat, adversi praecursant agmine

venti, Densantur nubes, et ere bra tonitrua ful-

gent. Jamque pruinosas velox superaverat

Alpes,

Et tenet Ausonise fines. A parte sinistra Nimbifer Apenninus erat, priscique Sa-

bini; 50

Dextra veneficiis infamis Hetruria; nee

non Te furtiva, Tibris, Thetidi videt oscula

dantem:

��plots, stretches hidden snares, to seize the incautious; like the Caspian lion, who fol- lows his timid prey through pathless wilds under a moonless sky where the stars blink drowsily. With no worse destruction does Summanus, the Etruscan thunder-god, come upon the cities and the peoples, wreathed in a whirlwind of smoke and blue flame.

And now, in his flight, Satan sees appear the fields girdled by white wave-beaten cliffs, the land loved by the sea -god, named of old from Neptune's son Albion, who feared not to cross the sea and give furious battle to Herakles, after the cruel cycles of defeated Troy. He gazes on this land, happy in wealth and festal peace, and on the fields rich laden with grain, and what irks him more on a people worship- ing the spirit of the true God. At the sight he breaks forth in sighs that flame with hellish fire and reek with lurid sul- phur, such sighs as the monster Typhoeus, shut up in Mt. JEtna by Jupiter, breathes from his pestilential mouth. His eyes blaze and the adamant of his grinding teeth sounds like the clashing of arms and the shock of spear against spear. " This," he says, " is the one lamentable sight I have seen in my wanderings through the world. This people alone is rebellious against me, scorning my yoke and stronger than my arts. They shall not long do so with im- punity, if my efforts are of any avail; this land shall not go unpunished." And as he ceases to speak his pitchy wings swim through the air. Wherever he flies, rush contrary winds in hosts, clouds gather, and lightning flashes thick.

Now his swift flight had carried him be- yond the rimy Alps to the borders of Italy. On his left hand were the ancient land of the Sabines and the cloud-wrapped Apen- nine; on his right Etruria, ill-famed for its poisoners. Thee too, Tiber, he saw, giving furtive kisses to Thetis. Soon he stood on

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