Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/391

 POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES

��349

��Hinc Mavortigenae consistit in arce Quirini. Reddiderant dubiam jam sera crepuscula

lucem, Cum circumgreditur totam Tricorouifer

urbem, Panificosque Deos portat, scapulisque viro-

ruin

Evehitur; prseeunt submisso poplite reges, Et inendicantum series lougissima f ratrum ; Cereaque in manibus gestant funalia cseci, Ciinmeriis nati in tenebris vitamque tra-

lientes. . 60

Templa dein multis subeunt lucentia tsedis (Vesper erat sacer iste Petro), fremitusque

canentum

Ssepe tholos implet vacuos, et inane loco- rum : Qualiter exululat Bromius, Bromiique ca-

terva,

Orgia cantantes in Echiouio Aracyntho, Dum tremit attonitus vitreis Asopus in

undis, Et procul ipse cava responsat rupe Cithse-

ron.

His igitur tandem solenni more peractis, Nox senis amplexus Erebi taeiturna reli-

quit, Prsecipitesque impellit equos stimulante

flagello, 70

Captum oculis Typhlonta, Melanchaetemque

ferocem,

Atque Acherontaeo prognatam patre Siopen Torpidaui, et hirsutis horrentern Phrica

capillis. Interea regum domitor, Phlegetontius

haeres, Ingreditur thalamos (neque enim secretus

adulter

Producit steriles molli sine pellice noctes) ; At vix composites somuus claudebat ocellos Cum niger umbrarum dominus, rectorque

silentum, Prsedatorque hoininum, falsa sub imagine

tectus Astitit. Assumptis micuerunt tempora

canis ; 80

Barba sinus promissa tegit ; cineracea longo Syrmate verrit humum vestis; pendetque

cucullus Vertice de raso; et, ne quicquam desit ad

artes,

Cannabeo lumbos constrinxit fune salaces, Tarda fenestratis figens vestigia calceis. Talis, uti fama est, vasta Franciscus eremo Tetra vagabatur solus per lustra ferarum,

��the citadel of Mars's son Quirinus, in the dubious twilight. It was St. Peter's Eve, and through the great city the Pope was going in procession, borne on the shoul- ders of men, and carrying the Host. Kings bowed the knee before him; long lines of mendicant friars bore in their hands wax tapers, blind souls all, born and bred in Cimmerian darkness ! Soon they entered the churches which shone with their many torches. The voices of the singers filled the hollow domes with noise like the howling of Bacchus and his crew, when they hymn their orgies on Theban Aracynthus, while Asopus trembles astonished in his glassy waves, and Cithaeron afar off answers from his hollow cliff.

When at last these rites of customary pomp were done, Night left silently the arms of old Erebus, and goaded her four horses headlong across the sky, Blind- eyes, and fierce Black-hair, and torpid Whist-of-Hell, and Shudder wrapped in her streaming mane.

Meanwhile the Pope, subduer of kings and heir of Phlegython, entered his adul- terous chamber ; but scarcely had sleep sealed his eyes when the black lord of the shades, ruler of the silences and preyer upon men, stood in a false shape at his bed-side. His temples shone with snowy hair ; a long beard covered his breast ; his ashen vestment swept the ground in long folds. From his shaven head hung a cowl ; and as a last touch of art, he had bound his salt loins with a rope of hemp, and moved his tattered sandals in slow dissimulated steps. Such a figure was Francis the ere- mite, when he wandered, as they tell, alone, through the dark haunts of wild beasts, subduing wolves .and Libyan lions, and

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