Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/404

 362

��LATIN POEMS

��Jamque nee obscurus populo miscebor in-

erti,

Vitabuntque oculos vestigia nostra profanes. Este procul vigiles Curse, procul este Que-

relse,

Invidiseque acies transverse tortilis hirquo; Saeva nee anguiferos extende, Calumnia,

rictus; In me triste nihil, fcedissima turba, potes-

tis,

Nee vestri sum juris ego ; securaque tutus Pectora vipereo gradiar sublimis ab ictu. 1 10 At tibi, chare pater, postquam non sequa

merenti Posse referre datur, nee dona rependere

factis, Sit memorasse satis, repetitaque munera

grato

Percensere animo, fidseque reponere menti. Et vos, O nostri, juvenilia carmina, lusus, Si mod6 perpetuos sperare audebitis annos, Et douiini superesse rogo, lucemque tueri, Nee spisso rapient oblivia nigra sub Oreo, Forsitan has laudes, decantatumque paren-

tis Nomen, ad exemplum, sero servabitis

sevo. 120

��not mix obscurely with the dull rabble ; my footsteps shall be far from profane eyes. Let wakeful Care avaunt, and Complaint, and Envy with her crooked leer. Fierce Calumny, open not thy poisonous jaws ! Varlets, ye have no power of evil over me ; I am not under your law. With se- cure breast I walk, lifted high above your viper stroke.

But as for you, dear father, since it is not granted me to render justice to your desert, or equal your gifts with my deeds, let it suffice that I remember, that in all gratitude I count over my blessings, and hold them faithfully in miud.

And ye, iny boyish verses, pastime of my youth, perchance if ye dare to hope for immortality, dare to look upon the light after your master is dead, and are not snatched away to crowded Orcus and its dark oblivion, perchance these praises which I sing in the name of my father may fur- nish fathers in future ages with an exam- ple.

��AD SALSILLUM, POETAM ROMANUM, ^GROTANTEM. SCAZONTES TO SALSILLO, A ROMAN POET, IN HIS ILLNESS. SCAZONS

��The person addressed in these verses, Gio- vanni Salzilli, Milton probably met in Rome. His poetry has long been forgotten. He was a member of the literary society called L'Aca- demia del Fantastic!, or Academy of the Fan- tastics ; and his poems were mostly written as contributions to this club. That he was one of Milton's Roman acquaintances we should know, without the testimony of the present composi-

��O

��volens trahis

��MUSA gressum quse

claudum,

Vulcanioque tarda gaudes incessu, Nee sentis illud in loco minus gratum Quam cum decentes flava Deiope suras Alternat aureum ante Junonis lectum, Adesdum, et hsec s'is verba pauca Sal-

sillo

Refer, Camoena nostra cui tantum est cordi, Quamque ille magnis prsetulit inmierito

divis.

��tion, by his commendatory verses prefixed to the Latin poems. These verses are in the usual fulsome strain, exalting Milton above Homer, Virgil, and Tasso. In the opening lines, Mil- ton alludes jestingly to the kind of metre he has chosen to use, scazons, or " limping measure," in which a spondee or trochee is in- serted instead of the expected iambus in the last foot of each line.

O MUSE, who hast elected to drag a club- foot after thee, who rejoicest to go slowly limping like Vulcan, and esteemest thyself no less engaging so than is blonde-haired Deiope when she moves her trim ankles in the dance before the golden couch of Juno, come, prithee, and bear these few words to Salsillo, who is so partial to my poetry that he puts me, all unworthy as I am, be- fore the divine singers of old. Say that the man whom he praises sends him these

�� �