Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/418

 37 6

��LATIN POEMS

��Indulsit patrio, inox itidem pectine Dau- nio 10

Longinquutn intonuit melos Vicinis, et humum vix tetigit pede :

��ANTISTROPHE

Quis te, parve liber, quis te fratribus

Subduxit reliquis dolo,

Cum tu missus ab urbe,

Docto jugiter obsecrante aniico,

Illustre tendebas iter

Thamesis ad incunabula

Cserulei patris,

Fontes ubi limpidi 20

Aonidum, thyasusque sacer,

Orbi notus per inimensos

Temporuui lapsus redeunte cselo,

Celeberque futurus in tevum ?

STROPHE 2

Mod6 quis deus, aut editus deo, Pristinam gentis miseratus indolem, (Si satis noxas luimus priores, Mollique luxu degener otium) Tollat nefandos civium tumultus, Almaque revocet studia sanctus, 30

Et relegatas sine sede Musas Jam pene totis finibus Angligenum, Immundasque volucres Unguibus imminentes Figat Apollinea pharetra, Phineamque abigat pestem procul amne Pegaseo ?

ANTISTROPHE

Quin tu, li belle, nuntii licet mala

Fide, vel oscitantia,

Semel erraveris agmine fratrum,

Seu quis te teneat specus, 40

Seu qua te latebra, forsan unde vili

Callo tereris institoris insulsi,

Lsetare felix; en ! iterum tibi

Spes nova fulget posse prof undam

Fugere Lethen, vehique snperam

In Jovis aulam remige penna:

STROPHE 3

Nam te Roiisius sui

Optat peculi, numeroque justo

Sibi pollicitum queritur abesse,

Rogatque venias ille, cujus inclyta 50

��touched my native lute, or played with Italian quill a far-brought melody to those about me, my feet scarce touching the earth for elation,

��ANTISTROPHE

Who filched thee, little book, from thy mates, when at my learned friend's re- peated instance thou tookest thy way from the great city to the cradle of blue Thames, where the limpid fountains of the Muses are, and where ring the sacred shouts which shall be heard and held famous forever, as long as the sky rolls through the immense cycles of Time ?

��STROPHE II

Ah, what god or demi-god will take pity on the pristine worth of our English race (if we have mourned enough our past faults, and our soft degenerate ease) and take from us this curse of civil strife, call back with holy voice the Muses who have been thrust from their old abodes and driven almost quite from English ground, transfix with Apollo's dart the unclean birds whose claws threaten us, and drive away the whole harpy pest far from the waters of Hippocrene ?

��ANTISTROPHE

Thou, little book, though by the perfidy or carelessness of my messenger thou wert stolen from the number of thy mates, to be thrown into some cave or den, where per- haps thou art rubbed by a huckster's sordid palm, yet be glad : lo ! the bright hope may again be thine to escape oblivion, and be lifted on oaring wings to the courts of Jove:

��STROPHE III

For Rouse he into whose care are given the mighty monuments of departed minds desires thee to be of his flock ; he complains that thou art lacking from the full number

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