ON A CELEBRATED EVENT IN ANCIENT HISTORY A ROMAN Master stands on Grecian ground, And to the people at the Isthmian Games Assembled, He, by a herald's voice, proclaims THE LIBERTY OF GREECE: -the words rebound Until all voices in one voice are drowned; Glad acclamation by which air was rent! And birds, high-flying in the element, Dropped to the earth, astonished at the sound! Yet were the thoughtful grieved; and still that voice Haunts, with sad echoes, musing Fancy's ear: Ah! that a Conqueror's words should be so dear: Ah! that a boon could shed such rapturous joys! A gift of that which is not to be given UPON THE SAME EVENT WHEN, far and wide, swift as the beams of morn The tidings past of servitude repealed, The rough Etolians smiled with bitter scorn. THE OAK OF GUERNICA The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde_in his account of Biscay, is a most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1476, after hearing mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to maintain their fueros (privileges). What other interest belongs to it in the minds of this people will appear from the following SUPPOSED ADDRESS TO THE SAME OAK of Guernica! Tree of holier power Than that which in Dodona did enshrine (So faith too fondly deemed) a voice divine Heard from the depths of its aërial bowerHow canst thou flourish at this blighting hour? What hope, what joy can sunshine bring to thee, Or the soft breezes from the Atlantic sea, The dews of morn, or April's tender shower? Stroke merciful and welcome would that be Which should extend thy branches on the ground, If never more within their shady round Those lofty-minded Lawgivers shall meet, Peasant and lord, in their appointed seat, Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty. 1810. INDIGNATION OF A HIGH-MINDED SPANIARD WE can endure that He should waste our lands, "'Tis known," cried they, "that he, who Despoil our temples, and by sword and THE FRENCH AND THE SPANISH GUERILLAS HUNGER, and sultry heat, and nipping blast From bleak hill-top, and length of march by night Through heavy swamp, or over snow-clad height These hardships ill-sustained, these dangers past, The roving Spanish Bands are reached at last, Charged, and dispersed like foam: but as a flight Of scattered quails by signs do reunite, So these,and, heard of once again, are chased With combinations of long-practised art And newly-kindled hope; but they are fledGone are they, viewless as the buried dead: Where now?-Their sword is at the Foeman's heart; And thus from year to year his walk they thwart, And hang like dreams around his guilty bed. 1810. EPITAPHS 1810. TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA Those from Chiabrera were chiefly translated when Mr. Coleridge was writing his Friend," in which periodical my "Essay on Epitaphs," written about that time, was first published. For further notice of Chiabrera, in connection with his Epitaphs, see "Musings at Aquapendente." I WEEP not, beloved Friends! nor let the air For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life Have I been taken; this is genuine life And this alone-the life which now I live In peace eternal; where desire and joy Together move in fellowship without end.Francesco Ceni willed that, after death, His tombstone thus should speak for him. And surely Small cause there is for that fond wish of Ours Long to continue in this world; a world That keeps not faith, nor yet can point a hope To good, whereof itself is destitute. II PERHAPS Some needful service of the State Drew TITUS from the depth of studious bowers, And doomed him to contend in faithless courts, Where gold determines between right and wrong. Yet did at length his loyalty of heart, Such course he held! Bologna's learned schools Were gladdened by the Sage's voice, and hung With fondness on those sweet Nestorian strains. There pleasure crowned his days; and all his thoughts A roseate fragrance breathed.1-O human life, That never art secure from dolorous change! A Tuscan audience: but full soon was called To bow his forehead in the courts of kings, Could represent the countenance horrible Of the vexed waters, and the indignant rage Fifty years Of Auster and Boötes. Of every cloud which in the heavens might stir I knew the force; and hence the rough sea's pride Availed not to my Vessel's overthrow. If more of my condition ye would know, Of noble parents; seventy years and three Lived I-then yielded to a slow disease. In thy appointed way, and bear in mind How fleeting and how frail is human life! V TRUE is it that Ambrosio Salinero With an untoward fate was long involved Mounts to pellucid Hippocrene, but he Had traced its windings.-This Savona knows, Yet no sepulchral honours to her Son She paid, for in our age the heart is ruled Only by gold. And now a simple stone Inscribed with this memorial here is raised By his bereft, his lonely, Chiabrera. Think not, O Passenger! who read'st the lines, That an exceeding love hath dazzled me; No-he was One whose memory ought to spread Where'er Permessus bears an honoured name, And live as long as its pure stream shall flow. VI DESTINED to war from very infancy seen Of Libya; and not seldom, on the banks On the soft down of my paternal home. VII O FLOWER of all that springs from gentle blood, And all that generous nurture breeds to make Youth amiable; O friend so true of soul To fair Aglaia; by what envy moved, Lelius! has death cut short thy brilliant day In its sweet opening? and what dire mishap Has from Savona torn her best delight? For thee she mourns, nor e'er will cease to mourn; And, should the out-pourings of her eyes suffice not For her heart's grief, she will entreat Sebeto Not to withhold his bounteous aid, Sebeto Who saw thee, on his margin, yield to death, In the chaste arms of thy beloved Love! That every gentle Spirit hither led tears. VIII NOT without heavy grief of heart did He On whom the duty fell (for at that time The father sojourned in a distant land). Deposit in the hollow of this tomb A brother's Child, most tenderly beloved! FRANCESCO was the name the Youth had borne, POZZOBONNELLI his illustrious house; The eyes of all Savona streamed with tears. By genuine virtue he inspired a hope kin He promised comfort; and the flattering thoughts His friends had in their fondness enter. tained,1 He suffered not to languish or decay. Into a passionate lament ?-O Soul ! IX PAUSE, courteous Spirit!-Balbi supplicates As with a chosen friend; nor did he leave Thy dissolution brings, that in my soul Absence and death how differ they! and how Shall I admit that nothing can restore Of Infancy, but still did breathe the air Those several qualities of heart and mind Which, in her own blest nature, rooted deep, Daily before the Mother's watchful eye, Have you espied upon a dewy lawn Abounding, but so fashioned that, in all That Nature prompts them to display, their looks, Their starts of motion and their fits of rest, An undistinguishable style appears Of the rejoicing morning were their own? Such union, in the lovely Girl maintained And her twin Brother, had the parent seen, Ere, pouncing like a ravenous bird of prey, Death in a moment parted them, and left The Mother, in her turns of anguish, worse Than desolate; for oft-times from the sound Of the survivor's sweetest voice (dear child, |