Ан! te, Mabba, meo choreas duxisse cerebro,
Suspicor, et mediis delituisse comis:-
Te, si vera fides, nulla Eileithuia poetæ
Promtior ingenio parturientis adest.
En similis vitreo tua parvula forma lapillo,
Quem procerum gestat sardonycata manus:
Sicubi labentem nasis stertentibus axem
Flectis, agens atomos, tempore noctis, equos.
Vidi equidem―et, nostros terror nisi lusit ocellos —
Illa fuit domina digna quadriga sua:
Quippe inerant muscæque pedes, alæque cicadæ,
Utilis hæc tecto scilicet, illa rotis:
Texuerat minimo retinacula aranea filo,
Texuerat radiis luna capistra suis:
Addidit os grylli scuticam, membranula lorum :
Aurigam culicem russea læna tegit :
At nuce de cassa rhedam compegit, anilis
Sive opifex vermis sive sciurus erat;
Nam (nisi fama levis) Lemurum struxisse quadrigas
Tempore ab antiquo dictus uterque faber.
Hac tu, Diva, ruis pompa! comitatur euntem
Somnus, et incerto somnia nigra pede.
Ergo sive equites per amantis tempora, sive
Aulicolæ notum transgrediare genu;
Hic capite incurvo supplex cadit, ille puellam
Protinus in somnis credit adesse suam.
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees:
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream:
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep.
Speech of the Genius of the Wood.
FOR know, by lot from Jove, I am the Power
Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower,
To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove
With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings wove.
And all my plants I save from nightly ill
Of noisome winds, and blasting vapours chill:
And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,
Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites,
Or hurtful worm with cankered venom bites.
When evening gray doth rise, I fetch my round
Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground;
And early, ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasseled horn
Causidici digitos modo ludis imagine nummi ;
Das modo virgineis oscula ficta genis;
Aut dum rite toro requiescit clericus alto,
Somniferi naso signa canente Dei,
Tum præsto intentas decumani fercula porci,
Labraque Tantaleis ludificare dolis.
FORMOSI Custos nemoris, Jove lectus ab ipso,
Hos saltus tueor præsens, quernaque sub umbra,
Cura mihi nutrire nova crescentia fronde
Virgulta, et graciles ramorum intexere flexus,
Nocturnosque meis ventos avertere plantis,
Frigoraque, infestasque auras: roremque malignum
Verrere de foliis; seu lævi fulguris ignes
Liventem rupto signarint cortice tractum,
Sive venenato turgentia germina morsu
Noxius infecit vermis, seu percutit astrum
Exitiale tuens; studium mihi dulce sacrumque
Vulnera sanare, et varias depellere pestes.
Vesper ubi pallente diem jam claudit amictu,
Assuetos peragro cursus, spatiorque per omnes
Secessus nemorum, et fontes, collesque sacratos;
Ante aut æthereis quam vivus odoribus almæ
Halitus Aurora sopitas suscitet herbas
Frondesque, aut clarum quatiat nemora ardua cornu,
Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about,
Number my ranks, and visit every sprout
With puissant words, and murmurs made to bless.
But else in deep of night, when drowsiness
Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I
To the celestial Syrens' harmony,
That sit upon the nine infolded spheres,
And sing to those that hold the vital shears,
And turn the adamantine spindle round,
On which the fate of gods and men is wound.
Such sweet compulsion doth in musick lie,
To lull the daughters of Necessity,
And keep unsteady Nature to her law,
And the low world in measured motion draw
After the heavenly tune, which none can hear
Of human mould, with gross unpurgëd ear.
Ην νέος, ἀλλὰ πένης, νῦν γηρῶν πλούσιός εἰμι·
ὦ μόνος ἐκ πάντων οἰκτρὸς ἐν ἀμφοτέροις·
ὃς τότε μὲν χρῆσθαι δυνάμην, ὁπότ ̓ οὐδεὲν εἶχον,
νῦν δ ̓ ὁπότε χρῆσθαι μὴ δύναμαι, τότ ̓ ἔχω.
Jam per lustra vagor celeri pede, jamque revisens
Ordine quamque suo plantas, numerumque recensens,
Carmine lætifico, verbisque potentibus adsum.
Ast alta sub nocte, ubi vis lethæa soporis
Mortales clausit sensus, juvat æthere aperto
Sirenum exaudire modos. Illæ usque novenos
Desuper implexos orbes, clarosque meatus
Astrorum procul assidunt, ternasque Sorores
Divino mulcent cantu, dum fœdere certo
Fila adamanteis torquent vitalia fusis,
Unde deum atque hominum devolvi æquo ordine fata. Usque adeo, miti imperio, vis blanda modorum
Delenire ipsas sacra dulcedine Parcas,
Instabilemque suas intra compescere leges
Naturam, et trahere æquato modulamine mundum Ad cœleste melos: atqui non ire per auras Humanas, sensumque hebetem, terrenaque claustra.
PAUPER eram juvenis, senior sum dives, utraque
Scilicet in vitæ conditione miser.
Queis uti poteram, cunctis tunc rebus egebam:
Queis nequeo, cunctas nunc ego res habeo.
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