Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Herfelf a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gather 'd, which coft Ceres all that pain
To feek her through the world-
See alfo Ovid's Metamorphofes, Book 5.

IDYLLIUM IV.

This poem contains a dialogue between Megara, the wife of Hercules, and Alcmena his mother, wherein they recapitulate their mutual misfortunes. This famous hero gave great umbrage to Euryftheus, king of Mycena; who, fearing he would in time difpoffels him of his crown, tried all methods to deftroy him. Hercules, fenfible of his dangerous fituation, confulted the Oracle and being aufwered that it was the will of the gods that he fhould ferve Euryftheus twelve years, was thrown into fo deep a melancholy, that it turned at length into a furious frenzy; during which he put away his wife Megara, and mur. dered all the children he had by her, which are fuppofed to have been twelve, because the king impofed on him the fame number of labours, as in expiation for their murder, after he had recovered his fenfes. Hercules is fuppofed to have been abfent on one of thefe expeditions when this dialogue commences.

Ver. 21. Virgil has happily imitated this beau-
tiful fimile in his Georgics, Book 4 ver. 511.
Qualis populeâ merens Philomela fub umbra
Amiffos queritur foetus; quos durus arator
Obfervans nido implumes detraxit: at illa
Flet noctem, ramoque fedens milerabile carmen
Integrat, et mætis late loca queftibus implet.

Which is as happily translated by Dryden.
So, clofe in poplar fhades, her children gone,
The mother nightingale laments alone:
Whofe neft fome prying churl had found, and
thence,

By ftealth, convey'd the feather'd innocence.
But the fupplies the night with mournful trains,
And melancholy mufic fills the plains,

Ver. 33 Megara was the daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, a city of Baotia. It may not be improper to remark, that Mofchus, contrary to the common opinion, fuppofes the parents of Mega ra to have been living when Hercules flew his children; whereas Euripides and Seneca affure us, that Lycus, a l'heban exile, murdered Creon and his fous, to obtain the crown; and that Hercules did not kill his children, till he had punished LyLongepierre.

cus.

Ver. 42. A city of Peloponnefus near Argos, where Hercules dwelt; and from thence was ftyled the Tirynthian hero.'

Ver. 59. Iphiclus was the fon of Amphitryon and Alcmena, and the twin-brother of Hercules. Ver. 71. Thus St. Matthew, chap vi. ver. 34. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Ver. 86 For the ftory of Niobe, fee Ovid's Metam. book 6. See alfo the notes on the twentieth Ode of Anacreon.

Ver. 88. That is, ten lunar months, St. Auguftine explains it thus: "Quod dicunter decem

"menfes pregnantis, novem funt pleni; fed ini "tium decimi pro toto accipitur."

Ver 90. The birth of Hercules was attended with the most excruciating pains to Alcmena, owing to the jealoufy and hatred of Juno; from which he was delivered by the addrefs of Galanthus. See Ovid's Metam book 9.

Ver. 105. Thefe were probably intended to be emblems of those flames in which this hero was

afterwards confumed on Mount Eta. Sec Ovid': Metam. book 9.

Ver. 108. This circumftance of the flames purfuing Hercules is very fimilar to a paffage in the Iliad, book 21. where the rivers Simois and Sca mander unite, purfue, and attack Achilles with all their waves:

Now here, now there, he turns on every side,
And winds his course before the following tide;
The waves flow after, wherefoe'er he wheels,
And gather faft, and murmur at his heels. Pope.

[blocks in formation]

The following modern ballad is clofely copied from this Idyllium,

CROSS PURPOSES.
Toм loves Mary paffing well,

But Mary fhe loves Harry;
While Harry fighs for bonny Bell,

And finds his love miscarry.
For bonny Bell for Thomas burns,

While Thomas flights her paffion :
So very freakish are the turns

Of human inclination!

As much as Mary Thomas grieves,
Proud Hal defpifes Mary,

And all the flouts that Bell receives

From Tom, fhe vents on Harry.
Thus all by turns are woo'd and woo,
No turtles can be truer ;
Each loves the object they purfue,

But hates the kind purfuer
Mol gave Hal a wreath of flowers,
Which he, in amorous folly,
Confign'd to Bel, and in few hours
It came again to Molly.

If one of all the four had frown'd
You ne'er faw people glummer,
But if one fmiles, it catches round,
And all are in good humour.

Then, lovers, hence this leffon learn,
Throughout the British nation,
How much 'tis every one's concern
To smile a reformation :

And ftill through life this rule pursue,
Whatever objects ftrike you,
"Be kind to them that fancy you,
"That thofe you love may like you."
Ver. 10. Thus Theocritus, Idyllium 6.
φεύγει τον φιλέοντα, και φιλέοντα διωκει.

She, driven still by an unlucky fate,

[blocks in formation]

The ftory of Alpheus and Arethufa, is related at large by Ovid, in his Metamorp. Book 5. Vir

Flies thofe that love, and follows thofe that hate.gil alfo mentions it in his Æneid, Book 3.

And Horace, Book 1. Ode 33.

Infignem tenui fronte Lycorida.

Cyri torret amor: Cyrus in afperam

Declinat Pholoen

For Cyrus, fee! Lycoris, grac'd

With flender forehead burns;

For Pholoe, he

Creech.

Duncombe.

[blocks in formation]

This Idyllium has given occafion to the following ode to Cynthia, by a lady of Huntingdon; which must be allowed to have furpaffed the original.

Sifter of Phœbus, gentle queen,
Of afpect mild and ray ferene,
Whefe friendly beams by night appear,
The lonely traveller to cheer!
Attractive Power! whofe mighty fway
The ocean's fwelling waves obey,
And, mounting upward, feem to raise
A liquid altar to thy praise :
The wither'd hags, at midnight hour,
Invoke to their infernal bower:
But I to no fuch horrid rite,
Sweet queen, implore thy facred light;
5

Sicanio prætenta finu jacet infula contra
Plemmyrium undofum; nomen dixere priores
Ortygiam. Alpheum fama eft huc, Elidis amnem,
Occultas egiffe vitas fubter mare; qui nunc
Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculus confunditur undis.

An ifle, once call'd Ortygia, fronts the fides
Of rough Plemmyrium, and Sicanian tides.
Hither, 'tis faid, Alpheus, from his fource
In Elis' realms, directs his wat'ry courfe;
Beneath the main, he takes his fecret way,
And mounts with Arethufa's ftreams to day.

Pist.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

THE WORKS

OF

MUSE US.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK

BY

FRANCIS FAWKES, M. A

[ocr errors]
« EdellinenJatka »