Hark! 'tis nature strikes the lyre, With health, with harmony, and love.' Yesterday the sullen year Saw the snowy whirlwind fly; Smiles on past misfortune's brow Soft reflection's hand can trace; V. 25. Milt. Son. xx. 3. " Help waste a sullen day.” Luke. V. 31. "Sure he that made us with such large discourse Looking before and after." Hamlet, act iv. sc. 4. Imperat, ante videt, perpendit, præcavit, infit." Prudent. P 374. ed Delph. V. 41. "Where Pleasure's roses void of serpents grow." Thomson. C. of Ind. c. ii. st. lvii. Luke. V. 43. Dr. Warton refers to Pope. Essay on Man, ii. 270: "See some strange comfort every state attend, And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend: Hope travels on, nor quits us till we die." See Casimir Od. : "Alterno redeunt choro Risus et gemitus, et madidis prope And o'er the cheek of sorrow throw While hope prolongs our happier hour, Still, where rosy pleasure leads, The hues of bliss more brightly glow, See the wretch, that long has tost Sicci cum lacrymis joci Nascuntur mediis gaudia luctibus." V. 45. "Here sweet, or strong, may every colour flow; Here let the pencil warm, the colours glow; V. 49. Of light and shade provoke the noble strife, Brown. Essay on Satire, ii. 358. "O! jours de la convalescence ! Jours d'une pure volupté : C'est une nouvelle naissance, Un rayon d'immortalité. Quel feu! tous les plaisirs ont volé dans mon âme, Pour moi, l'univers est nouveau. Les plus simples objects; le chante d'un Fauvette, At length repair his vigour lost, Humble quiet builds her cell, Near the source whence pleasure flows; She eyes the clear crystalline well, And tastes it as it goes. 'While' far below the madding' crowd Mark where indolence and pride, 'Sooth'd by flattery's tinkling sound,' Go, softly rolling, side by side, Their dull but daily round: To these, if Hebe's self should bring Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois, Milles spectacles, qu'autrefois On voyoit avec nonchalance, Transportent aujourd'hui, présentent des appas Et que la foule ne voit pas." Gresset. tom. i. p. 145. V. 55. "Communemque prius, ceu lumina solis." Ovid. Met. i. 135. "Nec solem proprium natura, nec aëra fecit." Ovid. Met. vi. 350. "Ne lucem, quoque hanc quæ communis est." Cicero. "Sol omnibus lucet." Pet. Arb. c. 100. "Communis cunctis viventibus aura." Prudent. Sym. ii. 86. "The common benefit of vital air." Dryden. The purest cup from pleasure's spring, 'Mark ambition's march sublime Up to power's meridian height; Phantoms of danger, death, and dread, 'Happier he, the peasant, far, From the pangs of passion free, That breathes the keen yet wholesome air Of rugged penury. He, when his morning task is done, 70 75 80 85 V. 56. "Balm from open'd Paradise." v. Fairfax. Tasso, iv. 75. Luke. "And Paradise was open'd in the wild." Pope. "And paradise was open'd in his face." Dryden. Absalom, ed. Derrick, vol. i. p. 116. V. 59. So Milton accents the word: "On the crystalline sky, in sapphire thron'd." Par. Lost, b. vi. ver 772. V. 65. "Tout s'émousse dans l'habitude; L'amour s'endort sans volupté; Las des mêmes plaisirs, las de leur multitude, 'He, unconscious whence the bliss, From toil he wins his spirits light, In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.' 95 TRANSLATION OF A PASSAGE FROM STATIUS.* THEB. LIB. VI. VER. 704-724. THIRD in the labours of the disc came on, His vigorous arm he tried before he flung, 5 * This translation, written at the age of twenty, which Gray sent to West, consisted of about a hundred and ten lines. Mason selected twenty-seven lines, which he published, as Gray's first attempt at English verse; and to show how much he had imbibed of Dryden's spirited manner at that early period of his life. See the memoirs, vol. ii. |