llok n cop.i m GIFT OF * " ' . : t. "A *N Nineteen Odes of Horace Englished by WILLIAM HATHORN MILLS Nineteen Odes of Horace ENGLISHED BY WILLIAM HATHORN MILLS SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA BARNUM & FLAGG COMPANY 1920 COPYRIGHT CONTENTS Page Od. III. 11 5 Od. III. 14 6 Od. III. 15 7 Od. III. 16 8 Od. III. 19 9 Od. III. 24 10 Od. III. 27 13 Od. III. 29 15 Od. IV. 1 17 Od. IV. 4 19 Od. IV. 5 21 Od. IV. 6 23 Od. IV. 8 24 Od. IV. 9 25 Od. IV. 10 27 Od. IV. 13 28 Od. IV. 14 29 Od. IV. 15 31 The Secular Hymn 32 444311 Od. III. ii. I PRAY thee, Mercury since by thee Inspired Amphion's song moved stones And thee, O Shell, whose psaltery Can sound forth Music's seven tones Not tuneful once, nor sweet, but now Welcome to fane and rich man's board Prompt me a strain, whose charm shall bow Lyde's proud ears my suit toward: Who, as a filly three years old In the wide fields, frolics, and fears A touch, a maiden pure, for bold Wooer as yet too young in years. Thou can'st draw tigers after thee, And woods; the torrent's rush can'st stay; Before thy music's witchery The vast Hall's warder-hound gave way Aye, Cerberus, tho' his frightful head Is girt with snakes a hundred strong; Tho' foul his breath, and slime, like shed Gore, dribbles from his triple tongue. Nay e'en Ixion, forced to smile, And Tityos, laughed against the grain; The urn stood empty for a while, While Danaids heard thy soothing strain. Let Lyde hear what sin disgraced Those virgins: what their well-known fate: How all the water runs to waste From the urn's bottom: how, tho' late, In Orcus sin's reward is sure. Ah impious what could mortal hand Do worse? who, impious, could endure To slay their grooms with cruel brand. One out of all the band alone, Worthy the marriage torch, to sire Forsworn was greatly false, and won A fame that lives while years expire: Who roused her young groom in the night "Up, lest a sleep, whence fearest naught, A long sleep, whelm thee; cheat by flight My sire's and wicked sisters' thought, Who, as she-lions tear their prey Of calves, are tearing woe is me! Each her own mate; kinder than they, I will not smite or prison thee. Me let my sire load with rude chains Because my lad I would not slay; Me let his fleet to the domains Of far Numidia bear away. Go thou where feet and breezes take Thee; night is kind and Venus nigh. So farewell; for my memory's sake, Grave on my tomb an elegy." Od. III. 14- /CAESAR, of whom we lately spoke ^^ As bent on bays, like Hercules, That death must buy, returns, good folk, Home from his Spanish victories. Proud of your peerless lord, do you, His wife, after due prayer and rite, Come forth our brave chiefs sister too, And, with thanksgiving: fillets bright, Mothers of girls, and youths restored Safe to their homes; ye lads, and ye, Lasses new-wed, utter no word To-day of evil augury. This day, truly a feast for me, Will chase black cares; I will not dread, While Caesar holds the world in fee, Tumult, or stroke shall strike me dead. Boy, fetch me unguents, flowers, and bring Wine that recalls the Marsian war, If anywhere that wandering Rogue Spartacus passed by a jar. And bid clear-voiced Neaera knot Her perfumed hair without delay, And come; but if the porter's not Friendly, and hinders, come away. Gray hairs tame tempers, once, I fear, Too keen on brawls and quarrellings; Had I youth's fire, as in the year Of Plancus, I'd not brook such things. Od. III. 15. TV7IFE of poor Ibycus, have done VV At last with your depravity, And infamous pursuits, as one To whom a timely death draws nigh. No longer sport young girls among, Nor cloud their brightness starry-cl 8 What misbecomes not Pholoe young, Becomes not Chloris old and sere. More fitly storms your girl the halls Of youth, like Thyiad, by drum-bray Maddened, whom love of Nothus calls To wanton like a roe at play. Far-famed Luceria's wools agree Best with your years: not red new-blown Roses: not jars drained to the lee: Not citterns for you are a crone. Od. III. 16. BRONZE tower, stout doors, and surly guard Of watchful dogs, had safely barred Against assaults of midnight love Fair Danae's prison, had not Jove And Venus mocked Acrisius' care, His jealous wardship, well aware That to the God in golden shower Broad way and safe would ope the tower. Thro* bodyguards, thro* masonry, Gold makes its way more potently Than levin-bolt; 'twas lucre brought The Argive augur's house to naught. By bribes the man of Macedon Cleft open city-gates, and won The fall of rival monarchies; Even rude admirals have their price. Increase of wealth and greed bring on Care; from self-gloriation Rightly I've shrunk unto this hour, 9 Maecenas, knighthood's pride and flower. The more a man himself denies, The more kind Heaven to him supplies; Homely I seek camps of content, Deserting wealth's environment, Prouder, as master of my small Farm, than as famed to garner all Apulia's fruits of industry, In plenty, yet in scarcity. A rivulet clear, a wood of few Acres, my small crop's promise true, Give me a lot that, hid from him, Makes Afric praetor's fame look dim. Tho' bees Calabrian bring not in Honey, nor wine in Formian bin Mellows, nor sheep on Gallic lea Fatten, and grow thick wool, for me, Yet from harsh poverty I'm free ; If more I craved, you'ld give it me; Curtailed wants would more happily Enlarge my income than if I Blent the dominions of Mygdon And Alyattes into one. Want much, lack much; happy is he To whom Heaven grants sufficiency. Od. III. 19. YOU tell what years part Inachus From Codrus, patriot to the death: What was the line of Aeacus: What wars raged Ilion's walls beneath; 10 But price of Chian: at whose cost The baths are warmed: the hour to flee Pelignian cold: who is the host All this you leave in mystery. To the new moon charge bumpers, boy, To midnight, to our augur new, Murena; for each toast employ Three or four ladlefuls as due. Who holds the odd-numbered Muses dear, A crazed bard, will with three times three Ladles make merry, but, for fear Of strife, the Graces' trinity, Unrobed, makes three the bound. But we Would fain be mad. Why stays the flute Its Berecynthian revelry? Why hang the lyre and Pan-pipe mute? I hate close fists; strew roses; let Crossgrained old Lycus hear our mad Din; let it make his Amoret Ill-matched, his neighbour lady, glad. You with your long locks fair to see: You, Telephus, who like Vesper shine, Rhode, fit mate, seeks; as for me, I slowly burn for Glycera mine. Od. III. 24. THO' wealthier than all Araby With untouched stores, and rich Indies, With quarried stones you occupy All that is land, and public seas, Natheless, if grim Necessity 11 Nails with steel nails each pinnacle, Your soul from fear you will not free, Nor 'scape Death's toils his halter fell. Better the life of Scyths, who scour The steppes, whose waggons bear afield Their shifting homes, and Getae dour, For whom unmeasured acres yield Free crops of corn: who till their land But for a year; each worker does His share; that done, another hand Relieves him; thus the shared work goes. Kind is stepmother's face toward Stepchildren motherless, kind her sway; The dowried wife rules not her lord, Nor heeds what sleek adulterers say. Their dowry great is innocence Of parents, and the chastity Of marriage faith that fears offence Of Heaven, with death for penalty. Who wills to end the deaths that shame Our civic madness, and to bear Beneath his statues the proud name, "Father of Cities", let him dare To curb wild license, and for fame Look to the future, for our spite Hates living worth O wicked shame! To miss it when it's lost to sight. What boot laments, if penalty Cuts not the crime short? Of what worth Are laws without morality, If nor that quarter of the earth 12 That's fenced by heat, nor that which lies Nearest the North Wind, where deep snow Crusts the earth's surface, terrifies The merchant: if skilled sailors plow The boisterous seas: if the disgrace Of poverty bids men consent To aught, and do aught, mean and base, And shun true Virtue's steep ascent? Or to the Capitol bear we, Summoned by crowds' applauding call, Or plunge we in the nearest sea, Gems, jewels, useless gold, of all That's worst the source, if we repent Us truly of our grievous sin. We must stub up each element Of base desire, must discipline Too tender souls with more severe Studies; untrained, the high-born boy Can't sit a horse; he turns with fear From hunting; handier with a toy With Grecian hoop, if you desire, Or, if you like, with dice, despite The law. What wonder, when his sire To guest and partner breaks his plight, Keen to snatch gain for worthless son? Certes base lucre multiplies Itself, and yet the prize, when won, Lacks something lacks what satisfies. 13 Od. III. 27. LET omens ill attend the way Of impious souls tu-whooing owl, And pregnant bitch, or wolf blue-grey, Down-rushing from Lanuvium's knowl, And vixen bred; or let their start Be broken off by slantwise run Of serpent swift as flying dart, That scares their team; but I, for one For whom I fear, an augur wise, Or e'er the rain-seer bird divine Reseeks the marsh, from the sunrise Will call the crow to speak a sign. May you be happy wheresoever, My Galatea, you may go; Forget me not, nor woodpecker, Upon your left, nor wandering crow, Forbid you. But you see with what Tempests Orion sets e'en now; What Hadria's dark gulf is, and that lapyx clear can sin, I know. May enemy wife and family Feel rising Auster's blind outbreaks, And Ocean's black ferocity, And shores that furious wave-beat shakes. Thus risked Europa her fair life On treacherous bull, and, seeing the sea With monsters thronged, with perils rife, . Paled at her own audacity. Lately intent on flowering leas, 14 And wont to wreathe the chaplets due To Nymphs, she now saw naught but seas Boundless, and stars the dim night thro'. Soon as she reached Crete with its host Of towns, a hundred strong, "0 sire!", She cried, "0 name of daughter lost! O duty slain by mad desire! Whence came I whither ? One death were For virgins' sin light penalty. Wail I, awake, as wrong-doer, Foul deed, or does a phantasy Vain mock my innocence in sleep, With dream from ivory gateway flown? Better was it to cross the deep, Or gather flowerets freshly blown? Should any yield that beast infame To my just wrath, I'd strive, I vow, To break its horns; with sword I'd maim The monster loved so well but now. Shameless I left my father's home: Shameless stay Orcus. 0, if ear Divine can hear, I fain would roam Where lions my bare flesh would tear. Ere from fair cheeks the bloom has died Decayed, ere ebbs life's ruddy blood From victim young, in beauty's pride Gladly I'd be fierce tiger's food. 'Europa vile', cries far away My sire, 'death beckons; with your zone, "Twas well you brought it with you may You break your neck, hung from this roan. 15 Or if rocks deadly sharp, and high Cliff, please you more, trust the wind's wings, Unless you rather wish to ply A slave-girl's task you, sprung from kings, A concubine, to foreign dame Abandoned/ " As she made lament, Venus with smile perfidious came Up, and her son with bow unbent. So soon as she had mocked enow, "Cease", cried she, "from your passionate Complaints, when the loathed bull shall bow His horn^for you to mutilate. Unconquered Jove's wife unaware You are; sob not; great is your fame; Learn to bear well a fate so fair, For half the world shall wear your name". Od. III. 29. OF Tuscan kings, Maecenas, heir, An unbroached jar of mellow wine, Rose-blooms, and balsam for your hair Of ben-nuts, wait you here, langsyne Expectant; haste, nor watch for aye Wet Tibur, Aefula's hillside, And the far wolds where erst held sway Telegonus, the parricide. Come, leave your plenty's irk and bore, Your palace with its skyey dome; Nor marvel longer at the roar 16 And smoke and pomp of wealthy Rome. Welcome to him, a change to meals Simple, in humble cots, that know Nor purple rugs, nor awninged ceils, Has often smoothed a rich man's brow. Now shining out the sire of fair Andromeda unveils his rays; Now Procyon and the mad Lion glare Frenzied, as suns bring back dry days. Now, weary with his weary flock, The shepherd seeks the shady rill, And thickets of Silvanus shock, And, breathless now, the bank is still. How best the State may stand and hold Its own, you ponder; fear, too, what Seres and Bactria, ruled of old By Cyrus, and rent Tanais plot. All wisely Heaven in darkest night Enshrouds the event that is to be, And mocks if mortal men despite Its sanctions: order equably What is; all else sweeps on amain, Like stream that down mid-channel now Falls calm into the Tuscan main, Now rolls down stones worn by its flow, And uptorn rocks, and homes, and herd, Together, while each neighbouring wood, And hill, rings, as still brooks are stirred To fury by the furious flood. Lord of himself, and happy, will He be, who can from day to day 17 Say, "I have lived; let Jove fulfil To-morrow's sky with leaden-grey Clouds or with shine, he can't undo What has been done, nor make as naught, No, nor reforge and shape anew, What once the flying hour has brought". Exultant in her cruel trade, Playing her rude game ceaselessly, Fortune shifts honours, fickle jade, Kind, now to others, now to me. I praise her present; if she flap Her wings, pay back without ado Her gifts, use virtue as my wrap, And poverty undowried woo. Not mine, if stormy Afric bows The groaning mast, to fly to prayers Abject, and bargain with shrill vows That Cyprian and Tyrian wares May not enrich the greedy seas. At such a time in light pair-oar, Sped by twin Pollux and by breeze, I'll cross the Aegean safe to shore. Od. IF. i. WHAT, Venus, would'st thou now recall Wars long abandoned? Spare, I pray. I am not what I was as thrall Of kindly Cinara. Cease to sway, O sweet Loves' cruel mother, one, Who, with his fiftieth year anigh, 18 Bends not to thy mild rule; begone Whither young gallants' coaxing cry Recalls thee. Timelier wilt thou Revel with glistering swans to fire Young Paulus Maximus, I trow, If fitting heart be thy desire. For as high-born and fair to see, No silent champion at the Bar, Graced with a hundred graces, he Will bear thy standards wide and far: Who, when he shall have mocked, in pride Of power, a rival's bribery, In marble, Alban lakes beside, 'Neath cedar roof will image thee. There shall abundant incense greet Thy nostrils; Berecynthian flute And lyre for thee shall blend their sweet Music, nor shall Pan-pipe be mute. Twice every day shall lads and gay Young lasses celebrate thy might, And shake the earth, in Salian way, With threefold beat of feet snow-white. Naught cheers me now nor lass, nor lad, Nor wistful hope of love that shall Match mine, nor brows, with flowerets clad Fresh-blown, nor bouts convivial. But why, ah Ligurinus, why Steal down my cheeks rare tear-drops? Whence The breaks that silence shamefully My tongue, and halt its eloquence? 19 Fast now I hold thee in my dreams; In dreams now chase thee o'er the sward Of Mars' great Field, now thro* the stream's Swift flood cruel heart, and hard! Od. IV. 4. LIKE as the bird that bears on high Jove's bolts, by heaven's Lord, as its meed, Made king of birds, for loyalty Proved upon fair-haired Ganymede; Him youth and native grit of old Drove from the nest or e'er he knew Toil, and Spring winds, when clouds had rolled By, sent him forth on ventures new, Half fearful; soon, with rushing stoop To sheepfolds, he would strike his prey, On struggling snakes anon to swoop, Urged by the lust of feast and fray; Or, as a fawn that, having quit Its red dam's dugs for lavish grass, Sees lion-cub newly weaned sees it To die by its young fangs, alas! So saw the Vindelicians 'Neath Alps of Raetia Drusus' war, When, conquered by a young man's plans, Troops, that had conquered long and far Who arm with Amazonian Axe their right hands have armed them so Always; whence came the use I can Not say; not all things may one know 20 Felt what a mind, a temper, taught In fostering home to bear its part, Could do: how on the Neros wrought Augustus' care his father's heart. Brave souls spring from the brave and true; Ever in steers, in colts, there is The mettle of their sires, nor do Fierce eagles breed soft doves, ywis. But teaching trains the force innate; Right culture firms the heart; whene'er Morals decay, faults vitiate What is by nature good and fair. What to the Neros Rome you owe Metaurus* flood attests for aye, And Hasdrubal, your vanquished foe, And Latium's fair and cloudless day, That first smiled with kind victory Since the dread African, Rome's bane, Like flame thro' pines, swept Italy, As Eurus sweeps Sicilian main. Thenceforth with labours prosperous Rome's youth grew strong, and temple* wrecked By Punic onslaught impious, Beheld their Gods again erect. Quoth treacherous Hannibal at length "As stags, the prey of fierce wolves, we Chase wantonly a foe whose strength 'Tis triumph rare to foil and flee. The race, that from Troy's cinders bore Bravely across the Tuscan sea 21 Thro' storms to the Ausonian shore Its Gods, babes, manhood's chivalry As, lopped by axe in dark-leaved wood Of shady Algidus, holm-oak Thro' scathes, thro' wounds, draws hardihood And courage from the iron's stroke. Not stronger grew 'gainst Hercules The Hydra maimed, as hard bestead He chafed; not greater prodigies Echion's Thebes and Colchis bred. Plunged in the depths, it rises more Resplendent; grapple it, it will bring Down proudly unscathed conqueror, And wage wars for its wives to sing. No haughty messengers shall I Now send to Canhage; fallen is all Our hope: fallen our fortune, aye, Our name dead with dead Hasdrubal. Naught shall the Claudian hands not do, By Jove's kind favour evermore Protected: by shrewd counsels too Brought safely thro' the risks of war." t Od. IV. 5. BY grace of kind Gods born, best champion Of Romulus' race, too long you stay from home; Upon your promise to return anon Our sacred Council rests; keep it, and come. Give to your country back, dear Chief, your light, For, when upon our folk your face has shone, 22 Like Spring, the very sunshine seems more bright, Aye, and more pleasantly the days pass on. Even as a mother, when her boy, delayed By South Wind's jealous breath, beyond the sea Carpathian lingers, from his dear home stayed More than a year, recalls him ceaselessly By vows, by prayers, by divinations, nor, A-watch for him, from winding coast-line turns Her eyes, so with heart-longings evermore His country for her absent Caesar yearns. In safety roam our oxen over leas, By Ceres and by kind Prosperity Fattened; our sailors fly o'er peaceful seas; Faith shrinks from blame as from an infamy; Adulteries never smirch homes' fair renown; Custom and Law have chased the impiety; Children like husbands are our matrons' crown; Hard on offence presses the penalty. Who would fear Persians, or chill Scythia's hordes, Or shaggy Germany's war-loving breeds: Who would reck aught of fierce Hiberia's swords, While Caesar's life is safe: while Caesar leads? Each on his own hills sees the sunlight fail; To "marriageable elm" he weds his vine; This done, his wine recalls him, soon to hail You at his second course as all divine. _ With wine from goblets poured, with many a prayer, He honours you, and to his deities He adds your Lar, as Greece, mindful of their Exploits, hails Castor and great Hercules. 23 Long may you give, good Chief, such festival Days to Hesperia thus, while yet the day Is whole, and we athirst: thus, when we all Have well drunk, and the sun has set, we pray. Od. IV. 6. GOD, by whose will the vaunting word Of Niobe was her children's knell: Whom Tityos knew, and Phthia's lord, Before whose might Troy all but fell, A peerless warrior, but for thee No match, tho', as the Sea-Queen's son, Fighting with spear tremendous, he Shook the tall towers of Ilion. He, as a pine by keen axe thrown, Or cypress felled by East Wind's gust, Fell great and greatly, and laid down His haughty neck in Trojan dust. Not he, in horse, feigned offering To Pallas' honour, would betray Trojans untimely revelling, And Priam's hall with dancers gay, But, stern to foes ta'en openly, He'd burn with Greek fires ah, the sin Of it! small boys, yet infants, aye, And babes their mothers' wombs within; Had not, by kindly Venus' prayers And thine impelled, the Sire most High Granted Aeneas and his heirs Walls traced with happier augury. 24 Of sweet Thalia's psaltery Master, who lav'st thy flowing hair In Xanthus, beardless Way-God, be The Daunian Muse's pride thy care. My genius is of Phoebus' dower, Aye, and my art; he gives to me My poet's name. O virgins' flower, And boys of noble ancestry, Wards of the Delian Goddess, who Stays flying stags and lynxes fleet, Be to the Lesbian measures true, And mark my thumb's controlling beat, Duly exalting Leto's son, Duly the Night-Queen's crescent light, Who brings full crops, and hurries on The months' career their onward flight. "Trained to the modes" anon you'll say As bride "of Horace, poet-seer, On our centennial holiday I sang a song Gods loved to hear". Od. IV. 8. f^ LADLY I'd give my boon companions, v-* To suit their tastes, goblets and bronzes rare, And tripods, prizes of Greek champions, Nor, Censorinus, would you get least share, That is, if with such gems my house were filled, Such as Parrhasius or Scopas wrought, The one in stone, with paints the other, skilled To image God or man, as genius taught. 25 But I have no such store, nor have such things Aught that your fortunes lack, or tempers crave; In song is your delight; as offerings Songs we can give, and tell what worth they have. Not marbles graven with records of proud feats, Whereby return their breath to warriors dead And life: not Hannibal's hurried retreats, No, nor his threats' recoil on his own head, More gloriously manifest his praise Who won from conquered Africa a name, Than the Calabrian Muses; nor, if lays Were silent, would you get your meed of fame. What would the son of Mars and Ilia be, If jealous silence buried Romulus, And his deserts? Not his integrity Alone from Stygian waves snatched Aeacus, And raised him in blest isles to deity, Nay, but great poets' voices too and grace. Who praise deserves, the Muse forbids to die. With heaven she blesses. Thus she makes a place For Hercules where high Jove feasts the blest; Thus the Tyndaridae, bright luminaries, Snatch from profoundest depths ships storm-distrest; Thus Liber satisfies his votaries. Od. IV. 9. LEST you should fancy that the songs which I, By Aufidus' far-sounding waters sprung, With modes of art till then unknown, have sung 26 Songs to be married to the lyre will die, Think that, if to Maeonian Homer pride Of place belongs, yet Pindar's song remains; The Cean Muse, Alcaeus' warlike strains, Stesichorus' stately epics, still abide. Time has not rased Anacreon's minstrelsy, His merry songs; still breathes the love, still burn The fires, entrusted to her sad cithern By the Aeolian maid in years gone by. Not Spartan Helen only has admired A gay gallant's tressed locks, his broidery Of gold, his princely pomp, his company, And with the vision has been passion-fired. Not first did Teucer from Cydonian bow Shoot shafts; not only once has Ilion Been sacked; not huge Idomeneus alone, Or Sthenelus, waged warfare long ago Worthy the Muses' song; not first did haught Hector and keen Deiphobus await, And meet, fierce blows in combats passionate For innocent wives and tender children fought. Before the age of Agamemnon wight Lived many a hero, but unwept, unknown, Because no sacred bard hymned their renown, They, one and all, lie whelmed in endless night. 'Twixt valour hid and buried cowardice Small is the difference; never will I, In what I write, pass you unhonoured by, In silence, Lollius, nor in any wyse Suffer green-eyed oblivion to wear 27 Your many deeds away, unchecked by song. Yours is the statesman's soul, upright and strong, Or in misfortune, or in fortune fair: Of greedy guile avenger stern, unmoved By all-seducing gold's attraction, A consul it, not of one year alone, But ever when, as judge true and approved, It has set Right before expediency: Has scorned offenders' bribes with proud disdain: Has thro' opposing ranks cloven amain Its way, its stedfast march, to victory. Not rightly will you speak of him as blest Whose wealth is many things; more truly he Can claim the title, "Blest", who, skilled to see What wisdom bids, uses at wisdom's hest The gifts of heaven: can bear hard poverty: Who dreads far worse than death dishonour's brand; No coward he, who for his motherland And comrades dear would never fear to die. Od. IV. 10. HARD-HEARTED yet, and strong with strength of Venus' gifts of grace, When grows to your despair thick down upon your proud young face, And when the hair is cut that now about your shoul- ders flows, 28 And when the hue that now transcends the scarlet of the rose, Changed, Ligurinus, shall have made your face a shaggy mask, Then, as the glass reflects the change, you'll cry, "Ah me.", and ask, "Why had I not the mind that now is mine in young- sterhood: Or why return not my fresh cheeks to match my present mood?" Od. IV. 13. LYCE, the Gods have heard my prayer; They've heard it, Lyce; you grow old, And yet you wish to pose as fair, And drink and wanton brazen-bold. Drunken, you woo with quavering tongue Unwilling Cupid; ah, but he Keeps watch on the fair cheeks of young Chia, queen of the psaltery. Past withered oaks he wings his flight Ruthless, and you, yes you, he flies Because tan teeth, hair snowy-white, And wrinkles, smirch you in his eyes. Nor Coan silks, nor jewelry, Bring back the years of youth and prime Years stored in public history, And sealed therein by winged Time. Your beauty, radiance, grace what death Has chased them? What is there to see 29 Of what you were of her whose breath Breathed love: who stole my heart from me: A presence after Cinara's blest, Winsome, renowned where is it? Where? But fate gave Cinara at the best Few years; having- intent to spare Lyce to rival an old crow, That ardent swains, coming to view Your beauty's torch, might see it now Fallen to ash, and laugh at you. Od. IF. 14. WHAT zeal of Senate or of people may With fitting meed of honours eternize, Augustus, your all-worthiness for aye, By graven inscriptions and State-histories, Prince of all princes mightiest, wheresoever The sun illumes earth's peoples with his light, Whom the Vindelici, untaught to bear Rome's yoke have lately learnt to know your might In war, for Drusus, with your soldiery, With more than mere requital, overthrew Fiercely the turbulent Genauni, aye, And swiftly marching Brenni strongholds too Perched on the awful Alps. This warfare won, The elder Nero clashed in furious fight With the gigantic Raeti, and anon Put them, with happy auspices, to flight. A gallant sight he was, as gallantly 30 With mighty shocks his battle smote amain Hearts freely dedicate to liberty Or death well nigh as Auster sweeps the main Tameless, what time the Pleiads' choir on high Disparts the clouds eager to thrust his way Thro' enemy ranks, and ride his fiery Steed thro' the heat and fury of the fray. As bull-like Aufidus, whose waters pass Apulian Daunus' realm, rolls in his pride, What time he fumes, and, fuming, plots, alas! A flood whose waves shall waste the countryside, So Claudius overwhelmed with rush far-sped The mailed barbarians' hosts, as, mowing down Front ranks and rear, he strewed the battle-stead With slain, and won, unscathed, the victor's crown. You gave the troops, you gave the plan, yours were The favouring auspices, for on the day That Alexandria humbly opened her Harbours and empty palace, as your prey, On this same day, three lustres passed, Good Speed, Which gave unbroken victory to your hands, Has added this renown, and longed-for meed Of glory, to your earlier commands. You the Cantabrian, whom none could tame Before: you Parthian, Indian, Scythian Nomad, revere you, of the Italian name. And sovereign Rome, abiding Guardian. The Nile and Hister, streams that hide their springs: Tigris' fast-flowing flood: your beck abide; Aye, and the monster-teeming Main that flings 31 On far Britannia's shore its breakers' pride. You claim the allegiance of the Gallic land, That fears not death, of rough Hiberia too; The blood-thirsty Sygambri, to your hand Brought, lay aside their arms, and reverence you. Od. IV. 15. pHOEBUS with lyre forbade me, fain r To tell of captured fort and fray, To sail upon the Tuscan main My little bark. Caesar, your sway Has brought back plenty to our land: Has given, from Parthian doors reta'en, Our standards to our Jove; your hand Has closed Quirinal Janus' fane In peace: has curbed the wild abuse Of lawless license: has removed Faults, and recalled to us the use Of virtues that our fathers loved, Whence grew to strength the Latin name The imperial majesty, that won For Italy a world-wide fame, From setting unto rising sun. While Caesar rules nor civic raves, Nor force, shall banish our repose, No, nor the rage that forges glaives, And brings unhappy towns to blows. The Julian law none shall defy Not they who drink the Danube's flood, Not Getae, Seres, slippery Persians, not Tanais' savage brood. And we on common days and high, 'Mid rites to merry Liber paid, With children and with matrons by, After devotions duly made, Will sing, as forbears wont to do, Leaders who lived brave lives and fair, To Lydian flute Anchises too, And Troy, and kindly Venus' heir. The Secular Hymn. PHOEBUS and Dian, woodland Queen, * Glory of heaven's resplendent sheen, Worshipped and worshipful for aye, Grant us the boons we seek to-day: On which the Sibyl's runes require That boys and girls, a holy choir, Shall sing unto the Gods who care For our seven hills a hymn of prayer. Kind Sun, whose chariot on its way Opens and closes every day: Who risest different yet the same, May'st never view what shrinks Rome's fame! Who openest ripe wombs of thy right Full gently, Ilithyia hight, Or, if thou wilt, Lucina, bless Our mothers, as birth's Patroness. Goddess, bring up our youth, and speed That which the Fathers have decreed Wedlock anent the law whereby Marriage creates the family, That each fixed cycle, covering Ten times eleven years, may bring Anthems and games, thronged in daylight Three times, and three times in the night. Ye Fates, whose prophecies are sure, As promised may the pledge endure By grace of our great Land-Mark's stay! Add new to old good speed, we pray. With crops and herds rich, may our land Bid Ceres crowned with wheat-ears stand; May Jove with many a favouring breeze, And kindly rains, bless our increase. Gentle and kind, with bow laid by, Apollo, hear our striplings' cry; Queen of the stars, with crescent brows, O Luna, hear our maidens' vows. If Rome is yours, and Ilion bore The folk who won the Etruscan shore A remnant, called to Lares new And homes, and safely brought thereto For whom, unscathed when Ilion flamed, Outliving Troy, Aeneas, named The Good, to give them more than they Had lost, carved out an open way. To docile youth grant honesty, Ye Gods, to eld tranquillity; Give to the Romuleian race Offspring, and means, and every grace. 34 What Venus' and Anchises' heir Asks, with white steers to plead his prayer, That give him: let him crush each foe In arms, but spare a foe laid low. By sea and land before his power, And Alban axes, Parthians cower; Now Indians, Scyths, once insolent, Wait upon his arbitrament. Now Faith and Peace and Chivalry Return with pristine Modesty; Virtue ignored dares re-appear, And Plenty with full horn is here. Surely as Phoebus, archer-seer. Adorned with radiant bow, and dear To the nine Muses he whose skill Healthgiving heals limbs tired and ill Sees Palatine heights with kind face, He lengthens out a lustre's space, And on to aeons of success, Rome's weal and Latium's happiness, Diana too, whom Aventine Hill and Mount Algidus enshrine, Heeds our Fifteen Priests' prayers, and hears Our children's vows with gracious ears. That Jove and all the Gods assent We bear back home hope confident, And sure the chorus trained to praise Phoebus and Dian with glad lays. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY