LINES WRITTEN IN AUGUST, 1847. THE day of tumult, strife, defeat, was o'er; Worn out with toil, and noise, and scorn, and spleen, I slumbered, and in slumber saw once more A room in an old mansion, long unseen. That room, methought, was curtained from the light; Yet through the curtains shone the moon's cold ray Full on a cradle, where, in linen white, Sleeping life's first soft sleep, an infant lay. Pale flickered on the hearth the dying flame, And lo! the fairy queens who rule our birth Not deigning on the boy a glance to cast Swept careless by the gorgeous Queen of Gain; More scornful still, the Queen of Fashion passed, With mincing gait and sneer of cold disdain. The Queen of Power tossed high her jewelled head, And o'er her shoulder threw a wrathful frown: The Queen of Pleasure on the pillow shed Scarce one stray rose-leaf from her fragrant crown. Still Fay in long procession followed Fay; And still the little couch remained unblest : Oh glorious lady, with the eyes of light "Yes, darling; let them go;" so ran the strain : "Yes; let them go, gain, fashion, pleasure, power, And all the busy elves to whose domain Belongs the nether sphere, the fleeting hour. "Without one envious sigh, one anxious scheme, "Fortune, that lays in sport the mighty low, "Of the fair brotherhood who share my grace, I, from thy natal day, pronounce thee free; And, if for some I keep a nobler place, I keep for none a happier than for thee. "There are who, while to vulgar eyes they seem Of all my bounties largely to partake, Of me as of some rival's handmaid deem, And court me but for gain's, power's, fashion's sake. "To such, though deep their lore, though wide their fame, "Yes; thou wilt love me with exceeding love; "For aye mine emblem was, and aye shall be, That blossoms in the light of Time is bare. "In the dark hour of shame, I deigned to stand "I brought the wise and brave of ancient days To cheer the cell where Raleigh pined alone: I lighted Milton's darkness with the blaze Of the bright ranks that guard the eternal throne. "And even so, my child, it is my pleasure "Not then alone, when myriads, closely pressed "No: when on restless night dawns cheerless morrow, "Thine, where on mountain waves the snowbirds scream, Where more than Thule's winter barbs the breeze, Where scarce, through lowering clouds, one sickly gleam Lights the drear May-day of Antarctic seas; "Thine, when around thy litter's track all day "Thine most, when friends turn pale, when traitors fly, "Amidst the din of all things fell and vile, "Yes: they will pass away; nor deem it strange: TRANSLATION FROM PLAUTUS. (1850.) [The author passed a part of the summer and autumn of 1850 at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight. He usually, when walking alone, had with him a book. On one occasion, as he was loitering in the landslip near Bon-church, reading the Rudens of Plautus, it struck him that it might be an interesting experiment to attempt to produce something which might be supposed to resemble passages in the lost Greek drama of Diphilus, from which the Rudens appears to have been taken. He selected one passage in the Rudens, of which he then made the following version, which he afterwards copied out at the request of a friend to whom he had repeated it.] Act. IV. Sc. vii. DEMONES. O Gripe, Gripe, in ætate hominum plurimæ Fiunt transennæ, ubi decipiuntur dolis; Atque edepol in eas plerumque esca imponitur. Quam si quis avidus pascit escam avariter, Decipitur in transenna avaritia sua. Ille, qui consulte, docte, atque astute cavet, Mi istæc videtur præda prædatum irier : Ut cum majore dote abeat, quam advenerit. Egone ut, quod ad me adlatum esse alienum sciam, Semper cavere hoc sapientes æquissimum est, Ne conscii sint ipsi maleficiis suis. Ego, mihi quum lusi, nil moror ullum lucrum. GRIPUS. Spectavi ego pridem Comicos ad istum modum Sapienter dicta dicere, atque iis plaudier, Quum illos sapientis mores monstrabant poplo.; |