BEWARE, my friend! of crystal brook, Or fountain, lest that hideous hook, Thy nose, thou chance to see; Narcissus' fate would then be thine, And self-detested thou wouldst pine, As self-enamour'd he.
HAIR, wax, rouge, honey, teeth you buy, A multifarious store!
A mask at once would all supply, Nor would it cost you more.
WHEN Aulus, the nocturnal thief, made prize Of Hermes, swift-wing'd envoy of the skies, Hermes, Arcadia's king, the thief divine, Who when an infant stole Apollo's kine, And whom, as arbiter and overseer
Of our gymnastic sports, we planted here; "Hermes," he cried, "you meet no new disaster; Ofttimes the pupil goes beyond his master."
My mother! if thou love me, name no more
My noble birth! Sounding at every breath My noble birth, thou kill'st me. Thither fly, As to their only refuge, all from whom Nature withholds all good besides; they boast Their noble birth, conduct us to the tombs Of their forefathers, and, from age to age Ascending, trumpet their illustrious race :
But whom hast thou beheld, or canst thou name Derived from no forefathers? Such a man Lives not; for how could such be born at all? And if it chance that, native of a land Far distant, or in infancy deprived
Of all his kindred, one, who cannot trace His origin, exist, why deem him sprung From baser ancestry than theirs who can ? My mother! he whom nature at his birth Endow'd with virtuous qualities, although An Æthiop and a slave, is nobly born.
Pity to distress is shown, Envy to the great alone- So the Theban-But to shine Less conspicuous be mine! I prefer the golden mean, Pomp and penury between; For alarm and peril wait, Ever on the loftiest state, And the lowest to the end Obloquy and scorn attend.
I SLEPT when Venus enter'd: to my bed A Cupid in her beauteous hand she led, A bashful seeming boy, and thus she said:
"Shepherd, receive my little one! I bring An untaught love, whom thou must teach to sing." She said, and left him. I, suspecting nought, Many a sweet strain my subtle pupil taught, How reed to reed Pan first with osier bound, How Pallas form'd the pipe of softest sound, How Hermes gave the lute, and how the quire Of Phoebus owe to Phœbus' self the lyre. Such were my themes; my themes nought heeded But ditties sang of amorous sort to me,
The pangs that mortals and immortals. prove From Venus' influence and the darts of love. Thus was the teacher by the pupil taught; His lessons I retain'd, he mine forgot.
OFT we enhance our ills by discontent, And give them bulk beyond what nature meant. A parent, brother, friend deceased, to cry— "He's dead indeed, but he was born to die"- Such temperate grief is suited to the size And burden of the loss; is just and wise. But to exclaim, "Ah! wherefore was I born, Thus to be left for ever thus forlorn ?" Who thus laments his loss invites distress, And magnifies a woe that might be less, Through dull despondence to his lot resign'd, And leaving reason's remedy behind.
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FABLES OF GAY.
Lusus amicitia est, uni nisi dedita, ceu fit, Simplice ni nexus fœdere, lusus amor. Incerto genitore puer, non sæpe paternæ Tutamen novit, deliciasque domûs: Quique sibi fidos fore multos sperat, amicus, Mirum est huic misero si ferat ullus opem. Comis erat, mitisque, et nolle et velle paratus Cum quovis, Gaii more modoque, Lepus. Ille, quot in sylvis et quot spatiantur in agris Quadrupedes, nôrat conciliare sibi;
Et quisque innocuo, invitoque lacessere quenquam Labra tenus saltem fidus amicus erat. Ortum sub lucis dum pressa cubilia linquit, Rorantes herbas, pabula sueta, petens, Venatorum audit clangores ponè sequentem, Fulmineumque sonum territus erro fugit. Corda pavor pulsat, sursum sedet, erigit aures, Respicit, et sentit jam prope adesse necem. Utque canes fallat latè circumvagus, illuc, Unde abiit, mirâ calliditate redit ; Viribus at fractis tandem se projicit ultro In mediâ miserum semianimemque viâ.
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