APPENDIX
Reading edition
No. I
Stanzas from Tickell’s Ballad of Colin and Lucy
Translated by Le Mierre
Cheres compagnes, je vous laisse; Une voix semble m’apeller, Une main que je vois sans cesse Me fait signe de m’en aller. L’ingrat que j’avois cru sincere Me fait mourir, si jeune encor: Une plus riche a sçu lui plaire: Moi qui l’aimois, voila mon sort! Ah Colin! ah! que vas tu faire? Rends moi mon bien, rends-moi ta foi; Et toi que son cœur me préfère De ses baisers détourne toi. Dès le matin en épousée À l’église il te conduira; Mais homme faux, fille abusée, Songez que Lucy sera là. Filles, portez-moi vers ma fosse; Que l’ingrat me rencontre alors, Lui, dans son bel habit de noce, Et Lucy sous le drap des morts.
I hear a voice you cannot hear, Which says I must not stay; I see a hand you cannot see, Which beckons me away. By a false heart, and broken vows, In early youth I die; Am I to blame, because his bride Is thrice as rich as I? Ah Colin, give not her thy vows, Vows due to me alone; Nor thou, fond maid, receive his kiss, Nor think him all thy own. To-morrow in the church to wed, Impatient both prepare, But know, fond maid, and know, false man, That Lucy will be there. There bear my corse, ye comrades, bear, The bridegroom blithe to meet; He in his wedding-trim so gay, I in my winding-sheet.
No. II
Ode V. of the First Book of Horace
Translated by Milton
Quis multa gracilis, &c.
What slender youth, bedew’d with liquid odours, Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave? Pyrrha, for whom bind’st thou In wreaths thy golden hair, Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he On faith and changed Gods complain, and seas Rough with black winds, and storms Unwonted, shall admire. Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold, Who always vacant, always amiable, Hopes thee; of flattering gales Unmindful? Hapless they To whom thou untry’d seem’st fair. Me in my vow’d Picture the sacred wall declares t’have hung My dank and dropping weeds To the stern God of sea.
No. III
The beginning of the VIIIth Book of the Iliad
Translated by T. Hobbes
The morning now was quite display’d, and Jove Upon Olympus’ highest top was set; And all the Gods and Goddesses above, By his command, were there together met. And Jupiter unto them speaking, said, You Gods all, and you Goddesses, d’ye hear! Let none of you the Greeks or Trojans aid: I cannot do my work for you: forbear! For whomsoever I assisting see The Argives or the Trojans, be it known, He wounded shall return, and laught at be, Or headlong into Tartarus be thrown; Into the deepest pit of Tartarus, Shut in with gates of brass, as much below The common hell, as ’tis from hell to us. But if you will my power by trial know, Put now into my hand a chain of gold, And let one end thereof lie on the plain, And all you Gods and Goddesses take hold, You shall not move me, howsoe’er you strain At th’ other end, if I my strength put to ’t, I’ll pull you Gods and Goddesses to me, Do what you can, and earth and sea to boot, And let you hang there till my power you see. The Gods were out of countenance at this, And to such mighty words durst not reply, &c.
No. IV
A very learned and ingenious friend,[72] to whom I am indebted for some very just remarks, of which I have availed myself in the preceding Essay, has furnished me with the following acute, and, as I think, satisfactory explanation of a passage in Tacitus, extremely obscure in itself, and concerning the meaning of which the commentators are not agreed. “Tacitus meaning to say, ‘That Domitian, wishing to be the great, and indeed the only object in the empire, and that no body should appear with any sort of lustre in it but himself, was exceedingly jealous of the great reputation which Agricola had acquired by his skill in war,’ expresses himself thus:
In Vit. Agr. cap. 39
“Id sibi maxime formidolosum, privati hominis nomen suprà principis attolli. Frustra studia fori, et civilium artium decus in silentium acta, si militarem gloriam alius occuparet: et cætera utcunque facilius dissimulari, ducis boni imperatoriam virtutem esse. Which Gordon translates thus: ‘Terrible above all things it was to him, that the name of a private man should be exalted above that of the Prince. In vain had he driven from the public tribunals all pursuits of popular eloquence and fame, in vain repressed the renown of every civil accomplishment, if any other than himself possessed the glory of excelling in war: Nay, however he might dissemble every other distaste, yet to the person of Emperor properly appertained the virtue and praise of being a great general.’
“This translation is very good, as far as the words ‘civil accomplishment,’ but what follows is not, in my opinion, the meaning of Tacitus’s words, which I would translate thus:
“‘If any other than himself should become a great object in the empire, as that man must necessarily be who possesses military glory. For however he might conceal a value for excellence of every other kind, and even affect a contempt of it, yet he could not but allow, that skill in war, and the talents of a great General, were an ornament to the Imperial dignity itself.’
“Domitian did not pretend to any skill in war; and therefore the word ‘alius’ could never be intended to express a competitor with him in it.”