Quale portentum neque militaris Daunia in latis* alit esculetis; Pone me, pigris ubi nulla campis Quod latus mundi nebulæ malusque Pone sub curru nimium propinqui 15 20 CARMEN XXIII. AD CHLOEN. Non esse jam quòd viriles complexus, viro matu ra, extimescat. VITAS hinnuleo me similis, Chloë, Matrem, non sine vano Aurarum et silüæ métu. Nam, seu mobilibus verist inhorruit Et corde et genibus tremit. * Daunias latis. Daunius latis. Cunu, es in its extensive woods, nor the land of Juba, the dry nurse of lions, produces. Place me in those barren plains, where no tree is refreshed by the genial air; at that part of the world, which clouds and an inclement atmosphere infest; place me under the chariot of the sun too near, in a land deprived of habitations; there will I love my sweet-. ly-smiling, sweetly-speaking Lalage. ODE XXIII. TO CHLOE. That being now marriageable, she had no reason to be frightened at the sight of a man. YOU shun me, my Chloe, like a fawn that is seeking its timorous mother in the pathless mountains, not without a vain dread of the breezes and the thickets: for she trembles both in her heart and knees, whether the arrival of the spring hath become terrible to her by its rustling leaves, or the green lizards have stirred the bush. But I do not follow you, like a savage tigress, or a Gætulian lion, to tear you to pieces. Therefore quit your mother, now you are mature for a husband. CARMEN XXIV. AD VIRGILIUM. Monet ut Quintilii mortem æquo animo ferat. QUIS desiderio sit pudor, aut modus Tam cari capitis? præcipe lugubres Cantus, Melpomene, cui liquidam pater Vocem cum citharâ dedit. Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget? cui Pudor, et Justitiæ soror Incorrupta Fides, nudaqué Veritas, Quando ullum inveniet parem? Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit: Nulli flebilior, quàm tibi, Virgili. 5 10 Tu* frustra pius, heu! non ita creditum, Quòd † si Threïcio blandiùs Orpheo • Sed. † Quid. 15 20 + Num. ODE XXIV. TO VIRGIL. He admonishes him to bear with patience the death of Quintilius. WHAT shame or bound can there be to our affection for so dear a person? O Melpomene, to whom your father has given a melting voice, and the harp, teach me the mournful strains. Does then a perpetual sleep oppress Quintilius! To whom when will modesty, and uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth, find any equal? He died lamented by many good men, but more lamented by none than you, O Virgil. You, though pious, alas! in vain demand Quintilius back from the Gods, who did not lend him to us on such terms. What though you could strike the lyre, listened to by the trees, with more sweetness than the Thracian Orpheus, yet the blood can never return to the empty shade, which Mercury, inexorable to reverse the fates, has, with his dreadful Caduceus, once driven to the gloomy throng. This is hard: but every thing becomes more supportable by patience, which it is out of our power to amend. CARMEN XXV. AD LYDIAM. Insultat ei, quòd, jam vetula, vicissim à juvenibus contemnatur. PARCIUS junctas quatiunt fenestras Quæ priùs multùm faciles movebat Invicem mochos anus arrogantes lunia vento: Cùm tibi flagrans amor, et libido, Non sine questu, Læta quòd pubes hederâ virenti * Jactibus. Bacchata. Bentl. Longam pereunte noctem. Bentl. |