Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Non puo del tempo edace
Rimaner preda, eterno alto valore
Non puo l'oblio rapace,

Furar dalle memorie eccelso onore,
Su l'arco di mia cetra un dardo forte
Virtù m' adatti, e ferirò la morte.

Del ocean profondo

Cinta dagli ampi gorghi Anglia resiede
Separata dal mondo,

Però che il suo valor l' umana eccede :
Questa feconda sa produrre Eroi,

Ch' hanno a ragion del sovruman tra noi.

Alla virtù sbandita

Danno ne i petti lor fido ricetto,

Quella gli è sol gradita,

Perche in lei san trovar gioia, e diletto;
Ridillo tu, Giovanni, e mostra in tanto
Con tua vera virtù, vero il mio Canto.

Lungi dal patrio lido

Spinse Zeusi l' industre ardente brama;
Ch' udio d' Helena il grido

Con aurea tromba rimbombar la fama,
E per poterla effigiare al paro

Dalle più belle Idee trasse il più raro.

Cosi l'ape ingegnosa

Trae con industria il suo liquor pregiato
Dal giglio e dalla rosa,

E quanti vaghi fiori ornano il prato ;
Formano un dolce suon diverse chorde,
Fan varie voci melodia concorde.

Di bella gloria amante

Milton dal ciel natio per varie parti
Le peregrine piante

Volgesti a ricercar scienze, ed arti ;
Del Gallo regnator vedesti i regni,
E dell' Italia ancor gl' Eroi più degni.

Fabro quasi divino

Sol virtù rintracciando il tuo pensiero
Vide in ogni confino

Chi di nobil valor calca il sentiero ;
L'ottimo dal miglior dopo scegleia
Per fabbricar d' ogni virtù l' idea.

Quanti nacquero in Flora

O in lei del parlar Tosco appreser l' arte,
La cui memoria onora

Il mondo fatta eterna in dotte carte,

Volesti ricercar per tuo tesoro,

E parlasti con lor nell' opre loro.

Nell' altera Babelle

Per te il parlar confuse Giove in vano,
Che per varie favelle

Di se stessa trofeo cadde su 'l piano :

Ch' Ode oltr' all' Anglia il suo più degno idioma Spagna, Francia, Toscana, e Grecia, e Roma.

I più profondi arcani

Ch' occulta la natura e in cielo e in terra
Ch' à ingegni sovrumani

Troppo avaro tal' hor gli chiude, e serra,
Chiaromente conosci, e giungi al fine
Della moral virtude al gran confine.

Non batta il Tempo l' ale,

Fermisi immoto, e in un fermin si gl' anni,
Che di virtù immortale

Scorron di troppo ingiuriosi a i danni ;
Che s' opre degne di poema o storia
Furon gia, l' hai presenti alla memoria.

Dammi tua dolce cetra

Se vuoi ch' io dica del tuo dolce canto,
Ch' inalzandoti all' Etra

Di farti huomo celeste ottiene il vanto,
Il Tamigi il dirà che gl' e concesso
Per te suo cigno pareggiar Permesso.

Io che in riva del Arno

Tento spiegar tuo merto alto e preclaro,
So che fatico indarno,

E ad ammirar, non a lodarlo imparo ;
Freno dunque la lingua, e ascolto il core
Che ti prende a lodar con lo stupore.

Del Sig. ANTONIO FRANCINI,

Gentilhuomo Fiorentino.

JOANNI MILTONI LONDINENSI :-

Juveni patria virtutibus eximio ;

Viro, qui multa peregrinatione, studio cuncta orbis terrarum loca perspexit; ut
novus Ulysses omnia ubique ab omnibus apprehenderet :

Polyglotto, in cujus ore linguæ jam deperdita sic reviviscunt, ut idiomata omnia
sint in ejus laudibus infacunda; et jure ea percallet, ut admirationes et plausus
populorum ab propria sapientia excitatos intelligat :

Illi, cujus animi dotes corporisque sensus ad admirationem commovent, et per
ipsam motum cuique auferunt; cujus opera ad plausus hortantur, sed venustate *
vocem laudatoribus adimunt :

Cui in memoria totus orbis ; in intellectu sapientia; in voluntate ardor gloriæ;
in ore eloquentia; harmonicos cœlestium sphærarum sonitus, astronomia duce,
audienti; characteres mirabilium naturæ, per quos Dei magnitudo describitur,
magistra philosophia, legenti; antiquitatum latebras, vetustatis excidia, eruditionis
ambages, comite assidua auctorum lectione,

Exquirenti, restauranti, percurrenti:

At cur nitor in arduum?

Illi, in cujus virtutibus evulgandis ora Famæ non sufficiant, nec hominum stupor
in laudandis satis est; reverentiæ et amoris ergo hoc ejus meritis debitum admi-
rationis tributum offert CAROLUS DATUS+, Patricius Florentinus,

Tanto homini servus, tantæ virtutis amator.

*In the edition 1645, it stood "vastitate."

+ Carlo Dati, one of Milton's literary friends at Florence. See "Epitaph. Damon." v. 137.-
T. WARTON.

PRELIMINART OBSERTATIONS ON THE LATIN

TERSES

L = sui fe fix Engisimut, vbi fer the restoration of letters, Varie Laill vores vii camt escales; but we must at least except some of the tender lane aut engrams of Leană, one of our firm iterary reformers, from

In the Leges (ric was praisedy Minor's model for language and versificaHET IT BE HOWere a perfection and unse of Uvitan phraseology. Vi ed i Tev te has at ingua mumer and character of his own, which esting a rematade bestcury of connessure, a native facility and fluency. Nor tvs ne unservation of fomat modes nogress or destroy our great poet's inherent lowers of memon and me. I ne these pieces as much for their fancy

aut gems, wir der en Jessi

Tic Ort zmong the Lata puers was Man's favourite, appears not only from his exgat dit ns leesamente puery. The versification of our author's hexameters nus per a diferent sruce from sin of the • Metamorphoses: Miton's is more tear medicine, aut forng: less destinary, Jess familar, and less embarrassed VIL & ferien recurrence of periods. Orid is at core rapid and abrupt; he wants dgacy: de las for moet eerstorm in his mucer of telling a story. Prolixity VÉ JACKETANG, Kt senera of sentence, are permilar to Mita: this is seen, not only i sme if is exria mecums in the Paradise Lost," and in many of the religous aütresses if a like cast in the Frose Works, but in his long verse. It is ale wisded that it is Laza compostatos of all sorts, he had been more attentive the sopúchy if Lucretins. Veril and Tiballas

Dr. Judasan, musty I think, prefers the Latin poetry of May and Cowley to tint of Mism and thinks May to be the first of the three. May is certainly a stourous versier, and was suficiently accomplished in poetical declamation for the matoman of Lacan's Phar: bet May is scarcely an author in point: his sill is a parody; and he was exefined to the peculiarities of an archetype, when it may be presumed, be thought excelent. As to Cowley when compared with Mixon, the same entie observes, Mive is generally content to express the thoughts of the ancients in their language: Cowley, without much loss of purity or elegance, accremmodates the Betire of Rome to his own conceptions. The advantage seems to be te the side of Cowley." But what are these conceptions! Metaphysical erorette; all the natural extravagances of his English poetry; such as will not bear to be clothed in the Latin language, much less are capable of admitting any degree of pare Latinity.

Milton's Latin poetis may be justly considered as legitimate classical compositions, and are never disgraced with such language and such imagery: Cowley's Latinity, dictated by an irregular and unrestrained imagination, presents a mode of diction Ealf Latin and half English. It is not so much that Cowley wanted a knowledge of the Latin style but that he suffered that knowledge to be perverted and corrupted by false and extravagant thoughts. Milton was a more perfect scholar than Cowley, and his mind was more deeply tinetured with the excellences of ancient literature: he was a more just thinker, and therefore a more just writer: ! in a word he had more taste, and more poetry, and consequently more propriety. If a fondness for the Italian writers has sometimes infected his English poetry with false ornaments; his Latin verses, both in diction and sentiment, are at least free from those depravations.

Some of Milton's Latin poems were written in his first year at Cambridge, when he was only seventeen: they must be allowed to be very correct and manly performances for a youth of that age; and, considered in that view, they discover an extraordinary copiousness and command of ancient fable and history. I cannot but add, that Gray resembles Milton in many instances: among others, in their youth they were both strongly attached to the cultivation of Latin poetry.— T. WARTON.

ELEGIARUM LIBER.

b

ELEG. I.

AD CAROLUM DEODATUM.

TANDEM, care, tuæ mihi pervenere tabellæ,
Pertulit, et voces nuncia charta tuas:
Pertulit, occidua Deva Cestrensis ab ora
Vergivium prono qua petit amne salum.
Multum, crede, juvat terras aluisse remotas
Pectus amans nostri, tamque fidele caput,
Quodque mihi lepidum tellus longinqua sodalem
Debet, at unde brevi reddere jussa velit.
Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamesis alluit undao,
Meque nec invitum patria dulcis habet.

Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,
Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.

Nuda nec arva placent, umbrasque negantia molles :
Quam male Phoebicolis convenit ille locus !

Nec duri libet usque minas perferre magistri,
Cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meo.

Si sit hoc exilium patrios adiisse penates,
Et vacuum curis otia grata sequi,

Non ego vel profugi nomen sortemve recuso,

Lætus et exilii conditione fruor.

10

15

20

Charles Deodate was one of Milton's most intimate friends: he was an excellent scholar, and practised physic in Cheshire. He was educated with our author at St. Paul's school, and from thence was sent to Trinity college, Oxford, where he was entered February 7, 1621, at thirteen years of age. He was a fellow-collegian there with Alexander Gill, another of Milton's intimate friends, who was successively usher and master of St. Paul's school. Deodate has a copy of Alcaics extant in an Oxford collection on the death of Camden, called "Camdeni Insignia." He left the college, when he was a gentlemancommoner, in 1628, having taken the degree of master of arts. Toland says, that he had in his possession two Greek letters, very well written, from Deodate to Milton. Two of Milton's familiar Latin letters, in the utmost freedom of friendship, are to Deodate: both dated from London, 1637. But the best, certainly the most pleasing evidences of their intimacy, and of Deodate's admirable character, are our author's first and sixth Elegies, the fourth Sonnet, and the "Epitaphium Damonis:" and it is highly probable, that Deodate is the "simple shepherd lad," in "Comus," who is skilled in plants, and loved to hear Thyrsis sing, v. 619. seq. He died in the year 1638. This Elegy was written about the year 1627, in answer to a letter out of Cheshire from Deodate.-T. WARTON.

The Irish Sea.-T. WARTON.

b Vergivium.

c Me tenet urbs reflua quam Thamesis alluit unda.

To have pointed out London, by only calling it the city washed by the Thames, would have been a general and a trite allusion: but this allusion being combined with the peculiar circumstance of the reflux of the tide, becomes new, poetical, and appropriate. The adjective reflua is at once descriptive and distinctive. Ovid has "refluum mare," "Metam." vii. 267.-T. WARTON.

O, utinam vates nunquam graviora tulisset
Ille Tomitano flebilis exul agro;
Non tune Ionio quicquam cessisset Homero,
Neve foret victo laus tibi prima, Maro.
Tempora nam licet hie placidis dare libera Musis,
Et totum rapiunt me, mea vita, libri :
Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri*,

Et vocat ad plausus garrula scena suos.
Seu catus auditur senior, seu prodigus hæres,
Seu procus, aut posita casside miles adest,
Sive decennali fœcundus lite patronus

Detonat inculto barbara verba foro";
Sæpe vafer gnato succurrit servus amanti,

Et nasum rigidi fallit ubique patris;

Sæpe novos illic virgo mirata calores,

Quid sit amor nescit; dum quoque nescit, amat.
Sive cruentatum furiosa Tragoedia sceptrum

Quassat, et effusis crinibus ora rotat,

Et dolet, et specto, juvat et spectasse dolendo ;
Interdum et lacrymis dulcis amaror inest :
Seu puer infelix indelibata reliquit

Gaudia, et abrupto flendus amore cadit ;
Seu ferus e tenebris iterat Styga criminis ultor,
Conscia funereo pectora torre movens:

Seu moret Pelopeia domus, seu nobilis Ili,
Aut luit incestos aula Creontis avos.

Sed neque sub tecto semper, nec in urbe, latemus;
Irrita nec nobis tempora veris eunt.

Nos quoque lucus habet vicina consitus ulmo,
Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci *.
Sæpius hic, blandas spirantia sidera flammas,
Virgineos videas præteriisse choros.

Ah, quoties dignæ stupui miracula formæ,
Quæ possit senium vel reparare Jovis!
Ah, quoties vidi superantia lumina gemmas,
Atque faces, quotquot volvit uterque polus!

d Excipit hinc fessum sinuosi pompa theatri, &c.

30

23

43

50

35

The theatre, as Mr. Warton observes, seems to have been a favourite amusement of Milton's youth. See "L'Allegro," v. 131.—TODD.

e Sive decennali fœcundus lite patronus
Detonat inculto barbara verba foro.

He probably means the play of "Ignoramus."-T. WARTON.

in the

By the youth in the first couplet, he perhaps intends Shakspeare's "Romeo ; second, either "Hamlet," or "Richard III." He then draws his illustrations from the ancient tragedians. The allusions, however, to Shakspeare's incidents do not exactly correspond. In the first instance, Romeo was not torn from joys" untasted:" although "puer " and " abrupto amore are much in point. The allusions are loose, or resulting from memory, or not intended to tally minutely.-T. WARTON.

[ocr errors]

Atque suburbani nobilis umbra loci.

Some country-house of Milton's father very near London is here intended, of which we have now no notices.-T. WARTON.

« PredošláPokračovať »