A DITHYRAMBIC, or DRINKING SONG. That it was his duty to celebrate the praises of Bacchus, as being full of, and roused and ammated by his divinity. I Saw Bacchus (believe it, pofterity), dictating verfes amongst the remote rocks, and the nymphs a learning them, and the attentive ears of the goatfooted fatyrs. Evae!* (huzza!) my mind trembles with recent dread, and my foul, being replete with Bacchus, has a tumultuous joy. Evae! fpare me, Bacchus; spare me, thou that art formidable for thy dreadful Thyrfis +. It is given me to fing the wanton Bacchanalian-priestess, and the fountain of wine, and rivulets flowing with milk, and to reiterate the honies diftilling from hollow trunks. It is granted me likewise to celebrate the honour added to the conftellations by your happy fpoufe, and the palace of Pentheus, demolished with hideous ruin, and the perdition of Thracian Lycurgus.. You command the rivers, you the barbarian sea: You, An interjection, used by the priestesses of Bacchus on this feftival, which cannot be literally tranflated. Afpear, round the haft of which ivy and vine leaves were twined. 1 Ariadne. Tu feparatis uvidus in jugis Biftonidum fine fraude crines. Tu, cum parentis regna per arduum Unguibus, horribilique mala ; Te vidit infons Cerberus aureo CARMEN XX. AD MECENATE M. 20 25 30 Eternam fibi ex fuis carminibus famam pollicetur. Nenna biformis per liquidum æthera TON ufitata nec (a) tenui ferar Vates; neque in terris morabor Urbes relinquam. non ego pauperum Nec Stygia cohibebor unda, (a) Non tenui feraç, 10 Super moist with wine; in felected mountains, bind the hair of your Thracian priesteffes with a knot of vipers without hurt. You, when the impious band of giants fcaled the realms of father Jupiter, thro' the fky repelled Rhætas, with the paws and horrible jaw of the lion-jnape you had affuméd. Tho' reported to be better adapted for dances, and jokes, and play, you were accounted infufficient for fight; Yet it then appeared you had the fame common talent for peace and war. Thee, ornamented with thy golden horn, Cerberus innocently gazed at, gently waging his tail, and with his triple tongue, licked your feet and legs as you returned. O DE XX. To MÆ CENAS. He promises himself eternal fame from his verses. I, A two formed poet, will be conveyed thro' the liquid air with no vulgar nor humble wing: nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and, fuperior to envy, will I quit cities. Not I, even I, whom my rivals ftile the blood of low parents, my dear Mæcenas, fhall die; nor will I be restrained by the Stygian wave. At this inftant, a rough skin fettles upon my ankles, and all upwards I am tranfformed into a white bird*, and the downy plu * The poets allegorically represented themselves as tranfformed into fwans. mage Superne (a); nafcunturque leyes Per digitos humerofque pluma. Jam, Dædaleo ocior (6) Icare, Vifam gementis litora Bofpori, Syrtefque Gætulas, canorus Ales, Hyperboreofque campos. Me Colchus, et, qui diffimulat metum Marfæ cohortis, Dacus, et ultimi Nofcent Geloni: me peritus Difcet Iber, Rhodanique pator. Abfint inani funere næniæ, (a) Superna. (b) Dædaleo tutior Icaro. Bentl. 20 mage arifes over my fingers and fhoulders. Now, having become a melodious bird, more expeditious than the Dædalean Icarus, I will visit the fhores of the murmuring Bofphorus, and the Getulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean plains. Me, the Colchan, and the Dacian, who pretends not to fear the Marfan cohort, and the remotest Gelonians, shall know me, the learned Spaniard, fhall study, and he that drinks the waters of the Rhone. Let there be no dirges, or shameful lamentation, or bewailings at my only seeming funeral: fupprefs your crying, and forbear the fuperfluous honours of a sepulchre. : |