But, if you deny him that salutary energy which qualifies him to pursue his country's happiness and to defend her rights, we follow up the course of his public life, and demand the proof of your charge.
1. A WINTER'S SABBATH SCENE. - Grahame. How dazzling white the snowy scene! deep, deep, The stillness of the winter Sabbath day -
Not even a footfall heard. Smooth are the fields, Each hollow pathway level with the plain : Hid are the bushes, save that here and there Are seen the topmost shoots of brier or broom High-ridged, the whirled drift has almost reached The powdered keystone of the church-yard porch. Mute hangs the hooded bell; the tombs lie buried; No step approaches to the house of prayer.
2. THE SNOW-STORM. Emerson.
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven, And veils the farm-house at the garden's end. The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come, see the north wind's masonry! Out of an unseen quarry, evermore Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer Curves his white bastions with projected roof Round every windward stake, or tree, or door : Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work, So fanciful, so savage, naught cares he For number or proportion. Mockingly, On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths; A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn; Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall, Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate, A tapering turret overtops the work:
And when his hours are numbered, and the world Is all his own, retiring, as he were not, Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art, To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone, Built in an age, the mad wind's night work, The frolic architecture of the snow.
See, Winter comes to rule the varied year, Sullen and sad, with all his rising train,
Vapors, and clouds, and storms. Be these my theme, These! that exalt the soul to solemn thought, And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms! Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot, Pleased have I, in my cheerful morn of life, When nursed by careless Solitude I lived, And sung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleased have I wandered through your rough domain; Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure; Heard the winds roar, and the big torrents burst; Or seen the deep-fermenting tempest brewed In the grim evening sky. Thus passed the time, Till through the lucid chambers of the South Looked out the joyous Spring, looked out and smiled:
Fleetly hath passed the year. The seasons came Duly as they were wont, the gentle Spring, And the delicious Summer, and the cool Rich Autumn, with the nodding of the grain, And Winter, like an old and hōary man, Frosty and stiff, and so are chronicled. We have read gladness in the new green leaf, And in the first-blown violets; we have drunk Cool water from the rock, and in the shade Sunk to the noontide slumber; we have plucked The mellow fruitage of the bending tree, And girded to our pleasant wanderings
When the cool wind came freshly from the hills; And when the tinting of the Autumn leaves
Had faded from its glory, we have sat
By the good fires of Winter, and rejoiced Over the fulness of the gathered sheaf.
"God hath been very good." "T is He whose hand Moulded the sunny hills, and hollowed out The shelter of the valleys, and doth keep The fountains in their secret places cool; And it is He who leadeth up the sun, And ordereth the starry influences, And tempereth the keenness of the frost; And, therefore, in the plenty of the feast, And in the lifting of the cup, let Him Have praises for the well-completed year.
CCVI. POPE'S EPISTLE TO DOCTOR ARBUTHNOT.
When Pope had reached the meridian of his fame, he was beset, as many distinguished literary persons are at the present day, with applications from numerous writers, who had mistaken a desire to write for the ability, to read and revise their compositions, and to use his influence in having them published. In this poetical epistle to his friend and physician, he humorously describes his annoyances; and expresses his fears that Bedlam (the madhouse) or Parnassus has sent forth the troop of poetasters and scribblers who lie in wait for him.
1. "SHUT, shut the door, good John!" fatigued, I said ; "Tie up the knocker; say I'm sick - I'm dead!" The dog-star rages! nay, 't is past a doubt
All Bedlam or Parnassus is let out:
Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, They rave, recite, and madden round the land.
What walls can guard me, or what shades can hide? They pierce my thickets, through my grot they glide; By land, by water, they renew the charge,
They stop the chariot, and they board the barge. No place is sacred, not the church is free,
Even Sunday shines no sabbath-day to me; Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme, Happy to catch me just at dinner-time.
2. Is there a parson much be-mused in beer, A maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer,
A clerk, fore-doomed his father's soul to cross, Who pens a stanza when he should engrōss?
Is there who, locked from ink and paper, scrawls With desperate charcoal round his darkened walls? All fly to Twickenham,* and in humble strain Apply to ine to keep them mad or vain.
3. Friend to my life, which, did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song, What drop or nostrum can this plague remove? Or which must end me, a fool's wrath or love? O, dire dilemma! either way I'm sped;
If foes, they write; if friends, they read me dead. Seized and tied down to judge, how wretched I! Who can't be silent, and who will not lie.
To laugh were want of goodness and of grace, And to be grave exceeds all power of face. I sit with sad civility, I read
With honest anguish and an aching head, And drop at last, but in unwilling ears, This saving counsel," Keep your piece nine years
*Pope's villa, on the Thames.
4. "Nine years!" cries he, who, high in Drury Lane, Inlled by soft zephyrs through the broken pane, Rhymes ere he wakes, and prints before term ends, Obliged by hunger and request of friends, — "The piece you think is incorrect? why, take it, I'm all submission; what you'd have it, make it.' Three things another's modest wishes bound:
My friendship, and a prologue, and ten pound.' Pitho'leon sends to me: "You know his grace, I want a patron; ask him for a place."
Pitholeon libelled me." But here's a letter Informs you, Sir, 't was when he knew no better. Dare you refuse him166 Curll* invites to dine? He'll write a journal, or he 'll turn divine."
5. Bless me! a packet. - ""T is a stranger sues, A virgin tragedy, an orphan muse.'
If I dislike it, "Furies, death and rage; If I approve, Commend it to the stage." There (thank my stars!) my whole commission ends; The players and I are, luckily, no friends.
Fired that the house rejects him, " 'Sdeath, I'll print it And shame the fools, - your interest, sir, with Lintot." Lintot,* dull rogue, will think your price too much. "Not, Sir, if you revise it and retouch." All my demurs but double his attacks;
At last he whispers," Do, and we go snacks." Glad of a quarrel, straight I clap the door,- Sir, let me see your works and you no more!
-THE CHARIOT RACE, WITH THE DEATH OF ORESTES 1. THEY took their stand where the appointed judges Had cast their lots and ranged the rival cars. Rang out the brazen trump! Away they bound! Cheer the hot steeds and shake the slackened reins; As with a body, the large space is filled With the huge clangor of the rattling cars: High whirl aloft the dust-clouds; blent together Each presses each, and the lash rings, and loud Snort the wild steeds, and from their fiery breath, Along their manes, and down the circling wheels, Scatter the flaking foam.
Aye, as he swept around the perilous pillar, Last in the course, wheeled in the rushing axle:
* A publisher in Pope's day. † Pronounced à; meaning, always, ever.
The left rein curbed. - that on the dexter hand Flung loose. So on erect the chariots rolled! Sudden the Enian's fierce and headlong steeds Broke from the bit, and, as the seventh time now The course was circled, on the Lybian car
Dashed their wild fronts: then order changed to ruin: Car crashed on car; the wide Crissæ'an plain
Was, sea-like, strewn with wrecks; the Athenian saw, Slackened his speed, and, wheeling round the marge, Unscathed and skilful, in the midmost space, Left the wild tumult of that tossing storm.
3. Behind, Orestes, hitherto the last,
Had yet kept back his coursers for the close; Now one sole rival left, on, on he flew, And the sharp sound of the impelling scourge Rang in the keen ears of the flying steeds. He nears he reaches- they are side by side; Now one — now the other — by a length the victor. The courses all are past, the wheels erect
All safe-when, as the hurrying coursers round The fatal pillar dashed, the wretched boy Slackened the left rein:- On the column's edge Crashed the frail axle-headlong from the car, Caught and all meshed within the reins, he fell; And, masterless, the mad steeds raged along!
4. Loud from that mighty multitude arose
A shriek a shout! But yesterday such deeds- To-day such doom! - Now whirled upon the earth; Now his limbs dashed aloft, they dragged him those Wild horses - -till, all gory, from the wheels Released - and no man, not his nearest friends, Could in that mangled corpse have traced Orestes.
SOPHOCLES, TRANSLATED BY SIR E. B. LYTTON
ADVICE TO AN AFFECTED SPEAKER.
1. WHAT do you say? What? I really do not understand you. Be so good as to explain yourself again. Upon my word, I do not! O! now I know you mean to tell me it is a cold day. Why did you not say at once, "It is cold to-day"? If you wish to inform me it rains or snows, pray say, "It rains," "It snows; or, if you think I look well, and you choose to compliment me, say, "I think you look well.” . But," you answer "that is so common and so plain, and what everybody
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить » |