The Rape of Proserpine: With Other Poems, from Claudian; Translated Into English Verse. With a Prefatory Discourse, and Occasional Notes

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A. J. Valpy, sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814 - Latin poetry - 208 pages

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Page ix - Dis's waggon ! daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes Or Cytherea's breath...
Page 207 - Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid : Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers. And in this state. she gallops night by night Through lovers...
Page 208 - a lies asleep, Then dreams he of another benefice : Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five fathom deep ; and then anon Drums in his ear ; at which he starts, and wakes ; And, being thus affrighted, swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again.
Page 208 - And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, Tickling a parson's nose as 'a...
Page x - Not that fair field Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Was gathered — which cost Ceres all that pain To seek her through the world — nor that sweet grove Of Daphne, by Orontes and the inspired Castalian spring, might with this Paradise Of Eden strive...
Page 207 - O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees ; O'er ladies lips, who straight on kisses dream. Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit. And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, Tickling...
Page 200 - ... night, and spread universal consternation among a people ignorant of his design but not ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces of the East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser, Lucian was condemned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the...
Page 201 - ... had saved the empire from the invasion of the Ostrogoths; but he indignantly supported the pre-eminence of a rival,* whose character and profession he despised; and, in the midst of a public council, the impatient soldier was provoked to chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the favorite. This act of violence was represented to the Emperor as an insult, which it was incumbent on his dignity to resent. The disgrace and exile of Promotus were signified by a peremptory order, to repair, without...
Page 39 - O'er beds of thyme, cluster with pleasing hum, And visit ev'ry flow'r in search of sweets. They spoil the treasures of the field ; some chuse Pale lilies to entwine with violet buds; Some seek the rich Amaracus; some walk With roses crown'd; some deck'd with woodbine wreaths; They spare not thee, sad Hyacinth, nor thee, Pallid Narcissus, pride of all the plain ; Once graceful youths : the fatal disk to one Brought...
Page 39 - Heralds th1 approach of day's more fiery orb, Come, sister-nymphs !" She spoke, and reach'd her hand, And pluck'd her fav'rite grief-inwoven flow'r. Meanwhile, dispersed around, the roving maids Throng in each various path, as when a swarm Of bees, led from their waxen citadel, Built in some hollow oak, following their queen O'er beds of thyme, cluster with pleasing hum, And visit ev'ry flow'r in search of sweets.

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