24

With a long effort opened. 'Was it well,
Father, at this my first, my earliest fight,
To mock me with a baffled hope of fame?
Well was it, to defraud me of my right
To noble death?' and speaking thus he died.
Awhile above him leaned the father, then

Leaped up, within the chariot placed the corpse,
And with his lash fierce rent the steeds: swift on
As with their master's ire instinct they flew,
Making a wide road thro' the hurtling fray.

JAMES THOMSON, Spring

BUT should you lure

From his dark haunt, beneath the tangled roots
Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook,
Behoves you then to ply your finest art.
Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly,
And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft
The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear.
At last, while haply o'er the shaded sun
Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death,
With sullen plunge. At once he darts along,
Deep-struck, and runs out all the lengthened line;
Then seeks the farthest ooze, the sheltering weed,
The cavern'd bank, his old secure abode;
And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool,
Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand,
That feels him still, yet to his furious course
Gives way, you, now retiring, following now
Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage;
Till floating broad upon his breathless side
And to his fate abandon'd, to the shore
You gaily drag your unresisting prize.

soluit in has tardo nisus conamine uoces : 'Tune rudem, genitor, bellorum et martis in ipsis primitiis uanae poteras spe ludere famae ? ius poteras auferre meum fatique decori mercedem merito ?' sic fantem uita reliquit. paulisper supra pendet pater: inde resurgit curruque exanimum nati dat corpus et ipse uerberibus ferus instat equis et tergora foedat. prosiluit currus, uelut ira arderet erili,

perque acies populatur iter martemque sonantem.

24

SIN ipsum amnicolum tu regem adlexeris ima obscuri de sede lacus ubi plurima pendet arbor et alternis nectit radicibus umbram, tum uero summas decet exercere magistrae artis opes. multum ille dolos speculatur et escam pone sequens, oculos dum muscae inludit imago; saepe instat morsu iam iam rapturus; at ipsa lene tremens dubios testabitur unda timores. quod si fors obducta dies Phoebusque uaganti palluerit nimbo, pereundi certus in hamum proruit infelix; imo sedet intus in ore

cuspis; in immensum fugit ille atque improbus una quicquid adest lini haurit agens; saepe ultima limi, saepe cauas ripae latebras uluaeque remotae ima petit, quae prisca salus adsuetaque sedes; altius inde uolare ferox et per uada summa feruidus huc illuc saltu trepidare, grauatus multa dolos. tu cede manu sed cede sequaci, transque celer ripas insta gressumue reflecte; iamque ubi consumptis furiis et anhelus et exspes lata natans auris nudarit terga, potito

laetus eris facilemque trahes ad litora praedam.

25

DRYDEN, Cymon and Iphigenia

SCARCE the third glass of measured hours was run
When like a fiery meteor sunk the sun,

The promise of a storm; the shifting gales
Forsake by fits, and fill, the flagging sails;
Hoarse murmurs of the main from far were heard,
And night came on, not by degrees prepared,
But all at once; at once the winds arise,
The thunders roll, the forky lightning flies.
In vain the master issues out commands,
In vain the trembling sailors ply their hands;
The tempest unforeseen prevents their care,
And from the first they labour in despair.
The giddy ship, betwixt the winds and tides
Forced back and forwards, in a circle rides

Stunned with the different blows; then shoots amain,
Till counterbuffed she stops, and sleeps again.

26

POLLOK, Course of Time, VII

NATURE stood still. The seas and rivers stood,
And all the winds, and every living thing.
The cataract, that like a giant wroth,
Rushed down impetuously, as seized at once
By sudden frost with all his hoary locks,

Stood still and beasts of every kind stood still.
A deep and dreadful silence reigned alone!
Hope died in every breast, and on all men

Came fear and trembling. None to his neighbour spoke,

Husband thought not of wife, nor of her child
The mother, nor friend of friend, nor foe of foe.

In horrible suspense all mortals stood;

And, as they stood and listened, chariots were heard
Rolling in heaven. Revealed in flaming fire,
The angel of God appeared in stature vast,
Blazing; and, lifting up his hand on high,
By Him that lives for ever, swore that Time
Should be no more.

25

TERTIA demensos uix hauserat hora liquores, ac subit oceanum rutili fax ignea Phoebi, argumentum hiemis; uaria uice mobilis aura deserit inpleuitque sinus; tum murmura longe audiri et raucis misceri uocibus aequor.

nox praeceps, non illa gradus lenita per aequos, cuncta simul condit; surgunt subito agmine uenti; ingeminant tonitrus: flammae exsiluere trisulcae. nequiquam dux ore tonans sua iussa frequentat; nequiquam nautae circum trepidare trementisque exercere manus: curam inprouisa procella praeuenit, et uano iam tum spes nulla labori. turbine caeca ratis freta uentosque inter in orbem ultro agitur citroque et crebro uerbere torpet; inde, per abruptum ruit ut iam gurgite, pontum fert iterum aduersoque iterum sopitur ab ictu.

26

OMNIA constiterant, maria et uaga flumina et omnes uentorum cursus et quicquid uescitur auris. nec non, terrigenum qualis uis effera fratrum qui modo praecipitabat iter, uelut horrida canos incursu subito glaciassent frigora crines,

constiterat torrens; steterat genus omne ferarum. una alta atque horrenda quies dominatur in orbe. omnibus e tacito periit spes pectore, et omnia quassat membra pauor. nullis uox mutua; nusquam nec nuptae iam cura uiro nec matribus ipse prolis amor; ueterem nemo respexit amicum, nemo hostem populis mortalibus ingruit horror, uenturique timor. stantes signumque manentes desuper aetherias uolui audiuere quadrigas. nuntius, ecce, deum flammis et mole tremenda fulsit; et, elata sublime ad sidera dextra, adiurat Patris caput immortale, futurum hinc aeuo finem.

27

SHAKESPEARE, King Henry V., I ii
THEREFORE doth heaven divide

The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts ;
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,
Others, like soldiers, armèd in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor ;
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold,
The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale

The lazy yawning drone.

28

MARK AKENSIDE

Ask the crowd

Which flies impatient from the village walk,
To climb the neighbouring cliffs, when far below
The cruel winds have hurled upon the coast
Some helpless bark; while sacred Pity melts
The general eye, or Terror's icy hand