תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

The body's reft, the quiet of the heart,

The travel's ease, the still night's feer was he,
And of our life in earth the better part;
Rever of fight, and yet in whom we see
Things oft that chance and oft that never be;
Without refpect, efteemed equally

King CROESUS' pomp and IRUS'

and IRUS' poverty.

And next, in order fad, OLD-AGE we found:
His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind;
With drooping cheer ftill poring on the ground,
As on the place where nature him affign'd
To reft, when that the fifters had untwin'd
His vital thread, and ended with their knife
The fleeting course of fast-declining life :

There heard we him with broken and hollow plaint
Rue with himself his end approaching fast,
And all for nought his wretched mind torment
With sweet remembrance of his pleasures past,
And fresh delights of lufty youth forewaste;
Recounting which, how would he fob and fhriek,
And to be young again of Jove befeek!

But, an' the cruel fates fo fixed be
That time forepaft cannot return again,
This one request of Jove yet prayed he,

That, in such wither'd plight, and wretched pain,
As eld, accompany'd with her lothfome train,
Had brought on him, all were it woe and grief,
He might a while yet linger forth his lief,

And not fo foon defcend into the pit;

Where Death, when he the mortal corpfe hath flain,
With rechlefs hand in grave doth cover it;

Thereafter

Thereafter never to enjoy again

The gladsome light, but, in the ground ylain,
In depth of darkness waste and wear tó nought,
As he had ne'er into the world been brought :

But who had seen him sobbing how he stood
Unto himself, and how he would bemoan
His youth forepast,—as though it wrought him good
To talk of youth, all were his youth foregone,-
He would have mus'd, and marvel'd much, whereon
This wretched Age should life defire so fain,
And knows full well life doth but length his pain :

Crook-back'd he was, tooth-fhaken, and blear-eyed;
Went on three feet, and, fometimes, crept on four;
With old lame bones, that rattled by his fide;
His fcalp all pil'd, and he with eld forelore,
His wither'd fift still knocking at death's door;
Fumbling, and driveling, as he draws his bread;
For brief, the shape and meffenger of Death.

And faft by him pale MALADY was placed :
Sore fick in bed, her colour all foregone;
Bereft of ftomach, favour, and of taste,
Ne could fhe brook no meat but broths alone
Her breath corrupt; her keepers every one
Abhorring her; her fickness past recure,
Detesting phyfick, and all phyfick's cure.

But, O, the doleful fight that then we fee!
We turn'd our look, and on the other fide
A grifly fhape of FAMINE mought we fee:
With greedy looks, and gaping mouth, that cry'd
And roar'd for meat, as the fhould there have dy'd;
Her body thin and bare as any bone,

Whereto was left nought but the case alone,

And

And that, alas, was gnaw'n on every where,
All full of holes; that I ne mought refrain
From tears, to fee how fhe her arms could tear,
And with her teeth gnash on the bones in vain,
When, all for nought, fhe fain would fo fuftain
Her starven corpse, that rather seem'd a shade
Than any substance of a creature made :

Great was her force, whom stone-wall could not stay :
Her tearing nails fnatching at all she saw
With gaping jaws, that by no means ymay
Be fatisfy'd from hunger of her maw,

But eats herself as she that hath no law ;
Gnawing, alas, her carkafs all in vain,

Where you may count each finew, bone, and vein.

On her while we thus firmly fix'd our eyes,
That bled for ruth of fuch a dreary fight,

Lo, fuddenly fhe fhright in fo huge wife

As made hell gates to shiver with the might;
Wherewith, a dart we faw, how it did light
Right on her breaft, and, therewithal, pale DEATH
Enthrilling it, to reve her of her breath:

And, by and by, a dumb dead corpfe we saw,
Heavy, and cold, the shape of Death aright,
That daunts all earthly creatures to his law,
Against whofe force in vain it is to fight;
Ne peers, ne princes, nor no mortal wight,
No towns, ne realms, cities, ne strongest tower,
But all, perforce, must yield unto his power:

His dart, anon, out of the corpfe he tooke,
And in his hand (a dreadful fight to see)
With great triumph eftfoons the fame he shook,

[merged small][ocr errors]

That most of all my fears affrayed me;

His body dight with nought but bones, pardy;
The naked shape of man there faw I plain,
All fave the flesh, the finew, and the vein.

Lastly, stood WAR, in glittering arms yclad,
With visage grim, stern look'd, and blackly hued:
In his right hand a naked sword he had,

That to the hilts was all with blood imbrued;
And in his left (that kings and kingdoms rued)
Famine and fire he held, and therewithal
He razed towns, and threw down towers and all :

Cities he fack'd, and realms (that whilom flower'd
In honour, glory', and rule, above the reft)
He overwhelm'd, and all their fame devour'd,
Confum'd, deftroy'd, wafted, and never ceas'd
'Till he their wealth, their name, and all opprefs'd:
His face forehew'd with wounds; and by his fide
There hung his TARGE, with gafhes deep and wide:

In mids of which depainted there we found
Deadly DEBATE, all full of fnaky hair
That with a bloody fillet was ybound,
Outbreathing nought but difcord every where :
And round about were pourtray'd, here and there,
The hugy hofts; DARIUS and his power,
His kings, his princes, peers, and all his flower.-

XERXES, the Perfian king, yet saw I there,
With his huge hoft, that drank the rivers dry,
Difmounted hills, and made the vales uprear;
His hoft and all yet faw I flain, pardy :
Thebes too I faw, all razed how it did lie
In heaps of ftones; and Tyrus put to spoil,
With walls and towers flat-even'd with the foil.
VOL. III.

Gg

But

But Troy, (alas!) methought, above them all,
It made mine eyes in very tears confume;
When I beheld the woeful word befall,
That by the wrathful will of gods was come,
And Jove's unmoved fentence and foredoom
On PRIAM king and on his town fo bent,
I could not lin but I must there lament;

And that the more, fith destiny was fo ftern
As, force perforce, there might no force avail
But she must fall: and, by her fall, we learn
That cities, towers, wealth, world, and all shall quail;
No manhood, might, nor nothing mought prevail;
All were there preft, full many a prince and peer,
And many a knight that fold his death full dear:

Not worthy HECTOR, worthieft of them all,
Her hope, her joy, his force is now for nought:
O Troy, Troy, Troy, there is no boot but bale!
The hugy horse within thy walls is brought;
Thy turrets fall; thy knights, that whilom fought
In arms amid the field, are flain in bed;
Thy gods defil'd, and all thy honour dead :

The flames upfpring, and cruelly they creep
From wall to roof, 'till all to cinders waste :
Some fire the houses where the wretches fleep;
Some rush in here, fome run in there as fast;
In every where or fword, or fire, they taste :
The walls are torn, the towers whirl'd to the ground;
There is no mischief but may there be found.

CASSANDRA yet there faw I how they hal'd
From PALLAS' house, with fpercled trefs undone,
Her wrifts fast bound, and with Greek rout impal'd;

And

« הקודםהמשך »