Prefer to thy passion and thoughts of this man The sentiment due to a daughter of Rome! CAMILLA. Rome! Object supreme of the wrath that I feel! This Rome, to whose aid came thy arm-and my loss; Rome, city that bore thee-by thee so adored! Rome, hated the more for its honoring thee! Oh may each of her neighbors together in league Let the East and the West for her ruin unite Let peoples conjoined from the four winds of heaven, Oh grant that mine own eyes such thunderbolt see! - See the latest of Romans yielding his last breath, I cause of it all-I dying of joy! [With the last words CAMILLA rushes from the apartment. HORACE snatches his sword and pursues her, exclaiming :-] Oh too much! Even reason to passion gives place. Go, weep thou thy lost Curiace in the shades! [After an instant is heard behind the scenes the shriek of the wounded CAMILLA:] Ah! traitor! HORACE [returning to the stage]. Receive thou quick chastisement, due Whomsoever shall dare Roman foe to lament. 3072 CHARLES COTTON. COTTON, CHARLES, an English poet; born at Beresford, Staffordshire, in England, April 28, 1630; died at Westminster in February, 1687. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. At twenty-eight he succeeded to the family estates, which, though nominally large, had become greatly encumbered by the extravagance of his father. He became the adopted son of Izaak Walton, and lived the life of a jolly country gentleman, always in want of more money than he had. He wrote a good deal of verse, either original or translated from the French and Italian. He wrote an addition to the "Complete Angler" of Walton. Most of his poems were the result of his close intimacy with his foster-father. His reputation rests chiefly upon his translations, the most notable of which was that of Montaigne's "Essays." In 1671 he published a translation of Corneille's "Horace." Among his other publications were "Scarronides, or the First Book of Virgil Travestie" (1664); "A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque" (1670); a translation of Gerard's "Life of the Duke of Espernon" (1670); and of the "Commentaries of De Montluc, Marshal of France" (1674). INVITATION TO IZAAK WALTON. WHILST in this cold and blustering clime, We pass away the roughest time Has been of many years before; Whilst from the most tempestuous nooks, Whilst all the ills are so improved Of this dead quarter of the year, That even you, so much beloved, We would not now wish with us here: In this estate, I say, it is Some comfort to us to suppose That in a better clime than this, You, our dear friend, have more repose; And some delight to me the while, Though Nature now does weep in rain, To think that I have seen her smile, And haply I may do again. If the all-ruling Power please, We then shall have a day or two, A day with not too bright a beam; And, master, half our work is done. Then, whilst behind some bush we wait And think ourselves, in such an hour, Happier than those; though not so high, Who, like leviathans, devour Of meaner men the smaller fry. This, my best friend, at my poor home, Shall be our pastime and our theme; But then should you not deign to come, You make all this a flattering dream. NO ILLS BUT WHAT WE MAKE. THERE are no ills but what we make Which is the dangerous mistake That causes all our sufferings. O fruitful grief, the world's disease! We call that sickness which is health; That in what state soe'er 't is spent, Of joy or woe, does not import, Provided it be innocent. But we may make it pleasant too, If we will take our measures right, And not what Heaven has done undo By an unruly appetite. The world is full of unbeaten roads, That where one walks secure 't is odds Untrodden paths are then the best, Where the frequented are unsure; And he comes soonest to his rest Whose journey has been most secure. It is content alone that makes Our pilgrimage a pleasure here; And who buys sorrow cheapest, takes An ill commodity too dear. ABRAHAM COWLEY. COWLEY, ABRAHAM, an English poet and essayist; born at London in 1618; died at Chertsey, Surrey, July 28, 1667. While very young he began to write verses. In his tenth year he composed a "Tragicall History of Piramus and Thisbe," and two years later "Constantia and Philetus." He wrote in his thirteenth year an "Elegy on the Death of Dudley, Lord Carlton." At eighteen, Cowley entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he wrote one book of the "Davideis," of which three other books were afterward written. "Love's Riddle," and a Latin comedy, the "Naufragium Joculare," were printed in 1638, and in 1641 was printed "The Guardian," a dramatic work. In 1646 he followed the queen to Paris, where he remained ten years. In 1647, a collection of his love-verses, entitled "The Mistress," was published. In 1656 Cowley published a volume of his collected poems, and found himself the most highly esteemed poet of his time. On the death of Cromwell, he escaped to France, and returned to England only at the Restoration. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, near Chaucer and Spenser. His poems, so highly praised in his lifetime, are now little read. A SUPPLICATION. AWAKE, awake, my Lyre! And tell thy silent master's humble tale In sounds that may prevail; Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire Though so exalted she, And I so lowly be, Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony, Hark! how the strings awake; And though the moving hand approach not near, A kind of numerous trembling make. Now all thy forces try, Now all thy charms apply; Revenge upon her ear the conquests of her eye. |