Respice et has lacrymas, memori quas ictus amore Fundo; quod possum, juxtà lugere sepulchrum Dum juvat, et mutæ vana hæc jactare favillæ.

*

*

*

29

GREEK EPIGRAM.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 45.]

Αζόμενος πολυθηραν ἐκηβόλου ἄλσος ἀνάσσας,
Τᾶς δεινῶς τεμένη λεῖπε κυναγὲ θεᾶς,
Μοῦνοι ἄρ ̓ ἔνθα κύνων ζαθέων κλαγγεῦσιν ὑλάγμοι,
̓Ανταχεῖς Νυμφᾶν ἀγροτερᾶν κελάδῳ.

V. 29. “ Taliaque illacrymans mutæ jace verba favilla.”

Propert. Eleg. ii. i. 77.

EXTRACTS.

PETRARCA PART I. SONETTO 170.

"Lasso ch' i' ardo, ed altri non mel crede; " &c.

IMITATED.*

4

UROR, io; veros at nemo credidet ignes:
Quin credunt omnes; dura sed illa negat,
Illa negat, soli volumus cui posse probare;
Quin videt, et visos improba dissimulat.
Ah, durissima mî, sed et, ah, pulcherrima rerum!
Nonne animam in miserâ, Cynthia, fronte vides?
Omnibus illa pia est; et, si non fata vetâssent,

Tam longas mentem flecteret ad lacrymas. Sed tamen has lacrymas, hunc tu, quem spreveris, ignem,

Carminaque auctori non bene culta suo, Turba futurorum non ignorabit amantûm:

10

Nos duo, cumque erimus parvus uterque cinis, Jamque faces, eheu! oculorum, et frigida lingua, Hæ sine luce jacent, immemor illa loqui; Infelix musa æternos spirabit amores, Ardebitque urnâ multa favilla meâ.

15

*Great judgment is evinced in the imitation of this sonnet in elegiac Propertian verse; and the substitution of the name of Cynthia, for the Laura of Petrarch, gives it an air of originality in the Latin language, and marks that propriety which distinguishes every composition of Mr. Gray. Mason.

MR. GRAY paid very particular attention to the Anthologia Græca, and he enriched an interleaved edition of it (by Henry Stephens in 1566) with copious notes, with parallel passages from various authors, and with some conjectural emendations of the text. He translated, or imitated, a few of the epigrams; and as the editor thinks that the reader may not be displeased with the terse, elegant, and animated manner in which Mr. Gray transfused their spirit into the Latin language, he is presented with a specimen.

FROM THE ANTHOLOGIA GRÆCA.

EDIT. HEN. STEPH. 1566.

IN BACCHE FURENTIS STATUAM.1

CREDITE, non viva est Mænas; non spirat imago : Artificis rabiem miscuit ære manus.

IN ALEXANDRUM, ÆRE EFFICTUM.2

QUANTUM audet, Lysippe, manus tua! surgit in

ære

Spiritus, atque oculis bellicus ignis adest: Spectate hos vultus, miserisque ignoscite Persis: Quid mirum, imbelles si leo sparsit oves?

IN MEDEÆ IMAGINEM, NOBILE TIMOMACHI OPUS.3

EN ubi Medeæ varius dolor æstuat ore,
Jamque animum nati, jamque maritus, habent!

1 Anthol. p. 296. 2 Ib. p. 314. 3 Ib. p. 317.

Succenset, miseret, medio exardescit amore,

Dum furor inque oculo gutta minante tremit. Cernis adhuc dubiam; quid enim? licet impia

matris

Colchidos, at non sit dextera Timomachi.

IN NIOBES STATUAM.4

FECERAT e vivâ lapidem me Jupiter; at me
Praxiteles vivam reddidit e lapide.

A NYMPH OFFERING A STATUE OF HERSELF TO VENUS.

Te tibi, sancta, fero nudam; formosius ipsa
Cum tibi, quod ferrem, te, Dea, nil habui.

IN AMOREM DORMIENTEM.5

DOCTE puer vigiles mortalibus addere curas,
Anne potest in te somnus habere locum?
Laxi juxta arcus, et fax suspensa quiescit,
Dormit et in pharetrâ clausa sagitta suâ ;
Longè mater abest; longè Cythereïa turba :
Verùm ausint alii te prope ferre pedem,

Non ego: nam metui valdè, mihi, perfide, quiddam
Forsan et in somnis ne meditere mali.

4 Anthol. p. 315.

5 Ib. p. 332. Catullianam illam spirat mollitiem. Gray.

FROM A FRAGMENT OF PLATO.6

ITUR in Idalios tractus, felicia regna,
Fundit ubi densam myrtea sylva comam,
Intus Amor teneram visus spirare quietem,
Dum roseo roseos imprimit ore toros;
Sublimem procul a ramis pendere pharetram,
Et de languidulâ spicula lapsa manu,
Vidimus, et risu molli diducta labella
Murmure quæ assiduo pervolitabat apis.

IN FONTEM AQUE CALIDÆ.7

SUB platanis puer Idalius prope fluminis undam Dormiit, in ripâ deposuitque facem.

Tempus adest, sociæ, Nympharum audentior una, Tempus adest, ultra quid dubitamus? ait.

Ilicet incurrit, pestem ut divûmque hominumque Lampada collectis exanimaret aquis:

Demens! nam nequiit sævam restinguere flam

mam

Nympha, sed ipsa ignes traxit, et inde calet.

8 IRREPSISSE suas murem videt Argus in ædes, Atque ait, heus, a me nunquid, amice, velis? Ille autem ridens, metuas nihil, inquit; apud te, O bone, non epulas, hospitium petimus.

*Elegantissimum hercle fragmentum, quod sic Latinè nostro modo adumbravimus." Gray.

6 The second of the name. Anthol. p. 332.