The Poems and Fragments of Catullus | Page 2

be short; (2) syllables made long by the accent falling upon them are in some cases shortened, as _r(u)[i]ne_, _p(e)r(i)sh[e]d_, _cr(u)[e]l_; (3) syllables which the absence of the accent only allows to be long _in thesi_, are, in virtue of the classical laws of position, permitted to rank as long elsewhere--_mom[e]nt of his_, _[o]f this epistle_. It needs little reflection to see that it is to one or other of these three peculiarities that the failure of the Elizabethan writers of classical metres must be ascribed. Pentameters like
_Gratefulness, sweetness, holy love, hearty regard,?That the delights of life shall be to him dolorous,?And even in that love shall I reserve him a spite;_
sapphics like
_Are then humane mindes privileg'd so meanly?As that hateful death can abridg them of power?With the vow of truth to record to all worlds
That we bee her spoils?_
hexameters like
_F[i]re n(o) l(i)quor can cool: Nept[u]ne's re[a]lm would not avail us. Nurs inw[a]rd m(a)l(a)di[e]s, which have not scope to bee breath'd out. Oh n(o) n(o), worthie sheph[e]rd, worth c[a]n never enter a title;_
are too alien from ordinary pronunciation to please either an average reader or a classically trained student. The same may be said of the translation into English hexameters of the two first Eclogues of Virgil, appended by William Webbe to his _Discourse of English Poetrie_ (1586, recently reprinted by Mr. Arber). Here is his version of Ecl. I., 1-10.
MELIBAEUS.
_Tityrus, happilie then lyste tumbling under a beech tree, All in a fine oate pipe these sweete songs lustilie chaunting: We, poore soules goe to wracke, and from these coastes be remoued, And fro our pastures sweete: thou Tityr, at ease in a shade plott Makst thicke groues to resound with songes of brave Amarillis._
TITYRUS.
_O Melibaeus, he was no man, but a God who releeude me: Euer he shalbe my God: from this same Sheepcot his alters Neuer, a tender lambe shall want, with blood to bedew them. This good gift did he giue, to my steeres thus freelie to wander, And to my selfe (thou seest) on pipe to resound what I listed._
_ib._ 50-56.
_Here no unwoonted foode shall grieue young theaues who be laded, Nor the infections foule of neighbours flocke shall annoie them. Happie olde man. In shaddowy bankes and coole prettie places, Heere by the quainted floodes and springs most holie remaining. Here, these quicksets fresh which lands seuer out fro thy neighbors And greene willow rowes which Hiblae bees doo rejoice in, Oft fine whistring noise, shall bring sweete sleepe to thy sences._
The following stanzas are from a Sapphic ode into which Webbe translated, or as we should say, transposed the fourth Eclogue of Spenser's _Sheepheardes Calendar_.
_Say, behold did ye euer her Angelike face,?Like to Phoebe fayre? or her heauenly hauour?And the princelike grace that in her remaineth?
haue yee the like seene?_
_Vnto that place Caliope dooth high her,?Where my Goddesse shines: to the same the Muser?After her with sweete Violines about them
cheerefully tracing._
_All ye Sheepheardes maides that about the greene dwell, Speede ye there to her grace, but among ye take heede?All be Virgins pure that aproche to deck her,
dutie requireth._
_When ye shall present ye before her in place,?See ye not your selues doo demeane too rudely:?Bynd the fillets: and to be fine the waste gyrt
fast with a tawdryne._
_Bring the Pinckes therewith many Gelliflowres sweete,?And the Cullambynes: let vs haue the Wynesops,?With the Coronation that among the loue laddes
wontes to be worne much._
_Daffadowndillies all a long the ground strowe,?And the Cowslyppe with a prety paunce let heere lye.?Kyngcuppe and Lillies so beloude of all men
and the deluce flowre._
There are many faults in these verses; over quaintnesses of language, constructions impossible in English, quantities of doubtful correctness, harsh elisions, for Webbe has tried even elisions. Yet, if I may trust my judgment, all of them can still be read with pleasure; the sapphics may almost be called a success. This is even more true of metres, where these faults are less perceptible or more easily avoided, for instance, Asclepiads. Take the verses on solitariness, Arcadia, B. II. fin.
_O sweet woods, the delight [o]f s(o)l(i)t[a]riness!?O how much I do like your solitariness!?Where man's mind hath a freed consideration?Of goodness to receive lovely direction._
or the hendecasyllables immediately preceding,
_Reason tell me thy minde, if here be reason,?In this strange violence, to make resistance,?Where sweet graces erect the stately banner._
It is obvious that a very little more trouble would have converted these into very perfect and very pleasing poems. Had Sir Philip Sidney written every asclepiad on the model of _Where man's mind hath a freed consideration_, every hendecasyllable like _Where sweet graces erect the stately banner_, the adjustment of accent and quantity thus attained might, I think, have induced greater poets than he to make the experiment on a larger scale. But neither he nor his contemporaries were permitted to