The Poems and Fragments of Catullus | Page 2

d(i)saster_, still less _[o]f th(i)s d(i)rection._ The other
element of quantity is less rigidly defined; for (1) syllables strictly long,
as _I_, _thy_, _so_, are allowed to 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