No More Learning

EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
Cuchullin —
The dogs are my comrades and my namesakes ; Like my Luath they are friendly unto me.
O'er the foss I will bear thee in my arms —
I will leap across the foss, my love, with thee.
265
Eimer —
Forward wide, all the tribes and the nations Over Bregia, northwards to Dun — Sir, — They are kin to my father and his subjects For thy life I fear, O noble Cuchullin.
Cuchullin —
On the lawn within the beechen shadows
Is my chariot light and strong, bright with gold ; And steeds like the March wind in their swiftness Will bear thee to Dundalgan ere the dawn.
Eimer —
I grieve to leave my father, O Setanta, Mild to me, though his nature be not mild ; I grieve to leave my native land, Setanta, Frisk with its streams and fairy glades.
I grieve to leave my Dun, O Setanta,
And this lawn, and the trees I know so well, And this, my tiny chamber looking eastward, Where love found me unknowing of his power.
Well I know the great wrong I do my father, But thus, even thus I fly with thee ;
As the sea draws down the little Tolka
So thou, O Cuchullin, drawest me.
Like a god descending from the mountains, So hast thou descended upon me ;
I would die to save thy life, O Setanta,
I would die if thou caredst not for me.
The Fight of Cuchullin and Ferdtah at the Ford. Translation of O'CUERY.
[King Ailill and Queen Maev threaten Ferdiah" with the bardic curse " which withers and dishonors heroes if he re fuses to meet his former friend and companion, Cuchullin, in
combat. ]
Maev and Ailill sent to the Bards to make a great outcry
266 EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
and get up an excitement, and raise up a triple barrier of scandal and reproach against his name unless he came to them. Then came Ferdiah to them, for it was better for him to fall in chivalrous and martial exploit than to fall by the libels and outcries of the Bards. And when he came, a full and wondrous joy took possession of Ailill and Maev, and they promised him abundance of goods if he would go and encounter exalted Cuchullin, and that he should be free of imposition of exaction or tribute, and that nothing should ever be required of him during eternity. And that he should get for a wife Fionbar, the beauteous only daughter of Ailill and Maev, who excelled in beauty and in form all the women of the world, and that he should take the golden jewel that was in the cloak of Maev, a talisman of great virtue. . . . Ferdiah took his steeds and mounted his chariot at the rising of the sun. . . . And Ferdiah beheld the polished bounding chariot of Cuchullin com ing rapidly and actively, with his people clad in green, and with a shaking of stout spears and dexterous bloodthirsty javelins held up aloft. And two fleet steeds under the chariot, bound ing broad-chested, high-spirited, holding high their heads and arching their long necks. And they were as a hawk on a sharp blustering day, or as a whirlwind in a brisk spring day in March in its course over the lovely wide marshy plains. Or like a beauteous excellent deer at the first starting of the hounds — such were those two steeds under the chariot of Cuchullin.
And Ferdiah gave Cuchullin a manly and a truly mild wel come. And then said Cuchullin : " O Ferdiah, it was not meet of thee to come to do battle with me at the jealous in stigation and complaint of Ailill and Maev, and for the sake of their false promises and deceitful gifts. O Ferdiah, and woe is it to thee to have abandoned my friendship for the friend ship of any one woman. Fifty champions have hitherto fallen by me, and long is it ere I would forsake thee for the promises of any woman ; for we were together gaining instruction in chivalry, and together went we to every battle and conflict, and together pursued we the chase, and together were we in every desolate place of darkness and sorcery. "
" Dost thou bear in mind, great Cuchullin," said Ferdiah, " the generous exercise we used to go through with Uatha and Scatha and with Aife" ? " " Well do I remember them," said Cuchullin. " And now let us joust with our trusty spears. "
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE. 267
And they made ready their chariots and did so. And they began piercing and overthrowing one another from the dusky dawn of the morning until eventide. And after that they ceased. And they handed their arms to their attendants, and gave each other many a kiss. And their steeds rested at the same time ; and their attendants were at the same fire for the night. And two lofty beds of rushes were made ready for these wounded heroes. The herbs that assuage pain were brought, and cures to alleviate their sufferings, and they tended them that night, and every remedy and every charm that was applied to Cuchullin was equally divided with Ferdiah.
Thus were they that night, and they arose early in the morning to go to the field of combat. — " Thou art looking badly to-day, O Ferdiah," said Cuchullin ; " for thine hair has lost its gloss, and thine eyes are heavy, and thine upright form and sprightliness have deserted thee. " " It is neither through fear or dread of thine encounter I am so," said Ferdiah ; " for there is not in Erin a champion that I would not do battle with this day. " " It is a pity, O Ferdiah, nor is it for thy good to confront thine own comrade and fellow-soldier at the instigation of any woman of the world. " "Pity it is," said Ferdiah, " but were I to go hence without encountering thee, I shall be forever under the aspersion of cowardice with Maev and with Ailill and with all the men of Erin. " . . .
And so Ferdiah fought for the sake of his honor, for he preferred to fall by the shafts of valor, gallantry, and bravery, rather than by the shafts of satire, censure, and reproach. . . . And at last Ferdiah fell down there, and a cloud, and a faint, and a weakness came on Cuchullin, and the hero, exhausted by his wounds and long-continued strife, and still more by the distress of mind caused by the death of his loved friend, lay long on his bed of sickness, and was unable to take part in the coming battle between the Ultonians and the forces of Ailill and Maev.
The Death of Cttchullin. Translation of STANDISH O'GBADY.
As Cuchullin and Leagh, his charioteer, traveled, they saw a smoke on the edge of the wood that ascended not into the still air, but lay low, hovering around the leafless trees, and soon they saw where a party of wandering outcasts had made
268 EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
their encampment beside the wood, and they sat around the fire cooking ; for a brazen pot was suspended from a branch between forked supporters, and they were cooking their evening meal.
" Methinks I never saw such miserable wanderers as these. There are three men and three women, all very old, and wretched, and meanly clad. "
And Leagh said : —
But when the outcasts saw Cuchullin, they lifted up their voices in a hard and dissonant chorus, and said : —
" Right well have we chosen our encampment, O mighty prince, for we said that this way thou wouldst go down to the battle, and we knew that no arts or persuasions would restrain thee that thou shouldst not come out, as of yore, to the assist ance of thy people. Hail to thee, O Cuchullin, O flame of the heroes of Erin, and to thee, O illustrious son of Riangowra. "
But as they spake they all stood up, and they were very hideous to look upon, marred, as Cuchullin and Leagh thought, by some evil destiny. They were clad in the skins of black he-goats, and on the breast of each, instead of pin or brooch, was the shank bone of a heron, or a swan, or such like bird ; their arms and legs were lean and bony, but their hands and feet large, and they were all maimed in the right hand and the right foot.
But Cuchullin answered them as was his wont, for many such a greeting had he received from unwarlike people and out casts, for such especially cherished his glory. Then, as Leagh was urging on the steeds, one limped forward and stood before the steeds and said : —
" O Cuchullin, partake with us of our poor repast, not meet for princes, but such as we outcasts can procure trapping wild animals ; and we ourselves are like wild animals hunted to and fro. They say indeed that in many a poor man's cot thou hast eaten food, and sat beside many a humble fire, not knowing thine own greatness. " —
And Cuchullin said :
" The night is already upon us, O Leagh, and we cannot
travel further ; let us not insult these unhappy people, maimed and outcast, by refusing what they offer. "
Leagh reluctantly consented, and unharnessed the steeds from the great war car, and he returned to Cuchullin, who sat beside the fire among the outlaws, for he was chill from sitting all day in the war car. Nevertheless, he was not warmed by the fire.
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE. 269
But Cuchullin was glad when the charioteer drew nigh, for he was distressed at the conversation of these homeless people, and their countenances, and their forms ; for their wretchedness sat lightly upon them, and they were very gay and mirthful, as they sat holding the flesh on skewers of the rowan over the embers, and they made obscene jests, and answered in a language which he could not comprehend, and it seemed to him that the women were worse than the men. Moreover, the sun set, and the darkness came down, and mysterious sounds came from the sacred hill, the noise of the trees, and of the fall ing water, and he saw naught but these unlovely faces around.
When the flesh was cooked they gave a portion to Cuchul lin, and he ate thereof, but Leagh refused with an oath. Then these outcasts laughed and sprang to their feet, and they joined hands around them twain, and danced upon their misshapen feet, and sang : —
" Sisters and brothers, join hands, he is ours ;
Let the charm work, he is ours. — A rath in Murthemney holds twenty-eight skulls Work on, little charm, he is ours ! "
" Hast thou heard, O Cuchullin, of Clan Cailitin ? " 1
But Cuchullin drew his sword, crying : —
" O brood of hell, see now if your charms are proof against
keen bronze. "
But they bounded away nimbly like goats, and still encircled
him, singing. Then one plunged into the wood, and all fol lowed ; and there was cracked, obscene laughter in the forest, and then silence. Cuchullin stood panting, and very pallid, with wide eyes ; but Leagh crouched upon the ground.
"They are gone, O Leagh. It was some horrible vision. Here was the fire where the grass is yet unburned, and there is no trace of the rowan-tree spits, or of the flesh. "
But Leagh recovered himself with difficulty, and spake with a stammering tongue ; and they found there no trace of the encampment of the outcasts save the skin of a wolf lately slain.
" I marvel, O Leagh, how the mighty and righteous Loi, to whom this mountain is sacred, can suffer within his precincts
1A druidical clan, powerful in working evil enchantments, and implacable enemies of Cuchullin.
And Cuchullin said : —
And Cuchullin said : —
270 EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
this horrid brood. O mountain dwelling, unseen king, shield us at least" within thine own borders against these powers of darkness !
Cuchullin and Leagh slept not that night. And when it was dawn Leagh harnessed the steeds and yoked the chariot. And about noon they beheld the first signs of the invasion, and saw afar the lurid smoke of conflagration, and heard the dis tant noise of battle. Then Leagh unfolded and closed the glittering scythes, to see if they would work freely, urging on the steeds, and Cuchullin stood erect in the chariot, looking southwards. . . .
And as the Ultonians grew less in the dread conflict, the southern warriors precipitated themselves upon Cuchullin, and like a great rock over which rolls some mighty billow of the western sea, so was Cuchullin often submerged in the overflow ing tide ; and as with the down-sinking billow the same rock reappears in its invincible greatness, and the white brine runs down its stubborn ribs, so the son of Suailtam perpetually re appeared, scattering and destroying his foes. Then crashed his battle mace through opposing shields ; then flew the foam flakes from his lips over his reddened garments ; baleful shone his eyes beneath his brows, and his voice died away in his throat till it became a hoarse whisper. Often, too, Leagh charged with the war car, and extricated him surrounded, and the mighty steeds trampled down opposing squadrons, and many a southern hero was transfixed with the chariot spear, or divided by the brazen scythes.
And on the eighth day, two hours after noon, Cuchullin, raising his eyes, beheld where the last of the Red Branch were overwhelmed ; and he and Leagh were abandoned and alone, and he heard Leagh shouting, for he was surrounded by a battalion, and Cuchullin hastened back to defend him, and sprang into the chariot, bounding over the rim. There he in tercepted three javelins cast against the charioteer by a Lage- nian band ; but Ere, son of Cairbre Nia-Far, pursued him, and at the same time cast his spear from the right. Through Cuchullin it passed, breaking through the battle shirt and the waist piece, and it pierced his left side between the hip bone and the lowest rib, and transfixed Leagh in the stomach above the navel. Then fell the reins from"the hands of Leagh.
" How is it with thee, O Leagh? said then Cuchullin. And Leagh answered : —
"I have had enough this time, O my dear master. "
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
271
Then Cuchullin cut through the spear tree with his colg, and tore forth the tree out of himself ; but meantime, Lewy Mac Conroi stabbed the steed, black Shanglan, with his red hands, driving the spear through his left side, behind the shoulder, and Shanglan fell, overturning the war car, and Cuchullin sprang forth, but as he sprang Lewy Mac Conroi pierced him through the bowels. Then fell the great hero of the Gael.
Thereat the sun darkened, and the earth trembled, and a wail of agony from immortal mouths shrilled across the land, and a pale panic smote the vast host of Meav when, with a crash, fell that pillar of heroism, and that flame of the warlike valor of Erin was extinguished. Then, too, from his slain comrade brake the divine steed, the Liath Macha ; for, like a housewife's thread, the divine steed brake the traces, and the brazen chains, and the yoke and bounded forth neighing, and three times he encircled the heroes, trampling down the hosts of Meav. Afar then retreated the host, and the Liath Macha, wearing still the broken collar, went back into the realms of the unseen. "
But Cuchullin kissed Leagh, and Leagh, dying, said :
well, O dear master and schoolfellow. Till the end of the world no servant will have a better master than thou hast been to me. "
And Cuchullin said : " Farewell, O dear Leagh. The gods of Erin have deserted us, and the Clan Cailitin are now abroad, and what will happen to us henceforward I know not. But true and faithful thou hast ever been to me, and it is now seventeen years since we plighted friendship, and no angry word has ever passed between us since then. "
Then the spirit went out of Leagh, and he died, and Cuchullin, raising his eyes, saw thence northwestward, about two hundred yards, a small lake called Loch-an-Tanaigte, and he tore forth from himself the bloody spear, and went stagger ing, and at times he fell ; nevertheless, he reached the lake, and stooped down and drank a deep draught of the pure cold water, keen with frost, and the burning fever in his veins was allayed. After that he arose, and saw northward from the lake a tall pillar stone, the grave of a warrior slain there in some ancient war, and its name was Carrig-an-Compan. With difficulty he reached and he leaned awhile against the pil
lar, for his mind wandered, and he knew nothing for
After that he took off his brooch, and removing the torn bratta, he passed round the top of the pillar, where there was an indentation in the stone, and passed the ends under his
space.
Fare
it
it,
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272 EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
arms and around his breast, tying with languid hands a loose knot, which soon was made fast by the weight of the dying hero ; so that he might not die in his sitting, or lying, but that he might die in his standing. But the host of Meav, when they beheld him, retired again, for they said that he was im mortal, and that Lu Lamfada would once more come down from fairyland to his aid, and that they would wreak a terrible vengeance. So afar they retreated, when they beheld him standing with a drawn sword in his hand and the rays of the setting sun bright on his panic-striking helmet.
Now, as Cuchullin stood dying, a stream of blood trickled from his wounds, and ran in a devious way down to the lake, and poured its tiny red current into the pure water ; and as Cuchullin looked upon thinking many things in his deep mind, there came forth an otter out of the reeds of the lake and approached the pebbly strand, where the blood flowed into the water, having been attracted thither by the smell, and at the point where the blood flowed into the lake, he lapped up the lifeblood of the hero, looking up from time to time, after the manner of dog feeding. Which seeing, Cuchullin gazed upon the otter, and he smiled for the last time, and said —
"O thou greedy water dog, often in my boyhood have pursued thy race in the rivers and lakes of Murthemney but now thou hast full eric [blood-money], who drinkest the blood of me dying. Nor do grudge thee this thy bloody meal. Drink on, thou happy beast. To thee, too, doubtless there will some time be an hour of woe. "
Then terrible loneliness and desolation came over his mind, and again he saw the faces of the wandering clan and they laughed around him, and taunted him, and said —
" Thus shalt thou perish, Hound, and thus shall all like thee be forsaken and deserted. An early death and desolation shall be their lot, for we are powerful over men and over gods, and the kingdom that seen and the kingdom that unseen belong to us " and they ringed him round, and chanted obscene songs, and triumphed.
Nevertheless, they terrified him not, for deep spring of stern valor was opened in his soul, and the might of his unfath omable spirit sustained him.
Then was Cuchullin aware that the Clan Cailitin retired, as though in fear and after that the soul of the mild, handsome, invincible hero departed from him.
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KING DATHY'S DEATH. 273
KING DATHY'S DEATH. (Translated from the Irish by James Clarence Mangan. )
[James Clarence Mangan, an Irish poet, was born in Dublin, May 1, 1803. As a boy he was a copyist and attorney's clerk, and worked at the former trade intermittently all his life. Extreme poverty, overwork, bohemian irregularity and exposure, and opium, made him a physical wreck ; and he died of cholera June 20, 1849. Several partial editions of his poems have been published. The bulk of them, and his best work, are translations. ]
King Dathy assembled his Druids and Sages, And thus he spake them : " Druids and Sages !
What of King Dathy?
What is revealed in Destiny's pages
Of him or his ? Hath he
Aught for the Future to dread or to dree ? Good to rejoice in, or evil to flee ?
Ishe afoeoftheGall— " Fitted to conquer or fated to fall ?
And Beirdra, the Druid, made answer as thus, — " A priest of a hundred years was he : —
Dathy ! thy fate is not hidden from us ! Hear it through me ! —
Thou shalt work thine own will ! Thou shalt slay, thou shalt prey,
And be Conqueror still !
Thee the Earth shall not harm ! Thee we charter and charm From all evil and ill !
Thee the laurel shall crown ! Thee the wave shall not drown ! Thee the chain shall not bind ! Thee the spear shall not find ! Thee the sword shall not slay ! Thee the shaft shall not pierce !
Thou, therefore, be fearless and fierce ! And sail with thy warriors away
To the lands of the Gall, There to slaughter and sway, And be Victor o'er all ! "
So Dathy he sailed away, away, Over the deep resounding sea ;
vol. v. — 18
KING DATHY'S DEATH.
Sailed with his hosts in armor gray Over the deep resounding sea,
Many a night and many a day;
And many an islet conquered he,
He and his hosts in armor gray.
And the billow drowned him not, And a fetter bound him not,
And the blue spear found him not, And the red sword slew him not, And the swift shaft knew him not, And the foe o'erthrew him not :
Till, one bright morn, at the base
Of the Alps, in rich Ausonia's regions,
His men stood marshaled face to face With the mighty Roman legions.
Noble foes !
Christian and Heathen stood there amongst those, Resolute all to overcome,
Or die for the Eagles of Ancient Rome !
When, behold ! from a temple anear Came forth an aged priestlike man,
Of a countenance meek and clear, Who, turning to Eire's Ceann,
Spake him as thus: "King Dathy ! hear! Thee would I warn !
Retreat ! retire ! Repent in time The invader's crime ;
Or better for thee thou hadst never been born ! * But Dathy replied : " False Nazarene !
Dost thou then menace Dathy ? thou !
And dreamest thou that he will bow To One unknown, to One so mean,
So powerless as a priest must be ? He scorns alike thy threats and thee ! On! on, mymen! tovictory! "
And, with loud shouts for Eire's King, The Irish rush to meet the foe ;
And falchions clash and bucklers ring,— When, lo!
Lo ! a mighty earthquake's shock ! And the cleft plains reel and rock ; Clouds of darkness pall the skies;
Thunder crashes, Lightning flashes,
THE MAGUIKE. 275
And in an instant Dathy lies
On the earth a mass of blackened ashes ! Then, mournfully and dolefully,
The Irish warriors sailed away
Over the deep resounding sea, Till wearily and mournfully, — They anchored in Eblana's Bay. Thus the Seanachies and Sages
Tell this tale of long-gone ages.
THE MAGUIRE.
Where is my Chief, my Master, this bleak night ? mavrone !
O, cold, cold, miserably cold is this bleak night for Hugh !
Its showery, arrowy, speary sleet pierceth one through and through,
Pierceth one to the very bone.
Rolls real thunder ? Or, was that red livid light
Only a meteor ?
I
The pitiless ice wind streams. Except the hate that persecutes him
scarce know ; but through the midnight dim Nothing hath crueler venomy might.
An awful, a tremendous night is this, meseems !
The flood gates of the rivers of heaven, I think, have been burst
wide;
Down from the overcharged clouds, like unto headlong ocean's tide,
Descends gray rain in roaring streams.
Though he were even a wolf ranging the round green woods, Though he were even a pleasant salmon in the unchainable sea, Though he were a wild mountain eagle, he could scarce bear, he,
This sharp sore sleet, these howling floods.
O, mournful is my soul this night for Hugh Maguire ! Darkly as in a dream he strays! Before him and behind Triumphs the tyrannous anger of the wounding wind,
The wounding wind, that burns as fire !
It is my bitter grief — it cuts me to the heart —
That in the country of Clan Darry this should be his fate ! 0, woe is me ! where is he ? Wandering houseless, desolate,
Alone, without or guide or chart !
276 THE MAGUIRE.
Medreams I see just now his face, the strawberry-bright,
Uplifted to the blackened heavens, while the tempestuous winds Blow fiercely over and round him, and the smiting sleet shower
blinds
The hero of Galang to-night !
Large, large affliction unto me and mine it is,
That one of his majestic bearing, his fair stately form,
Should thus be tortured and o'erborne ; that this unsparing storm
Should wreak its wrath on head like his !
That his great hand, so oft the avenger of the oppressed,
Should this chill, churlish night, perchance, be paralyzed by frost ; While through some icicle-hung thicket, as One lorn and lost,
He walks and wanders without rest.
The tempest-driven torrent deluges the mead,
It overflows the low banks of the rivulets and ponds ; The lawns and pasture grounds lie locked in icy bonds,
So that the cattle cannot feed.
The pale bright margins of the streams are seen by none ; Rushes and sweeps along the untamable flood on every side ; It penetrates and fills the cottagers' dwellings far and wide ;
Water and land are blent in one.
Through some dark woods, 'mid bones of monsters, Hugh now strays ;
As he confronts the storm with anguished heart, but manly brow, — O ! what a sword wound to that tender heart of his were now
A backward glance at peaceful days !
But other thoughts are his, — thoughts that can still inspire — With joy and an onward-bounding hope the bosom of MacNee, Thoughts of his warriors charging like bright billows of the sea,
Borne on the wind's wings, flashing fire !
And though frost glaze to-night the clear dew of his eyes, And white ice gauntlets glove his noble fine fair fingers o'er, A warm dress is to him that lightning garb he ever wore, —
The lightning of the soul, not skies.
Hugh marched forth to the fight — I grieved to see him so depart; And lo ! to-night he wanders frozen, rain-drenched, sad, betrayed : But the memory of the lime-white mansions his right hand hath laid
In ashes warms the hero's heart !
MAN WANTS BUT LITTLE 277
MAN WANTS BUT LITTLE. By LUCRETIUS.
(Translation by W. H. Mallock. )
[Titus Lucretius Cakus, a Roman poet of the first rank in original genius and artistic ability, was probably born b. c. 99 or 98, and died b. c. 55, perhaps by suicide from melancholia or mental overstrain. Nothing is really known of his life, though he was younger than Cicero (who probably published his great poem posthumously) and Caesar, and died when Catullus was over thirty and Horace a boy : his one brief biography dates four centuries later and is fabulous. But this silence proves that he was a quiet student and artist : apparently a mem ber of a great Roman aristocratic house, certainly of the highest culture, and used in early life to all the luxury of the best society ; very sensitive and of broad humanity, and keenly appreciative of nature in all aspects. He adopted enthu siastically the Epicurean system of philosophy on its highest plane, — as opposed to the Stoic system which was coming into general vogue in Rome, — and em bodied it in his great poem "On the Nature of Things," which works out the atomistic theory of the universe with great splendor of thought and poetry. ]
Mother and mistress of the Roman race, Pleasure of gods and men, O fostering
Venus, whose presence breathes in every place, Peopling all soils whence fruits and grasses spring,
And all the water's navigable ways,
Water and earth and air and everything,
Since by thy power alone their life is given To all beneath the sliding signs of heaven ;
Goddess, thou comest, and the clouds before thee Melt, and the ruffian blasts take flight and fly ; The daedal lands, they know thee and adore thee,
And clothe themselves with sweet flowers instantly; Whilst pouring dowr its largest radiance o'er thee,
In azure calm subsides the rounded sky, To overarch thine advent ; and for thee
A livelier sunlight laughs along the sea.
For lo, no sooner come the soft and glowing Days of the spring, and all the air is stirred
With amorous breaths of zephyr freshly blowing, Than the first prelude of thy power is heard
On all sides, in aerial music flowing
Out of the bill of every pairing bird; And every songster feels, on every tree,
Its small heart pulsing with the power of thee.
MAN WANTS BUT LITTLE.
Next the herds feel thee ; and the wild fleet races
Bound o'er the fields, that smile in the bright weather,
And swim the streaming floods in fordless places, Led by thy chain, and captive in thy tether.
At last through seas and hills, thine influence passes, Through field and flood and all the world together,
And the birds' leafy homes ; and thou dost fire Each to renew his kind with sweet desire.
Wherefore, since thou, O lady, only thou
Art she who guides the world upon its way ;
Nor can aught rise without thee anyhow Up into the clear borders of the day,
Neither can aught without thee ever grow Lovely and sweet — to thee, to thee I pray —
Aid and be near thy suppliant as he sings
Of nature and the secret ways of things. . . .
When human life a shame to human eyes, Lay sprawling in the mire in foul estate,
A cowering thing without the strength to rise,— Held down by fell Religion's heavy weight
Religion scowling downward from the skies,
With hideous head, and vigilant eyes of hate —
First did a man of Greece presume to raise His brows, and give the monster gaze for gaze.
Him not the tales of all the gods in heaven,
Nor the heaven's lightnings, nor the menacing roar
Of thunder daunted. He was only driven,
By these vain vauntings, to desire the more
To burst through Nature's gates, and rive the unriven Bars. And he gained the day ; and, conqueror,
His spirit broke beyond our world, and past Its flaming walls, and fathomed all the vast.
And back returning, crowned with victory, he Divulged of things the hidden mysteries, Laying quite bare what can and cannot be,
How to each force is set strong boundaries,
How no power raves unchained, and naught is free.
So the times change ; and now religion lies Trampled by us ; and unto us 'tis given Fearless with level gaze to scan the heaven.
MAN WANTS BUT LITTLE.
Yet fear I lest thou haply deem that thus We sin, and enter wicked ways of reason.
Whereas 'gainst all things good and beauteous 'Tis oft religion does the foulest treason.
Has not the tale of Aulis come to us,
And those great chiefs who, in the windless season,
Bade young Iphianassa's form be laid Upon the altar of the Trivian maid ?
Soon as the fillet round her virgin hair — Fell in its equal lengths down either cheek,
Soon as she saw her father standing there, Sad, by the altar, without power to speak,
And at his side the murderous minister,
Hiding the knife, and many a faithful Greek
Weeping — her knees grew weak, and with no sound She sank, in speechless terror, on the ground.
But naught availed it in that hour accurst
To save the maid from such a doom as this,
That her lips were the baby lips that first
Called the king father with their cries and kiss.
For round her came the strong men, and none durst Refuse to do what cruel part was his ;
So silently they raised her up, and bore her, All quivering, to the deadly shrine before her.
And as they bore her, ne'er a golden lyre Rang round her coming with a bridal strain;
But in the very season of desire,
A stainless maiden, amid bloody stain,
—— She died a victim felled by its own sire
*******
That so the ships the wished-for wind might gain, And air puff out their canvas. Learn thou, then,
To what damned deeds religion urges men.
'Tis sweet when tempests roar upon the sea To watch from land another's deep distress
Amongst the waves — his toil and misery : Not that his sorrow makes our happiness, But that some sweetness there must ever be
Watching what sorrows we do not possess : So, too, 'tis sweet to safely view from far Gleam o'er the plains the savage ways of war.
MAN WANTS BUT LITTLE.
But sweeter far to look with purged eyes
Down from the battlements and topmost towers
Of learning, those high bastions of the wise, And far below us see this world of ours,
The vain crowds wandering blindly, led by lies, Spending in pride and wrangling all their powers
So far below — the pygmy toil and strife, The pain and piteous rivalries of life.
O peoples miserable ! O fools and blind ! What night you cast o'er all the days of man,
And in that night before you and behind
What perils prowl ! But you nor will nor can
See that the treasure of a tranquil mind
Is all that Nature pleads for, for this span,
So that between our birth and grave we gain Some quiet pleasures, and a pause from pain.
Wherefore we see that for the body's need A pause from pain almost itself suffices.
For only let our life from pain be freed, It oft itself with its own smile entices,
And fills our healthy hearts with joys indeed, That leave us small desire for art's devices.
Nor do we sigh for more in hours like these, Rich in our wealth of sweet simplicities.
What though about the halls no silent band Of golden boys on many a pedestal
Dangle their hanging lamps from outstretched hand, To flare along the midnight festival —
Though on our board no priceless vessels stand, Nor gold nor silver fret the dazzling wall,
Nor does the soft voluptuous air resound From gilded ceilings with the cithern's sound ;
The grass is ours, and sweeter sounds than these, As down we couch us by the babbling spring,
And overhead we hear the branching trees
That shade us, whisper ; and for food we bring
Only the country's simple luxuries.
Ah, sweet is this, and sweetest in the spring,
When the sun goes through all the balmy hours, And all the green earth's lap is filled with flowers !
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH. By LUCRETIUS.
(Translated by Dryden. )
What has this bugbear death to frighten man,
If souls can die, as well as bodies can ?
For, as before our birth we felt no pain,
When Punic arms infested land and main,
When heaven and earth were in confusion hurled, For the debated empire of the world,
Which awed with dreadful expectation lay, Sure to be slaves, uncertain who should sway : So when our mortal frame shall be disjoined, The lifeless lump uncoupled from the mind, From sense of grief and pain we shall be free ; We shall not feel, because we shall not be. . . .
Nay, e'en suppose, when we have suffered fate, The soul should feel in her divided state,
What's that to us ? for we are only toe
While souls and bodies in one frame agree.
Nay, though our atoms should revolve by chance, And matter leap into the former dance ;
Though time our life and motion could restore, And make our bodies what they were before, What gain to us would all this bustle bring ? The new-made man would be another thing. When onoe an interrupting pause is made,
That individual being is decayed.
We, who are dead and gone, shall bear no part In all the pleasures, nor shall feel the smart Which to that other mortal shall accrue, Whom of our matter time shall mold anew.
For backward if you look on that long space
Of ages past, and view the changing face
Of matter, tossed and variously combined
In sundry shapes, 'tis easy for the mind
From thence to infer, that seeds of things have been In the same order as they now are seen :
Which yet our dark remembrance cannot trace, Because a pause of life, a gaping space,
Has come betwixt. . . .
For whosoe'er shall in misfortunes live,
Must be, when those misfortunes shall arrive ;
And since the man wl o is not, feels not woe,
282
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
(For death exempts him, and wards off the blow, Which we, the living, only feel and bear)
What is there left for us in death to fear ?
When once that pause of life has come between, 'Tis just the same as we had never been.
And therefore if a man bemoan his lot, That after death his moldering limbs shall rot, Or flames, or jaws of beasts devour his mass, Know, he's an unsincere, unthinking ass.
A secret sting remains within his mind ;
The fool is to his own cast offals kind.
He boasts no sense can after death remain ;
Yet makes himself a part of life again ;
As if some other He could feel the pain.
If, while we live, this thought molest his head, What wolf or vulture shall devour me dead ? He wastes his days in idle grief, nor can Distinguish 'twixt the body and the man :
But thinks himself can still himself survive ; And, what when dead he feels not, feels alive. Then he repines that he was born to die,
Nor knows in death there is no other He,
No living He remains his grief to vent,
And o'er his senseless carcass to lament.
If after death 'tis painful to be torn
By birds, and beasts, then why not so to burn, Or drenched in floods of honey to be soaked, Embalmed to be at once preserved and choked ; Or on an airy mountain's top to lie,
Exposed to cold and heaven's inclemency ;
Or crowded in a tomb to be oppressed
With monumental marble on thy breast ?
But to be snatched from all the household joys, From thy chaste wife, and thy dear prattling boys, Whose little arms about thy legs are cast,
And climbing for a kiss prevent their mother's haste, Inspiring secret pleasure through thy breast ;
Ah ! these shall be no more : thy friends oppressed Thy care and courage now no more shall free :
Ah ! wretch, thou criest, ah ! miserable me !
One woeful day sweeps children, friends, and wife, And all the brittle blessings of my life !
Add one thing more, and all thou sayest is true ; Thy want and wish of them is vanished too :
Which, well considered, were a quick relief
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
To all thy vain imaginary grief.
For thou shalt sleep, and never wake again,
And, quitting life, shalt quit thy living pain.
But we, thy friends, shall all those sorrows find,
Which in forgetful death thou leav'st behind ;
No time shall dry our tears, nor drive thee from our mind. The worst that can befall thee, measured right,
Is a sound slumber, and a long good night.
Yet thus the fools, that would be thought the wits, Disturb their mirth with melancholy fits :
When healths go round, and kindly brimmers flow, Till the fresh garlands"on their foreheads glow,
They whine, and cry, Let us make haste to live, Short are the joys that human life can give. " Eternal preachers, that corrupt the draught,
And pall the god, that never thinks, with thought ; Idiots with all that thought, to whom the worst
Of death, is want of drink, and endless thirst, Or any fond desire as vain as these.
For, even in sleep, the body, wrapt in ease, Supinely lies, as in the peaceful grave ;
And, wanting nothing, nothing can it crave. Were that sound sleep eternal, it were death ; Yet the first atoms then, the seeds of breath,
Are moving near to sense ; we do but shake
And rouse that sense, and straight we are awake. Then death to us, and death's anxiety,
Is less than nothing, if a less could be.
For then our atoms, which in order lay,
Are scattered from their heap, and puffed away,
And never can return into their place,
When once the pause of life has left an empty space.
And last, suppose great Nature's voice should call
To thee, or me, or any of us all,
" What dost thou mean, ungrateful wretch, thou vain,
Thou mortal thing, thus idly to complain,
And sigh and sob, that thou shalt be no more ?
For if thy life were pleasant heretofore,
If all the bounteous blessings, I could give,
Thou hast enjoyed, if thou hast known to live,
And pleasure not leaked through thee like a sieve ;
Why dost thou not give thanks, as at a plenteous feast, Crammed to the throat with life, and rise and take thy rest ? But if My blessings thou hast thrown away,
If indigested joys passed through, and would not stay,
28-4
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
Why dost thou wish for more to squander still 1 If life be grown a load, a real ill,
And I would all thy cares and labors end,
Lay down thy burden, fool, and know thy friend.
I have emptied all my store, I can invent, and can supply no more ;
To please thee,
But run the round again, the round I ran before. Suppose thou art not broken yet with years,
Yet still the selfsame scene of things appears, And would be ever, couldst thou ever live :
For life is still but life, there's nothing new to give. " What can we plead against so just a bill ?
We stand convicted, and our cause goes ill.
But if a wretch, a man oppressed by fate, Should beg of Nature to prolong his date,
She speaks aloud to him with more disdain,
" Be still, thou martyr fool, thou covetous of pain. " But if an old decrepit sot lament ;
" What thou " (she cries) " who hast outlived content ! Dost thou complain, who hast enjoyed my store ?
But this is still the effect of wishing more.
Unsatisfied with all that Nature brings ;
Loathing the present, liking absent things ;
From hence it comes, thy vain desires, at strife
Within themselves, have tantalized thy life,
And ghastly death appeared before thy sight,
Ere thou hast gorged thy soul and senses with delight. Now leave those joys, unsuiting to thy age,
To a fresh comer, and resign the stage. "
Is Nature to be blamed if thus she chide ?
No, sure ; for 'tis her business to provide
Against this ever-changing frame's decay,
New things to come, and old to pass away.
One being, worn, another being makes ;
Changed, but not lost ; for Nature gives and takes : New matter must be found for things to come,
And these must waste like those, and follow Nature's doom. All things, like thee, have time to rise and rot ;
And from each other's ruin are begot ;
For life is not confined to him or thee :
'Tis given to all for use, to none for property. Consider former ages past and gone,
Whose circles ended long ere thine begun,
Then tell me, fool, what part in them thou hast ? Thus mayest thou judge the future by the past.
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
What horror seest thou in that quiet state,
What bugbear dreams to fright thee after fate ?
No ghost, no goblins, that still passage keep ;
But all is there serene, in that eternal sleep.
For all the dismal tales, that Poets tell,
Are verified on earth, and not in hell.
No Tantalus looks up with fearful eye,
Or dreads the impending rock to crush him from on high : But fear of chance ou earth disturbs our easy hours,
Or vain, imagined wrath of vain imagined powers.
No Tityus torn by vultures lies in hell ;
Nor could the lobes of his rank liver swell
To that prodigious mass, for their eternal meal :
Not though his monstrous bulk had covered o'er
Nine spreading acres, or nine thousand more ;
Not though the globe of earth had been the giant's floor. Nor in eternal torments could he lie ;
Nor could his corpse sufficient food supply.
But he's the Tityus, who by love oppressed, Or tyrant passion preying on his breast,
And ever anxious thoughts, is robbed of rest. The Sisyphus is he, whom noise and strife Seduce from all the soft retreats of life,
To vex the government, disturb the laws :
Drunk with the fumes of popular applause
He courts the giddy crowd to make him great,
And sweats and toils in vain, to mount the sovereign seat. For still to aim at power, and still to fail,
Ever to strive, and never to prevail,
What is but, in reason's true account,
To heave the stone against the rising mount
Which urged, and labored, and forced up with pain,
Recoils, and rolls impetuous down, and smokes along the
plain.
Then still to treat thy ever craving mind
With every blessing, and of every kind, Yet never fill thy ravening appetite
Though years and seasons vary thy delight, Yet nothing to be seen of all the store,
But still the wolf within thee barks for more This the fable's moral, which they tell
Of fifty foolish virgins damned in hell
To leaky vessels, which the liquor spill
To vessels of their sex, which none could ever fill. As for the Dog, the Furies, and their snakes,
;
;
?
is
;
it,
286
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
The gloomy caverns, and the burning lakes,
And all the vain infernal trumpery,
They neither are, nor were, nor e'er can be.
But here on earth the guilty have in view
The mighty pains to mighty mischiefs due ; Racks, prisons, poisons, the Tarpeian rock, Stripes, hangmen, pitch, and suffocating smoke ; And last, and most, if these were cast behind, The avenging horror of a conscious mind,
Whose deadly fear anticipates the blow,
And sees no end of punishment and woe ;
But looks for more, at the last gasp of breath : This makes a hell on earth, and life a death.
Meantime when thoughts of death disturb thy head, Consider, Ancus, great and good, is dead ;
Ancus, thy better far, was born to die ;
And thou, dost thou bewail mortality ?
So many monarchs, with their mighty state,
Who ruled the world, were overruled by fate.
That haughty king, who lorded o'er the main,
And whose stupendous bridge did the wild waves restrain, (In vain they foamed, in vain they threatened wrack, While his proud legions marched upon their back :)
Him Death, a greater monarch, overcame ;
Nor spared his guards the more, for their immortal name. The Roman chief, the Carthaginian dread,
Scipio the thunderbolt of war, is dead,
And, like a common slave, by Fate in triumph led.
The founders of invented arts are lost ;
And wits, who made eternity their boast.
Where now is Homer, who possessed the throne ?
The immortal work remains, the immortal author's gone. Democritus, perceiving age invade
His body weakened, and his mind decayed,
Obeyed the summons with a cheerful face ;
Made haste to welcome death, and met him half the race. That stroke even Epicurus could not bar,
Though he in wit surpassed mankind, as far
As does the midday sun the midnight star.
And thou, dost thou disdain to yield thy breath,
Whose very life is little more than death ?
More than one half by lazy sleep possessed ;
And when awake, thy soul but nods at best,
Daydreams and sickly thoughts revolving in thy breast. Eternal troubles haunt thy anxious mind,
THE BUGBEAR OF DEATH.
Whose cause and cure thou never hopest to find; But still uncertain, with thyself at strife,
Thou wanderest in the labyrinth of life.
Oh, if the foolish race of man, who find
A weight of cares still pressing on their mind,
Could find as well the cause of this unrest,
And all this burden lodged within the breast ;
Sure they would change their course, nor live as now, Uncertain what to wish, or what to vow.
Uneasy both in country and in town,
They search a place to lay their burden down. . . .
Thus every man o'erworks his weary will,
To shun himself, and to shake off his ill ;
The shaking fit returns, and hangs upon him still. No prospect of repose, nor hope of ease ;
The wretch is ignorant of his disease ;
Which known would all his fruitless trouble spare ; For he would know the world not worth his care ; Then would he search more deeply for the cause, And study Nature well, and Nature's laws ;
For in this moment lies not the debate,
But on our future, fixed, eternal state ;
That never changing state, which all must keep, Whom death has doomed to everlasting sleep.
Why are we then so fond of mortal life,
Beset with dangers, and maintained with strife ?
A life, which all our care can never save;
One fate attends us, and one common grave.
Besides, we tread but a perpetual round ;
We ne'er strike out, but beat the former ground,
And the same mawkish joys in the same track are found. For still we think an absent blessing best,
Which cloys, and is no blessing when possessed :
A new arising wish expels it from the breast.
The feverish thirst of life increases still ;
We call for more and more, and never have our fill ;
Yet know not what to-morrow we shall try,
What dregs of life in the last draught may lie :
Nor, by the longest life we can attain,
One moment from the length of death we gain ;
For all behind belongs to his eternal reign.
When once the Fates have cut the mortal thread,
The man as much to all intents is dead,
Who dies to-day, and will as long be so,
As he who died a thousand years ago.
288 THE SPINNING OF THE FATES.
THE SPINNING OF THE FATES. By CATULLUS.
(Translated by Sir Richard F. Burton. )
[Caius Valerius Catullus, a leading Roman poet, was born at Verona, b. c. 87 ; died about b. c. 47. He was a wealthy and pleasure-loving gentleman, the friend of Cicero and other chief men of his time. He wrote lyrics, elegies, odes, etc. ]
In the mean time, with shaking bodies and infirm gesture, the Parcae began to intone their veridical chant. Their trem bling frames were enwrapped around with white garments, en circled with a purple border at their heels ; snowy fillets bound each aged brow, and their hands pursued their never-ending toil, as of custom. The left hand bore the distaff enwrapped in soft wool ; the right hand, lightly withdrawing the threads with upturned fingers, did shape them, then twisting them with the prone thumb it turned the balanced spindle with well-pol ished whirl. And then with a pluck of their tooth the work was always made even, and the bitten wool shreds adhered to their dried lips, which shreds at first had stood out from the fine thread. And in front of their feet wicker baskets of osier twigs took charge of the soft white woolly fleece. These, with clear-sounding voice, as they combed out the wool, outpoured fates of such kind in sacred song, in song which none age yet to come could tax with untruth.
" O with great virtues thine exceeding honor augmenting, stay of Emathia-land, most famous in thine issue, receive what the sisters make known to thee on this gladsome day, a weird veridical ! But ye whom the fates do follow : Haste ye, a weaving the woof, O hasten, ye spindles.
"Now Hesperus shall come unto thee bearing what is longed for by bridegrooms ; with that fortunate star shall thy bride come, who ensteeps thy soul with the sway of softening love, and prepares with thee to conjoin in languorous slumber, making her smooth arms thy pillow round 'neath thy sinewy neck. Haste ye, a weaving the woof, O hasten, ye spindles.