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.
Universal Anthology - v05
I gave you an engagement and a dowry,
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
259
the best that is desired of woman ; namely, of clothes, the array of twelve men ; a chariot, with thrice seven cumhals (steeds) ; the breadth of your face of red gold ; the span of your left wrist of carved silver. Should any one work reproach or injury or incantation on you, you are not entitled to DirS (fine for bodily injury) or Uneclann (fine for satire and calumny) for but what comes to me. Because man in
attendance on woman what you are. "
"Such was not my state," said Ailill, "but had two
brothers, one the king of Temar, and the other the king of Laighin. left them the sovereignty because of their senior ity. And you were not the better for gifts and presents than
was. have not heard of province of Erin in woman's keep ing but this province alone. came, then, and assumed sovereignty here in succession to my mother for Mata of Murisy, the daughter of Magach, was my mother, and what better queen need desire to have than you, since you happen to be the daughter of the arch king of Erin. "
"It happens, however," said Maev, "that my goodness greater than yours. "
" wonder at that," said Ailill, " since there no one that has more jewels, and wealth, and riches than have — and know there not. "
Ailill and Maev then commenced a comparison of their goods and effects — for women at this time did not lose by marriage their separate rights of property. Their jewels, garments, flocks, were compared, and found to be of equal value, with one exception. There was particularly splendid bull of AHill's cows. Now he was the calf of one of Maev's cows, and Finn- bennach (White Horn) was his name but he deemed not honorable to be in a woman's dependence, and he passed over to the king's cows. And the queen was indignant, but hearing that Dare, son of Factna, of Cuailgne", was the possessor of brown bull, still finer animal than the white-horned deserter of her drove, she dispatched her courier, MacRoth, to Dare, requesting of him the loan of the Donn Cuailgne (the Brown One of Coolney) for year, and promising to restore him with fifty heifers to boot, chariot worth sixty-three cows, and other tokens of her friendship. On his refusal, she summoned her forces to join in foray for the capture of the Donn Cuailgne.
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260 EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
How Setanta, the Hero of the Tatv, received the Name of Cuchullin, the Hound of Cullan.
Translation of Sir SAMUEL FERGUSON.
[King Conor, going with a few guests to a feast at the Dun of Cullan, the Smith, meets his nephew, Setanta, who is playing with his companions on the plain of Emania. ]
Conor —
Setanta, if bird nesting in the woods
And ball feats on the playgreen please thee not More than discourse of warrior and sage,
And sight of warrior weapons in the forge,
I offer an indulgence. For we go —
Myself, my step-sire Fergus, and my Bard — To visit Cullan, the illustrious smith
Of Coolney. Come thou also if thou wilt.
Setanta —
Ask me not, O good Conor, yet to leave
The playgreen ; for the ball feats just begun
Are those which most delight my playmate youths, And they entreat me to defend the goal :
But let me follow ; for the chariot tracks
Are easy to discern ; and much I long
To hear discourse of warrior and sage,
And see the nest that hatches deaths of men,
The tongs a-flash, and Cullan's welding blow.
Conor —
Too late the hour ; too difficult the way.
Set forward, drivers : give our steeds the goad.
Cullan —
Great King of Emain, welcome. Welcome, thou, Fergus, illustrious step-sire of the King :
And, Seer and Poet, Cathbad, welcome too, Behold the tables set, the feast prepared.
Sit. But before I cast my chain hound loose, Give me assurance that ye be all in.
For night descends ; and perilous the wild ;
And other watchman none of house or herds, Here, in this solitude remote from men,
Own I, but one hound only. Once his chain
Is loosened, and he makes three bounds at large Before my doorposts, after fall of night,
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
There lives not man nor company of men, Less than a cohort, shall within my close Set foot of trespass, short of life or limb.
Conor —
Yea ; all are in. Let loose, and sit secure.
Good are thy viands, Smith, and strong thine ale.
Hark, the hound growling Cullan —
! —
Wild dogs are abroad.
Fergus —
Not ruddier the fire that laps a sword — Steeled for a king, oh Cullan, than thy wine.
Hark, the hound baying Cullan —
! —
Wolves, belike, are near.
Cathbad —
Not cheerfuller the ruddy forge's light
To wayfarer benighted, nor the glow
Of wine and viands to a hungry man
Than look of welcome passed from host to guest. — Hark, the hound yelling ! —
Cullan — — Friends, arise and arm ! Some enemy intrudes! Tush! 'tis a boy.
Setanta —
Setanta here, the son of Suailtam.
Conor —
Setanta, whom I deemed on Emain green, Engaged at ball play, on our track, indeed !
Setanta —
Not difficult the track to find, oh King,
But difficult, indeed, to follow home.
Cullan, 'tis evil welcome for a guest
This unwarned onset of a savage beast,
Which, but that 'gainst the stone posts of thy gate I three times threw him, leaping at my throat, And, at the third throw, on the stone edge, slew, Had brought on thee the shame indelible
Of bidden guest, at his host's threshold, torn.
Conor —
Yea, he was bidden : it was I myself
Said, as I passed him with the youths at play, This morning : Come thou also if thou wilt. But little thought I, — when he said the youths Desired his presence still to hold the goal,
Yet asked to follow — for he said he longed
To hear discourse of warrior and sage,
And see the nest that hatches deaths of men
262
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
The tongs a-flash, and Cullan's welding blow — That such a playful, young, untutored boy Would come on this adventure of a man.
Cullan —
I knew not he was bidden ; and I asked,
Ere I cast loose, if all the train were in. — But, since thy word has made the boy my guest, Boy, for his sake who bade thee to my board,
I give thee welcome : for thine own sake, no.
For thou hast slain my servant and my friend,
The hound I loved, that fierce, intractable
To all men else, was ever mild to me.
He knew me ; and he knew my uttered words,
All my commandments, as a man might know : More than a man, he knew my looks and tones
And turns of gesture, and discerned my mind, Unspoken, if in grief or if in joy.
He was my pride, my strength, my company,
For I am childless ; and that hand of thine
Has left an old man lonely in the world.
Setanta —
Since, Cullan, by mischance, I've slain thy hound, So much thy grief compassion stirs in me,
Hear me pronounce a sentence on myself.
If of his seed there liveth but a whelp
In Uladh, I will rear him till he grow
To such ability as had his sire
For knowing, honoring, and serving thee.
Meantime, but give a javelin in my hand,
And a good buckler, and there never went
About thy bounds, from daylight — gone till dawn, Hound watchf uller, or of a keener fang
Against intruder, than myself shall be.
Cullan —
A sentence, a just sentence.
Setanta —
Setanta I, the son of Suailtam,
Nor other name assume I, or desire.
Conor —
Hath made award more righteous. Be it so. Wherefore what hinders that we give him now His hero name, no more Setanta called
But now Cuchullin, chain hound of the Smith ?
Cathbad —
Take, son of Suailtam, the offered name.
Not myself
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
Setanta —
Setanta I, Setanta let me be.
Conor — — Mark Cathbad!
I hear perpetual voices Proclaim to land and fame
The name,
Cuchullin !
Hound of the Smith, thy boyish vow Devotes thy manhood even now
Fergus — Cathbad —
'Tis his seer fit!
To my ears
There comes a clamor from the rising years,
The tumult of a passion torrent-swollen,
Rolled hitherward, and 'mid its mingling noises,
To vigilance, fidelity, and toil :
'Tis not alone the wolf, fang-bare to snatch, Not the marauder from the lifted latch Alone, thy coming footfall makes recoil, The nobler service thine to chase afar Seditious tumult and intestine war,
Envy and unfraternal hate,
From all the households of the state.
*####*•
Great is the land and splendid :
The borders of the country are extended :
The extern tribes look up with wondering awe And own the central law.
Fair show the fields, and fair the friendly faces Of men in all their places.
With song and chosen story,
With game and dance, with revelries and races, Life glides on joyous wing —
The tales they tell of love and war and glory, Tales that the soft bright daughters of the land Delight to understand,
The songs they sing,
To harps of double string, To gitterns and new reeds, Are of the glorious deeds
Of young Cuchullin in the Cuelgnian foray.
Take, son of Suailtam, the offered name. For at that name the mightiest of the men Of Erin and of Alba shall turn pale :
264
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
And of that name the mouths of all the men Of Erin and of Alba shall be fulL
Setanta — — Yea, then if that be so
Cuchullin here !
Cuchttllhi's Wooing of Edieb. Translation of STANDISH O'GRADY.
" Hers were the gift of beauty of person, the gift of voice, the gift of music, the gift of embroidery and of all needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of virtuous chastity. "
Cuchullin —
Come down, O daughter of Forgal Manah, Sweet Eimer, come down without fear.
The moon has arisen to light us on our way, Come down from thy grenan 1 without fear.
Eimer —
Who is that beneath my chamber window
Sends up to me his words through the dim night ? Who art thou, standing in the beechen shadows, White-browed and tall, with thy golden hair ?
Cuchullin —
It is I, Setanta, O gentle Eimer !
I, thy lover, come to seek thee from the north ;
It is I who stand in the beechen shadows,
Sending up my heart in words through the dim night.
Eimer —
I fear my proud father, O Setanta,
My brothers, and my kinsmen, and the guards,
Ere I come unto thy hands, O my lover !
Through their well-lit feasting chamber I must pass.
Cuchullin —
Fear not the guards, O noble Eimer !
Fear not thy brothers or thy sire,
Dull with ale are they all, and pressed with slumber, And the lights extinguished in the hall.
Eimer —
I fear the fierce watchdogs, 0 Setanta,
The deep water of the moat how shall I
Not alone for myself, I fear, Setanta,
They will rend thee without ruth, Cuchullin.
1 Women's apartments.
cross ?
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,
a
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 !
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
259
the best that is desired of woman ; namely, of clothes, the array of twelve men ; a chariot, with thrice seven cumhals (steeds) ; the breadth of your face of red gold ; the span of your left wrist of carved silver. Should any one work reproach or injury or incantation on you, you are not entitled to DirS (fine for bodily injury) or Uneclann (fine for satire and calumny) for but what comes to me. Because man in
attendance on woman what you are. "
"Such was not my state," said Ailill, "but had two
brothers, one the king of Temar, and the other the king of Laighin. left them the sovereignty because of their senior ity. And you were not the better for gifts and presents than
was. have not heard of province of Erin in woman's keep ing but this province alone. came, then, and assumed sovereignty here in succession to my mother for Mata of Murisy, the daughter of Magach, was my mother, and what better queen need desire to have than you, since you happen to be the daughter of the arch king of Erin. "
"It happens, however," said Maev, "that my goodness greater than yours. "
" wonder at that," said Ailill, " since there no one that has more jewels, and wealth, and riches than have — and know there not. "
Ailill and Maev then commenced a comparison of their goods and effects — for women at this time did not lose by marriage their separate rights of property. Their jewels, garments, flocks, were compared, and found to be of equal value, with one exception. There was particularly splendid bull of AHill's cows. Now he was the calf of one of Maev's cows, and Finn- bennach (White Horn) was his name but he deemed not honorable to be in a woman's dependence, and he passed over to the king's cows. And the queen was indignant, but hearing that Dare, son of Factna, of Cuailgne", was the possessor of brown bull, still finer animal than the white-horned deserter of her drove, she dispatched her courier, MacRoth, to Dare, requesting of him the loan of the Donn Cuailgne (the Brown One of Coolney) for year, and promising to restore him with fifty heifers to boot, chariot worth sixty-three cows, and other tokens of her friendship. On his refusal, she summoned her forces to join in foray for the capture of the Donn Cuailgne.
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260 EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
How Setanta, the Hero of the Tatv, received the Name of Cuchullin, the Hound of Cullan.
Translation of Sir SAMUEL FERGUSON.
[King Conor, going with a few guests to a feast at the Dun of Cullan, the Smith, meets his nephew, Setanta, who is playing with his companions on the plain of Emania. ]
Conor —
Setanta, if bird nesting in the woods
And ball feats on the playgreen please thee not More than discourse of warrior and sage,
And sight of warrior weapons in the forge,
I offer an indulgence. For we go —
Myself, my step-sire Fergus, and my Bard — To visit Cullan, the illustrious smith
Of Coolney. Come thou also if thou wilt.
Setanta —
Ask me not, O good Conor, yet to leave
The playgreen ; for the ball feats just begun
Are those which most delight my playmate youths, And they entreat me to defend the goal :
But let me follow ; for the chariot tracks
Are easy to discern ; and much I long
To hear discourse of warrior and sage,
And see the nest that hatches deaths of men,
The tongs a-flash, and Cullan's welding blow.
Conor —
Too late the hour ; too difficult the way.
Set forward, drivers : give our steeds the goad.
Cullan —
Great King of Emain, welcome. Welcome, thou, Fergus, illustrious step-sire of the King :
And, Seer and Poet, Cathbad, welcome too, Behold the tables set, the feast prepared.
Sit. But before I cast my chain hound loose, Give me assurance that ye be all in.
For night descends ; and perilous the wild ;
And other watchman none of house or herds, Here, in this solitude remote from men,
Own I, but one hound only. Once his chain
Is loosened, and he makes three bounds at large Before my doorposts, after fall of night,
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
There lives not man nor company of men, Less than a cohort, shall within my close Set foot of trespass, short of life or limb.
Conor —
Yea ; all are in. Let loose, and sit secure.
Good are thy viands, Smith, and strong thine ale.
Hark, the hound growling Cullan —
! —
Wild dogs are abroad.
Fergus —
Not ruddier the fire that laps a sword — Steeled for a king, oh Cullan, than thy wine.
Hark, the hound baying Cullan —
! —
Wolves, belike, are near.
Cathbad —
Not cheerfuller the ruddy forge's light
To wayfarer benighted, nor the glow
Of wine and viands to a hungry man
Than look of welcome passed from host to guest. — Hark, the hound yelling ! —
Cullan — — Friends, arise and arm ! Some enemy intrudes! Tush! 'tis a boy.
Setanta —
Setanta here, the son of Suailtam.
Conor —
Setanta, whom I deemed on Emain green, Engaged at ball play, on our track, indeed !
Setanta —
Not difficult the track to find, oh King,
But difficult, indeed, to follow home.
Cullan, 'tis evil welcome for a guest
This unwarned onset of a savage beast,
Which, but that 'gainst the stone posts of thy gate I three times threw him, leaping at my throat, And, at the third throw, on the stone edge, slew, Had brought on thee the shame indelible
Of bidden guest, at his host's threshold, torn.
Conor —
Yea, he was bidden : it was I myself
Said, as I passed him with the youths at play, This morning : Come thou also if thou wilt. But little thought I, — when he said the youths Desired his presence still to hold the goal,
Yet asked to follow — for he said he longed
To hear discourse of warrior and sage,
And see the nest that hatches deaths of men
262
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
The tongs a-flash, and Cullan's welding blow — That such a playful, young, untutored boy Would come on this adventure of a man.
Cullan —
I knew not he was bidden ; and I asked,
Ere I cast loose, if all the train were in. — But, since thy word has made the boy my guest, Boy, for his sake who bade thee to my board,
I give thee welcome : for thine own sake, no.
For thou hast slain my servant and my friend,
The hound I loved, that fierce, intractable
To all men else, was ever mild to me.
He knew me ; and he knew my uttered words,
All my commandments, as a man might know : More than a man, he knew my looks and tones
And turns of gesture, and discerned my mind, Unspoken, if in grief or if in joy.
He was my pride, my strength, my company,
For I am childless ; and that hand of thine
Has left an old man lonely in the world.
Setanta —
Since, Cullan, by mischance, I've slain thy hound, So much thy grief compassion stirs in me,
Hear me pronounce a sentence on myself.
If of his seed there liveth but a whelp
In Uladh, I will rear him till he grow
To such ability as had his sire
For knowing, honoring, and serving thee.
Meantime, but give a javelin in my hand,
And a good buckler, and there never went
About thy bounds, from daylight — gone till dawn, Hound watchf uller, or of a keener fang
Against intruder, than myself shall be.
Cullan —
A sentence, a just sentence.
Setanta —
Setanta I, the son of Suailtam,
Nor other name assume I, or desire.
Conor —
Hath made award more righteous. Be it so. Wherefore what hinders that we give him now His hero name, no more Setanta called
But now Cuchullin, chain hound of the Smith ?
Cathbad —
Take, son of Suailtam, the offered name.
Not myself
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
Setanta —
Setanta I, Setanta let me be.
Conor — — Mark Cathbad!
I hear perpetual voices Proclaim to land and fame
The name,
Cuchullin !
Hound of the Smith, thy boyish vow Devotes thy manhood even now
Fergus — Cathbad —
'Tis his seer fit!
To my ears
There comes a clamor from the rising years,
The tumult of a passion torrent-swollen,
Rolled hitherward, and 'mid its mingling noises,
To vigilance, fidelity, and toil :
'Tis not alone the wolf, fang-bare to snatch, Not the marauder from the lifted latch Alone, thy coming footfall makes recoil, The nobler service thine to chase afar Seditious tumult and intestine war,
Envy and unfraternal hate,
From all the households of the state.
*####*•
Great is the land and splendid :
The borders of the country are extended :
The extern tribes look up with wondering awe And own the central law.
Fair show the fields, and fair the friendly faces Of men in all their places.
With song and chosen story,
With game and dance, with revelries and races, Life glides on joyous wing —
The tales they tell of love and war and glory, Tales that the soft bright daughters of the land Delight to understand,
The songs they sing,
To harps of double string, To gitterns and new reeds, Are of the glorious deeds
Of young Cuchullin in the Cuelgnian foray.
Take, son of Suailtam, the offered name. For at that name the mightiest of the men Of Erin and of Alba shall turn pale :
264
EARLY CELTIC LITERATURE.
And of that name the mouths of all the men Of Erin and of Alba shall be fulL
Setanta — — Yea, then if that be so
Cuchullin here !
Cuchttllhi's Wooing of Edieb. Translation of STANDISH O'GRADY.
" Hers were the gift of beauty of person, the gift of voice, the gift of music, the gift of embroidery and of all needlework, the gift of wisdom, and the gift of virtuous chastity. "
Cuchullin —
Come down, O daughter of Forgal Manah, Sweet Eimer, come down without fear.
The moon has arisen to light us on our way, Come down from thy grenan 1 without fear.
Eimer —
Who is that beneath my chamber window
Sends up to me his words through the dim night ? Who art thou, standing in the beechen shadows, White-browed and tall, with thy golden hair ?
Cuchullin —
It is I, Setanta, O gentle Eimer !
I, thy lover, come to seek thee from the north ;
It is I who stand in the beechen shadows,
Sending up my heart in words through the dim night.
Eimer —
I fear my proud father, O Setanta,
My brothers, and my kinsmen, and the guards,
Ere I come unto thy hands, O my lover !
Through their well-lit feasting chamber I must pass.
Cuchullin —
Fear not the guards, O noble Eimer !
Fear not thy brothers or thy sire,
Dull with ale are they all, and pressed with slumber, And the lights extinguished in the hall.
Eimer —
I fear the fierce watchdogs, 0 Setanta,
The deep water of the moat how shall I
Not alone for myself, I fear, Setanta,
They will rend thee without ruth, Cuchullin.
1 Women's apartments.
cross ?
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,
a
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.
;
a
;
a
a
a
is
O
I
it,
: is
: ;
;
I
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,
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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 !
