BOOK IX. Wild forest trees the mountain fides array'd Here spreads the poplar, to Alcides dear; And dear to Phoebus, ever verdant here, Sacred to Cybele the whispering pine Loves the wild grottoes where the white cliffs fhine; Here round her foftering elm the smiling vine Around the fwelling fruits of deepening red, For For here each gift Pomona's hand bestows Whofe open heart a brighter red difplays Than that which fparkles in the ruby's blaze. Here, trembling with their weight, the branches bear, For thee, fair fruit, the fongfters of the grove Ah, if ambitious thou wilt own the care And ftain'd with lover's blood, in pendant rows, Arborei fœtus afpergine cædis in atram Soft OVID. Met. Soft let the leaves with grateful umbrage hide A thousand flowers of gold, of white and red d Far o'er the shadowy a vale their carpets spread, Than ever glow'd in Perfia's boasted loom : 1 And here, bedew'd with love's celestial tears, Its purple head, prophetic of the reign e d At The fhadowy vale-Literal from the original,- O fombrio valle, 1 which Fanfhaw however has tranflated, "the gloomy valley," and thus has given us a funereal, where the author intended a festive landscape. It must be confessed however, that the description of the island of Venus is infinitely the best part of all Fanfhaw's tranflation. And indeed the dullest prose translation might obscure, but could not poffibly throw a total eclipse over so admirable an original. The woe-markt flower of flain Adonis-water'd by the tears of love-The Aenemone. "This, fays Caftera, is applicable to the celestial Venus, for "according to mythology, her amour with Adonis had nothing in it im66 pure, but was only the love which nature bears to the fun." The fables of antiquity have generally a threefold interpretation, an historical allusion, a physical and a metaphyfical allegory. In the latter view, the fable of Adonis is only applicable to the celestial Venus. A divine youth is outrageously flain, but shall revive again at the restoration of the golden age. Several nations, it is well known, under different names, celebrated the myfteries, or the death and refurrection of Adonis; among whom were the British druids, as we are told by Dr. Stukely. In the fame manner Cupid, in the fable of Pfyche, is interpreted by mythologists, to fignify the divine love weeping over the degeneracy of human nature. At ftrife appear the lawns and purpled skies, Which from each other ftole the beauteous f dyes: The lawn in all Aurora's luftre glows, Aurora fteals the blushes of the rose, The rofe displays the blushes that adorn To breathe their graces o'er the field's attire; Pale as the love-fick hopeless maid they dye Fresh At Arife appear the lawns and purpled skies, who from each other ftole the beauteous dyes. On this paffage Caftera has the following sensible though turgid note: "This thought, says he, is taken from the idyllium of Aufonius 66 on the rofe; "Ambigeres raperetne rofis Aurora ruborem, "An daret, & flores tingeret orta dies. "Camoëns, who had a genius rich of itself, ftill farther enriched it at the "" expence of the ancients. Behold what makes great authors! those who "pretend to give us nothing but the fruits of their own growth, foon fail, "like the little rivulets which dry up in the fummer; very different rom "the floods, who receive in their courfe the tribute of an hundred and an "hundred rivers, and which even in the dog-days carry their waves trium"phant to the ocean." Fresh in the dew far o'er the painted dales, Still on its bloom the mournful flower retains The glaring pride of Flora's darling hues; Primrose, and cowflip meek, perfume the gale, Nor these alone the teeming Eden yields, Their loves responsive through the branches fing; In The hyacinth betrays the doleful Ai-Hyacinthus, a youth beloved of Apollo, by whom he was accidentally flain, and afterwards turned into a flower: Tyrioque nitentior oftro Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia: fi non, Purpureus color huic, argenteus effet in illis. Non fatis hoc Phæbo eft: is enim fuit auctor honoris. Ipfe fuos gemitus foliis infcribit; & Ai, Ai, Flos habet infcriptum: funeftaque littera ducta eft. OVID. Met. |