Few translations have gone through more editions, or met with greater applause from the public."-BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MISCELLANY.
[TRANSLATED BY CONGREVE.]
STORY OF ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE.
ORPHEUS, by his skill in music, obtains from Pluto the restoration of his wife Eurydice on condition of not looking behind him till his arrival in the upper regions: his promises are forgotten; and he turns to gaze on his long-lost wife, who instantly vanishes from his eyes-Her husband, in despair, totally separates himself from the society of mankind.
THENCE, in his saffron robe, for distant Thrace,
Hymen departs, through air's unmeasured space,
By Orpheus call'd, the nuptial power attends,
But with ill-omen'd augury descends;
Nor cheerful look'd the god, nor prosperous spoke,
Nor blazed his torch, but wept in hissing smoke. 6
In vain they whirl it round, in vain they shake,
No rapid motion can its flames awake.
With dread these inauspicious signs were view'd,
And soon a more disastrous end ensued;
For as the bride, amid the Naiad train,
Ran joyful, sporting o'er the flow'ry plain,
A venom'd viper bit her as she pass'd;
Instant she fell, and sudden breathed her last.
When long his loss the Thracian had deplored, 15
Not by superior powers to be restored,
Inflamed by love, and urged by deep despair,
He leaves the realms of light and upper air,
Daring to tread the dark Tenarian road,
And tempt the shades in their obscure abode,
Through gliding spectres of the interr'd to go,
And phantom people of the world below:
Persephone he seeks, and him who reigns
O'er ghosts, and hell's uncomfortable plains.
Arrived, he, tuning to his voice his strings,
Thus to the king and queen of shadows sings:
"Ye powers, who under earth your realms ex-
tend,
To whom all mortals must one day descend,
If here 'tis granted sacred truth to tell,
I come not curious to explore your hell,
Nor come to boast (by vain ambition fired)
How Cerberus at my approach retired;
My wife alone I seek, for her loved sake
These terrors I support, this journey take:
She, luckless wandering, or by fate misled,
Chanced on a lurking viper's crest to tread ;
The vengeful beast, inflamed with fury, starts,
And through her heel his deathful venom darts.
Thus was she snatch'd untimely to her tomb,
Her growing years cut short, and springing bloom.
Long I my loss endeavour'd to sustain,
And strongly strove; but strove, alas! in vain :
At length I yielded, won by mighty love;
Well known is that omnipotence above:
But here, I doubt, his unfelt influence fails;
And yet a hope within my heart prevails,
That here, ev'n here, he has been known of old,
At least if truth be by tradition told.
If fame of former loves belief may find,
You both by love, and love alone, were join'd.
Now, by the horrors which these realms surround,
By the vast chaos of these depths profound,
By the sad silence, which eternal reigns
O'er all the waste of these wide-stretching plains,
Let me again Eurydice receive,
Let fate her quick-spun thread of life reweave.
All our possessions are but loans from you,
And soon or late you must be paid your due;
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