章节正文
In affection for your native land, Horace, certainly the pride in
great Romans dead and gone made part, and you were, in all senses, a
lover of your country, your country's heroes, your country's gods.
None but a patriot could have sung that ode on Regulus, who died, as
our own hero died on an evil day, for the honour of Rome, as Gordon
for the honour of England.
Fertur pudicae conjugis osculum,
Parvosque natos, ut capitis minor,
Ab se removisse, et virilem
Torvus humi posuisse voltum:
Donec labantes consilio patres
Firmaret auctor nunquam alias dato,
Interque maerentes amicos
Egregius properaret exul.
Atqui sciebat, quae sibi barbarus
Tortor pararet: non aliter tamen
Dimovit obstantes propinquos,
Et populum reditus morantem,
Quam si clientum longa negotia
Dijudicata lite relinqueret,
Tendens Venafranos in agros
Aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum. {14}
We talk of the Greeks as your teachers. Your teachers they were,
but that poem could only have been written by a Roman! The
strength, the tenderness, the noble and monumentalresolution and
resignation--these are the gifts of the lords of human things, the
masters of the world.
Your country's heroes are dear to you, Horace, but you did not sing
them better than your country's Gods, the pious protecting spirits
of the hearth, the farm, the field; kindly ghosts, it may be, of
Latin fathers dead or Gods framed in the image of these. What you
actually believed we know not, YOU knew not. Who knows what he
believes? Parcus Deorum cultor you bowed not often, it may be, in
the temples of the state religion and before the statues of the
great Olympians; but the pure and pious worship of rustic tradition,
the faith handed down by the homely elders, with THAT you never
broke. Clean hands and a pure heart, these, with a sacred cake and
shining grains of salt, you could offer to the Lares. It was a
benignant religion, uniting old times and new, men living and men
long dead and gone, in a kind of service and sacrifice solemn yet
familiar.
Te nihil attinet
Tentare multa caede bidentium
Parvos coronantem marino
Rore deos fragilique myrto.
Immunis aram si tetigit manus,
Non sumptuosa blandior hostia
Mellivit aversos Penates
Farre pio et saliente mica, {15}
Farewell, dear Horace; farewell, thou wise and kindly heathen; of
mortals the most human, the friend of my friends and of so many
generations of men,
Ave atque Vale!
Footnotes:
{1} I am informed that the Natural History of Young Ladies is
attributed, by some writers, to another philosopher, the author of
The Art of Pluck.
{2} Rape of the Lock.
{3} In Mr. Hogarth's Caricatura.
{4} Elwin's Pope, ii. 15.
{5} "Poor Pope was always a hand-to-mouth liar."--Pope, by Leslie
Stephen, 139.
{6} The Greek [Greek text which cannot be reproduced], mentioned by
Lucian and Theocritus, was the magicalweapon of the Australians--
the turndun.
{7} Lord Napier and Ettrick points out to me that, unluckily, the
tradition is erroneous. Piers was not executed at all. William
Cockburn suffered in Edinburgh. But the Border Minstrelsy overrides
history.
Criminal Trials in Scotland, by Robert Pitcairn, Esq. Vol. i. part
i. p. 144, A.D. 1530. 17 Jac. V.
May 16. William Cokburne of Henderland, convicted (in presence of
the King) of high treason committed by him in bringing Alexander
Forestare and his son, Englishmen, to the plundering of Archibald
Somervile; and for treasonably bringing certain Englishmen to the
lands of Glenquhome; and for common theft, common reset of theft,
out-putting and in-putting thereof. Sentence. For which causes and
crimes he has forfeited his life, lands, and goods, movable and
immovable; which shall be escheated to the King. Beheaded.
{8} "The Lesson of Jupiter."--Nineteenth Century, October 1885.
{9} Mr. Swinburne's and Mr. Arnold's diverse views of Byron will be
found in the Selections by Mr. Arnold and in the Nineteenth Century.
{10} The hills above San Remo, where rose-bushes are planted by the
shrines. Omar desired that his grave might be where the wind would
scatter rose-leaves over it.
{11} Omar was contemporary with the battle of Hastings.
{12} Per mandata Ducis, Rex hic, Heralde, quiescis,
Ut custos maneas littoris et pelagi.
{13} "Me neither resolute Sparta nor the rich Larissaean plain so
enraptures as the fane of echoing Albunea, the headlong Anio, the
grove of Tibur, the orchards watered by the wandering rills."
{14} "They say he put aside from him the pure lips of his wife and
his little children, like a man unfree, and with his brave face
bowed earthward sternly he waited till with such counsel as never
mortal gave he might strengthen the hearts of the Fathers, and
through his mourning friends go forth, a hero, into exile. Yet well
he knew what things were being prepared for him at the hands of the
tormentors, who, none the less, put aside the kinsmen that barred
his path and the people that would fain have delayed his return,
passing through their midst as he might have done if, his retainers'
weary business ended and the suits adjudged, he were faring to his
Venafran lands or to Dorian Tarentum."
{15} "Thou, Phidyle, hast no need to besiege the gods with
slaughter so great of sheep, thou who crownest thy tiny deities with
myrtle rare and rosemary. If but the hand be clean that touches the
altar, then richest sacrifice will not more appease the angered
Penates than the duteous cake and salt that crackles in the blaze."
End
great Romans dead and gone made part, and you were, in all senses, a
lover of your country, your country's heroes, your country's gods.
None but a patriot could have sung that ode on Regulus, who died, as
our own hero died on an evil day, for the honour of Rome, as Gordon
for the honour of England.
Fertur pudicae conjugis osculum,
Parvosque natos, ut capitis minor,
Ab se removisse, et virilem
Torvus humi posuisse voltum:
Donec labantes consilio patres
Firmaret auctor nunquam alias dato,
Interque maerentes amicos
Egregius properaret exul.
Atqui sciebat, quae sibi barbarus
Tortor pararet: non aliter tamen
Dimovit obstantes propinquos,
Et populum reditus morantem,
Quam si clientum longa negotia
Dijudicata lite relinqueret,
Tendens Venafranos in agros
Aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum. {14}
We talk of the Greeks as your teachers. Your teachers they were,
but that poem could only have been written by a Roman! The
strength, the tenderness, the noble and monumentalresolution and
resignation--these are the gifts of the lords of human things, the
masters of the world.
Your country's heroes are dear to you, Horace, but you did not sing
them better than your country's Gods, the pious protecting spirits
of the hearth, the farm, the field; kindly ghosts, it may be, of
Latin fathers dead or Gods framed in the image of these. What you
actually believed we know not, YOU knew not. Who knows what he
believes? Parcus Deorum cultor you bowed not often, it may be, in
the temples of the state religion and before the statues of the
great Olympians; but the pure and pious worship of rustic tradition,
the faith handed down by the homely elders, with THAT you never
broke. Clean hands and a pure heart, these, with a sacred cake and
shining grains of salt, you could offer to the Lares. It was a
benignant religion, uniting old times and new, men living and men
long dead and gone, in a kind of service and sacrifice solemn yet
familiar.
Te nihil attinet
Tentare multa caede bidentium
Parvos coronantem marino
Rore deos fragilique myrto.
Immunis aram si tetigit manus,
Non sumptuosa blandior hostia
Mellivit aversos Penates
Farre pio et saliente mica, {15}
Farewell, dear Horace; farewell, thou wise and kindly heathen; of
mortals the most human, the friend of my friends and of so many
generations of men,
Ave atque Vale!
Footnotes:
{1} I am informed that the Natural History of Young Ladies is
attributed, by some writers, to another philosopher, the author of
The Art of Pluck.
{2} Rape of the Lock.
{3} In Mr. Hogarth's Caricatura.
{4} Elwin's Pope, ii. 15.
{5} "Poor Pope was always a hand-to-mouth liar."--Pope, by Leslie
Stephen, 139.
{6} The Greek [Greek text which cannot be reproduced], mentioned by
Lucian and Theocritus, was the magicalweapon of the Australians--
the turndun.
{7} Lord Napier and Ettrick points out to me that, unluckily, the
tradition is erroneous. Piers was not executed at all. William
Cockburn suffered in Edinburgh. But the Border Minstrelsy overrides
history.
Criminal Trials in Scotland, by Robert Pitcairn, Esq. Vol. i. part
i. p. 144, A.D. 1530. 17 Jac. V.
May 16. William Cokburne of Henderland, convicted (in presence of
the King) of high treason committed by him in bringing Alexander
Forestare and his son, Englishmen, to the plundering of Archibald
Somervile; and for treasonably bringing certain Englishmen to the
lands of Glenquhome; and for common theft, common reset of theft,
out-putting and in-putting thereof. Sentence. For which causes and
crimes he has forfeited his life, lands, and goods, movable and
immovable; which shall be escheated to the King. Beheaded.
{8} "The Lesson of Jupiter."--Nineteenth Century, October 1885.
{9} Mr. Swinburne's and Mr. Arnold's diverse views of Byron will be
found in the Selections by Mr. Arnold and in the Nineteenth Century.
{10} The hills above San Remo, where rose-bushes are planted by the
shrines. Omar desired that his grave might be where the wind would
scatter rose-leaves over it.
{11} Omar was contemporary with the battle of Hastings.
{12} Per mandata Ducis, Rex hic, Heralde, quiescis,
Ut custos maneas littoris et pelagi.
{13} "Me neither resolute Sparta nor the rich Larissaean plain so
enraptures as the fane of echoing Albunea, the headlong Anio, the
grove of Tibur, the orchards watered by the wandering rills."
{14} "They say he put aside from him the pure lips of his wife and
his little children, like a man unfree, and with his brave face
bowed earthward sternly he waited till with such counsel as never
mortal gave he might strengthen the hearts of the Fathers, and
through his mourning friends go forth, a hero, into exile. Yet well
he knew what things were being prepared for him at the hands of the
tormentors, who, none the less, put aside the kinsmen that barred
his path and the people that would fain have delayed his return,
passing through their midst as he might have done if, his retainers'
weary business ended and the suits adjudged, he were faring to his
Venafran lands or to Dorian Tarentum."
{15} "Thou, Phidyle, hast no need to besiege the gods with
slaughter so great of sheep, thou who crownest thy tiny deities with
myrtle rare and rosemary. If but the hand be clean that touches the
altar, then richest sacrifice will not more appease the angered
Penates than the duteous cake and salt that crackles in the blaze."
End
- affection [ə´fekʃən]
n.友爱；慈爱 (初中英语单词) - resolution [,rezə´lu:ʃən] n.决心；坚决；果断 (初中英语单词)
- worship [´wə:ʃip] n.&v.崇拜；敬仰 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
- farewell [feə´wel] int.再见 n.&a.告别 (初中英语单词)
- weapon [´wepən] n.武器；斗争手段 (初中英语单词)
- sentence [´sentəns] n.判决 vt.宣判；处刑 (初中英语单词)
- counsel [´kaunsəl] n.商议；劝告；律师 (初中英语单词)
- strengthen [´streŋθən, ´strenθən] vt.加强 vi.变强 (初中英语单词)
- mourning [´mɔ:niŋ] n.悲伤；治丧；戴孝 (初中英语单词)
- patriot [´pætriət] n.爱国者 (高中英语单词)
- tenderness [´tendənis] n.娇嫩；柔软；温柔 (高中英语单词)
- hearth [hɑ:θ] n.炉边；家庭(生活) (高中英语单词)
- rustic [´rʌstik] a.田野的；质朴的 (高中英语单词)
- homely [´həumli] a.朴素的；不漂亮的 (高中英语单词)
- heathen [´hi:ðən] n.异教徒 (高中英语单词)
- philosopher [fi´lɔsəfə] n.哲学家；思想家；哲人 (高中英语单词)
- treason [´tri:zən] n.叛逆；不忠 (高中英语单词)
- contemporary [kən´tempərəri] a.&n.同时代的(人) (高中英语单词)
- headlong [´hedlɔŋ] ad.&a.轻率地(的) (高中英语单词)
- sternly [´stə:nli] ad.严厉地；坚定地 (高中英语单词)
- besiege [bi´si:dʒ] vt.包围，围攻 (高中英语单词)
- edinburgh [´edinbərə] n.爱丁堡 (英语四级单词)
- resolute [´rezəlu:t] a.坚决的；不屈不挠的 (英语四级单词)
- appease [ə´pi:z] vt.平息；使满足 (英语四级单词)
- monumental [,mɔnju´mentl] a.纪念碑的；不朽的 (英语六级单词)
- magical [´mædʒikəl] a.有魔术的，神奇的 (英语六级单词)
- erroneous [i´rəuniəs] a.错误的 (英语六级单词)
- diverse [dai´və:s] a.完全不同的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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