FROM THE PROLOGUES TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE ÆNEID.
What is your force but feebling of the strength?
Your curious thochtès what but musardry?
Your fremit2 gladness lasts nocht ane hour's length;
Your sport for shame ye dare not specify;
Your fruit is but unfructuous fantasy;
Your sorry joys been but jangling and japes; 3
And your true servants silly goddès-apes.1
Your sweet mirthès are mixt with bitterness;
What is your dreary game? A merry pain!
Your work unthrift; your quiet is restless;
Your lust liking in languor to remain ;
Friendship torment, your trust is but a train."
O Love, whether are you joy or foolishness,
That makes folk sae glad of their distress?
Solomon's wit, Samson thou robst his force,
And David thou bereft his prophecy ;
Men says thou bridled Aristotle as ane horse,
And creelit up the flower of poetry.
What sall I of thy michtès notify?
Farewell! Where that thy lusty dart assails,
Wit, strength, riches, nae thing, but grace, avails.
Thou chain of love, ha, benedicite!
How hard strainès thy bandès every wicht !7
The god above, from his high majesty,
With thee y-bound, low on a maid did licht :
Thou vanquisht the strong giant of great micht:
Thou art mair forcy 8 than the dead sae fell;
Thou plenest Paradise, and thou herriet 10 Hell!.
Thou swelth !11 Devourer of time unrécourable ! 12
O lust, infernal furnace inéxtinguible,
Thyself consuming, worths 13 insatiable!
Quaint fiendès net, to God and man odible,14
Of thy trigits 15 what tongue can tell the trible?
With thee to warstle,17 thou waxes evermore wicht:
Eschew thine hand, and minès sall 19 thy micht.
Prologue to Book IV.
3 Jests. 4 Naturals, idiots. 5 Snare. 8 Mighty. 9 Fillest (Lat. plenus), full. 11 Glutton. 12 Unrecoverable. 13 Grows. 17 Wrestle. 18 Strong. 19 Shall eschew.
A SCOTCH WINTER EVENING IN 1512.
The frosty region ringès1 of the year,
The time and season bitter cauld and pale,
They short dayès that clerkès clepe brumale ;2
When that brim blastès of the northern art3
O'erwhelmit had Neptunus in his cart,1
And all to-shake the leavès of the trees.
The rage and storm o'erwalterand wally seas,
Rivers ran red on spate with water brown,
And burnès hurlès all their bankès down.
The soil y-soupit into water wack,9
The firmament o'ercast with rokès 10 black,
The ground fadit, and fauch11 wox all the fields,
Mountain-tops sleekit with their snaw ower-heilds ;12
On ragged rockes of hard harsk whin-stane,
With frozen fronts cauld clinty clewès shane.13
Beauty was lost, and barren shew the lands;
With frosty hair o'er-fret the fieldès stands.
Sour bitter bubbès 14 and the showers snell
Seemed on the sward ane similtude of Hell,
Reducing to our mind in every stead 15
Ghostly shadows of eild and grisly dead;
Thick drumly scuggès 17 darkened so the heaven.
Dim skyès oft forth warpit 18 fearful levin,19
Flaggès 20 of fire, and mony feloun flaw,21
Sharp sops of sleet and of the snipand snaw.
The dowie dikès 22 were all dank and wet;
The low valley was flooderit all with spate ;'
The plain streetès and every high way
Was full of flushes, dubbès,24 mire, and clay.
Laggerit 25 leas wallowit fernès 26 shew;
Brown moors kithit their wizzened mossy hue;
Bank, brae, and bottom, blanched wax and bare ;
For gurl128 weather gruit 29 beastès hair;
The wind made wave the red weed on the dike.
Bedoven in dankès deep 30 was every sike ;31
2 These short days that learned men call brumal (i.e. wintry; Lat. bruma, winter, from a word meaning "to shorten").
3 Point of the compass; German, ort, place; modern Scotch, airt, direction whence. 4 Chariot. 5 Wavy. 6 In flood. 7 Streams violently drive. 8 Became soaked. 9 In weak water. 10 Fogs. 11 Yellow or dun-red. 12 Smoothed with their snowy coverings. 13 Cold splintery cliffs shone. 14 Squalls. 15 Bringing to our mind in every place. 16 Age and grisly death. 17 Thick turbid shadows. 19 Lightning. 20 Flashes. 21 Blasts. 22 Dismal mounds. 23 Rain-flood. 24 Muddy heaps. 26 Exhibited withered ferns. 27 Showed.
growling. 29 Shuddered. 30 Sunk deep in damps. 31 Rill.
O'er craggès and the front of rockès sere
Hung great ice-shockles,1 lang as ony spear;
The ground stood barren, withered, dusk, and grey;
Herbs, flowers, and gersses2 wallowit3 away.
So busteously Boreas his bugle blew,
The deer full dern1 down in the dalès drew.
Small birdès, flocking through thick rounis thrang,5
In chirming and with cheeping changed their sang,
Seekand hidles and hirnès them to hide
Frae fearful thuds of the tempestuous tide."
The water-linnès routs; and every lind9
Whistlit and brayit of the soughand 10 wind.
Poor labourers and busy husbandmen
Went wet and weary, draggled in the fen;
The silly sheep and their little herd-grooms
Lurks under lee12 of bankès, woods, and brooms.
And other dauntit greater bestial,13
Within their stables seized into stall,
Sic as mulès, horses, oxen, and kye,
Fed tuskit boarès, and fat swine in stye,
Sustainit were by mannès governance
On harvest and on summer's purveyance.
Widewhere with force so Eolus shouts shrill
In this congealit season sharp and chill,
The caller 14 air, penétrative and pure,
Dazing 15 the blood in every creäture,
Made seek warm stovès and bien16 firès hot,
In double garment clad and wily-coat,17
With michty drink and meatès comfortive,
Against the stormy winter for to strive.
Repaterit18 weel, and by the chimney beikit,19
At even, betime, abed down I me streikit ;20
Wrapped my head, cast on claithés three-fauld,
For till expel the perilous piercand cauld.
I crossed me, syne bounit 21 for to sleep;
Where, gleamand through the glass I did take keep2
Latonia,23 the lang irksome nicht,
Her subtle blinkès shed and watery licht,
Full high upwhirlit in her regioun.
Hornèd Hebawd, which clepe 24
6 Hiding places and corners.
10 Howling (A.-S. swogan).
13 Cattle.
14 Fresh.
17 A short winter jacket.
21 Then prepared.
24 Call.
Laithly of form, with crooked camshow1 beak:
Ugsome to hear was her wild eldritch2 shriek.
The wild geese, claiking eke by nichtès tide,3
Attour the city fleeand heard I glide.
A SCOTCH WINTER MORNING IN 1512.
On slumber I slaid 5 full sad, and sleepit sound,
While the Orient upward gan rebound.
Phoebus' crowned bird, the nichtès orlogére,
Clappand his wingès, thrice had crawen clear.
Approaching near the breaking of the day,
Within my bed I wakened where I lay ;
So fast declinès Cynthia the Moon;
And kaès caickles on the roof aboon.9
Fast by my chamber, in high wizzened trees,
The soir gled10 whistles loud with mony ane pew,
Whereby the day was dawen 11 weell I knew;
Bade beit 12 the fire, and the candel alicht;
Syne blessit me,13 and in my weedes dicht ;14
Ane shut window unshut, a little on jar;
Perceivit the morning blae,15 wan, and haar,1
With cloudy gum17 and rack o'erwhelmed the air.
Branches brattling, and blackened shew the braes
With hirstès harsk of wagging windle-strays ;18
The dew-droppès congealed on stubble and rind;
And sharp hailstanès, mortfundit of kind,1
Hopping on the thatch and on the causey 20 by.
The shot I closed, and drew inward in hie,21
Shivering for cauld, the season was so snell.22
A SCOTCH MAY MORNING IN 1513.
Nyctimene,23 affrayit of the licht,
Went under covert, for gone was the nicht;
As fresh Aurora, to michty Tython spouse,
Ished 24 from her saffron bed and ivory house,
I fell asleep. 8 Jackdaws cackle. 9 Above. 12 Make up, add to (A.-S. betan). 15 Blue-grey, a livid blue.
3 In the night-time.
7 The cock, the time-piece
10 Red (sorrel) kite.
13 Then blessed myself.
16 Raw, misty.
18 Harsh decorations of waving windle-straws. 20 Causeway. 21 Haste.
4 Round about.
of night.
11 Had dawned.
14 Dressed myself.
17 Haze.
19 By nature cold as death.
24 Having issued.
In crimson clad and grainèd violet,
With sanguin cape, the selvage purpurate,
Unshut the windowès of her large hall,
Spread all with roses and full of balm royal;
And eke the heavenly portals crystalline
Upwarpès braid,1 the warld to illumine.
The twinkling streamers of the orient,
Shed purple sprangs2 with gold and azure ment,3
Piercand the sable barmkin1 nocturnal,
Beat down the skyès cloudy mantle-wall.5
Eous the steed, with ruby harneis rede,
Above the sea-ès liftès forth his head,
Of colour soir" and somedeal brown as berry,
For to enlichten and glad our hemisphery;
The flambè out-brasting at his nose-thirls,8
Sae fast Phaeton with the whip him whirls,
To roll Apollo his father's golden chair,
That shroudeth all the heavens and the air;
While shortly, with the bleezand9 torch of day,
Habilyit 10 in his gleaming fresh array,
Forth from his palace-royal issued Phoebus,
With golden crown and visage glorious,
Crisp hairès, bricht as chrysolite or topaze,
For whaès 11 hue micht nane behold his face;
The fiery sparkès brasting frae his een,
To purge the air and gild the tender green.
The aureat fanès 12 of his throne soverán
With glitterand glance o'erspread the oceán;
The large floodès gleaming all of licht,
But 13 with a blink of his supernal sicht.
For to behold, it was a gloir to see
The stabled windès and the calmèd sea,
The soft seasoun, the firmament serene,
The lowne 14 illumined air, and firth 15
The silver-scalèd fishes on the greit 17
Athwart clear streamès sprinkland 18 for the heat,
With finnès shinand brown as cinopar,
And chisel-tailès stowrand 19 here and thar;
2 Rays.
3 Mixed. 4 Rampart. 5 Screen-wall,
7 Sorrel, reddish. 8 Nostrils.
9 Blazing.
1 Throws open broad. 6 Ready with ruby harness. 10 Apparelled. 11 Whose. 13 Only.
17 Gravel or sand (grit).
19 Making the water fly about.
12 Gilded flags or standards (A.-S. fana).
15 Bay, river-mouth. 16 Pleasant.
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