16
REMAINS OF HESIOD.
The woman's hands an ample casket bear;
She lifts the lid; she scatters ills in air.
Within th' unbroken vase[1] Hope sole remained,
Beneath the vessel's rim from flight detained:
The maid, by counsels of cloud-gathering Jove,
The coffer seal'd and dropp'd the lid above.
Issued the rest in quick dispersion hurl'd,
And woes innumerous roam'd the breathing world:
With ills the land is rife, with ills the sea,
Diseases haunt our frail humanity:
Through noon, through night on casual wing they glide,[2]
Silent, a voice the Power all-wise denied.
She lifts the lid; she scatters ills in air.
Within th' unbroken vase[1] Hope sole remained,
Beneath the vessel's rim from flight detained:
The maid, by counsels of cloud-gathering Jove,
The coffer seal'd and dropp'd the lid above.
Issued the rest in quick dispersion hurl'd,
And woes innumerous roam'd the breathing world:
With ills the land is rife, with ills the sea,
Diseases haunt our frail humanity:
Through noon, through night on casual wing they glide,[2]
Silent, a voice the Power all-wise denied.
- ↑ Th’ unbroken vase] αρρηκτοισι δομοισι. Seleucus, an ancient critic, quoted by Proclus, proposed πιυοισι: as if the casket in which Hope dwelt, might not literally be called her house. Heinsius supposes an allusion to the chamber of a virgin. After this, who would expect that δομοισι means nothing more than a chest?———taking from her cedar coffers
Vestures and jewels. - ↑ On casual wing they glide.] Perhaps Milton had Hesiod in his eye, in the speech of Satan to Sin: Par. Lost, b. ii. line 840.
