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Omniana/Volume 2/Joachim du Bellay

From Wikisource
Omniana
by Robert Southey
209. Joachim du Bellay
3656435Omniana — 209. Joachim du BellayRobert Southey

209. Joachim du Bellay.

An epitaph by this poet is the only thing which I found worth remembering in one of those cubic volumes which Gruter has crammed with trash.

Quas potius decuit nostro te inferre sepulchro
Petronilla, tibi spargimus has lacrimas,

Spargimus has lacrimas, mœsti monumenta parentis,
Et tibi pro thalamo sternimus hunc tumulum.
Sperabam genitor tædas preferre jugales
Et titulo patris jungere nomen avi;
Heu! gener est Orcus; quique o dulcissima, per te
Se sperabat avum desinit esse pater.

Bellay does not deserve the less credit for these lines for having compounded them from two epitaphs at Naples, both which he probably found in Guevara's Epistles, where they follow each other. The first was placed by an aged mother over the grave of her son.

Quœ mihi debebas supremæ munera vitæ
Infelix solvo nunc tibi nate prior.
Fortuna inconstans, lex et variabilis œvi,
Debueras cineri jam superesse meo.

The other is upon a lady who died in the week which had been appointed for her marriage.

Nate heu miserum, misero mihi nata parenti
Unicus ut fieres, unica nata dolor.
Nam tibi dum virum, tædas thalamumque parabam,
Funera et inferias, anxius ecce paro.