And as I cold, with ane fald diligence
This nint buke follovvund of profound science,
Thus has begun in the chill wynter cald,
Quhen frostis dois owir note baith firth and fald.
Lest the reader should find that lie loses the force of this description through the obscurity of the language, it appears proper that he should hare another specimen in a different form. We shall therefore lay before him part of a prose paraphrase executed by Mr Warton, which conveys the same ideas as the original, though in a less pleasing form. The experiment of this version, according to Mr Warton, must serve to show the native excellence of these compositions. Divested of poetic numbers and expression, they still retain their poetry, appearing like Ulysses, still a king and a conqueror, although disguised like a peasant, and lodged in the cottage of the herdsman Eumaeus. We quote from the description of May, in the twelfth prologue:
"——The crystal gates of heaven were thrown open to illuminate the world. The glittering streamers of the orient diffused purple streaks, mingled with gold and azure. The steeds of the sun, in red harness of rubies, of colour brown as a berry, lifted their heads above the sea, to glad our hemisphere: the flames burst from their nostrils: while shortly, apparelled in his luminous array, Phrebus, bearing the blazing torch of day, issued from his royal palace, with a golden crown, glorious visage, curled locks bright as the chrysolite or topaz, and with a radiance intolerable. The fiery sparks, bursting from his eyes, purged the air, and gilded the new verdure. The golden vanes of his throne covered the ocean with a glittering glance, and the broad waters were all in a blaze at the first glimpse of his appearance. It was glorious to see the winds appeased, the sea becalmed, the soft season, the serene firmament, the still air, and the beauty of the watery scene.[1] The silver-scaled fishes, on the gravel, gliding hastily, as it were from the heat or sun, through clear streams, with fins shining brown as cinnabar, and chisel tails, darted here and there. The new lustre, enlightening all the land, beamed on the small pebbles on the sides of the rivers, and on the strands, which looked like beryl: while the reflection of the rays played on the banks in variegated gleams; and Flora threw forth her blooms under the feet of the sun's brilliant horses, the bladed soil was embroidered with various hues. Both wood and forest were darkened with boughs; which, reflected from the ground, gave a shadowy lustre to the red rocks. Towers, turrets, battlements, and high pinnacles of churches, castles, and every fair city, seemed to be painted; and, together with every bastion and story, expressed their own shape on the plains. The glebe, fearless of the northern blasts, spread her broad bosom. The corn crops, and the new-sprung barley, reclothed the earth with a gladsome garment. The variegated vesture of the valley covered the cloven furrow, and the barley lands were diversified with flowery weeds. The meadow was besprinkled with rivulets; and the fresh moisture of the dewy night restored the herbage which the cattle had cropped in the day. The blossoms in the blowing garden trusted their heads to the protection of the young sun. Rank ivy leaves overspread the wall of the rampart The blooming hawthorn clothed all his thorns in flowers. The budding clusters of the tender vines hung end-long, by their tendrils, from the trellises. The gems of the trees unlocking, expanded themselves into the foliage of nature's tapestry. There was a soft verdure after balmy showers. The flowers smiled in various
- ↑ The original is here so much more beautiful, that we must be pardoned an extract;
The auriate phanis of his trone soverane,
With glittering glance owirspred the octiane
The large fludis lemand all of licht
But with ane blink of his supernale sicht;
For to behald it was ane glore to se
Tlie stabillyt wyndys, and the calmyt se,
The soft sessoun, the firmament serene,
The Inuite illuminate air, and firth amene, &c.
