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140
THEOGNIS.
no mind to take a part in it, and expresses his reasons in language wherein the Epicurean vein is no less conspicuous than the touching common-sense:—
"I envy not these sumptuous obsequies,
The stately car, the purple canopies;
Much better pleased am I, remaining here,
With cheaper equipage, and better cheer.
A couch of thorns, or an embroidered bed,
Are matters of indifference to the dead."—(F.)
The stately car, the purple canopies;
Much better pleased am I, remaining here,
With cheaper equipage, and better cheer.
A couch of thorns, or an embroidered bed,
Are matters of indifference to the dead."—(F.)
This old-world expression of the common-place that the grave levels all distinctions is not unlike, save that it lacks the similitude of life to a river, the stanzas on "Man's Life," by a Spanish poet, Don Jorge Manrique, translated by Longfellow:—
"Our lives are rivers, gliding free
To that unfathomed boundless sea,
The silent grave!
Thither all earthy pomp and boast
Roll to be swallowed up and lost
In one dark wave.
To that unfathomed boundless sea,
The silent grave!
Thither all earthy pomp and boast
Roll to be swallowed up and lost
In one dark wave.
Thither the mighty torrents stray:
Thither the brook pursues its way;
And tinkling rill.
There all are equal: side by side,
The poor man and the son of pride
Lie calm and still."
Thither the brook pursues its way;
And tinkling rill.
There all are equal: side by side,
The poor man and the son of pride
Lie calm and still."
But before Theognis could give proof of this levelling change, he had a stormy career to fulfil, as we shall find in the next chapter.
