EPITAPH.1

THESE are two friends whose lives were undivided;
So let their memory be, now they have glided
Under the grave; let not their bones be parted,
For their two hearts in life were single-hearted.

TRANSLATIONS.

[The separation of these translations from the original poetry seems desirable on all grounds; and the only poetic translations by Shelley not included in this division are the two which he issued with Alastor,-one from a sonnet of Dante to Guido Cavalcanti, and the other from Moschus: these will be found in Vol. I, at pp. 57 and 58. Gathered together in one section, his translations exhibit to great advantage his wide range of scholarship and his catholicity of admiration. In lieu of a chronology of production I have adopted here the same chronology used by Mrs. Shelley and Mr. Rossetti,that shewing the historic succession of the authors from whose works the translations were made. Two names, one ancient and one modern, Horace and Bronzino, I have added with some diffidence to the list of authors whose works have been rendered by Shelley, under circumstances explained in the notes to the poems from those authors.-H. B. F.]

TRANSLATIONS.

HYMN TO MERCURY.1

TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF HOMER.

I.

SING, Muse, the son of Maia and of Jove,

The Herald-child, king of Arcadia

And all its pastoral hills, whom in sweet love
Having been interwoven, modest May
Bore Heaven's dread Supreme-an antique grove
Shadowed the cavern where the lovers lay

In the deep night, unseen by Gods or Men,
And white-armed Juno slumbered sweetly then.

II.

Now, when the joy of Jove had its fulfilling,
And Heaven's tenth moon chronicled her relief,
She gave to light a babe all babes excelling,

1 This translation, first given by Mrs. Shelley in the Posthumous Poems, appears to have been written in July, 1820, immediately before The Witch of Atlas,-a circumstance which sufficiently accounts for identity of metre and strong resemblance of style. The playful forms of speech adopted in these two poems are quite exceptional in Shelley's work. In a letter to Peacock, dated July 12th, 1820, written while the Shelleys were occupying

the house of the Gisbornes at Leghorn, and published in Fraser's Mayazine for March, 1860, Shelley says I am translating in ottava rima the Hymn to Mercury, of Homer. Of course my stanza precludes a literal translation. My next effort will be that it should be legible-a quality much to be desired in translations." Fragments of the drafts of this and the other Hymns of Homer exist among the Boscombe MSS.

A schemer subtle beyond all belief;

A shepherd of thin dreams, a cow-stealing,

A night-watching, and door-waylaying thief, Who 'mongst the Gods was soon about to thieve, And other glorious actions to achieve.

III.

The babe was born at the first peep of day;
He began playing on the lyre at noon,
And the same evening did he steal away
Apollo's herds;-the fourth day of the moon
On which him bore the venerable May,

From her immortal limbs he leaped full soon,
Nor long could in the sacred cradle keep,
But out to seek Apollo's herds would creep.

IV.

Out of the lofty cavern wandering

He found a tortoise, and cried out-" A treasure!"

(For Mercury first made the tortoise sing)

The beast before the portal at his leisure

The flowery herbage was depasturing,

Moving his feet in a deliberate measure Over the turf. Jove's profitable son

Eyeing him laughed, and laughing thus begun :-

V.

"A useful god-send are you to me now, King of the dance, companion of the feast, Lovely in all your nature! Welcome, you

Excellent plaything! Where, sweet mountain beast, Got you that speckled shell? Thus much I know,

1 Mr. Rossetti suggests the insertion of and after dreams; and the emendation is certainly tempting.

I

should, however, scarcely venture on it without MS. authority.