EPIGRAM S.1 TO STELLA. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF PLATO.2 THOU wert the morning star among the living, Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving KISSING HELENA. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF PLATO.3 KISSING Helena, together With my kiss, my soul beside it Came to my lips, and there I kept it,— 1 These four epigrams were first given by Mrs. Shelley in her first edition of 1839. It will be remembered that the original of this was chosen by Shelley as a motto for the title-page of his Pisa edition of Adonais. Mrs. Shelley heads this epigram simply with the words From Plato. SPIRIT OF PLATO. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK. EAGLE! why soarest thou above that tomb? Floatest thou? I am the image of swift Plato's spirit, A MAN who was about to hang himself, The halter found and used it. So is Hope 1 So in the MS., at Boscombe; but does in previous editions. 2 Mrs. Shelley headed this epigram simply with the words From the Greek. FRAGMENT OF THE ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF ADONIS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF BION.1 I MOURN Adonis dead-loveliest Adonis- The lovely one lies wounded in the mountains, His white thigh struck with the white tooth; he scarce Yet breathes; and Venus hangs in agony there. 3 The dark blood wanders o'er his snowy limbs, His eyes beneath their lids are lustreiess, 1 This fragment is from a MS. belonging to Sir Percy Shelley, and has been sent to me by Mr. Garnett as having somehow escaped publication hitherto. We may well be grateful for this treasure-trove in a measure disproportionate even to its great intrinsic interest; for its connexion with one of Shelley's most cherished master-pieces is too obvious, almost, to need indication. The reminiscences of Bion and Moschus traceable in Adonais are matter of general renown; but it is a fact most interesting to establish that his intimacy with the two Greek poems to which he owed most in the way of illustration extended so far as an attempt (abandoned, it would seem) to render them both into English; and that fact appears from this fragment and the 10 fragment from the third elegy of Moschus found among Hunt's papers (p. 235). These verses from Bion, I leave with the gaps shewn by the MS., having merely supplied the modicum of punctuation necessary for all unfinished drafts. This particular draft is in a tolerably advanced state, and has a good deal of punctuation of its own, which I have hardly interfered with. The words and weave the crown of Death are struck out; and Shelley has begun another reading with the words beat your breast; but, as this is incomplete, I leave the original reading. 3 Instead of these two lines originally stood the following His white thigh struck with the white tooth, and she Hangs over him to catch his passing breath The rose has fled from his wan lips, and there A deep deep wound Adonis... A deeper Venus bears within her heart. Her love, her husband calls-the purple blood From her struck thigh stains her white navel now, Alas for Cytherea-the Loves mournThe lovely, the beloved is gone-and now Her sacred beauty vanishes away. For Venus whilst Adonis lived was fair Alas her loveliness is dead with him. The oaks and mountains cry Ai! ai! Adonis! The springs their waters change to tears and weep--The flowers are withered up with grief... Who will weep not thy dreadful woe O Venus? Stay dearest one, . . and mix my lips with thine— 1 The words she cried out are here cancelled in favour of wailing loud. 2 The word little before while is here struck out. 35 40 3 Cf. Adonais, stanza XXVI (Vol. III, p. 19) Kiss me, so long but as a kiss may live. |