LXXXIX. "That you will never rob me, you will do A thing extremely pleasing to my heart." Then Mercury sware by the Stygian dew, That he would never steal his bow or dart, Or ever would employ his powerful art XC. "And I will give thee as a good-will token, Of earthly or divine from its recess, XCI. "For, dearest child, the divinations high Which thou requirest, 'tis unlawful ever That thou, or any other deity Should understand-and vain were the endeavour; For they are hidden in Jove's mind, and I In trust of them, have sworn that I would never Betray the counsels of Jove's inmost will To any God-the oath was terrible. XCII. Then, golden-wanded brother, ask me not 1 Mr. Rossetti substitutes living for loving it certainly seems the more likely epithet; but I hesitate to adopt the change without authority. But be it mine to tell their various lot To the unnumbered tribes of human kind. Let good to these, and ill to those be wrought As I dispense-but he who comes consigned. By voice and wings of perfect augury To my great shrine, shall find avail in me. XCIII. "Him will I not deceive, but will assist ; And deems their knowledge light, he shall have missed1 His gifts deposit. Yet, O son of May, XCIV. "There are three Fates, three virgin Sisters, who My father cared not. Whilst they search out dooms, XCV. "They, having eaten the fresh honey, grow 1 In Mrs. Shelley's editions we read mist, -an orthography which Shelley is very likely to have adopted; but as I do not recall any instance of it in MS., and do not find the word so printed elsewhere in his works, I follow the usual custom in this case. All plausible delusions; these to you I give ;—if you enquire, they will not stutter; Delight your own soul with them:-any man You would instruct may profit if he can. XCVI. Take these and the fierce oxen, Maia's child- White-tusked boars, o'er all, by field or pool, XCVII. Thus King Apollo loved the child of May In truth, and Jove covered1 them with love and joy. Hermes with Gods and men even from that day Mingled, and wrought the latter much annoy, And little profit, going far astray Through the dun night. Farewell, delightful Boy, Of Jove and Maia sprung,-never by me, Nor thou, nor other songs, shall unremembered be. 1 Mr. Swinburne (Essays and Studies, p. 204) says "for covered' we ought evidently to read 'clothed'"; but I think it more likely, looking at the probabilities of transcribers' and printers' errors, that the word used by Shelley was crowned. Indeed, being quite certain that Shelley did not write covered, and casting about for the likeliest word in substitution, I should scarcely have hesitated to place crowned in the text as a positive emendation, had not so high an authority spoken so positively in favour of another word. Crowned, written by Shelley, would be very easy to read for covered; and I may perhaps be allowed to say that crowned is nearer to the original éréoŋke than either clothed or covered. HOMER'S HYMN TO CASTOR AND POLLUX.1 YE wild-eyed Muses, sing the Twins of Jove, Brought forth in joy, mild Pollux void of blame, 10 Call on the Twins of Jove with prayer and vow, 5 And sacrifice with snow-white lambs, the wind And strew the waves on the white ocean's bed, 1 This and the four hymns which follow it were first given by Mrs. Shelley in the second edition of 1839. Leigh Hunt (Correspondence, Vol. I, p. 124) writes to Mrs. Shelley under date the 4th of August, 1818, "I shall hail his Homer's Hymns, too, to begin the year with." And in the Shelley Memorials we read (p. 176), in reference to the winter of 1821-2, that, "about the same time," Shelley made several translations from Goethe, Calderon, Homer, &c., with 15 20 a view to their publication in the Liberal." I confess that I should hesitate to refer any of these five shorter Hymns to any period later than that to which Mr. Garnett, no doubt rightly, refers the fragment of the Hymn to Venus. It would thus seem as if some of Shelley's Homeric work might yet be discovered. 2 In Mrs. Shelley's editions, steelsubduing. The correction is Mr. Rossetti's. HOMER'S HYMN TO THE MOON. DAUGHTERS of Jove, whose voice is melody, But when the Moon divine from Heaven is gone Under the sea, her beams within abide, Till, bathing her bright limbs in Ocean's tide, Clothing her form in garments glittering far, And having yoked to her immortal car The beam-invested steeds, whose necks on high And as she grows, her beams more bright and bright, The Son of Saturn with this glorious Power Mingled in love and sleep-to whom she bore, Pandeia, a bright maid of beauty rare Among the Gods, whose lives eternal are. Hail Queen, great Moon, white-armed Divinity, 5 10 15 20 25 |