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 lay his hands on what to him was due,

Or ever would employ his powerful art
Against his Pythian fane. Then Phoebus swore
There was no God or man whom he loved more.

XC.

"And I will give thee as a good-will token,
The beautiful wand of wealth and happiness;
A perfect three-leaved rod of gold unbroken,
Whose magic will thy footsteps ever bless;
And whatsoever by Jove's voice is spoken

Of earthly or divine from its recess,
It, like a loving1 soul to thee will speak,
And more than this, do thou forbear to seek.

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
To speak the fates by Jupiter designed;

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 ;
But he who comes relying on such birds.
As chatter vainly, who would strain and twist
The purpose of the Gods with idle words,

And deems their knowledge light, he shall have missed1
His road whilst I among my other hoards

His gifts deposit. Yet, O son of May,
I have another wondrous thing to say.

XCIV.

"There are three Fates, three virgin Sisters, who
Rejoicing in their wind-outspeeding wings,
Their heads with flour snowed over white and new,
Sit in a vale round which Parnassus flings
Its circling skirts-from these I have learned true
Vaticinations of remotest things.

My father cared not. Whilst they search out dooms,
They sit apart and feed on honeycombs.

XCV.

"They, having eaten the fresh honey, grow
Drunk with divine enthusiasm, and utter
With earnest willingness the truth they know;
But if deprived of that sweet food, they mutter

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-
O'er many a horse and toil-enduring mule,
O'er jagged-jawèd lions, and the wild

White-tusked boars, o'er all, by field or pool,
Of cattle which the mighty Mother mild
Nourishes in her bosom, thou shalt rule-
Thou dost alone the veil of death uplift-
Thou givest not-yet this is a great gift."

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,
Whom the fair-ancled Leda mixed in love.
With mighty Saturn's heaven-obscuring Child,
On Taygetus, that lofty mountain wild,

Brought forth in joy, mild Pollux void of blame,
And steed-subduing2 Castor, heirs of fame.
These are the Powers who earth-born mortals save
And ships, whose flight is swift along the wave.
When wintry tempests o'er the savage sea
Are raging, and the sailors tremblingly

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Call on the Twins of Jove with prayer and vow,
Gathered in fear upon the lofty prow,

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And sacrifice with snow-white lambs, the wind
And the huge billow bursting close behind,
Even then beneath the weltering waters bear
The staggering ship-they suddenly appear,
On yellow wings rushing athwart the sky,
And lull the blasts in mute tranquillity,

And strew the waves on the white ocean's bed,
Fair omen of the voyage; from toil and dread,
The sailors rest, rejoicing in the sight,
And plough the quiet sea in safe delight.

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

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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,
Muses, who know and rule all minstrelsy!
Sing the wide-wingèd Moon. Around the earth,
From her immortal head in Heaven shot forth,
Far light is scattered-boundless glory springs,
Where'er she spreads her many-beaming wings
The lampless air glows round her golden crown.

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
Curve back, she drives to a remoter sky
A western Crescent, borne impetuously.
Then is made full the circle of her light,

And as she grows, her beams more bright and bright,
Are poured from Heaven, where she is hovering then,
A wonder and a sign to mortal men.

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,
Fair-haired and favourable, thus with thee,
My song beginning, by its music sweet
Shall make immortal many a glorious feat
Of demigods, with lovely lips, so well
Which minstrels, servants of the muses, tell.

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