his gory visage down the stream was sent,
down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.
alas! what boots it with incessant care
to tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade
and strictly meditate the thankless muse?
were it not better done, as others use,
to sport with Amaryllis in the shade
or with the tangles of Neaera's hair?
fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise,
that last infirmity of noble mind,

to scorn delights and live laborious days.
but the fair guerdon when we hope to find
and think to burst out into sudden blaze,
comes the blind fury with the abhorred shears,
and slits the thin-spun life: 'but not the praise'
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears.

XXVIII.

Lasz dich, geliebte, nicht reun, dasz du mir so schnell dich ergeben ; glaub' es, ich denke nicht frech, denke nicht niedrig von dir. vielfach wirken die pfeile des Amor: einige ritzen, und vom schleichenden gift kranket auf jahre das herz. aber mächtig befiedert, mit frisch geschliffener schärfe, dringen die andern ins mark, zünden behende das blut. in der heroischen zeit, da götter und göttinnen liebten, folgte begierde dem blick, folgte genusz der begier. glaubst du, es habe sich lange die göttin der liebe besonnen, als im Idäischen hain einst ihr Anchises gefiel?

hätte Luna gesäumt den schönen schläfer zu küssen,

o, so hätt' ihn geschwind, neidend, Aurora geweckt.

ora dedit fluvio, fluvio ora cruenta secundo, Lesbiacumque rapax ad litus detulit Hebrus. eheu, perpetuis quid pastoralia curis

incompta exercere iuvat despectaque pensa? quid fida ingratam meditemur harundine musam? nonne fuit satius vulgi de more sub umbra seu temptare iocis Amaryllida, sive Neaerae nugari cum crine comisque illudere plexis? gloria calcar habet (versatque ille ultimus error excellentem animum), stimulet quod vivida corda spernere delicias et duros degere soles.

cum tamen optato speramus posse potiri munere et ad claram subito iam emergere lucem, caeca venit furia atque invisa forfice vitae tenuia fila secat: 'sed laudem non tamen illa,' sic Phoebus contra, ac tremulas simul attigit aures.

XXVIII.

Quid fles, cara, manus quod tam cito victa dedisti? vilis ob hoc non es, non mihi (crede) procax. diverse iaculatur Amor: modo radit harundo, corque subit repens virus obestque diu:

nunc pulchre pinnata recensque a cote medullam figit et accenso sanguine cuncta rapit.

quando heroes erant et amabant dique deaeque,
impetus unus erat cernere, velle, frui.

ut semel Idaeis Anchisen arsit in umbris,
rere deam lentas opposuisse moras?
Luna soporatos si tangere nollet amores,
invida lux somnis, a, daret orta fugam.

Hero erblickte Leandern am lauten fest, und behende stürzte der liebende sich heisz in die nächtliche fluth. Rhea Sylvia wandelt, die fürstliche jungfrau, der Tiber wasser zu schöpfen hinab, und sie ergreifet der gott. so erzeugte die söhne sich Mars, die zwillinge tränket eine wölfin, und Rom nennt sich die fürstin der welt.

XXIX.

To be, or not to be? that is the question:

whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing end them? to die, to sleep,
no more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. to die, to sleep,

to sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
for in that sleep of death what dreams may come
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause: there's the respect
that makes calamity of so long life;

for who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns

that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make

in strepitu festo Leandrum adspexerat Hero: se nocturna calens in freta iecit amans. haustura ad Tiberim devenit, regia virgo, raptaque succubuit Silvia Rea deo;

stirps sata Mavorti, geminis lupa praebuit uber, Romaque victricem se vocat orbis eram.

ΧΧΙΧ.

Ετ ̓ ὦμεν ἢ μή; τοῦτ ̓ ἐπισκεψώμεθα· εἰ κρεῖσσόν ἐστι σφενδόνας βέλεμνά τε θυμῷ διαντλεῖν οὐκ ἀνασχέτου τύχης, ἢ πρὸς θάλασσαν ὅπλ ̓ ἐπαίρεσθαι κακῶν παῦσαί τ ̓ ἐφορμαίνοντα. τὸ θνήσκειν καλῶ εὕδειν· τί δ ̓ ἀλλ ̓; αὐχεῖν δὲ καρδίας ὕπνῳ ἄλγημα παῦσαι μυρίον τε συγγενές

ὃ σὰρξ τάραγμα λαγχάνει, πέρας τόδε μέγ ̓ ὤλβισ ̓. εὕδειν δ ̓ ὡς τὸ κατθανεῖν, ἴσως εὔδουσι κὤψαν ̓ ἐστ ̓ ἐκεῖ τό γ' ἐμποδών. ὕπνῳ γὰρ αἱ ξὺν τῷδε θανασίμῳ μολεῖν δύναιντ ̓ ἂν ὄψεις ἐκκυλισθεῖσιν κλόνου βροτησίου τοῦδ', ἐς τριβὰς ἄγουσ ̓· ὃ καὶ τίθησιν ὧδε μακρόβιον τὸ δυστυχές. τλαίη γὰρ ἄν τις κέντρα καὶ γέλων χρόνου, λώβην τε λυμεῶνος, αὐθαδοῦς τ ̓ ὀφρύν, ἀλγηδόνας τ' ἔρωτος ἠτιμασμένου,

τριβάς τ ̓ ἀκαίρους τῆς δίκης, ἀρχῶν θ ̓ ὕβριν, χρηστός θ ̓ ἃ τλήμων πρὸς κακοῦ λακτίζεται, ἐξὸν λογιστὰς ξιφιδίῳ φθάνειν ἁπλῷ;

with a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life,

but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will

and makes us rather bear those ills we have
than fly to others that we know not of?
thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
and thus the native hue of resolution

is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
and enterprises of great pith and moment
with this regard their currents turn awry
and lose the name of action.-soft you now!
the fair Ophelia! nymph, in thy orisons
be all my sins remembered.

XXX.

To be, or not to be? that is the question:
whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles
and by opposing end them? to die, to sleep,
no more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished. to die, to sleep,

to sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

must give us pause: there's the respect