130 AD DAVIDEM COOK. Dumque quies nos alta manet, nec frigoris ullus Tu gelidos inter ventos versaris et imbres, Multa docens juvenes, et pulchras multa puellas, AD DAVIDEM COOK. 131 Quid tibi pro totidem meritis speremus? amori Quisve tuo æqualis retribuatur amor? Tuque tuusque canis si nos visetis, uterque Grati eritis nobis, tuque tuusque canis. Mille domos adeas, et non ignobile munus (Nulla minus solido) dent tibi mille domus ; Quemque bonum exoptas nobis, lætumque Decembrem, Esto tibi pariter lætus, et esto bonus. IN OBITUM ROUSSÆI, COLLEGIO TRINITATIS SERVI A CUBICULIS. A ANNO 1721.† LME Charon (nam tandem omnes, qui nascimur et qui Nascemur, tua nos cymba aliquando manet, Per ripas fer circùm oculos, omnesque recense Manes, ad Stygias qui glomerantur aquas; Prospice, si crassam fors exploraveris umbram, Non est in toto crassior umbra loco. Luctantem cernes, animasque hinc inde minores' Turbantem, ut cubito pandat utroque viam. Squalidus et pinguis totus, tibi navita dextram Tendet, ad Elysii trajiciendus agros. Dum vixit, Roussæus erat, nostri accola Cami; Quem puerum novit, novit et unda senem. + This Poem appeared in ed. 1726, with the title, “In Obitum Roussæi, anno 1721. Carmen Elegiacum. Editio altera." See ed. 1734, p. 102. I have not seen the first edition. Luctantem cernes, animis levioribus actis. Hinc inde, ut cubito pandat utroque viam. Ed, 1728. 2 Versantem. Ed. 1734. IN OBITUM ROUSSÆI. 133 Navita non illo melior fuit; esset agenda Hunc nostro ut reddas cælo, te carmine multo, Quem petimus, reditum lex inimica vetat : Hoc saltem concede: admotâ ad littora cymbâ, Per Stygium nautam transvehe nauta lacum. Nec poscas naulum; loculos nam vivus inanes Gessit, et haud obolum, quem tibi solvat, habet. Quòd si tam crebras transmittere te piget umbras, Et longum refugis, portitor unus, opus: Accipe divisi socium comitemque laboris ; Divisus levior fiet utrique labor. Adde quòd (ut similes estis) dubitabitur, utrum Roussæus geminus sit, geminusve Charon. EPITAPH ON A DOG.t OOR Irus' faithful wolf-dog, here I lie, POOR That wont to tend my old blind master's steps, His guide and guard; nor while my service lasted Had he occasion for that staff, with which He now goes picking out his path in fear, Over the highways and crossings; but would Safe in the conduct of my friendly string, [plant, A firm foot forward still, till he had reach'd His poor seat on some stone, nigh where the tide Of passions lay in thickest confluence flood. To whom with loud and passionate laments, From morn to eve his dark estate he wail'd, Nor wail'd to all in vain; some, here and there, The well-disposed and good, their pennies gave. I meantime at his feet obsequious slept: Not all-asleep in sleep, but heart and ear Prick'd up at his least motion, to receive Vide Elia, vol. i. p. 269. + First appeared in Carmina Comitilia, 1751, p. 95; secondly in 1728, p. 6. |