GREEK IAMBICS.

A. F. HORT.

Ερως γὰρ ἄνδρας οὐ μόνους ἐπέρχεται.

BIBLIO

ECA.

ELAINE.

Then spake the lily maid of Astolat ;
'Sweet father, all too faint and sick am I
For anger: these are slanders: never yet
Was noble man but made ignoble talk.
He makes no friend who never made a foe.
But now it is my glory to have loved
One peerless, without stain: so let me pass,
My father, howsoe'er I seem to you,
Not all unhappy, having loved God's best
And greatest, tho' my love had no return:
Yet, seeing you desire your child to live,
Thanks, but you work against your own desire
For if I could believe the things you say
I should but die the sooner; wherefore cease,
Sweet father, and bid call the ghostly man
Hither, and let me shrive me clean and die.'
So when the ghostly man had come and gone,
She with a face, bright as for sin forgiven,
Besought Lavaine to write as she devised
A letter, word for word; and when he ask'd
'Is it for Lancelot, is it for my dear lord?

Then will I bear it gladly;' she replied,

For Lancelot and the Queen and all the world,

But I myself must bear it.' Then he wrote

IDEM GRAECE.

Λευκώλενος δὲ τοιάδ ̓ ἐννέπει κόρη νόσῳ ξυνοῦσα μῆνιν οὐκ ἔχω, πατέρ· ἀλλ ̓ ἐστὶ ταῦτα λοιδόρημα παντελῶς· τίς γὰρ πεφυκὼς χρηστὸς οὐ κλύει κακός ; ὅτῳ γὰρ ἄφιλος οὔτις ἦν ποτ', οὐδέ πω φίλος τίς ἐστιν· ἀλλ ̓ ἐγὼ λαμπρύνομαι τοιοῦδ ̓ ἐρασθεῖσ ̓ ἀνδρὸς, εὐσεβεστάτου πάντων, φέροντος στέφανον εὐκλείας καλόν. σὺ δ ̓ οὖν μ' ἔασον, ἥτις εἰμί σοι, πατέρ, δυσδαίμον ̓ ἔρρειν οὐ τὰ πάντα γ', ὡς ἐρῶ ἀνδρῶν ἀρίστου καίπερ ἀντερῶντος οὔ. νῦν δ', οἵνεκ ̓ οὐ τὴν παῖδα κατθανεῖν θέλεις, ἐπῄνεσ', ἀλλὰ δυσμαχεῖς τῷ σῷ πόθῳ πίστιν γὰρ ἂν διδοῦσα τοῖς ἐκ σοῦ λόγοις θασσόν γ' ἔθνησκον τοιγαροῦν, φίλον κάρα, τοιῶνδε λήξας δεῦρο τὸν σεμνὸν κάλει, ὡς ἀμπλακήμαθ ̓ ἁγνίσασα κατθάνω.

Ἱερεύς τε σεμνὸς προσμολὼν ἀπῴχετο ἡ δ ̓ ὡς ἀπαλλαχθεῖσα τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν φαιδρῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ κασιγνήτου λόγους δεῖται γράφειν τιθέντος οὐδὲν ἐλλιπές οἴων φράσει· καὶ τοῦδ ̓ ἐρωτῶντος λέγε, ἢ δεσπότῃ τῷ φιλτάτῳ τάδ' ἐγγράφω ; ἑκὼν γὰρ ἂν φέροιμι. δεσπότῃ τ ̓, ἔφη, καὶ γῆς ἀνάσσῃ κοὔτις ἐσθ ̓ ὁτῷπερ οὔ, αὐτὴν δὲ δεῖ φέρειν μ'. ὁ δ ̓ ἐγγράψας ἅπερ ὕφηνε γράμματ', ἐν πτυχαῖς σφραγίζεται.

The letter she devised: which being writ
And folded, 'O sweet father, tender and true,
Deny me not,' she said-' you never yet
Denied my fancies-this, however strange,
My latest; lay the letter in my hand
A little ere I die, and close the hand
Upon it; I shall guard it even in death.

And when the heat is gone from out my heart,
Then take the little bed on which I died
For Lancelot's love, and deck it like the Queen's
For richness, and me also like the Queen.
In all I have of rich, and lay me on it.
And let there be prepared a chariot-bier
To take me to the river, and a barge
Be ready on the river, clothed in black.
I go in state to court, to meet the Queen.
There surely I shall speak for mine own self,
And none of you can speak for me so well.
And therefore let our dumb old man alone
Go with me, he can steer and row, and he
Will guide me to that palace, to the doors.'
She ceased her father promised; whereupon
She grew so cheerful that they deem'd her death
Was rather in the fantasy than the blood.
But ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh
Her father laid the letter in her hand,

And closed the hand upon it, and she died.

So that day there was dole in Astolat.

ἡ δ ̓ εἶπεν· ὦ πατερ σὺ φίλτατος γεγώς, μὴ νῦν μὲ ἀπώσῃς, οὐκ ἀποστραφεὶς λιτάς τὸ πρόσθεν ἄτοπον ὄνθ ̓ ὅμως δέχου πόθον τὸν ὕστατον δὴ δεῖ σε τάσδ ̓ ἐπιστολάς ὅταν παραστῇ θάνατος, ἐνδοῦναι χερί, ξυναρμόσαι τε χεῖρ ̓, ἐπεὶ σώζειν θέλω τηρεῖν τε καὶ θανοῦσα, κἂν στέρνοις ὅταν ψυχρὸν τὸ θάλπος ᾖ βίου, σμικρὸν λέχος λαβὼν ἐν ᾧ τὸ νῦν φάος λείψω, φίλου τρέφουσ ̓ ἔρωθ ̓ Αἱμῶνος, εὖ κόσμει καλοῖς οὐ τῆς ἀνάσσης ὑστεροῦν ἀγάλμασιν, ὅσον θ ̓ ὑπάρχει μ' εὖ περιστείλας καλαῖς χλιδαῖς, ἀνάσσῃ προσφερῆ, δὸς τῷ λέχει. στεῖλον τ ̓ ἀπήνην, ἥτις εἰς ῥόον νεκρόν ἐμὸν κατάξει, καὶ μελάμπεπλον σκάφος ἕτοιμον ἔστω, πρὸς γὰρ ἀρχικούς δόμους σεμνὴν ὑπάρχειν εὐσταλῆ θ ̓ ὁδὸν πρέπει ξένη γ ̓ ἀνάσσης εἶμι, καὶ τοὐμὸν δέμας φώνην ἄφωνον, ὡς δοκεῖ, πέμψει καλῶς. ἦ γλῶσσα γὰρ τῳ μᾶλλον εὔγλωσσος λέγειν πάρεστιν ὑμῶν ἀντ ̓ ἐμοῦ ; μόνον μὲν οὖν τὸν κωφὸν ἡμῶν οἰκέτην ὁδοῦ θέλω ὀπαδὸν εἶναι κεῖνος οἰακοστροφῶν ἄξει μ' ἐρέσσων τ ̓ ἐς θύρας τοῦ δώματος. Τοιαῦτα φησί· καὶ πατὴρ ὑπέσχετο δράσειν τάδ', ἡ δὲ φαιδρὸν ἐκφαίνει τάχα ὄμμ', ὥστε μᾶλλον τοῖς φίλοις κυρείν δοκεῖ φάντασμα θανάτου θάνατος ἢ βίου φθορά ἔπει δ ̓ ἀπέσβη δέκατον ἡλίου φάος, τότ' ἐντίθησι γράμματ' ἐν κόρης χερί πατὴρ, ἀκρούς τε χειρὸς ἐγκλείει κτένας. ἡ δ ̓ οὖν μεθῆκε πνεῦμα, καὶ πανήμερος ἀνίσταται κώκυτος ἐν πάσῃ πόλει.