Verses and Translations Part 13

Still, even thus, am I ready to yield her, so it be better: Better is saving alive, I hold, than slaying a nation.

Meanwhile deck me a guerdon in her stead, lest of Achaians I should alone lack honour; an unmeet thing and a shameful.

See all men, that my guerdon, I wot not whither it goeth."

Then unto him made answer the swift-foot chieftain Achilles: "O most vaunting of men, most gain-loving, off-spring of Atreus!

How shall the lords of Achaia bestow fresh guerdon upon thee?

Surely we know not yet of a treasure piled in abundance: That which the sacking of cities hath brought to us, all hath an owner, Yea it were all unfit that the host make redistribution.

Yield thou the maid to the G.o.d. So threefold surely and fourfold All we Greeks will requite thee, should that day dawn, when the great G.o.ds Grant that of yon proud walls not one stone rest on another."

Footnotes:

{15a} "The kites know well the long stern swell That bids the Romans close."--MACAULAY.

{51a} "Poor moralist, and what art thou?

A solitary fly."

GRAY.

{145a} tunica pendente: h. e. 'suspensa e brachio.' Quod procuratoribus illis valde, ut ferunt, displicebat. Dic.u.n.t vero morem a barbaris tractum, urbem Bosporiam in fl. Iside habitantibus. Bacciferas tabernas: id q. nostri vocant "tobacco-shops."

{145b} herbae--avena . Duo quasi genera artis poeta videtur distinguere. 'Weed,' 'pipe,' recte Scaliger.

{146a} nil acquirit eundo. Aqua enim aspera, et radentibus parum habilis. Immersum hic aliquem et vix aut ne vix quidem extractum refert schol.

{146b} tormenta p. q. mortalia. Eleganter, ut solet, Peile, 'unearthly cannons. (Cf. Ainaw. D. s. v.) Perrecondita autem est quaestio de lusibus illorum temporum, neque in Smithii Dict. Cla.s.s. satis elucidata.

Consule omnino Kentf. de Bill. Loculis, bene vertas, 'pockets.'

{147a} amantem devio. Quorsum hoc, quaerunt Interpretes. Suspicor equidem respiciendos, vv. 19-23, de precuratoribus.

{148a} quadr. rotm.--Cami ard. imo. Quadrando enim rotundum (Ang.

'squaring the circle') Camum accendere, juvenes ingenui semper nitebantur. Fecisse vero quemquam non liquet.

{148b} aure canina. Iterum audi Peile, 'dog's-eared.'

{148c} rixatore. non male Heins. c.u.m Aldina, 'wrangler.'

{149a} Mortis. Verb.u.m generali fere sensu dictum inveni. Suspicor autem poetam virum quendam innuisse, qui currus, caballos, id genus omne, mercede non minima locaret.

{149b} aliessa quadra. Sunt qui de pileis Academicis accipiunt.

Rapidiores enim suas fere amittebant. Sed judicet sibi lector.

{149c} opus tunicae, 's.h.i.+rt-work.' Alii opes. Perperam.

{149d} vestem. Nota proprietatem verbi. 'Vest,' enim apud politos id.

q. vulgo 'waistcoat' appellatur. Quod et feminae usurpahant, ut hodiernae, fibula revinctum, teste Virgillo:

'crines nodantur in aurum, Aurea purpuream subnect.i.t fibula vestem.'

{150a} Ba.s.se. cft. Interpretes illud Horatianum, "Ba.s.sum Threica vincat amystide." Non perspexere viri docti alterum hic alludi, Anglicanae originis, neque illum, ut perhibent, a potu aversum.

{150b} Ini. Sic nostri, 'Go in and win.' rebus, 'subjects.'

{151a} crebra r. a. stabulum. "Turn up year after year at the old diggings, (i. e. the Senate House,) and be plucked," &c. Peile. Quo quid jejunius?

{151b} Cla.s.se--Hirudo. Obscurior allusio ad picturam quandam (in collectione viri, vel plusquam viri, Punchii repositam,) in qua juvenis custodem stationis moerens alloquitur.