Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales Part 34

Viva, viva la padrona!

Tutta bella, e tutta buona, La padrona e un' angiolella Tutta buona e tutta bella; Tutta bella e tutta buona; Viva! viva la padrona!

Long may live my lovely Hetty!

Always young, and always pretty; Always pretty, always young, Live, my lovely Hetty, long!

Always young, and always pretty, Long may live my lovely Hetty!

IMPROVISO TRANSLATION OF THE FOLLOWING DISTICH ON THE DUKE OF MODENA'S RUNNING AWAY FROM THE COMET IN 1742 OR 1743.

Se al venir vostro i principi sen' vanno Deh venga ogni di--durate un' anno.

If at your coming princes disappear, Comets! come every day--and stay a year.

IMPROVISO TRANSLATION OF THE FOLLOWING LINES OF M. BENSERADE A SON LIT.

Theatre des ris, et des pleurs, Lit! ou je nais, et ou je meurs, Tu nous fais voir comment voisins Sont nos plaisirs, et nos chagrins.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry, And, born in bed, in bed we die; The near approach a bed may show Of human bliss to human woe.

EPITAPH FOR MR. HOGARTH.

The hand of him here torpid lies, That drew th' essential form of grace; Here clos'd in death th' attentive eyes, That saw the manners in the face.

TRANSLATION OF THE FOLLOWING LINES, WRITTEN UNDER A PRINT REPRESENTING PERSONS SKATING.

Sur un mince cristal l'hiver conduit leurs pas, Le precipice est sous la glace: Telle est de nos plaisirs la legere surface: Glissez, mortels; n'appuyez pas.

O'er ice the rapid skater flies, With sport above, and death below; Where mischief lurks in gay disguise, Thus lightly touch and quickly go.

IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION OF THE SAME.

O'er crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound, With nimble glide the skaters play; O'er treach'rous pleasure's flow'ry ground Thus lightly skim, and haste away.

TO MRS. THRALE, ON HER COMPLETING HER THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR.

AN IMPROMPTU.

Oft in danger, yet alive, We are come to thirty-five; Long may better years arrive, Better years than thirty-five!

Could philosophers contrive Life to stop at thirty-five, Time his hours should never drive O'er the bounds of thirty-five.

High to soar, and deep to dive, Nature gives at thirty-five.

Ladies, stock and tend your hive, Trifle not at thirty-five; For, howe'er we boast and strive.

Life declines from thirty-five.

He that ever hopes to thrive Must begin by thirty-five; And all, who wisely wish to wive, Must look on Thrale at thirty-five.

IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION OF AN AIR IN THE CLEMENZA DI t.i.tO OF METASTASIO, BEGINNING "DEH SE PIACERMI VUOI."

Would you hope to gain my heart, Bid your teasing doubts depart; He, who blindly trusts, will find Faith from ev'ry gen'rous mind: He, who still expects deceit, Only teaches how to cheat.

TRANSLATION OF A SPEECH OF AQUILEIO, IN THE ADRIANO OF METASTASIO, BEGINNING "TU CHE IN CORTE INVECCHIASTI[a]."

Grown old in courts, thou surely art not one Who keeps the rigid rules of ancient honour; Well skill'd to sooth a foe with looks of kindness, To sink the fatal precipice before him, And then lament his fall, with seeming friends.h.i.+p: Open to all, true only to thyself, Thou know'st those arts, which blast with envious praise, Which aggravate a fault, with feign'd excuses, And drive discountenanc'd virtue from the throne; That leave the blame of rigour to the prince, And of his ev'ry gift usurp the merit; That hide, in seeming zeal, a wicked purpose, And only build upon another's ruin.

[a] The character of Cali, in Irene, is a masterly sketch of the old and practised dissembler of a despotic court,--ED.

BURLESQUE OF THE MODERN VERSIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT LEGENDARY TALES. AN IMPROMPTU.

The tender infant, meek and mild, Fell down upon the stone: The nurse took up the squealing child, But still the child squeal'd on.

FRIENDs.h.i.+P; AN ODE[a].

Friends.h.i.+p, peculiar boon of heaven, The n.o.ble mind's delight and pride, To men and angels only given, To all the lower world deny'd.

While love, unknown among the blest, Parent of thousand wild desires[b], The savage and the human breast Torments alike with raging fires[c];

With bright, but oft destructive, gleam, Alike, o'er all his lightnings fly; Thy lambent glories only beam Around the fav'rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys On fools and villains ne'er descend; In vain for thee the tyrant sighs[d], And hugs a flatt'rer for a friend.

Directress of the brave and just[e], O! guide us through life's darksome way!

And let the tortures of mistrust On selfish bosoms only prey.

Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow[f], When souls to blissful climes remove: What rais'd our virtue here below, Shall aid our happiness above.

[a] This ode originally appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743.

See Boswell's Life of Johnson, under that year. It was afterwards printed in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in 1766, with several variations, which are pointed out, below.--J.B.

[b] Parent of rage and hot desires.--Mrs. W.

[c] Inflames alike with equal fires.

[d] In vain for thee the _monarch_ sighs.

[e] This stanza is omitted in Mrs. William's Miscellanies, and instead of it, we have the following, which may be suspected, from internal evidence, not to have been Johnson's:

When virtues, kindred virtues meet, And sister-souls together join, Thy pleasures permanent, as great, Are all transporting--all divine.

[f] O! shall thy flames then cease to glow.

ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE.

Had this fair figure, which this frame displays, Adorn'd in Roman time the brightest days, In every dome, in every sacred place, Her statue would have breath'd an added grace, And on its basis would have been enroll'd, "This is Minerva, cast in virtue's mould."