Chapter XII: Section IV: On the Mythology of Hesiod (8)

If of a Chance-complaining Man at seas
The humor take thee; when the _Pleiades_
Hide head, and flie the fierce _Orion’s_ chace,
And the darke-deep _Oceanus_ embrace;
Then diuerse Gusts of violent winds arise;
And then attempt no Nauall enterprize.
But ply thy Land affaires, and draw ashore
Thy Ship; and fence her round with stonage store
To shield her Ribs against the [310]humorous Gales;
Her Pump exhausted, lest _Ioue’s_ rainie falls
Breed putrefaction. All tooles fit for her,
And all her tacklings, to thy House confer:
Contracting orderly all needfull things
That imp a water-treading Vessel’s wings;
Her well-wrought Sterne hang in the smoke at home,
Attending time, till fit Sea Seasons come.—
When thy vaine Minde then would Sea-ventures try,
[311]In loue the Land-Rocks of loath’d Debt to fly,
And Hunger’s euer-harsh-to-hear-of cry:
Ile set before thee all the Trim and Dresse
Of those still-roaring-noise-resounding Seas:
Though neither skild in either Ship or Saile
Nor euer was at Sea; Or, lest I faile,
But for _Eubœa_ once; from _Aulis_ where
The Greeks, with Tempest driuen, for shore did stere
Their mighty Nauie, gatherd to employ
For sacred Greece gainst faire-dame-breeding Troy.
To Chalcis there I made by Sea my passe;
And to the Games of great _Amphidamas_;
Where many a fore-studied Exercise
Was instituted with excitefull prise
For great-and-good, and able-minded Men;
And where I wonne, at the _Pierian_ Pen,
A three-ear’d _Tripod_, which I offer’d on
The _Altars_ of the Maids of _Helicon_.
Where first their loues initiated me
In skill of their unworldly Harmony.
But no more practise have my trauailes [312]swet,
In many-a-naile-composed ships; and yet
Ile sing what _Ioue’s_ Minde will suggest in mine
Whose daughters taught my verse the rage diuine.

FOOTNOTES

[279] Granger, in his biographical history of England, speaks slightingly of Chapman’s Homer on Pope’s authority. Pope singularly explains what he considers as the defects of this translation, by saying that “the nature of the man may account for his whole performance: as he appears to have been of an arrogant turn, and _an enthusiast in poetry_.” A strange disqualification! He confesses, also, that “what very much contributed to cover his defects, is a daring fiery spirit that animates his translation: which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself would have written before he arrived at years of discretion.” PREFACE TO HOMER.

Mr. Godwin, in his “Lives of Edward and John Philips, nephews of Milton,” has illustrated the natural energy of style in Chapman’s Homer with critical taste and just feeling. Chap. x. p. 243.

[280] Feed _upon_ or emaciate the features by dissipated excess.

[281] Vulcan.

[282] Persuasion.

[283] Necklaces; from Carquan, Fr. or Carcan. _Dict. de l’Ac. Fr._

Threading a _carkanet_ of pure round pearl.

Sir W. Davenant. The Wits, a comedy.

[284] _To rack_ here means to _give what is exacted_; yeelds is _yieldings_, produce.

[285] Hinder.

[286] Hesitate.

[287] Beyond that which was sown first.

[288] Exertions.

[289] So much as.

[290] The Man of Thrift. Thie in the old Saxon is thrift.

[291] Animated with whose hardihood in braving the season for the sake of wealth.

[292] Slothful averseness to meet the rigour of the season, of which the consequence is poverty.

[293] Avoided through love of delicacy; or slothful indulgence.

[294] Remain unemployed; sit starving in idleness as long as the frost and snow endure.

[295] Thick, swollen.

[296] Clusters.

[297] The whole deluge of air being let loose in him, the (north-wind) on the surface of earth.

[298] In the original, _many-nourishing_. Chapman has elsewhere more faithfully the same epithet “_many-a-creature-nourishing_ earth.”

[299] Being sheared.

[300] Skins.

[301] They keep out the whole force of the winter, which is concentrated in his (the winter’s) wind.

[302] She was of too tender an age to sustain the bridal embrace.

[303] A Grecism: swimming _in beauty_: in the Greek, _many-golden_ Venus: abounding with charms.

[304] The care of seeking shelter.

[305] Being in need of shelter.

[306] To _dress_, or prepare by thrashing.

[307] Well-smooth’d or levell’d.

[308] Stow in.

[309] A Grecism: _Dear_ in Greek being synonymous with _his_, _hers_, _their_: and in this instance an expletive.

[310] Humid.

[311] With the wish or desire.

[312] Sweated _through_; toiled through.

THE END.

C. Baldwin, Printer, New Bridge-street. London.