240 JEROME CARDAN. 



his friend Giudeo, a composer who was then ninety- seven 

 years old, set them. These are the verses put into an 

 English form 1 : 



" A purple flower cut by the hard plough 



Droops, so to me ray dying son appears ; 

 Worthy a Nestor's life, I see him bow 



Under the axe, and long upon mine ears 

 Murmurs a voice, 



' pitiable sire !' 



It says, * infant born hard years to know ! 



' Three souls at once under one stroke expire, 



' My own death is the least part of my woe. 



1 Theonoston, Lib. i. Op. Tom. ii. p. 346. The poem itself is here 

 appended: 



" Ut flos purpureus duro concisus aratro 

 Languescit : sic ilia mei morientis imago 

 Filii, nestoreos heu digni vivere in annos, 

 Qui postquam suculam vidit ssevarnque securim 

 Exanimis jacuit, diu tandem voce recepta: 

 'Heu: miserande pater,' dixit, ' miserandaque proles, 

 Nunc tres Concordes anima moriemur in una, 

 Sed mea mors mihi jam minima est pars certe doloris. 

 Infantem miseror parvum, patrisque senectam, 

 Languescentemque animum sternit pietatis imago ; 

 Et quanquarn moriar primis juvenilibus annis, 

 Quosque mihi sensus olim tribuere parentes 

 Carnificis dextra eripiat, cum vestra nefandos 

 Jura tegant, laBtique trahant per crimina vitam: 

 Immemorem tamen heu pietas facit! O dolor ingens. 

 Nobilis heu pater, en quis te solabitur inde 

 Moerentem ? laterique hajrens comitabitur ultro ? 

 Infantem commendo tibi nostrum, rogo vive, 

 Obdura in soevos casus, curamque nepotis 

 Suscipe, meque putes florentem vivere in illo. 

 Yerum utinam possem moriens amplexier ambos. 

 Xon licet ; et postquam votis vos stringo supremis, 

 Per tenebras nunc vado aeternas: jamque valete' 



Condidit auditis ccelo his Deus astra sereno: 

 Saxaque fleverunt, ulularunt undique ferse." 



