THE PATHOS OF THE ROSE IN POETKY 35? 



E digli come il tempo n& distrugge, 

 Ne F eta persa mai si rinnovella : 

 Digli che sappi usar suo' forma bella, 

 Ch& sempre mai non saran rose e viole. 



Or, as follows in English : 



Nay, tell her, pipe of mine, how swift doth flee 



Beauty together with our years amain ; 

 Tell her how time destroys all rarity, 



Nor youth once lost can be renewed again ; 



Tell her to use the gifts that yet remain ; 

 Eoses and violets blossom not alway. 



To this refrain of Collige virgo rosas he is for ever 

 returning : 



Deh, non insuperbir per tuo' belleza, 

 Dama ; ch' un breve tempo te la fura. 

 Canuta tornera la bionda treza 

 Che del bel viso adorna la figura. 

 Mentre che il fiore & nella sua vagheza, 

 Coglilo ; che belleza poco dura. 

 Fresca e la rosa da mattina, e a sera 

 Ell' ha perduto suo' belleza altera. 



Nay, be not overproud of thy great grace, 

 Lady ! for brief time is thy thief and mine. 



White will he turn those golden curls that lace 

 Thy forehead and thy cheeks so marble-fine. 



Lo ! while the flower still flourisheth apace, 

 Pluck it ; for beauty but awhile doth shine. 



Fair is the rose at dawn ; but long ere night 



Her freshness fades, her pride hath vanished quite. 



Thus Florentine poets used the rose as a reminder to girls 

 that they should enjoy their youth in season. The graver 

 simile of Catullus was not to their purpose. It first makes 

 its entrance into Italian poetry in these stanzas of Ariosto, 

 which are closely copied from the Latin : * 



La verginella e simile alia rosa, 

 Ch' in bel giardin su la nativa spina 



1 OrL Fur. i. 42, 43. 



AA3 



