ROSK-BUSH. 377 



" The rose is my favorite flower : 

 On its tablets of crimson I swore, 

 That up to my last living hour 

 I never would think of thee more. 



" 1 scarcely the record had made, 

 Ere Zephyr, in frolicsome play, 

 On his light airy pinions conveyed 

 Both tablets and promise away." 



BOWRING'S RUSSIAN ANTHOLOGY. 



And a beautiful one in Tasso. There is a striking re- 

 semblance between these lines and a passage from Spenser, 

 quoted a few pages back. 



' ' Deh mira, egli canto spuntar la rosa 

 Dal verde suo modesta e verginella, 

 Che mezzo aperta ancora e mezzo ascosa, 

 Quanto si mostra men, tanto e piii bella. 

 Ecco poi nudo il sen gia baldanzosa 

 Dispiega : ecco poi langue, e non par quella ; 

 Quella non par, clie desiata'avanti 

 Fu da mille donzelle e mille amanti. 



" Cosi trapassa al trapassar d'un giorno 

 Delia vita mortale il fiore, e '1 verde." 



LA GERUSALEMMA LIBERATA DI TASSO : Canto 16. 



" The gentle budding rose, quoth she, behold, 

 That first scant peeping forth with virgin beams, 

 Half ope, half shut, her beauties doth upfold 

 In its fair leaves, and, less seen fairer seems ; 

 And after spreads them forth more broad and bold, 

 Then languisheth, and dies in last extremes : 

 Nor seems the same, that decked bed and bower 

 Of many a lady late, and paramour : 



" So, in the passing of a day doth pass 

 The bud and blossom of the life of man." 



FAIRFAX'S TRANSLATION. 



Shakespeare compares the untimely death of Adonis to 

 the early fading of a Rose : 



" Sweet rose, fair flower, untimely plucked, soon faded, 

 Plucked in the bud and faded in the spring ! 



