138 DE BEBANGEB. [CHAP, iv 



for the translation of his verses ; it seems to the trans- 

 lator to be quite as good as the original. 



LES PIGEONS DE LA BOURSE. 

 PIGEONS, vous que la Muse antique 

 Attelait au char des Amours, 

 Ovi volez-vous 1 ? Las, en Belgique 

 Des rentes vous portez le cours ! 

 Ainsi, de tout faisant ressource, 

 Nobles tares, sots parvenus, 

 Transforment en courtiers de bourse 

 Les doux messagers de Venus. 



De tendresse et de poesie, 

 Quoi ! 1'horame en vain fut allaite. 

 L'or allume une frenesie 

 Qui fletrit jusqu'a la beaute ! 

 Pour nous punir, oiseaux fideles, 

 Fuyez nos cupides vautours ; 

 Aux cieux remportez sur vos ailes 

 La poesie et les amours. 



THE STOCK (EXCHANGE) DOVES. 

 YE Pigeons, whom the ancient Muse 

 Once harnessed to the car of Love, 

 Where haste ye ? Shame ! Oh bear ye news 

 To Antwerp how the markets move 1 

 Thus ill-famed nobles, idiots vain, 

 In hope to shun their threaten'd fate, 

 In stock-jobbing employ the train 

 That erst on Venus used to wait. 



On sentiment and poetry 



Was infant Man thus vainly fed 1 



Shall gold maintain a tyranny 



That strikes the povv'r of beauty dead 1 



In just revenge, ye faithful race, 



Far from these greedy vultures fly, 



And heav'nwards bear through distant space 



All sweet amours and poetry. 



