514 
TRANSLATION. 
. ORPHEUS— A ct IV. 
ORPHEUS. 
Infernal Powers ! that rule below ! 
Pity a hapless lover’s woe ! 
’Tis love alone my feet hath led 
Down to these regions of the dead. 
Peace, Cerberus !—thy fury stay, 
For when thou hear’st my mournful lay, 
Compassion shall thy breast invade. 
And move each ghost that haunts this 
shade. 
Ye Furies, cease your dreadful roar, 
Nor shake your angry serpents more: 
Oh! did ye but my sufferings know, 
With mine your tears would also flow. 
Pursued by all the powers on high, 
I come to win the prize—or die. 
Seek, then, no more my steps to stay, 
But ope these gates that bar my way. 
PLUTO. 
Who, then, is this, whose golden lyre 
Hath oped the adamantine gate ? 
Hath made the lifeless ghosts respire, 
And staid the stern decrees of fate ? 
u The stone of Sisyphus stands still! 
u Ixion rests upon his wheel l” 
And thirsty Tantalus drinks his fill! 
Tityusj too, hath ceased to mourn 
His giant form by vultures torn : 
The Danaids rest their empty urn. 
No more I hear the tortured ghosts com- 
plaiu. 
But all are listening to the dulcet strain.* 
PROSERPINE. 
Dearest Consort! since thy love 
Lured me from the realms above : 
Since that well remembered hour 
When first I shared thy throne and power. 
Unmov’d have I the sceptre held, 
And every soft emotion quelled. 
But this melodious voice hath stole 
With such deep sweetness o’er my soul, 
That now, methinks, all other bliss 
Were nothing worth compared with this ! 
Still, still, my fond, expecting ear, 
The soft, harmonious notes would hear ! 
Thy favour, now, if ever, let me gain ; 
Suspend thy wrath; and hear th’ enchant¬ 
ing strain. 
ORPHEUS. 
Dread sovereigns of th’ unnumbered hosts, 
For whom the sun hath ceased to shine : 
To whom each power that Nature boasts, 
Descends at last by right divine: 
O deign to grant my humble prayer ! 
’Tis Love that doth my footsteps guide: 
Thinknot I spread some treacherous snare,f 
I seek my lost, my lovely bride. 
* The English reader will be reminded 
of the “ Ode to St. Cecilia .” 
t The poet alludes here to the expedition 
of Hercules 
[Jan. 3, 
A snake, midst flowers and grass con¬ 
cealed, 
Hath ta’en my love, my life away : 
Nor aught to me doth pleasure yield, 
Nor comfort, since that fatal day. 
O ! if a vestige yet remain 
Of what you once were said to be : 
If not forgotten ^Enna’s plain,* 
Restore my dear Eurydice. 
With you, at length, we all must dwell, 
’Tis here our transient journey ends : 
All mortal things your triumphs swell, 
'Where’er the moon her crescent bends. 
Our time on earth is short and frail: 
Our voyage here is fixed, and sure : 
We ail must enter this dark vale, 
And long your empire shall endure. 
Let, then, my lovely Nymph enjoy 
The fleeting hour by Nature given, 
Nor thus your promised fruit destroy, 
Uuripened by the light of heaven : 
Why should you prematurely waste 
A harvest that is all your own : 
Of that which must be yours at last 
O why refuse the transient loan ! 
By the turbid Stygian stream : 
By the lucid ghastly, gleam 
That glares from flaming Phlegethon ; 
By Chaos, and by Acheron ; 
By that golden fruit of lovej- 
Thou gathered’st in our world above, 
O Queen ! Eurydice restore. 
Or let me also be no more ! 
PROSERPINE. 
W r ho that so long had reigned in hell, 
And ruled th’ unfeeling world of woe, 
Such strange events could e’er foretell! 
Compassion moves the shades below. 
On every side their sobs I hear, 
E’en ruthless Death, that tyrant stern. 
Spite of himself hath dropped a tear, 
And all the spirits round us mourn. 
O Consort! do not thou alone 
Be found to bear a heart of stone : 
Let his just suit thy pity move, 
O yield to music and to love. 
PLUTO. 
Be it so !—th’ eternal law 
On one condition I withdraw. 
See that thou hold in strict controul 
The joyful tumult of thy soul: 
Nor turn thy fond admiring sight 
* Proserpine was carried off by Pluto as 
she was gathering flowers in the fields of 
Enna, in Sicily. 
f Pluto arrested the flight of Proserpine 
by dropping a golden apple—as Hippo- 
menes did that of Atalanta. Pope has intro¬ 
duced a similar form of adjuration, in the 
ode before alluded to. 
V Ape Italicma.—No. XXVII. 
Until 
