What if more sweetly than the Thracian bard

Thou tun'dst the harp-strings and by trees wert heard? Would then the blood run back to the empty shade, Which Mercury, whom no man can persuade

To burst the bar of Fate for soothing word, Hath driven with dread wand to his black herd? 'Tis hard; but by endurance lighter grows

That which to alter God's law disallows.

LIBER I. CARMEN XXVI.

Musis amicus tristitiam et metus Tradam protervis in mare Creticum Portare ventis, quis sub Arcto Rex gelidae metuatur orae,

Quid Tiridaten terreat, unice Securus. O quae fontibus integris Gaudes, apricos necte flores,

Necte meo Lamiae coronam,

Pimplea dulcis: nil sine te mei Prosunt honores: hunc fidibus novis,

Hunc Lesbio sacrare plectro

Teque tuasque decet sorores.

BOOK I. ODE XXVI.

A friend of the Muses, all sadness and fear

I will give to the petulant breezes to bear

To the deep Cretan Ocean. Who 'neath the Great Bear The king of that frozen extremity fear,

What scares Tiridates, not once will I care.

Sweet Muse, who rejoices in fresh fountain-brim,
Sunny flowers twine for Lamia, a wreath twine for him;
Nought advantage my honours, unless thou inspire;
Immortalize him in new strain on the lyre,

Aye, him with the Lesbian quill in thy hand;
Becomes it both thee and thy sisterly band.

Kmen, zee prerum thi prodest Aerias temptame fomos mimoque rotundam Perenie polum meritara.

Oneidis et Pelopis genitor, ecoviva deorum, Tishornsque remotus in auras

Et Iovis areanis Minos admissus, habentque Tartara Panthoiden iterum Orco Demissum, quamvis clipeo Troiana refixo Tempora testatus nihil ultra

Nervos atque cutem morti concesserat atrae,

Iudice te non sordidus auctor

Naturae verique.

Sed omnis una manet nox

Et calcanda semel via leti.

BOOK I. ODE XXVIII.

Thou, who the sea, and earth, and the unnumbered sand
Didst measure once, Archytas, art detained

For lack of scanty boon of a few grains of dust
Nigh the Matinian shore, nor boots it aught

To have scaled the aerial mansions, and to have scoured
In spirit the round world—to die at last!
Died also Pelops' sire, the *convive of the Gods,
And Tithon lifted up into the skies,

And Minos privy-councillor of Jove. The realms
Of Tartarus hold Panthous' son, again

Sent down to Orcus, though, unfastening his shield
In witness of the Trojan times, he had

Conceded nought but skin and bones to sable Death,
With thee for judge, no sorry voucher he

Of nature and of truth. But all one night awaits,
And trodden must be once the path of Death.

*There in the full convive we.'-Troilus and Cressida, iv., 5, 272.