Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & IIOpen Original Text The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II
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Title: The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II
Author: Ovid
Translator: J. J. Howard
Release date: April 27, 2009 [eBook #28621]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28621
Credits: Produced by Michael Roe, Ted Garvin and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDUS NASO IN ENGLISH BLANK VERSE VOLS. I & II ***
Produced by Michael Roe, Ted Garvin and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
In this eBook, a circumflex (^) is used to indicate that the rest of
the word is a superscript. Asterisks (*) are placed around words that
were typeset in a Blackletter typeface in the original book.
* * * * *
_Book 3 p. 105._
[Illustration]
_R. Westall R.A. del^l._ _E. Scriven sculp^t_
_Caught by the image of his beauteous face,
He loves th' unbody'd form: a substance thinks
The shadow:----_
_Pub. 1807, for the Author._
THE
METAMORPHOSES
OF
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
IN
*English Blank Verse*
Translated by
J. J. HOWARD.
VOL. 1.
[Illustration]
_London 1807. Printed for the Author; & Sold by John Hatchard,
Bookseller to Her Majesty. Piccadilly; H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row
& James Asperne Cornhill._
TO
The Patronage
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE
WILLIAM,
EARL OF LONSDALE,
KNIGHT
OF THE
MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER,
&c. &c. &c.
THE TRANSLATOR CONFIDES HIS ATTEMPT TO RENDER THE BEAUTIES OF OVID
MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ENGLISH READERS, AND TO CHASTEN THE PRURIENCE OF
HIS IDEAS AND HIS LANGUAGE, SO AS TO FIT HIS WRITINGS FOR MORE
GENERAL PERUSAL.
_Pimlico, Aug. 22, 1807._
_Bailey & Macdonald, Printers,
3, Harris's Place, Pantheon, Oxford-Street._
THE *First Book* OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.
From bodies various form'd, mutative shapes
My Muse would sing:--Celestial powers give aid!
From you those changes sprung,--inspire my pen;
Connect each period of my venturous song
Unsever'd, from old Chaös' rude misrule,
Till now the world beneath Augustus smiles.
While yet nor earth nor sea their place possest,
Nor that cerulean canopy which hangs
O'ershadowing all, each undistinguish'd lay,
And one dead form all Nature's features bore;
Unshapely, rude, and Chaos justly nam'd.
Together struggling laid, each element
Confusion strange begat:--Sol had not yet
Whirl'd through the blue expanse his burning car:
Nor Luna yet had lighted forth her lamp,
Nor fed her waning light with borrowed rays.
No globous earth pois'd inly by its weight,
Hung pendent in the circumambient sky:
The sky was not:--Nor Amphitrité had
Clasp'd round the land her wide-encircling arms.
Unfirm the earth, with water mix'd and air;
Opaque the air; unfluid were the waves.
Together clash'd the elements confus'd:
Cold strove with heat, and moisture drought oppos'd;
Light, heavy, hard, and soft, in combat join'd.
Uprose the world's great Lord,--the strife dissolv'd,
The firm earth from the blue sky plac'd apart;
Roll'd back the waves from off the land, and fixt
Where pure ethereal joins with foggy air.
Defin'd each element, and from the mass
Chaötic, rang'd select, in concord firm
He bound, and all agreed. On high upsprung
The fiery ether to the utmost heaven:
The atmospheric air, in lightness next,
Upfloated:--dense the solid earth dragg'd down
The heavier mass; and girt on every side
By waves circumfluent, seiz'd her place below.
This done, the mass this deity unknown
Divides;--each part dispos'd in order lays:
First earth he rounds, in form a sphere immense,
Equal on every side: then bids the seas,
Pent in by banks, spread their rude waves abroad,
By strong winds vext; and clasp within their arms
The tortuous shores: and marshes wide he adds,
Pure springs and lakes:--he bounds with shelving banks
The streams smooth gliding;--slowly creeping, some
The arid earth absorbs; furious some rush,
And in the watery plain their waves disgorge;
Their narrow bounds escap'd, to billows rise,
And lash the sandy shores. He bade the plains
Extend;--the vallies sink;--the groves to bloom;--
And rocky hills to lift their heads aloft.
And as two zones the northern heaven restrain,
The southern two, and one the hotter midst,
With five the Godhead girt th' inclosed earth,
And climates five upon its face imprest.
The midst from heat inhabitable: snows
Eternal cover two: 'twixt these extremes
Two temperate regions lie, where heat and cold
Meet in due mixture; 'bove the whole light air
Was hung:--as water floats above the land,
So fire 'bove air ascends. Here he bade lodge,
Thick clouds and vapors; thunders bellowing loud
Terrific to mankind, and winds; which mixt
Sharp cold beget. But these to range at large
The air throughout, his care forbade. E'en now
Their force is scarce withstood; but oft they threat
Wild ruin to the universe, though each
In separate regions rules his potent blasts.
Such is fraternal strife! Far to the east
Where Persian mountains greet the rising sun
Eurus withdrew. Where sinking Phoebus' rays
Glow on the western shores mild Zephyr fled.
Terrific Boreas frozen Scythia seiz'd,
Beneath the icy bear. On southern climes
From constant clouds the showery Auster rains.
The liquid ether high above he spread,
Light, calm, and undefil'd by dregs terrene.
Scarce were those bounds immutable arrang'd,
When upward sprung the stars so long press'd down
Beneath the heap chaötic, and along
The path of heaven their blazing courses ran.
Next that each separate element might hold
Appropriate habitants,--the vault of heaven,
Bright constellations and the gods receiv'd.
To glittering fish allotted were the waves:
To earth fierce brutes:--to agitated air,
Light-plumag'd birds. A being more divine,
Of soul exalted more, and form'd to rule
The rest was wanting. Then he finish'd MAN!
Or by the world's creator, power supreme,
Form'd from an heavenly seed; or new-shap'd earth
Late from celestial ether torn, and still
Congenial warmth retaining, moisten'd felt,
Prometheus' fire, and moulded took the form
Of him all-potent. Others earth behold
Pronely;--to man a face erect was given.
The heavens he bade him view, and raise his eyes
High to the stars. Thus earth of late so rude,
So shapeless, man, till now unknown, became.
First sprung the age of gold. Unforc'd Next |