The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English Blank Verse Vols. I & Ii

Part 1

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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.

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Book 3 p. 105.

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.

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 by laws Strict rectitude and faith, spontaneous then Mankind inspir'd. No judge vindictive frown'd; Unknown alike were punishment and fear: No strict decrees on brazen plates were seen; Nor suppliant crowd, with trembling limbs low bent, Before their judges bow'd. Unknown was law, Yet safe were all. Unhewn from native hills, The pine-tree knew the seas not, nor had view'd Regions unknown, for man not yet had search'd Shores distant from his own. The towns ungirt By trenches deep, laid open to the plain; Nor brazen trump, nor bended horn were seen, Helmet, nor sword; but conscious and secure, Unaw'd by arms the nations tranquil slept. The teeming earth by barrows yet unras'd, By ploughs unwounded, plenteous pour'd her stores. Content with food unforc'd, man pluck'd with ease Young strawberries from the mountains; cornels red; The thorny bramble's fruit; and acorns shook From Jove's wide-spreading tree. Spring ever smil'd; And placid Zephyr foster'd with his breeze The flowers unsown, which everlasting bloom'd. Untill'd the land its welcome produce gave, And unmanur'd its hoary crop renew'd. Here streams of milk, there streams of nectar flow'd; And from the ilex, drop by drop distill'd, The yellow honey fell. But, Saturn down To dusky Tartarus banish'd, all the world By Jove was govern'd. Then a silver age Succeeded; by the golden far excell'd;-- Itself surpassing far the age of brass. The ancient durance of perpetual spring He shorten'd, and in seasons four the year Divided:--Winter, summer, lessen'd spring, And various temper'd autumn first were known. Then first the air with parching fervor dry, Glow'd hot;--then ice congeal'd by piercing winds Hung pendent;--houses then first shelter'd man; Houses by caverns form'd, with thick shrubs fenc'd, And boughs entwin'd with osiers. Then the grain Of Ceres first in lengthen'd furrows lay; And oxen groan'd beneath the weighty yoke. Third after these a brazen race succeeds, More stern in soul, and more in furious war Delighting;--still to wicked deeds averse. The last from stubborn iron took its name;-- And now rush'd in upon the wretched race All impious villainies: Truth, faith, and shame, Fled far; while enter'd fraud, and force, and craft, And plotting, with detested avarice. To winds scarce known the seaman boldly loos'd His sails, and ships which long on lofty hills Had rested, bounded o'er the unsearch'd waves. The cautious measurer now with spacious line Mark'd out the land, in common once to all; Free as the sun-beams, or the lucid air. Nor would the fruits and aliments suffice, The rich earth from her surface threw, but deep Within her womb they digg'd, and thence display'd, Riches, of crimes the prompter, hid far deep Close by the Stygian shades. Now murderous steel, And gold more murderous enter'd into day: Weapon'd with each, war sallied forth and shook With bloody grasp his loud-resounding arms. Now man by rapine lives;--friend fears his host; And sire-in-law his son;--e'en brethren's love Is rarely seen: wives plot their husbands' death; And husbands theirs design: step-mothers fierce The lurid poisons mix: th' impatient son Enquires the limits of his father's years:-- Piety lies neglected; and Astræa, Last of celestial deities on earth, Ascends, and leaves the sanguine-moisten'd land.

Nor high-rais'd heaven was more than earth secure. Giants, 'tis said, with mad ambition strove To seize the heavenly throne, and mountains pile On mountains till the loftiest stars they touch'd. But with his darted bolt all-powerful Jove, Olympus shatter'd, and from Pelion's top Dash'd Ossa. There with huge unwieldy bulk Oppress'd, their dreadful corses lay, and soak'd Their parent earth with blood; their parent earth The warm blood vivify'd, and caus'd assume An human form,--a monumental type Of fierce progenitors. Heaven they despise, Violent, of slaughter greedy; and their race From blood deriv'd, betray.

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