Milton: IN QUINTUM NOVEMBRIS Anno Aetatis 17

Iam pius extrema veniens Iacobus ab arcto
Teucrigenas populos, lateque patentia regna
Albionum tenuit, iamque inviolabile foedus
Sceptra Caledoniis coniunxerat Anglica Scotis,
Pacificusque novo felix divesque sedebat                5
In solio, occultique doli securus et hostis:
Cum ferus ignifluo regnans Acheronte tyrannus,
Eumenidum pater, aethero vagus exul Olympo,
Forte per immensum terrarum erraverat orbem,
Dinumerans sceleris socios, vernasque fideles,                 10
Participes regni post funera moesta futuros.
Hic tempestates medio ciet aere diras,
Illic unanimes odium struit inter amicos,
Armat et invictas in mutua viscera gentes,
Regnaque olivifera vertit florentia pace,                 15

Now pious James, coming from the farthest North,
held the Teucrian-born peoples and the realms of the Albions lying far and wide,
and already in an inviolable pact he had joined the English scepters
to the Caledonian Scots, and peaceful he sat, happy and rich, on a new throne,                5
secure from hidden guile and from the foe:
when the fierce tyrant reigning in fire-flowing Acheron,
father of the Eumenides, a wandering exile from ethereal Olympus,
by chance had roamed through the immense orb of lands,
reckoning the partners of crime, and faithful homeborn retainers,                10
destined to be sharers in his realm after mournful funerals.
Here he rouses dire tempests in the mid-air,
there he builds unanimous hatred among friends,
and arms unconquered nations against each other’s vitals,
and overturns olive-bearing kingdoms flourishing in peace.                15

Et quoscunque videt purae virtutis amantes,
Hos cupit adiicere imperio, fraudumque magister
Tentat inaccessum sceleri corrumpere pectus,
Insidiasque locat tacitas, cassesque latentes
Tendit, ut incautos rapiat, ceu Caspia tigris                 20
Insequitur trepidam deserta per avia praedam
Nocte sub illuni, et somno nictantibus astris.
Talibus infestat populos Summanus et urbes
Cinctus caeruleae fumanti turbine flammae.
Iamque flentisonis albentia rupibus arva                 25
Apparent, et terra deo dilecta marino,
Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia proles
Amphitryoniaden qui non dubitavit atrocem
Aequore tranato furiali poscere bello,
Ante expugnatae crudelia saecula Troiae.                30

And whomever he sees as lovers of pure virtue,
these he longs to add to his dominion, and, master of frauds,
he attempts to corrupt a breast inaccessible to crime,
and he sets silent ambushes, and stretches hidden snares
so that he may seize the unwary, as the Caspian tigress                20
pursues her trembling prey through trackless deserts
under a moonless night, while the stars wink with sleep.
With such devices Summanus infests peoples and cities,
girded with a smoking whirlwind of cerulean flame.
And now the fields whitening with rocks on wail-resounding cliffs                25
appear, and the land beloved by the sea-god,
to which the Neptunian offspring once had given a name—
the Amphitryoniad, who did not hesitate, the sea swum across,
to demand battle in a furial war,
before the cruel ages of stormed Troy.                30

    At simul hanc opibusque et festa pace beatam
Aspicit, et pingues donis Cerealibus agros,
Quodque magis doluit, venerantem numina veri
Sancta Dei populum, tandem suspiria rupit
Tartareos ignes et luridum olentia sulphur,                 35
Qualia Trinacria trux ab Iove clausus in Aetna
Efflat tabifico monstrosus ab ore Tiphoeus.
Ignescunt oculi, stridetque adamantinus ordo
Dentis, ut armorum fragor, ictaque cuspide cuspis.
Atque "pererrato solum hoc lacrymabile mundo                40
Inveni," dixit, "gens haec mihi sola rebellis,
Contemtrixque iugi, nostraque potentior arte.

    But as soon as he beholds this land blessed with wealth and festal peace,
and the fields fat with the Cereal gifts,
and—what pained him more—the holy people of God venerating the numina of the True,
at last he burst forth sighs reeking of Tartarean fires and lurid-smelling sulfur,                35
Such as savage Typhoeus, monstrous, shut in by Jove in Aetna of Trinacria,
breathes out from his wasting mouth. The eyes ignite, and the adamantine row
of teeth screeches, like the crash of arms, and point smitten on point.
And “with the tear-lamentable world traversed, this land alone                40
I have found,” he said, “this nation alone rebellious to me,
a despiser of the yoke, and more powerful than our art.

Illa tamen, mea si quicquam tentamina possunt,
Non feret hoc impune diu, non ibit inulta."
Hactenus, et piceis liquido natat aere pennis. 45

Yet she, if my attempts avail anything,
will not bear this unpunished for long, she will not go unavenged."
Thus far; and with pitch-black wings he swims in the liquid air. 45

Qua volat, adversi praecursant agmine venti,
Densantur nubes, et crebra tonitrua fulgent.
Iamque pruinosas velox superaverat Alpes,
Et tenet Ausoniae fines; a parte sinistra
Nimbifer Appenninus erat, priscique Sabini, 50
Dextra veneficiis infamis Hetruria, nec non
Te furtiva Tibris Thetidi videt oscula dantem.
Hinc Mavortigenae consistit in arce Quirini.

Where he flies, contrary winds run ahead in a column,
clouds thicken, and frequent thunders flash.
And now swift he had overpassed the frosty Alps,
and he holds the bounds of Ausonia; on the left side
was the cloud-bearing Apennine, and the ancient Sabines, 50
on the right Etruria infamous for sorceries, and likewise
Tiber sees you giving furtive kisses to Thetis.
Thence he takes his stand on the citadel of Mavors-begotten Quirinus.

Reddiderant dubiam iam sera crepuscula lucem,
Cum circumgreditur totam tricoronifer urbem, 55
Panificosque deos portat, scapulisque virorum
Evehitur. praeunt summisso poplite reges,
Et mendicantum series longissima fratrum,
Cereaque in manibus gestant funalia, caeci,
Cimmeriis nati in tenebris, vitamque trahentes. 60

The late twilights had already rendered the light dubious,
when he goes around the whole three-crown-bearing city, 55
and carries the bread-making gods, and is borne aloft on the shoulders of men.
Kings go before with knee lowered,
and a very long series of mendicant brothers,
and, blind, they carry waxen torches in their hands,
born in Cimmerian darkness, and dragging out their life. 60

Templa dein multis subeunt lucentia taedis
(Vesper erat sacer iste Petro) fremitusque canentum
Saepe tholos implet vacuos, et inane locorum,
Qualiter exululat Bromius, Bromiique caterva,
Orgia cantantes in Echionio Aracyntho,                 65
Dum tremit attonitus vitreis Asopus in undis,
Et procul ipse cava responsat rupe Cithaeron.
     His igitur tandem solenni more peractis,
Nox senis amplexus Erebi taciturna reliquit,
Praecipitesque impellit equos stimulante flagello:                70
Captum oculis Typhlonta, Melanchaetemque ferocem,
Atque Acherontaeo prognatam patre Siopen
Torpidam, et hirsutis horrentem Phrica capillis.
Interea regum domitor, Phlegetontius haeres
Ingreditur thalamos (neque enim secretus adulter                75

Then they enter temples shining with many torches
(that evening was sacred to Peter), and the roar of the singers
often fills the empty domes and the void of the places,
just as Bromius howls, and Bromius’s cohort,
singing orgies on Echionian Aracynthus,                65
while the astonished Asopus trembles in his glassy waves,
and afar Cithaeron himself answers from a hollow crag.
     With these things, then, at last completed in solemn fashion,
taciturn Night left the embraces of aged Erebus,
and drives her horses headlong with the goading whip:                70
Typhlon, blind in his eyes, and the fierce Melanchaetes,
and Silence, begotten of an Acherontian father,
torpid, and Phrice bristling with shaggy hairs.
Meanwhile the tamer of kings, the Phlegetontian heir,
enters the bedchambers (for he is not a secret adulterer                75

Producit steriles molli sine pellice noctes),
At vix compositos somnus claudebat ocellos,
Cum niger umbrarum dominus, rectorque silentum,
Praedatorque hominum falsa sub imagine tectus
Astitit. assumptis micuerunt tempora canis,                 80
Barba sinus promissa tegit, cineracea longo
Syrmate verrit humum vestis, pendetque cucullus
Vertice de raso, et ne quicquam desit ad artes,
Cannabeo lumbos constrinxit fune falaces
Tarda fenestratis figens vestigia calceis.                85
Talis, uti fama est, vasta Franciscus eremo
Tetra vagabatur solus per lustra ferarum,
Sylvestrique tulit genti pia verba salutis
Impius, atque lupos domuit, Lybicosque leones.
    Subdolus at tali serpens velatus amictu                 90

He draws out barren nights soft, without a mistress),
But sleep was scarcely closing his composed little eyes,
When the black lord of shades, and ruler of silences,
And the predator of men, hidden beneath a false appearance,
Stood by. his temples, with assumed gray hairs, gleamed,                80
A beard, let down, covers his breast; an ashen garment with a long
train sweeps the ground, and a cowl hangs from his shaven crown,
and, lest anything be lacking to the arts,
he has girded his deceitful loins with a hempen rope,
planting sluggish footfalls with fenestrated shoes.                85
Such, as the report goes, Francis in the vast wilderness
horrid wandered alone through the lairs of beasts,
and to the sylvan race bore pious words of salvation
impious, and he tamed wolves and Libyan lions.
    But the sly serpent, veiled in such a garment,                90

Solvit in has fallax ora execrantia voces;
"Dormis, nate? Etiamne tuos sopor opprimit artus,
Immemor o fidei, pecorum oblite tuorum,
Dum cathedram, venerande, tuam diademaque triplex
Ridet Hyperboreo gens barbara nata sub axe, 95
Dumque pharetrati spernunt tua iura Britanni?
Surge, age, surge piger, Latius quem Caesar adorat,
Cui reserata pater convexi ianua caeli.

The deceitful one loosed from his lips these execrating words;
"Do you sleep, son? Does slumber also press down your limbs,
O unmindful of faith, forgetful of your flocks,
while your cathedra, venerable one, and your triple diadem
are mocked by the barbarian race born under the Hyperborean axis, 95
and while the quiver-bearing Britons spurn your laws?
Rise, come, rise, sluggard, O Latian, whom Caesar adores,
for whom the Father has unbarred the door of the convex vault of heaven.

Turgentes animos, et fastus frange procaces,
Sacriligique sciant tua quid maledictio possit, 100
Et quid apostolicae possit custodia clavis;
Et memor Hesperiae disiectam ulciscere classem,
Mersaque Iberorum lato vexilla profundo,
Sanctorumque cruci tot corpora fixa probrosae,
Thermodoontea nuper regnante puella. 105

Break the swelling spirits, and the impudent prides,
and let the sacrilegious know what your malediction can do, 100
and what the guardianship of the apostolic key can do;
and, mindful, avenge the shattered fleet of Hesperia,
and the standards of the Iberians sunk in the broad deep,
and so many bodies of the saints fixed to the shameful cross,
while a Thermodonian maiden was lately reigning. 105

At tu si tenero mavis torpescere lecto
Crescentesque negas hosti contundere vires,
Tyrrhenum implebit numeroso milite pontum,
Signaque Aventino ponet fulgentia colle:
Relliquias veterum franget, flammisque cremabit,                110
Sacraque calcabit pedibus tua colla profanis,
Cuius gaudebant soleis dare basia reges.
Nec tamen hunc bellis et aperto Marte lacesses,
Irritus ille labor, tu callidus utere fraude,
Quaelibet haereticis disponere retia fas est.                115
Iamque ad consilium extremis rex magnus ab oris
Patricios vocat, et procerum de stirpe beatos,
Graendaevosque patres trabea canisque verendos.
Hos tu membratim poteris conspergere in auras,
Atque dare in cineres, nitrati pulveris igne                120

But you, if you prefer to grow torpid on a tender bed
and deny crushing the enemy’s growing forces,
he will fill the Tyrrhenian deep with numerous soldiery,
and will set his shining standards on the Aventine hill:
he will break the relics of the ancients, and will burn them with flames,                110
and with profane feet he will trample your sacred neck,
whose sandals kings rejoiced to give kisses.
Yet do not challenge this man with wars and in open Mars,
that labor would be vain; do you, crafty, employ fraud,
it is lawful to arrange whatever nets against heretics.                115
And now to a council from the farthest shores the great king
calls the Patricians, and men blessed from the stock of the nobles,
and great-aged Fathers, to be revered in the trabea and with gray hairs.
These you will be able to scatter limb by limb into the breezes,
and to give them into ashes, by the fire of nitre-charged powder                120

Aedibus iniecto, qua convenere, sub imis.
Protinus ipse igitur quoscumque habet Anglia fidos
Propositi, factique mone: quisquamne tuorum
Audebit summi non iussa facessere Papae?
Perculsosque metu subito, casuque stupentes 125
Invadat vel Gallus atrox, vel saevus Iberus.

with it thrown into the lowest parts of the buildings, where they have convened.
Immediately therefore yourself advise whomsoever England has faithful to the purpose and to the deed:
will anyone of your people dare not to execute the commands of the supreme Pope?
and those struck by sudden fear and stunned by the mishap 125
let either the fierce Gaul or the savage Iberian invade.

Saecula sic illic tandem Mariana redibunt,
Tuque in belligeros iterum dominaberis Anglos.
Et necquid temeas, divos divasque secundas
Accipe, quotque tuis celebrantur numina fastis. 130
Dixit, et ascitos ponens malefidus amictus
Fugit ad infandam, regnum illaetabile, Lethen.
Iam rosea eoas pandens Tithonia portas
Vestit inauratas redeunti lumine terras,
Maestaque adhuc nigri deplorans funera nati 135

Thus in that place at last the Marian ages will return,
and you will again rule over the warlike English.
And fear nothing; take the gods and goddesses as favorable,
and as many divinities as are celebrated in your fasti. 130
He said, and, laying aside the assumed treacherous garments,
fled to the unspeakable, joyless realm, Lethe.
Now Tithonia, opening the rosy eastern gates,
clothes the gilded lands with returning light,
and still, sorrowing, lamenting the funerals of her black son 135

Irrigat ambrosiis montana cacumina guttis,
Cum somnos pepulit stellatae ianitor aulae,
Nocturnos visus et somnia grata revolvens.
Est locus aeterna septus caligine noctis,
Vasta ruinosi quondam fundamina tecti, 140
Nunc torvi spelunca Phoni, Prodotaeque bilinguis
Effera quos uno peperit Discordia partu.
Hic inter caementa iacent semifractaque saxa
Ossa inhumata virum, et traiecta cadavera ferro.

Irrigates the mountain summits with ambrosial drops,
when the janitor of the starry hall has driven off sleep,
revolving nocturnal visions and pleasing dreams.
There is a place enclosed by the eternal murk of night,
the vast foundations of a once-ruinous roof, 140
now the cave of grim Murder and of the double-tongued Traitor,
whom savage Discord bore in a single birth.
Here among the rubble and half-broken stones lie
the unburied bones of men, and corpses transfixed with iron.

Hic Dolus intortis semper sedet ater ocellis, 145
Iurgiaque, et stimulis armata Calumnia fauces,
Et Furor, atque viae moriendi mille videntur,
Et Timor, exanguisque locum circumvolat Horror,
Perpetuosque leves per muta silentia manes
Exulant, tellus et sanguine conscia stagnat. 150

Here Guile sits ever black with twisted little eyes, 145
and Brawls, and Calumny, its jaws armed with goads,
and Fury; and a thousand ways of dying seem,
and Fear; and bloodless Horror circles the place,
and the perpetual airy Manes wander as exiles through mute silences,
and the earth, conscious of blood, stagnates. 150

Ipsi etiam pavidi latitant penetralibus antri
Et Phonos et Prodotes, nulloque sequente per antrum,
Antrum horrens, scopulosum, atrum feralibus umbris.
Diffugiunt sontes, et retro lumina vortunt.
Hos pugiles Romae per saecula longa fideles 155
Evocat antistes Babylonius, atque ita fatur.

They themselves too, fearful, lie hidden in the innermost chambers of the cave—both Phonos and Prodotes—and, with no one following, through the cave,
a bristling cave, rock-strewn, black with funereal shades.
The guilty scatter, and turn their eyes backward.
These pugilists, faithful to Rome through long ages 155
the Babylonian pontiff summons forth, and thus he speaks.

"Finibus occiduis circumfusum incolit aequor
Gens exosa mihi, prudens natura negavit
Indignam penitus nostro coniungere mundo.
Illuc, sic iubeo, celeri contendite gressu, 160
Tartareoque leves difflentur pulvere in auras
Et rex et pariter satrapae, scelerata propago;
Et quotquot fidei caluere cupidine verae
Consilii socios adhibite, operisque ministros."
Finierat, rigidi cupide paruere gemelli. 165

"At the western bounds the sea poured-around is inhabited
by a people hateful to me; prudent Nature has denied
to join the unworthy utterly to our world.
Thither—so I command—press with swift step, 160
and as light Tartarean dust let them be blown into the airs—
both the king and the satraps alike, a wicked progeny;
and as many as have grown hot with desire of true Faith,
admit as associates of counsel and ministers of the work."
He had finished; the rigid twins eagerly obeyed. 165

Interea longo flectens curvamine caelos
Despicit aetherea dominus qui fulgurat arce,
Vanaque perversae ridet conamina turbae,
Atque sui causam populi vult ipse tueri.
Esse ferunt spatium, qua distat ab Aside terra 170
Fertilis Europe, et spectat Maeotidas undas.
Hic turris posita est Titanidos ardua Famae
Aerea, lata, sonans, rutilis vicinior astris
Quam superimpositum vel Athos vel Pelion Ossae.

Meanwhile, bending the heavens in a long arc,
the lord who lightnings from the ethereal citadel looks down,
and he laughs at the vain endeavors of the perverse crowd,
and he himself wishes to guard the cause of his own people.
They say there is a space, where fertile Europe is distant from Asia 170
and looks upon the Maeotian waves.
Here a tower is set, the lofty tower of Titanid Fame,
brazen, broad, resounding, nearer to the ruddy stars
than either Athos or Pelion set upon Ossa.

Mille fores aditusque patent, totidemque fenestrae, 175
Amplaque per tenues translucent atria muros.
Excitat hic varios plebs agglomerata susurros,
Qualiter instrepitant circum mulctralia bombis
Agmina muscarum, aut texto per ovilia iunco,
Dum Canis aestivum coeli petit ardua culmen. 180

A thousand doors and entrances stand open, and just as many windows, 175
and the ample atria shine through thin walls.
Here the agglomerated plebs arouses various susurrations,
just as the ranks of flies buzz around the milking-pails with dronings,
or through sheepfolds woven of reed,
while the Dog seeks the summer’s steep summit of the sky. 180

Ipsa quidem summa sedet ultrix matris in arce,
Auribus innumeris cinctum caput eminet olli,
Queis sonitum exiguum trahit, atque levissima captae
Murmura, ab extremis patuli confinibus orbis.
Nec tot Arestoride servator inique iuvencae 185
Isidos, immiti volvebas lumina vultu,
Lumina non unquam tacito nutantia somni,
Lumina subiectas late spectantia terras.
Istis illa solet loca luce carentia saepe
Perlustrare, etiam radianti impervia soli. 190
Millenisque loquax auditaque visaque linguis
Cuilibet effundit temeraria veraque mendax
Nunc minuit, modo confictis sermonibus auget.

She herself indeed sits at the summit, the avenger of her mother, in her citadel;
her head, girded with innumerable ears, stands forth to her,
by which she draws the slightest sound, and the lightest murmurs of what is caught,
from the farthest borders of the outspread world.
Nor did you, Arestorides, guardian of the unjustly treated heifer of Isis, 185
roll so many eyes with a harsh countenance—
eyes never nodding with the silentness of sleep,
eyes gazing far and wide upon the lands lying beneath.
With these she is wont often to traverse places lacking light,
even those impervious to the radiant sun. 190
And, talkative with thousand tongues, the things heard and seen she pours out to anyone,
reckless, and lying even about true things—
now she diminishes, now she augments with fabricated discourses.

Sed tamen a nostro meruisti carmine laudes,
Fama, bonum quo non aliud veracius ullum, 195

But yet from our song you have deserved praises,
Fame, a good than which no other is more veracious, 195

Nobis digna cani, nec te memorasse pigebit
Carmine tam longo, servati scilicet Angli
Officis, vaga diva, tuis, tibi reddimus aequa.
Te Deus aeternos motu qui temperat ignes,
Fulmine praemisso alloquitur, terraque tremente: 200
"Fama, siles? An te latent impia Papistarum
Coniurata cohors in meque meosque Britannos,
Et nova sceptigero caedes meditata Iacobo."
Nec plura, illa statim sensit mandata Tonantis,
Et satis ante fugax stridentes induit alas, 205
Induit et variis exilia corpora plumis,
Dextra tubam gestat Temesaeo ex aere sonoram.

Worthy for us to be sung, nor will it irk you to have been remembered
in so long a song; namely, we, the English saved by your services,
wandering goddess, render to you what is justly due. You, the God who moderates
the eternal fires in their motion addresses, lightning sent before, and the earth trembling: 200
“Rumor, are you silent? Or does the impious conspired cohort of Papists
lie hidden from you, against me and my Britons, and the fresh slaughter plotted
against scepter-bearing James?” No more; she at once sensed the mandates of the Thunderer,
and, already swift enough before, she put on her hissing wings, 205
and she arrays her slender body with diverse feathers,
in her right hand she carries a trumpet, sonorous, of Temesean bronze.

Nec mora: iam pennis cedentes remigat auras,
Atque parum est cursu celeres praevertere nubes,
Iam ventos, iam solis equos post terga reliquit, 210

No delay: now with her wings she rows through the yielding airs,
and it is too little, in her course, to outstrip the swift clouds,
now the winds, now the horses of the sun she has left behind her, 210

Et primo Anglicas solito de more per urbes
Ambiguas voces, incertaque murmura spargit,
Mox arguta dolos et detestabile vulgat
Proditionis opus, nec non facta horrida dictu,
Authoresque addidit sceleris, nec garrula caecis                215
Insidis loca structa silet. stupuere relatis,
Et pariter iuvenes, pariter tremuere puellae,
Effaetique senes pariter, tantaeque ruinae
Sensus ad aetatem subito penetraverat omnem.
Attamen interea populi miserescit ab alto                220
Aethereus pater, et crudelibus obstitit ausis
Papicolum, capti poenas raptantur ad acres.
At pia thura Deo et grati solvuntur honores,
Compita laeta focis genialibus omnia fumant,
Turba choros iuvenilis agit: quintoque Novembris                 225

And first through the English cities, in the accustomed manner,
she scatters ambiguous voices and uncertain murmurs;
soon the keen-voiced one publishes the deceits and the detestable
work of Treason, and deeds too horrible to tell,
and she added the authors of the crime, nor does the garrulous one about blind                215
ambushes keep silent about the places laid; they were astounded at the reports,
and equally the youths, equally the maidens trembled,
and equally the worn-out old men, and the sense of so great a ruin
had suddenly penetrated every age.
Yet meanwhile from on high the Aetherial Father takes pity on the people,                220
and he opposed the cruel ventures of the Papists; the captured are hurried off to sharp punishments.
But pious incense to God and grateful honors are paid;
the happy crossroads all smoke with festive hearths,
the youthful throng leads dances: and on the fifth of November                225

Nulla dies toto occurrit celebratior anno.

No day occurs more celebrated in the whole year.

From the Neo-Latin site of Dana F. Sutton (University of California, Irvine), where English translations, notes, and additional Neo-Latin texts may be found: Neo-Latin Texts.