Montanus: DE WILHELMO THELLIO ELEGIA

Helvetiae celebris pietate Rodolphus alumnus
principis Hapsburga nomen ab arce tulit.
cuius in acclivi sita vertice saxa vetusta,
despiciunt ripas Ara propinque tuas.
imperii postquam sed Caesar adeptus habenas
ex humili meruit sceptra tenere loco,
haud illum puduit manifesto teste fateri,
deberi meritis, urbs Tigurina, tuis.

Rudolph, a foster-son of Helvetia, renowned for piety,
bore the Habsburg name from a prince’s citadel.
whose ancient rocks, set on a steep summit,
look down upon your banks, Aare, nearby.
after the Caesar, having attained the reins of the empire,
from a humble station deserved to hold the scepters,
it did not shame him, with manifest witness, to confess,
that it was owed to your merits, Tigurine city.

vindice qua toties pepulisset finibus hostes,
ipse quibus impar Marte futurus erat.
cuius et auspiciis duxisset et aere cohortes,
cum caperet regni tradita sceptra novi.
hinc te divitiis, amplis et honoribus auxit,
militiaeque tibi splendida signa dedit.

under whose protection he had so often driven the enemies from the borders,
he himself would have been unequal to them in battle.
and both under whose auspices and with whose coin he had led cohorts,
when he took up the entrusted scepters of a new kingdom.
from this he increased you with riches and ample honors,
and he gave to you splendid standards of the soldiery.

insuper Helvetios alios sibi foedere iunxit,
Martia quos acres norat ad arma viros.
quorum saepe fidem laudavit, et ardua facta,
aspera cum ferro res peragenda fuit.
Caesar at hinc postquam superas concessit ad oras,
perdidit iniustos fraude subacta viros.

moreover he joined other Helvetians to himself by treaty,
whom he knew as keen martial men for arms.
whose loyalty he often praised, and their arduous deeds,
when a harsh matter had to be carried through with iron.
but then, after Caesar withdrew from here to the upper shores,
he destroyed the unjust men, their fraud subdued.

iussa tributa quibus, et vectigalia solvit,
et largas dempto fine pependit opes.
corpora quin dominis obnoxia facta tyrannis
pondere servitii succubuere gravi.
iamque aliquis solito subigens bove rura colonus
occidit, et proprio sanguine tinxit humum.

he paid the commanded tributes and the imposts,
and weighed out lavish wealth with the limit removed.
nay indeed, their bodies, made obnoxious to tyrant lords,
succumbed beneath the burden of grievous servitude.
and now some farmer, subduing the fields with the accustomed ox,
has fallen, and has dyed the soil with his own blood.

saepe latrociniis, et iniqui praesidis astu,
cives in mediis occubuere viis.
ex stabulis armenta rapi, sua tecta cremari
flevit, et ereptos rustica turba lares,
utque maritorum pollutos caede penates,
ut taceam foedi crimen adulterii.
invitis quoties vis est illata puellis
et matris frustra virgo occupavit opem?

often by brigandage, and by the astuteness of an iniquitous governor,
citizens have perished in the midst of the streets.
from the stalls that the herds were snatched, their own roofs burned,
the rustic crowd wept, and their Lares torn away,
and that the Penates of husbands were polluted with slaughter,
not to mention the foul crime of adultery.
how often has force been inflicted upon unwilling maidens,
and in vain has a maiden sought a mother’s help?

hic fuit Helvetiae status: haec quibus aspera visa
forma, quibus cordi iusque piumque fuit,
supplicium vel morte luunt, vel carcere pendunt,
sunt quibus exilii poena parata fuit.
sed cum pressa malis virtus humana fatiscit,
auxilio praesens tunc solet esse Deus.
impia Grisleri fugiunt quem facta tyranni,
(nam fuit Helvetia praeses et ipse soli?)
arboris a viridi suspensum fronde galerum
a populo voluit praetereuntque coli.

here was the status of Helvetia: for those to whom this form seemed harsh,
for those to whom what is just and pious was at heart,
they pay the penalty either by death, or pay it by imprisonment;
there are those for whom the penalty of exile was prepared.
but when human virtue, pressed by evils, grows faint,
God is then wont to be present for aid.
they flee Gessler, whom the impious deeds of a tyrant—
(for he was the praeses of Helvetia, and himself sole?)—
a hat suspended from the green foliage of a tree
he wished to be honored by the people as they passed by.

iamque frequens illum vulgus, formidine poenae,
fama refert flexo praeteriisse genu.
Thellius 'una Deo debetur gloria' dixit:
'pileus arcendis imbribus aptus erit.'
intumuit praeses, totusque in imagine poenae,
'perfidiae pretium filius' (inquit) 'erit.'
dixerat: expediunt famuli mox iussa tyranni.
proh scelus: insanum non timuere nefas.

and now the thronging crowd, in fear of punishment,
rumor reports, had passed by him with knee bent.
Thellius said, 'Glory is owed to God alone:'
'the cap will be apt for warding off showers.'
the praeses swelled, and wholly intent on the image of punishment,
'the son,' (he said), 'will be the price of perfidy.'
he had spoken: the servants soon make ready the tyrant’s commands.
O wickedness: they did not fear the insane nefarious deed.

ducitur hinc teneris vinctus post terga lacertis
filius, et patrios sistitur ante pedes.
praeses ait: 'toto memorabile nomen in orbe
arte sagittandi nuper adeptus habes,
utque puto gestas ferientes cuncta sagittas,
figis et in iusso qualibet arte loco.
si quid habent igitur vulgi praeconia veri,
et potes: eia age, nunc experiare licet.

He is led from here, the son, with tender arms bound behind his back,
and is set before his father’s feet.
the praeses says: 'throughout the whole orb you have recently acquired a name memorable
by the art of archery; and, as I suppose, you bear arrows striking all things,
and you fix them, as ordered, in whatever spot by your skill.
if therefore the proclamations of the crowd have anything of truth,
and you can—come, on then, now you may make trial.'

natus ab adversi sistetur robore trunci,
(non procul in molli gramine truncus erat)
eius et in capitis ponetur vertice pomum.
quod feries telis ingeniose tuis.' -
Thellius imperio stupuit non secius isto,
quam si membra sibi diripienda forent.
nec mirum: sceleris mentem perstrinxit imago,
omnis et in nato cura paterna stetit.

the son will be set against the robust wood of a trunk opposite,
(not far off, on the soft grass there was a trunk)
and upon the crown of his head a fruit—an apple—will be placed,
which you will strike with your ingenious arrows.' -
Thellius was stupefied by this command no otherwise
than if his own limbs were to be torn asunder.
nor is it a wonder: the image of the crime seared his mind,
and all a father’s care stood fixed upon his son.

quid faceret? rigidum tentat mollire tyrannum
paucaque pro nato verba rogantis ait.
praeses ait contra: 'sic sic dabis improbe poenas,
discet ab exemplo cetera turba tuo.'
nec mora, frondenti signatur limite meta,
est et uterque suum iussus adire locum.

What was he to do? He tries to soften the rigid tyrant,
and he speaks a few pleading words on behalf of his son.
the praeses says in reply: 'thus, thus you shall pay the penalty, wicked man;
the rest of the crowd will learn from your example.'
without delay, a goal is marked out with a leafy boundary,
and each of the two is ordered to go to his place.

digressurus erat, parvo prius oscula nato
dat pater, et lacrimis immaduere genae.
scena theatrali densatur plurima circo:
quisquis adest (tacito sed tamen ore) favet.
stat puer et largis humectas flectibus ora,
impediunt teneras vincula dura manus,
sed pater imperio quod erat parere necesse,
promit de pharetra spicula bina sua.

He was about to depart; first the father gives kisses to his little son,
and his cheeks grew wet with tears.
a very theatrical scene is crowded thick in the circus:
whoever is present (with a silent, yet still, mouth) shows favor.
the boy stands, and with lavish weeping his face is moistened,
hard bonds hamper his tender hands,
but the father, since it was necessary to obey the command,
draws forth from his quiver two darts of his own.

altera post tergum medio thorace recondit,
allatura tibi, saeve tyranne, necem.
temperat adducto missurus at altera nervo:
iam spes in puero nulla salutis erat.
haud mora, per medium malum pennata sagitta
quaerit iter: patitur vulnera nulla puer.

the one he stows behind his back in the middle of his cuirass,
to bring death to you, cruel tyrant.
but the other he adjusts to the drawn sinew, about to send:
now there was no hope of salvation for the boy.
no delay, through the middle of the apple the feathered arrow
seeks its way: the boy suffers no wounds.

scena favet, novitate rei commota, sed irae
non posuit praeses fulmina saeva suae.
'experiar' dixit 'quid et haec sibi tela secunda
(viderat a tergo tela reposta) velint.' -
'ipse peremissem si natum' Thellius inquit
'exitio fuerant illa parata tuo.' -
dixerat: et constat non haec impune locutum,
vincla per astrictas sentit adacta manus.
impositusque rati, periturus carcere fertur,
perque Lucernatum stagna vehendus erat.

The scene favors, stirred by the novelty of the affair, but the governor did not lay down the savage thunderbolts of his own wrath.
'I will try,' he said, 'what these second missiles too (he had seen the missiles placed behind his back) may intend.' -
'I myself would have slain you, if [you had slain] my son,' Thellius says, 'those had been prepared for your destruction.' -
he had spoken: and it is agreed that he did not speak these things with impunity,
he feels bonds driven upon his tightly constrained hands.
and, set upon a raft, doomed to perish in prison, he is borne off,
and he was to be carried across the pools of the Lucernati.

colligitur subito ventis surgentibus imber,
et rapit instabilem per vada caeca ratem.
iamque fatigatis humero sub utroque lacertis
navita, sollicitum deficit inter opus.
praeses in ambiguo quid nam iubeatve petatve,
namque laborantis pars quoque puppis erat.

a rainstorm is collected suddenly as the winds rise,
and it sweeps the unstable raft through blind shallows.
and now, with the upper-arms wearied beneath each shoulder,
the sailor fails amid his anxious toil.
the governor, in uncertainty what he should order or seek,
for even a part of the ship was laboring.

'si quis adest' clamat 'navis sibi sumat habenas.'
qui tamen id posset Thellius unus erat.
'vincla tibi dementur' ait, 'nos eripe leto,
si modo nobiscum non tibi vile mori.'
redditus ipse sibi clavo subit: altera caelo
exhibita facies coeperat ire die.
est scopulus, premit unda latus: pars plurima summis
extat aquis: illuc Thellius ire parat.

'si quis adest' he shouts, 'let anyone present take for himself the reins of the ship.'
yet the only one who could do that was Thellius alone.
'let the bonds be taken off you,' he says, 'rescue us from death,
if only to die with us is not vile to you.'
restored to himself, he takes his place at the helm: another aspect,
displayed to the sky, had begun to move on with the day.
there is a crag; the wave presses its side: the greater part stands
out above the topmost waters: thither Thellius prepares to go.

quo simul ac venit saltum dedit: ipsa carina
icta per immensa concita fertur aquas.
nec mora longa fuit, terrae fortissimus heros
sistitur, et quid agat resque locusque docent.
convocat ausuros patriae succurrere, quorum
pectora non dubia noverat ante fide.

and to which, as soon as he came, he made a leap: the keel itself,
struck, is borne, driven through the immense waters.
nor was the delay long; the bravest hero of the land
takes his stand, and both the circumstance and the place teach what he should do.
he summons those who would dare to succor the fatherland, whose
hearts he had known before as of no doubtful faith.

qui coeunt, feriuntque datae rata foedera dextrae,
inque vicem sibi dant accipiuntque fidem.
post etiam praeses portuque domoque receptus.
tandem qua meruit morte perire, perit.

who assemble, and strike treaties ratified by the given right hand,
and in turn they give and receive pledges to one another.
afterwards the governor too was received into port and home.
at last, by the death he deserved to die, he perished.

sic Deus iniusti vindex, sic arbiter aequi,
Helvetiam merita caede piavit humum,
sic bona pacato rediit concordia vultu,
indigenis sic sunt reddita sceptra viris,
qui nunc unanimes rerum moderantur habenas
et domito passim nomen ab hoste ferunt.

thus God, avenger of injustice, thus arbiter of equity,
expiated the Helvetian soil with merited slaughter;
thus good Concord returned with a pacified countenance,
thus the scepters were given back to native men,
who now, unanimous, moderate the reins of affairs
and everywhere bear renown from the enemy subdued.