Torquato Tasso

“ Terror and death unsheathing, gripes his prey,
And scruples not to crush it; the fierce boar
With whetted tusk destroys; nay even weak woman,
So fearful in appearance, and so gentle,
Kills with a look, or with a graceful motion,
Whene'er she would extend her amorous empire.
These rightly act as nature hath impressed them.
And should I foolishly reject her bounty,
And let her providence lie dead in me?
No:—Since with strength resistless I'm endowed,
I will employ that strength; I will extort
The bliss which a capricious nymph denies me,
As the just recompence of ardent love. ”

“ Like it unfortunate Amyntas dies.
He, at his death, a cruel heart transfixes,
Which was impenetrable while he lived,
Unfeeling to a warm, yet virtuous passion.
And if thy amiable spirit, loth
To quit it's well known scenes for Pluto's gloom,
Yet hovers round it's melancholy friends;
Look down with pleasure on thy nymph's distress,
Enjoy her sighs, an incense due to thee;
Enjoy her plaintive words, thy well-earned vows;
Enjoy the copious streaming of her tears,
A fit libation to thy injured manes.
In life a lover, only loved in death ”

“ Take comfort, Sylvia; for this accident
We should ascribe to fortune, not to thee.
The violence of grief that wrings thy soul
Would make tears flow from the most finty nature.
SYLVIA.
Shepherds, why weep you? do you weep for me?
You prostitute your pity, if you do;
For I had no compassion for Amyntas.
For him more justly if your tears you shed,
Wipe them away; they suit not the occasion;
Too trivial an effect from such a cause.
And thou, my Daphne, too, wipe thine away;
They wound me, Daphne, and they're unavailing. ”

“ Ingratitude! that bold, licentious monster,
That tramples on the tenderest rights of man!
The fiend stalks impudently in the sunshine;
It plumes itself on it's unpunished treason;
It is not hunted down by human laws;
Therefore the heart's tribunal should arraign it:
It calls, at least, for virtue's detestation;
And nature's organ should distinctly tell it
It is the outcast of the great creator.
Excuse my feelings for my injured friend;
I now leave passion, and take up narration.
Amyntas knew that Sylvia was to go
To bathe with Daphne at Diana's fountain. ”

“ For passion is not all the lover's part.
SCENE III.
AMYNTAS, and THYRSIS.
AMYNTAS.
Thyrsis, I come to know my destiny.
And if thy kind endeavours nought avail
To soothe the fate of thy unhappy friend,
I am resolved to bleed in Sylvia's presence,
The cruel cause of all my tender woes;
She, who rejoices thus to see me wither,
Soul-smitten by the lightning of her eye;
My irremediable death will sure enjoy,
Will sure enjoy the last, decisive blow.
THYRSIS.
Amyntas, drop these idle lamentations;
They never gain a step: put on the man. ”

“ SYLVIA.
What reason had he to suspect their truth?
DAPHNE.
What? didst thou never hear what Thyrsis wrote
In love's delirium, on Lycoris' eyes?
When the poor shepherd, stung to amorous frenzy,
Roamed through the lonely woods, to feed his passion,
Object of pity to the nymphs, and swains:
And so extravagant his passion was,
Their pity was accompanied with mirth.
But his warm verse was not ridiculous.
I read the lines myself, which he had written
On many a tree; and with the trees they grew.
"Destructive eyes, false mirrors of her heart! ”

“ Shepherds, this nymph, without our watchful care,
The fate of her Amyntas soon will share;
Her gesture, look, and words bespeak despair.
CHORUS.
How different are the powers of love, and death;
This robs the bosom of its vital breath;
It takes all sense, all imagery away,
And leaves the body cold, impassive clay.
But that the quintessence of life inspires,
And mortals with celestial rapture fires;
Life without love but ill deserves it's name,
To full existence love exalts the frame;
The wondering mind with new ideas fills,
Quickens each sense, and in each atom thrills ”

“ Daphne farewell.
DAPHNE.
Sylvia farewel, but know
What to our gentle sex we women owe;
Know, that the boisterous pleasure of the chace
Is not the province of the female race.
It brutifies the temper of a man;
How distant is it then from woman's plan!
Our spirits ought to keep a tender strain,
Refine delight, and blunt the sting of pain.
Abjure the chace; be present to thy mind,
The sphere by heaven to rural charms assigned.
—Let rough barbarians bound o'er hill and plain,
Be ours the talk to bless the humble swain ”

“ DAPHNE.
Good Heavens! with what new language you surprize me!
Dost thou begin to grow compassionate?
Say from it's hardness does thy heart relent?
Are my eyes just? and dost thou really weep?
Whence flow those tears? are they the tears of love?
SYLVIA.
No—not the tears of love; but tears of pity.
DAPHNE.
That's well;—thou now approachest Cupid's precincts;
For pity is the harbinger of love,
Sure as the lightning's flash announces thunder. ”

“ Say, do not rival nymphs bleed for Amyntas?
Yet can their fame, or can thy cruel scorn,
One moment turn his constant thoughts from thee;
Can'st thou pretend his birth discredits țhine?
The fair Cydippe was thy mother; she
Claimed for her sire our noble river-god;
And is not he Silvanus' son, of whom
Pan is the father, the great god of shepherds?
Look in the mirror of the chrystal stream,
And Sylvia, thou must own that Amaryllis
Possesses beauty not less rare than thine. ”

“ DAPHNE.
Insipid pleasures! an unnatural life!
And if those rustic occupations please thee,
It is because thou hast not proved sublimer.
Thus to the world yet in its infant state,
Acorns and water were a sweet repast;
The food of animals in better times!
For Ceres gives us now her golden grain,
And wine exhilerates the heart of man.
Did but the happiness once reach thy soul,
Such as a heart loving and loved enjoys,
Thou wouldst repent, thou wouldst with sighs exclaim -
—Alas! I've missed the road to Happiness!
The time is lost that is not passed in love! ”

“ Sylvia her name: she was my young companion;
And she at present is my amorous theme.
Sylvia, the pride of woods, the flame of shepherds!
Amyntas with his Sylvia liv'd some time,
Exchanging such a pure, delightful friendship,
That the harmonious hearts of two chaste turtles
Did never beat in truer unison.
Near to each other were our cottages;
But nearer to each other were our souls;
Time had impressed us both with equal years:
But nature with more equal sentiments. ”

“ To reach the arduous pinnacle of bliss.
Great part of happiness precedes fruition,
And mingles with the labour of acquiring.
The trifling part the sensual organs give us,
Is gross, and animal, and soon grows vapid;
The finer part, which rises from the mind,
Is lasting, active, spirit all, and Æther,
Worthy a being raised above the brutes.
In every nerve it beats, through every pore
It breathes, it's ardour buoys our mortal frame;
It purifies, it subtilizes matter,
And gives to man the pleasures of a god. ”

“ And folemn folly o'er our life presides.
The golden days of liberty are o'er,
We steal the bliss, which was a gift before.
These, Honour, are the boons thy laws confer;
By thee we suffer, for by thee we err.
But hence to busy life; we cannot bear
Thy cumbrous grandeur, and thy dazzling glare:
O'er courts, and cities, thou wast meant to reign;
They seek thy guilt; and let them feel thy pain.
Hence to the great, nor from thy empire stray;
Let old Simplicity the simple sway.
Let us make most of time, love, sport and sing;
For fleeting time is ever on the wing. ”

“ THYRSIS.
And never girl so shy as Sylvia found
A lover so respectful as Amyntas.
DAPHNE.
A lover too respectful, is a fool.
Tell him to quit the hardy trade of love,
Or lay aside that distant, timid homage.
He that would practise the true art of love,
Must quicken his respect with well timed courage.
Let him be bold; and if he wants a favour,
Sollicit, importune; and if he finds
Sollicitation, importunity,
Are feeble, ineffectual mediators;
Let him embrace a gay, unguarded moment,
To steal with dexterous theft the wished-for bliss. ”

“ Why shouldst thou, Thyrsis, bid adieu to love?
Thy happy circumstances love invites:
Love is of delicate and tender growth,
By life's inclemencies 'tis nipt and blighted.
To flourish in perfection, it demands
The fostering ray of warm prosperity.
You have been fortunate, you're blessed with affluence,
And affluence is the soil for love to spring on.
THYRSIS.
Daphne, a [1] god bestowed this affluence on me;
For he shall ever be a god to me.
By all our swains he should be deemed a god.
'Tis he whose lowing herds, and bleating flocks,
Are spread through Italy to either sea ”

“ Torn limb from limb by hungry, ravenous I wolves,
Her soul breathed out in agony, and horrour!
No image left to substitute my being!
Oh! with what grimness death now stalks before me!
I leave thee, cruel world; ere long, Amyntas
Shall be to thee as he had never been!
Oh! 'tis a blank farewel! it numbs the soul;
It almost kills without the fatal blow. ”

“ A fair one may be opportunely coy;
A victim to possess is not my aim;
I would not have a blunt, and vapid joy.
VII.
Nay, sometimes, that her mind may all be seen,
I'd have her with me for a moment jar;
And brighter thus will be the following scene;
A fairer peace will crown the little war.
VIII.
But let not anger, rankling in her heart,
Inflict the torment of her long disdain;
Whatever bliss it after might impart,
I'd not buy ecstacy with so much pain.
IX.
Never, O Cupid! to my humble mind
The dog star's heat, or winter's horrour bring ”

“ Oppression sate not pensive on the face;
Nor was the breast by fell ambition torn;
They never for a rose mistoke a thorn:
They never trembled with preposterous awe;
Unerring nature was their only law;
And all her rights she had with easy claim,
For they, and inclination were the same.
Without the torch, and bow, like rustick boys,
(Heaven deigned to mingle then with earthly joys)
The little Loves the festal dance would lead,
With nymphs, and shepherds, on the flowery mead:
While purling streams, and warblers from the spray,
To fuller concert raised the rural lay. ”

“ When she forgets each frown, each female whim,
I'll pierce her through, and make her bleed like him.
Coy Sylvia now is hastening to the plain,
Where spotless mirth oft chears the nymph and swain;
Where to the dance, the song, and rural play,
The happy throng devote this sestal day.
Thither will I in shepherd's garb repair,
Mix with the peasants, in their pleasure share ”

“ With vengeful storm unherse the bones, and tear them
From earth's asylum; may the stranger's foot,
Flocks, and unwieldly herds, trample the rubbish.
Thou, base venality, the ugliest monster
Of all that land, or ocean e'er produced,
Didst first degrade the dignity of love;
That noble passion, which can only flourish
Enlivened by the smile of liberty.
It cannot bear the supercilious brow
Of stern restraint; whene'er the tyrant enters,
It flies indignant from the grim intruder. ”

“ Ruler of men below, and gods above;
Oft, at my will, some nymph's relaxing charms
The universe's governour disarms;
No more those bolts omnipotent are hurled
That shake Olympus, and chastise the world.
Skreened by a simple shepherd's garb, and face,
My mother sure in vain my flight will trace.
Whene'er at simple hearts my shafts I aim,
I'm forced by stealth to leave my haughty dame;
For she, a very female, proud, and vain,
Despises empire of a modest strain ”

“ With my reiterated sighs, and tears:
The savage god is thirsting for my blood;
And soon it shall be shed; soon shall stern Cupid,
With sterner Sylvia; view my deadly wound,
And with their eyes enjoy life's crimson flood,
My spreading paleness, and my last convulsions.
THYRSIS.
You rave, Amyntas; moderate you passion
With reason; you may find another mistress,
If you're despised by this inhuman fair one.
AMYNTAS.
Another mistress find!—I've lost myself:
When grim despair with his chill hand hath seized us,
And broken nature's elasticity,
We look around for solace, but in vain. ”

“ Once when the shepherds, and the nymphs were met,
For evening relaxation, at the pastime,
In which each member of the merry circle
Whispers his secret in his neighbour's ear;
My cruel fair was seated next to me.
I whispered her,—"Sylvia, I burn for thee;
Favour thy lover's passion, or he dies."
She to the ground her beauteous face declined,
Suffused with sudden red, the mark of shame,
And anger: silence was her sole rejoinder;
It was a sullen, agitated silence,
On which severe reproofs, and dreadful threats
Sate lowering. She arose, and left the play ”

“ To tell the nymphs, and swains of our acquaintance
The scene which thou shalt now behold: he then
Looked down, and spoke these memorable words
With all the pathos of despairing love.
"Had I the ravine of a famished wolf
"As near me as I have this rugged steep,
"I'd seek to die thy death, my hapless fair one!
"I'd wish to have my body torn, and mangled,
"As was thy delicate, and beauteous frame:
"I grudge myself an easier death than thine. ”

“ Who taught the birds their musick, and their flight?
Who taught the fish to swim, the ram to butt,
The peacock to unfurl his glistening train?
DAPHNE.
What is the name of this surprizing teacher?
THYRSIS.
Daphne, the name.
DAPHNE.
False, ridiculing tongue!
THYRSIS.
Reject not quite my strong hyperbole:
Thou an adept sufficient art in love,
In all its mystery, to erect a school,
And teach a thousand girls the pleasing system.
Indeed the school by Nature is precluded;
They have the science from her inspiration;
Yet nature owes a part to education ”