TRANSLATION.
TO THE QUEEN.
Hither, Muse, and bring again
Thy august surrounding train;
With measur'd tread of practis'd feet
Come, for thou hast learn'd to greet
With the voice of loyal cheer
A princely cradle year by year.
Lo, our noble Queen on thee
Calls in fruitful rivalry
By another birth; and he,
Illustrious infant, needs must have
The Muses' offspring for his slave.
Never has she yet been known
A mother for herself alone,
But by a reflected might
Even in absence doth delight
In twins ever, and while she
Thus augments her progeny,
And gives vigour to the lyre,
She doth at once with life inspire
Young princes, and the Muses' quire.
These, though not untouch'd they be
With the sacred flame, may she
Tire in her fruitful deity,
And with joys that theirs outrun,
Dry at last all Helicon!
Sweet is the strife wherein, to prove
Her powers, she deigns by rule to move;
Nor an unbecoming stain
Is the dust that they must gain,
Who in such contest can but fight in vain.
Nature, o'er day and night alternate dreaming,
Brings forth a swart child now, and now a fair:
On thee attends, O Queen in beauty beaming,
A better Nature, with a rule how rare!
Bright as thyself, thine own tend all the selfsame way;
A daughter now, and now a son; but each a child of
Day. Cl.
SERENISSIMAE REGINAE LIBRUM SUUM
COMMENDAT ACADEMIA.
Hunc quoque materna, nimium nisi magna rogamus,
Aut aviae saltem sume, Maria, manu.
Est Musa de matre recens rubicundulus infans,
Cui pater est partus—quis putet?—ille tuus.
Usque adeo impatiens amor est in virgine Musa:
Jam nunc ex illo non negat esse parens.
De nato quot habes olim sperare nepotes,
Qui simul et pater est, et facit esse patrem!
TRANSLATION.
TO HER MOST SERENE MAJESTY
THE UNIVERSITY COMMENDS ITS BOOK.
Deign, Queen, to this, unless we ask too much,
A mother's, or at least grandmother's, touch.
It is the Muse's rosy infant fine;
Its father—who would think?—this Child of thine.
So unrestrain'd the love of virgin Muse,
To be a mother thus she can't refuse.
From him what grandsons round thee soon will gather,
Who at once father is, and makes a father! R. Wi.