Bad Advertisement?

Are you a Christian?

Online Store:
  • Visit Our Store

  • A Strain of Sodom.
    PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP     

    2.  A Strain of Sodom.

    (Author Uncertain.)

    Already had Almighty God wiped off

    By vengeful flood (with waters all conjoined

    Which heaven discharged on earth and the sea’s plain1214

    1214 Maris æquor.

    Outspued) the times of the primeval age:

    5  Had pledged Himself, while nether air should bring

    The winters in their course, ne’er to decree,

    By liquid ruin, retribution’s due;

    And had assigned, to curb the rains, the bow

    Of many hues, sealing the clouds with band

    10  Of purple and of green, Iris its name,

    The rain-clouds’ proper baldric.1215

    1215 See Gen. ix. 21, 22; x. 8–; 17.

    But alike

    With mankind’s second race impiety

    Revives, and a new age of ill once more

    Shoots forth; allotted now no more to showers

    15  For ruin, but to fires:  thus did the land

    Of Sodom earn to be by glowing dews

    Upburnt, and typically thus portend

    The future end.1216

    1216 Comp. 2 Pet. iii. 5–14.

      There wild voluptuousness

    (Modesty’s foe) stood in the room of law;

    20  Which prescient guest would shun, and sooner choose

    At Scythian or Busirian altar’s foot

    ’Mid sacred rites to die, and, slaughtered, pour

    His blood to Bebryx, or to satiate

    Libyan palæstras, or assume new forms;

    25  By virtue of Circæan cups, than lose

    His outraged sex in Sodom.  At heaven’s gate

    There knocked for vengeance marriages commit

    With equal incest common ’mong a race

    By nature rebels ’gainst themselves;1217

    1217 The expression, “sinners against their own souls,” in Num. xvi. 38—where, however, the LXX. have a very different version—may be compared with this; as likewise Prov. viii. 36.

    and hurts

    30  Done to man’s name and person equally.

    But God, forewatching all things, at fix’d time

    Doth judge the unjust; with patience tarrying

    The hour when crime’s ripe age—not any force

    Of wrath impetuous—shall have circumscribed

    35  The space for waiting.1218

    1218 Whether the above be the sense of this most obscure triplet I will not presume to determine.  It is at least (I hope) intelligible sense.  But that the reader may judge for himself whether he can offer any better, I subjoin the lines, which form a sentence alone, and therefore can be judged of without their context:—

    “Tempore sed certo Deus omnia prospectulatus,

    Judicat injustos, patiens ubi criminis ætas

    Cessandi spatium vis nulla coëgerit iræ.”

    Now at length the day

    Of vengeance was at hand.  Sent from the host

    Angelical, two, youths in form, who both

    Were ministering spirits,1219

    1219 Comp. Heb. i. 14.  It may be as well here to inform the reader once for all that prosody as well as syntax is repeatedly set at defiance in these metrical fragments; and hence, of course, arise some of the chief difficulties in dealing with them.

    carrying

    The Lord’s divine commissions, come beneath

    40  The walls of Sodom.  There was dwelling Lot

    A transplantation from a pious stock;

    Wise, and a practicer of righteousness,

    He was the only one to think on God:

    As oft a fruitful tree is wont to lurk,

    45  Guest-like, in forests wild.  He, sitting then

    Before the gate (for the celestials scarce

    Had reached the ramparts), though he knew not them

    Divine,1220

    1220 “Divinos;” i.e., apparently “superhuman,” as everything heavenly is.

    accosts them unsolicited,

    Invites, and with ancestral honour greets;

    50  And offers them, preparing to abide

    Abroad, a hospice.  By repeated prayers

    He wins them; and then ranges studiously

    The sacred pledges1221

    1221 Of hospitalitybread and salt, etc.

    on his board,1222

    1222 “Mensa;” but perhaps “mensæ” may be suggested—“the sacred pledges of the board.”

    and quits1223

    1223 “Dispungit,” which is the only verb in the sentence, and refers both to pia pignora and to amicos.  I use “quit” in the sense in which we speak of “quitting a debtor,” i.e., giving him his full due; but the two lines are very hard, and present (as in the case of those before quoted) a jumble of words without grammar; “pia pignora mensa Officiisque probis studio dispungit amicos;” which may be somewhat more literally rendered than in our text, thus:  “he zealously discharges” (i.e., fulfils) “his sacred pledges” (i.e., the promised hospitality which he had offered them) “with (a generous) board, and discharges” (i.e., fulfils his obligations to) “his friends with honourable courtesies.”

    His friends with courteous offices.  The night

    55  Had brought repose:  alternate1224

    1224 Altera =alterna.  But the statement differs from Gen. xix. 4.

    dawn had chased

    The night, and Sodom with her shameful law

    Makes uproar at the doors.  Lot, suppliant wise,

    Withstands:  “Young men, let not your new fed lust

    Enkindle you to violate this youth!1225

    1225 “Istam juventam,” i.e., the two “juvenes” (ver. 31) within.

    60  Whither is passion’s seed inviting you?

    To what vain end your lust?  For such an end

    No creatures wed:  not such as haunt the fens;

    Not stall-fed cattle; not the gaping brood

    Subaqueous; nor they which, modulant

    65  On pinions, hang suspended near the clouds;

    Nor they which with forth-stretched body creep

    Over earth’s face.  To conjugal delight

    Each kind its kind doth owe:  but female still

    To all is wife; nor is there one that has

    70  A mother save a female one.  Yet now,

    If youthful vigour holds it right1226

    1226 “Fas” =ὅσιον, morally right; distinct from “jus” or “licitum.”

    to waste

    The flower of modesty, I have within

    Two daughters of a nuptial age, in whom

    Virginity is swelling in its bloom,

    75  Already ripe for harvest—a desire

    Worthy of men—which let your pleasure reap!

    Myself their sire, I yield them; and will pay

    For my guests’ sake, the forfeit of my grief!”

    Answered the mob insane:  “And who art thou?

    80  And what? and whence? to lord it over us,

    And to expound us laws?  Shall foreigner

    Rule Sodom, and hurl threats?  Now, then, thyself

    For daughters and for guests shalt sate our greed!

    One shall suffice for all!”  So said, so done:

    85  The frantic mob delays not.  As, whene’er

    A turbid torrent rolls with wintry tide,

    And rushes at one speed through countless streams

    Of rivers, if, just where it forks, some tree

    Meets the swift waves (not long to stand, save while

    90  By her root’s force she shall avail to oppose

    Her tufty obstacles), when gradually

    Her hold upon the undermined soil

    Is failing, with her bared stem she hangs,

    And, with uncertain heavings to and fro,

    95  Defers her certain fall; not otherwise

    Lot in the mid-whirl of the dizzy mob

    Kept nodding, now almost o’ercome.  But power

    Divine brings succour:  the angelic youths,

    Snatching him from the threshold, to his roof

    100  Restore him; but upon the spot they mulct

    Of sight the mob insane in open day,—

    Fit augury of coming penalties!

    Then they unlock the just decrees of God:

    That penalty condign from heaven will fall

    105  On Sodom; that himself had merited

    Safety upon the count of righteousness.

    “Gird thee, then, up to hasten hence thy flight,

    And with thee to lead out what family

    Thou hast:  already we are bringing on

    110  Destruction o’er the city.”  Lot with speed

    Speaks to his sons-in-law; but their hard heart

    Scorned to believe the warning, and at fear

    Laughed.  At what time the light attempts to climb

    The darkness, and heaven’s face wears double hue

    115  From night and day, the youthful visitants

    Were instant to outlead from Sodoma

    The race Chaldæan,1227

    1227 i.e., Lot’s race or family, which had come from “Ur of the Chaldees.”  See Gen. xi. 26, 27, 28.

    and the righteous house

    Consign to safety:  “Ho! come, Lot! arise,

    And take thy yokefellow and daughters twain,

    120  And hence, beyond the boundaries be gone,

    Preventing1228

    1228 I use “preventing” in its now unusual sense of “anticipating the arrival of.”

    Sodom’s penalties!”  And eke

    With friendly hands they lead them trembling forth,

    And then their final mandates give:  “Save, Lot,

    Thy life, lest thou perchance should will to turn

    125  Thy retroverted gaze behind, or stay

    The step once taken:  to the mountain speed!”

    Lot feared to creep the heights with tardy step,

    Lest the celestial wrath-fires should o’ertake

    And whelm him:  therefore he essays to crave

    130  Some other ports; a city small, to wit,

    Which opposite he had espied.  “Hereto,”

    He said, “I speed my flight:  scarce with its walls

    ’Tis visible; nor is it far, nor great.”

    They, favouring his prayer, safety assured

    135  To him and to the city; whence the spot

    Is known in speech barbaric by the name

    Segor.1229

    1229 Σηγώρ in the LXX., “Zoar” in Eng. ver.

      Lot enters Segor while the sun

    Is rising,1230

    1230 Simul exoritur sol.”  But both the LXX. and the Eng. ver. say the sun was risen when Lot entered the city.

    the last sun, which glowing bears

    To Sodom conflagration; for his rays

    140  He had armed all with fire:  beneath him spreads

    An emulous gloom, which seeks to intercept

    The light; and clouds combine to interweave

    Their smoky globes with the confused sky:

    Down pours a novel shower:  the ether seethes

    145  With sulphur mixt with blazing flames:1231

    1231 So Oehler and Migne.  But perhaps we may alter the pointing slightly, and read:—

    “Down pours a novel shower, sulphur mixt

    With blazing flames:  the ether seethes:  the air

    Crackles with liquid exust.”

      the air

    Crackles with liquid heats exust.  From hence

    The fable has an echo of the truth

    Amid its false, that the sun’s progeny

    Would drive his father’s team; but nought availed

    150  The giddy boy to curb the haughty steeds

    Of fire:  so blazed our orb:  then lightning reft

    The lawless charioteer, and bitter plaint

    Transformed his sisters.  Let Eridanus

    See to it, if one poplar on his banks

    155  Whitens, or any bird dons plumage there

    Whose note old age makes mellow!1232

    1232 The story of Phaëthon and his fate is told in Ov., Met., ii. 1–399, which may be compared with the present piece.  His two sisters were transformed into white poplars, according to some; alders, according to others.  See Virg., Æn., x. 190 sqq., Ec., vi. 62 sqq.  His half-brother (Cycnus or Cygnus) was turned into a swan:  and the scene of these transformations is laid by Ovid on the banks of the Eridanus (the Po).  But the fable is variously told; and it has been suggested that the groundwork of it is to be found rather in the still-standing of the sun recorded in Joshua.

    Here they mourn

    O’er miracles of metamorphosis

    Of other sort.  For, partner of Lot’s flight,

    His wife (ah me, for woman! even then1233

    1233 i.e., as she had been before in the case of Eve.  See Gen. iii. 1 sqq.

    160  Intolerant of law!) alone turned back

    At the unearthly murmurs of the sky)

    Her daring eyes, but bootlessly:  not doomed

    To utter what she saw! and then and there

    Changed into brittle salt, herself her tomb

    165  She stood, herself an image of herself,

    Keeping an incorporeal form:  and still

    In her unsheltered station ’neath the heaven

    Dures she, by rains unmelted, by decay

    And winds unwasted; nay, if some strange hand

    170  Deface her form, forthwith from her own store

    Her wounds she doth repair.  Still is she said

    To live, and, ’mid her corporal change, discharge

    With wonted blood her sex’s monthly dues.

    Gone are the men of Sodom; gone the glare

    175  Of their unhallowed ramparts; all the house

    Inhospitable, with its lords, is gone:

    The champaign is one pyre; here embers rough

    And black, here ash-heaps with hoar mould, mark out

    The conflagration’s course:  evanished

    180  Is all that old fertility1234

    1234 I have hazarded the bold conjecture—which I see others (Pamelius at all events) had hazarded before me—that “feritas” is used by our author as ="fertilitas.”  The word, of course, is very incorrectly formed etymologically; but etymology is not our author’s forte apparently.  It will also be seen that there is seemingly a gap at this point, or else some enormous mistake, in the mss.  An attempt has been made (see Migne) to correct it, but not a very satisfactory one.  For the common reading, which gives two lines,

    “Occidit illa prior feritas, quam prospiciens Loth

    Nullus arat frustra piceas fuligine glebas,”

    which are evidently entirely unconnected with one another, it is proposed to read,

    “Occidit illa prior feritas, quam prospiciens Loth,

    Deseruisse pii fertur commercia fratris.

    Nullas arat,” etc.

    This use of “fratris” in a wide sense may be justified from Gen. xiii. 8 (to which passage, with its immediate context, there seems to be a reference, whether we adopt the proposed correction or no), and similar passages in Holy Writ.  But the transition is still abrupt to the “nullus arat,” etc.; and I prefer to leave the passage as it is, without attempting to supply the hiatus.

    which Lot,

    Seeing outspread before him,…

    .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

    No ploughman spends his fruitless toil on glebes

    Pitchy with soot:  or if some acres there,

    But half consumed, still strive to emulate

    185  Autumn’s glad wealth, pears, peaches, and all fruits

    Promise themselves full easely1235

    1235 This use of “easely” as a dissyllable is justifiable from Spenser.

    to the eye

    In fairest bloom, until the plucker’s hand

    Is on them:  then forthwith the seeming fruit

    Crumbles to dust ’neath the bewraying touch,

    190  And turns to embers vain.

    Thus, therefore (sky

    And earth entombed alike), not e’en the sea

    Lives there:  the quiet of that quiet sea

    Is death!1236

    1236 This seems to be the sense, but the Latin is somewhat strange:  “mors est maris illa quieti,” i.e., illa (quies) maris quieti mors est.  The opening lines of “Jonah” (above) should be compared with this passage and its context.

    —a sea which no wave animates

    Through its anhealant volumes; which beneath

    195  Its native Auster sighs not anywhere;

    Which cannot from its depths one scaly race,

    Or with smooth skin or cork-like fence encased,

    Produce, or curled shell in single valve

    Or double fold enclosed.  Bitumen there

    200  (The sooty reek of sea exust) alone,

    With its own crop, a spurious harvest yields;

    Which ’neath the stagnant surface vivid heat

    From seething mass of sulphur and of brine

    Maturing tempers, making earth cohere

    205  Into a pitch marine.1237

    1237 Inque picem dat terræ hærere marinam.

      At season due

    The heated water’s fatty ooze is borne

    Up to the surface; and with foamy flakes

    Over the level top a tawny skin

    Is woven.  They whose function is to catch

    210  That ware put to, tilting their smooth skin down

    With balance of their sides, to teach the film,

    Once o’er the gunnel, to float in:  for, lo!

    Raising itself spontaneous, it will swim

    Up to the edge of the unmoving craft;

    215  And will, when pressed,1238

    1238 “Pressum” (Oehler); “pretium” (Migne):  “it will yield a prize, namely, that,” etc.

    for guerdon large, ensure

    Immunity from the defiling touch

    Of weft which female monthly efflux clothes.

    Behold another portent notable,

    Fruit of that sea’s disaster:  all things cast

    220  Therein do swim:  gone is its native power

    For sinking bodies:  if, in fine, you launch

    A torch’s lightsome1239

    1239 Luciferam.

    hull (where spirit serves

    For fire) therein, the apex of the flame

    Will act as sail; put out the flame, and ’neath

    225  The waters will the light’s wrecks ruin go!

    Such Sodom’s and Gomorrah’s penalties,

    For ages sealed as signs before the eyes

    Of unjust nations, whose obdurate hearts

    God’s fear have quite forsaken,1240

    1240 Oehler’s pointing is disregarded.

    will them teach

    230  To reverence heaven-sanctioned rights,1241

    1241 “De cælo jura tueri;” possibly “to look for laws from heaven.”

    and lift

    Their gaze unto one only Lord of all.

    ————————————

    E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH

    God  Rules.NET