The Odes of Casimire Part 1

The Odes of Casimire.

Translated by G. Hils.

by Mathias Casimire Sarbiewski.

INTRODUCTION

Mathias Casimire Sarbiewski (1595-1640) vas a Polish Jesuit whose neo-Latin Horatian odes and Biblical paraphrases gained immediate European acclaim upon their first publication in 1625 and 1628.[1] The fine lyric quality of Sarbiewski's poetry, and the fact that he often fused cla.s.sical and Christian motifs, made a critic like Hugo Grotius actually prefer the "divine Casimire" to Horace himself, and his popularity among the English poets is evidenced by an impressive number of translations.

G. Hils's _Odes of Casimire_ (1646), here reproduced by permission from the copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library, is the earliest English collection of translations from the verse of the Polish Horace. It is also the most important. Acknowledged translations of individual poems appeared in Henry Vaughan's _Olor Isca.n.u.s_ (1651), Sir Edward Sherburne's _Poems and Translations_ (1651), the _Miscellany Poems and Translations by Oxford Hands_ (1685), Isaac Watts's _Horae Lyricae_ (1706), Thomas Brown's _Works_ (1707-8), and John Hughes's _The Ecstasy.

An Ode_ (1720). Unacknowledged paraphrases from Casimire include Abraham Cowley's "The Extasie,"[2] John Norris's "The Elevation,"[3] and a number of Isaac Watts's pious and moral odes.[4] Latin editions of Casimire's odes appeared in London in 1684, and in Cambridge in 1684 and 1689.

Another striking example of the direct influence of Casimire upon English poetry is presented by Edward Benlowes's _Theophila_ (1652).

This long-winded epic of the soul exhibits not only a general indebtedness in imagery and ideas, but also direct borrowings of whole lines from Hils's _Odes of Casimire_. One example will have to suffice:

Casimire, Ode IV, 44

_Theophila_, XIII, 68

Let th' _Goth_ his strongest chaines prepare, The _Scythians_ hence mee captive teare, My mind being free with you, I'le stare The Tyrants in the face....

Then let fierce Goths their strongest chains prepare; Grim Scythians me their slave declare; My soul being free, those tyrants in the face I'll stare.

Casimire's greatest achievement was in the field of the philosophic lyric, and in a number of cases he antic.i.p.ated poetic techniques and motifs which later grew popular also with the English poets. Thus, long before Denham and Marvell, he practised the technique of investing the scenes of nature with a moral or spiritual significance. A comparison of Casimire's loco-descriptive first epode on the estate of the Duke of Bracciano with Denham's _Cooper's Hill_ (1642) reveals that the Polish poet was the first to mix description with moral reflection, and to choose the gentle hills, the calmly flowing river, and a retired country life as symbols of the Horatian golden mean.

Some of Casimire's richest imagery is found in his paraphrases of _Canticles_, and particularly in Ode IV, 21. Parts of this ode provide a striking parallel to the famous fifth stanza of Marvell's "The Garden."

In it Horace and Virgil meet with Solomon, the _hortus conclusus_ of the Hebrew poet merging with the landscape of retirement as we find it in Virgil's eclogues or in Horace's second and sixteenth epodes. Much of Casimire's poetry, is indeed best understood as a conscious effort to apply the allegorical technique of _Canticles_ to the cla.s.sical _beatus ille_-themes,[5] just as his thought presents an interesting combination of Stoic and Platonic ideas.

The Polish poet, who was a university professor and a doctor of theology, may easily have learned from the Hermetic writers how to combine these great cla.s.sical traditions. There is direct proof of Casimire's familiarity with the Hermetic tradition in his Ode II, 5 ("E Rebus Humanis Excessus"), which is a paraphrase of _Libellus I_, sections 25 and 26.[6] Since Henry Vaughan was familiar with Casimire's poetry, it is reasonable to suspect that Vaughan's own treatment of Hermetic motifs owed much to this influence. If one compares Vaughan's religious nature lyrics and Casimire's odes, a number of common poetical motifs are easily found, and so we are here again faced with the fact that themes which became popular in England in the mid-seventeenth century were antic.i.p.ated in the Latin odes of Casimire.[7]

Hermetic ideas are also encountered in Casimire's third epode, which combines a Horatian Stoicism with a neo-Platonlc or Hermetic interpretation of the cla.s.sical landscape of retirement. An avowed reply to Horace's second epode, it expands the Horatian philosophy through the addition of three new themes: the theme of solitude, the theme of the Earthly Paradise, and the theme of Nature as a divine hieroglyph. Its presentation of the garden ecstasy of the retired _beatus vir_ thus strikes the same note to which we know from Mildmay Fane's "To Retiredness" and Andrew Marvell's "The Garden." In slightly adapted form, these themes were to flourish in the poetry of the Countess of Winchilsea, Isaac Watts, John Hughes, and a number of early eighteenth-century nature poets.

In the Romantic period Casimire's fame was again revived. While still a young man, Coleridge planned a complete translation of Casimire's odes, but never finished more than the ode "Ad Lyram." It was also Coleridge who said that with the exception of Lucretius and Statius he knew no Latin poet, ancient or modern, who could be said to equal Casimire in boldness of conception, opulence of fancy, or beauty of versification.[8] A knowledge of the themes and techniques of this Latin poet should therefore be of interest to all students of English poetry.

Maren-Sofie Roestvig University of Oslo

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

1. For a complete bibliography, see Carlos Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus (Bruxelles et Paris, 1896), VII, 627-646.

2. In the preface to _The Ecstasy. An Ode_ (1720), John Hughes comments on Cowley's indebtedness, in "The Extasie," to Casimire.

3. Norris's indebtedness has been pointed out by Hoxie N. Fairchild, _Religious Trends in English Poetry_ (New York, 1939- ), I, 110, n. 21.

4. Compare Watts's "False Greatness," "'Tis Dangerous to Follow the Mult.i.tude," and "The Kingdom of the Wise Man" to Casimire's Ode IV, 34; IV, 10; and IV, 3.

5. By this term is understood the themes presented in Horace's second epode on the happy country life.

6. Hermes Trismegistus, _Hermetica_, ed. Walter Scott (Oxford, 1924-36), I, 129.

7. No study has as yet been made of Casimire's influence upon English literature, but I hope shortly to publish the results of my own investigation of this problem.

8. Coleridge prefaced his translation of the ode "Ad Lyram" with this remark. See also _Biographia Literaria_, ed. John Shawcross (Oxford, 1907), II, 209. For further critical estimates, see Sir John Bowring, trans., _Specimens of the Polish Poets_ (London, 1827), and Caecilius Metellus, pseud., "On the Life and Writings of Casimir," _The Cla.s.sical Journal_, XXV (1822), 103-110.

The ODES of CASIMIRE

_Translated by_ G. H.

_Printed for _Humphrey Moseley_ at the Princes-Armes in Pauls Churchyard 1646. W. M. sculp:_

[Decoration]

_Od. 1. Lib. 1._

c.u.m infestae Thrac.u.m Copiae Pannonia excessissent.

[Decoration]

Od. 1. Lib. 1.

When the hatefull forces of the Thracians departed out of _Pannonia_.

Jam minae saevi cecidere belli: Jam profanatis male pulsa terris Et salus, & pax niveis revisit Oppida bigis: Iam fides, & fas, & amaena praeter Faust.i.tas, laeto volat arva curru: Iam fluunt pa.s.sim pretiosa largis Saecula rivis.

Candidi soles veterisq; venae Fontibus nati revocantur Anni: Grandinat Gemmis, riguoq; Clum Depluit Auro.

The threats of cruell Warre now cease:, In stead of them safety and peace, Banish'd th'unhallowed earth, doe please 'Returne in their white Waine; Faith joyn'd with Truth, and Plenty too O're pleasant fields doe nimbly goe; The precious Ages past, doe flow With liberall streames againe.

Cleare dayes, such yeares as were of old Recalled are, o'th' ancient mold, The Heavens hayle Pearles, and molten Gold Doth raine down-right in showres;

Meq; veraci cecinisse plectro Inter Octobreis, tua festa, pompas, Prisca _Saturni_ rediisse saecla, Approbat Orbis.

Aurei patrum niveiq; mores, Exul & sera procul usq; Thule, Candor, & pulchro remeare virtus Audet _Olympo_.

Whilst I with my Prophetique string Thy Winter feastivalls doe sing, The whole world doth with Ecchoes ring Old _Saturn's_ age is ours.

Our Fathers pure and golden rule Exil'd as farre as farthest Thule, Justice from bright _Olympus_ schoole Comes boldly back againe.

Lactis, & fusi per aprica mellis Garruli Campos secuere rivi: Et superfuso tumuere plenae Nectare ripae.

Laetior vulg seges inquietis Fluctuat culmis, t.i.tubantq; frugum Uberes Campi, nec avara sulcis Invidet aestas.

Pastor Erranteis comitatus Hdos Provocat raucas calamo cicadas: Mugiunt Colles, & anhela fessis Silva Iuvencis.