John Milton goes girl-watching
December 3rd, 2008 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Next Tuesday is the quatercentenary of the birth of John Milton. I am giving a talk with the title 'John Milton of London' at the Guildhall Library on Friday afternoon (2 till 4.30). As of this morning, there were still a couple of tickets left. Admission - £10 / £7.50. Booking (essential) on 020 7332 3851. ***Edit: All the tickets are now sold***
Meanwhile, I need to check the pronunciation of a couple of Italian names: Lucca, the city, and Cifra, a composer. Anyone out there know Italian?
One of the things I am looking at in the talk is some of Milton's early Latin poetry. I have been translating his great neglected pastoral elegy, 'Epitaphium Damonis', but I'll keep that for the talk for now. But here is a prose translation of part of a Latin poem he wrote at the age of 17 when he was a Cambridge undergraduate. The poem is addressed to his best friend from school, Charles Diodati. Milton is unhappy at Cambridge; he is much happier at his father's house in London. After a long passage about theatre-going, he continues:
But I do not always lurk under a roof or within the city, nor is the springtime wasted on me. I also visit a grove of elms not far from the city, a place in the suburbs, magnificently shady. Here very often you may see groups of girls go by, stars that breathe out enticing flames. Ah! how many times I have been struck with wonder at the miracle of a fine figure, [a sight] that might restore an old man’s youth. Ah! how many times have I seen eyes that surpassed gems … a forehead of outstanding loveliness, and fluttering locks of hair, the golden nets that Love the trickster spreads [for us].
...
You, London, a city built by settlers from Troy, visible in all directions because of your crest of towers, fortunate beyond measure, you enclose within your ramparts whatever loveliness the pendent orb possesses. The stars who glitter for you in serene skies, the crowd of attendants who wait upon Endymion’s goddess, are not so many as the crowd that may be seen shining through your streets, girls who catch the eye both for their shapely figures and their golden [ornaments].
John Milton (1608–1674)
from Elegia prima ad Carolum Diodatum (Spring 1626?)
translation © Gillian Spraggs, 2008
<link>
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 06:56 pm (UTC)Lucca is pronounced "loo- kka" and Cifra "chee - fra."
And that poem will certainly put an extra spring in my step down London's streets. Way to spend your light, John!
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 06:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 07:08 pm (UTC)By the way, did you know that Milton's mate Harry Lawes wrote an Italianate song using as a text the index of one of Cifra's songbooks, just to take the piss out of the fashion for everything Italian? I didn't. It sounds ravishing, too.
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 09:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 09:33 pm (UTC)I am fond of Lawes, though even fonder of his brother William, who wrote some superb consort music.
The song I mentioned before is called 'Tavola' - which I think means 'Index'. As I don't have any Italian (beyond what I can pick out with the help of a crib and a fair knowledge of Latin), I am relying on a record sleeve for the information about the text.
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 09:45 pm (UTC)Do let me know if you'd ever like anything translated from Italian. Having only singer's Latin [that is, liturgical stuff], I do the opposite of what you do and use my Italian to translate Latin. (This works decently for Renaissance Latin, but is useless when it comes to anything older.)
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 10:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 10:33 pm (UTC)In that ice cream Core a voice; piagne Madonna segl' eyes yours to two voices; Or and when, tudi to save me cirche, sure it is I scorno, always poor it does not believe, ohi me de lumi already, macche squallido give them pale labra; Thus my life, to three voices.
'In quel gelato core una voce' means 'In what an icy heart, for one voice' doesn't it?
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 10:47 pm (UTC)I wonder if Cifra was his real surname, or if not, how he came by it? I think it means "cipher," but I could be wrong...
(no subject)
Date: December 3rd, 2008 11:10 pm (UTC)I have found a translation of the whole text by Sir Frederick Bridge:
In that frozen heart .... (for one voice)
Weep, my lady, weep, and if your eyes .... (for two voices)
'Tis ever thus, ev’n when you seem to save me,
Truly you scorn me.
Unhappy, unbelieving,
Alas ! of splendour yet !
But why, oh why ? from the pallid lips
And so my life .... (for three voices).
Sorry to be a nuisance, but how do you pronounce 'Scherzi et arie'?
(no subject)
Date: December 4th, 2008 12:07 am (UTC)Scherzi et arie = "Skair - tzi et ah - ri - eh"
(no subject)
Date: December 4th, 2008 11:28 am (UTC)