METRE III.

Floriger horrentem Zephyrus laxaverat annum.

Flower-bearing Zephyrus had softened the rugged year, and quelled the wars of Boreas with its peace, and bathed in a hail of flowers, rained privet-bloom, and ordered the blossoming snows to be in the meadows. The spring, like a lively fuller, refreshed the garments

of the fields , and with the fire of its purple kindled the dresses of the flowers. It gave back foliage to the trees which the winter had shorn, thus restoring that vesture which the other had formerly taken away. It was the season in which, to the applause of Dryads, the abundant favor of the spring spreads out its treasures in its fields; in which, while the hardier strength is present, the infancy of flowers rises higher, and draws away from its mother earth; in which the mirror of the violet [1] clings to its earthy cradle, and, with fresh countenance, asks for the breath of the air. It was the season in which the earth, her head starred with roses, with full constellation rivals the sky ; in which the almond-tree flies its banners and proclaims the beginning of summer, and with its bloom calls out the joys of spring; in which the budded vine embraces its elm's wedded bosom, and thinks on its giving birth. The candle of the sun banished [2] winter's shade, forcing all cold to suffer exile. Still there lurked withdrawn in many woods an illusory winter, which the newborn shadiness of the forest had made with leaves. Now to her flower-child Juno gave the breasts of dew with which this nourisher first suckles her offspring. It was the season in which the strength of Phoebus awakens the dead grasses, commanding all to rise from their burial-mounds; in which the joyful aspect of spring makes calm the world, and wipes away the tears of winter from its face, so that a flower may commit itself to the good faith of the air, and wintry cold blast not the first blossom ; in which Phoebus visits the earth, groaning with the sluggishness of winter, and greets it with joyful light; in which the latest period of time puts away age, and the old world begins to be a boy; in which Phoebus spoils night

1 Lat. violae speculuim.

2 Reading proscripsit, with B.

of its proper hours, and the pygmy day commences to become a giant; in which the Phrixean herd rejoices in its friend the sun, pays its tribute, and makes ready a welcome for Phoebus ; in which the nightingale, singing a song with a tongue of honeyed music, celebrates the festival of its own spring-time, in jubilee for which it so strikes the lyre of its throat that with its own mouth it proclaims a very god; in which the lark with sweet sound counterfeits the cithara flies to the gods above, and talks with Jove. A silver splendor clothed the wanton streams, and had ordered its daylight to be on the rivers. One could see the garrulous flow of a changing fountain, the murmur of the running of which was a prologue to sleep. By the glory of its appearance the fountain itself asked that tired man take draughts of it.