Delphi Complete Works of Longus

by Longus

  5. Before Dryas his cottage, and indeed under the very cottage itself, there grew two tall myrtles and an ivy-bush. The myrtles stood not far off from one another, and between them the ivy ran, and so that it made a kind of arbour by clasping the arms about them both and by the order, the thickness, and interweaving of its branches and leaves, many and great clusters of berries hanging from it like those of the vines from the palmits. And therefore it was, that great store of winter birds haunted the bush, for want, it seems, of food abroad, many blackbirds, many thrushes, stock-doves and starlings, with other birds that feed on berries.

  Under pretext of birding there, Daphnis came out, his scrip furnished indeed with sweet country dainties, but bringing with him, to persuade and affirm his meaning, snares and lime-twigs for the purpose. The place lay off but ten furlongs, and yet the snow that lay unmelted found him somewhat to do to pass through it. But all things are pervious to love, even fire, water, and Scythian snows.

  6. Therefore plodding through, he came up to the cottage, and when he had shook off the snow from his thighs, he set his snares and pricked his lime-twigs. Then he sate down and waited for Chloe and the birds.

  There flew to the bushes many birds, and a sufficient number was taken to busy Daphnis a thousand ways, in running up and down, in gathering, killing, and depluming his game. But nobody stirred out of the cottage, not a man or woman to be seen, not so much as a hen at the door, but all were shut up in the warm house; so that poor Daphnis knew not what in the world to do, but was at a stand as if his luck had bin less fair than fowl. And assuredly he would have ventured to intrude himself, if he could but have found out some specious cause and plausible enough; and so deliberated with himself what was the likeliest to be said: “I’ll say I came to fetch fire; And was there no neighbour, they will say, within a furlong, let alone ten? I came to borrow bread; But thy scrip is stuffed with cakes. I wanted wine; Thy vintage was but tother day. A wolf pursued me; Where are the tracings of a wolf? I came hither to catch birds; And when thou hast caught them why gettest thou not thyself home? I have a mind to see Chloe; But who art thou to confess such a thing as that to the father and mother of a maid? — and then, on every side vanquished, I shall stand mum. But enough; there is not one of all these things that carries not suspicion with it. Therefore it’s better to go presently away in silence; and I shall see Chloe at the first peeping of the spring, since, as it seems, the Fates prohibit it in winter.”

  These thoughts cast up and down in his anxious mind and his prey taken up, he was thinking to be gone and was making away, when, as if Love himself had pitied his cause, it happened thus: 7. Dryas and his family were at table, the meat was taken up and divided to messes, the bread was laid out, the wine-bowl set and trimmed. But one of the flock-dogs took his time while they were busy, and ran out adoors with a shoulder of mutton. Dryas was vexed (for that belonged to his mess), and snatching up a club, followed at his heels as if it had bin another dog. This pursuit brought him up to the ivy, where he espied the young Daphnis with his birds on his back, and about to pack away. With that, forgetting the dog and the flesh, he cries out amain, “Hail, boy! hail, boy!” and fell on his neck to kiss him, and catching him by the hand, led him along into the house.

  And then it wanted but a little that Daphnis and Chloe fell not both to the ground when at first they saw one another. Yet while they strove with themselves to stand upright, there passed salutations and kisses between them, and those to them were as pillars and sustentations to hold them from toppling into swoons. 8. Daphnis having now got, beyond all hope, not only a kiss but Chloe herself too, sate down by the fire and laid upon the table his blackbirds and stock-doves; and fell to tell them how tedious the business of the house and keeping within had bin to him, and that therefore he was come to recreate himself and, as they saw, to catch birds; how he had taken some with lime-twigs, some with snares, as they were feeding greedily upon the ivy and the myrtle-berries.

  They, on the other side, fell to commend and praise Daphnis his diligence, and bade him eat of that which the dog had left; and commanded Chloe to wait on them and fill their wine. She with a merry countenance filled to the rest, and after them to Daphnis; for she feigned a pretty anger because that when he was there he would offer to go away in such a manner and not see her. Yet before she gave it to him she kissed the cup and sipped a little, and so gave it. Daphnis, although he was almost choked for want of drink, drank slowly, tickling himself, by that delay, with longer pleasure.

  9. Dinner was quickly done and the table voided of bread and meat, and when they were sate down everybody began to ask how Lamo and Myrtale had done a great while, and so went on to pronounce them happy folks who had got such a stay and cherisher of their old age. And it was no small pleasure to Daphnis to be praised so in the hearing of Chloe. And when, besides, they said that he must and should tarry with them the next day because it was their sacrifice to Bacchus, it wanted but a little that for very pleasure the ravished lover had worshipped them instead of Bacchus himself; and therefore presently he drew out of his scrip good store of sweet-cakes and the birds he had caught, and these were ordered to be made ready for supper.

  A fresh bowl of wine was set, a new fire kindled up, and night soon coming on they fell to eat again. When supper was done and part of their time was spent in telling of old tales, part in singing some of the ditties of the fields, they went to bed, Chloe With her mother, Daphnis with Dryas. But then nothing was sweet and pleasing to poor Chloe but that the next morning she should see her Daphnis again; and Daphnis entertained the night himself with a fantastic, empty pleasure; for it was sweet to his imagination to lie but with the father of Chloe, and he often embraced and kissed him, dreaming to himself that it was she.

  8. In the morning it was a sharp frost and the north wind was very nipping, when they all rose and prepared to celebrate. A young ram was sacrificed to Bacchus and a huge fire built up to cook the meat. While Nape was making the bread and Dry as boiling the ram, Daphnis and Chloe had time to go forth as far as the ivy-bush; and when he had set his snares again and pricked his lime-twigs, they not only catched good store of birds, but had a sweet collation of kisses without intermission, and a dear conversation in the language of love: “Chloe, I came for thy sake.”

  “I know it, Daphnis.”

  “’Tis long of thee that I destroy the poor birds.”

  “What wilt thou with me?”

  “Remember me.”

  “I remember thee, by the Nymphs by whom heretofore I have sworn in yonder cave, whither we will go as soon as ever the snow melts.”

  “But it lies very deep, Chloe, and I fear I shall melt before the snow.”

  “Courage, man; the Sun burns hot.” “I would it burnt like that fire which now burns my very heart.”

  “You do but gibe and cozen me!”

  “I do not, by the goats by which thou didst once bid me to swear to thee.”

  11. While Chloe, like another Echo, was holding her antiphona to Daphnis, Nape called and in they ran, with even more birds then had bin taken the day before. Now when they had made a libation from the bowl to Dionysus, they fell to their meat, with ivy crowns upon their heads. And when it was time, having cried the Jacchus and Euoe, they sent away Daphnis, his scrip first crammed with flesh and bread. They gave him too the stock-doves and thrushes to carry Lamo and Myrtale, as being like to catch themselves more while the frost and ivy lasted. And so Daphnis went his way when he had kissed the rest first and then Chloe, that he might carry along with him her kiss untouched and entire. And now by that device and now by this he came often thither, insomuch that the winter escaped not away wholly without some fruition of the sweets of love.

  12. It was now the beginning of spring, the snow melting, the earth uncovering herself, and the grass growing green, when the other shepherds drove out their flocks to pasture, and Chloe and Daphnis before the rest, as being servants to a greater shepherd. And forthwith they took their course up to the
Nymphs and that cave, and thence to Pan and his pine; afterwards to their own oak, where they sate down to look to their flocks and kiss each other. They sought about for flowers too to crown the statues of the Gods. The soft breath of Zephyrus, and the warm Sun, had but now brought them forth; but there were then to be found the violet, the daffodil, the anagall, with the other primes and dawnings of the spring. And when they had crowned the statues of the Gods with them, they made a libation with new milk, Chloe from the sheep and Daphnis from the goats. They paid too the first-fruits of the pipe, as it were to provoke and challenge the nightingales with their music and song. The nightingales answered softly from the groves, and as if they remembered their long intermitted song, began by little and little to jug and warble their Tereus and Itys again.

  11. Here and there the blating of the flocks was heard, and the lambs came skipping and inclined themselves obliquely under the dams to wriggle and nussle at their dugs. But those which had not yet teemed, the rams pursued, and had their will of them. There were seen too the more ardent chases of the he-goats, which sometimes had battles for the she’s, and everyone had his own wives and kept them solicitously. Even old men, seeing such sights as these, had bin pricked to love, but the young and lusty were wholly inflamed with what they heard and melted away with what they saw, and amongst them was Daphnis chief. For he, as having spent his time in keeping tediously at home all the winter, was carried furiously to kissing and embracing, and in what he did was now more vehement then ever before.

  14. And therefore he asked of Chloe that she would lie by his side (for there was nothing but that remaining of the institutes of old Philetas), that he might try the only canon, the only medicine to ease the pain of love. Et Chloae sciscitanti quid amplius esset osculo, amplexu, et concubitu ipso, quidve statuisset patrare nudus cum nuda concumbendo,. “Illud,” inquit “quod arietes ovibus, quod hirci capris faciunt vides ut hoc opere peracto neque hae postea illos refugiant neque illi has insectando se postea fatigent, sed communem deinceps velut experti voluptatem una pascantur? dulce aliquid, ut videtur, hoc opus habet, atque amoris vincit amaritudinem.”

  “Quid? an non vides, Daphni, capras et hircos et arietes et oves, quemadmodum recti illi faciant et rectae contra istae patiantur, alteri insilientes, alterae dorso impositos admittentes? tu tamen a me petis ut una recumbam, idque nuda atqui illae me, licet vestibus amicta, quanto sunt hirsutiores?” Daphnis tamen ei persuadet, et concumbens cum ea diu iacuit; nesciusque ullam earum rerum agere, quarum gratia tanto libidinis impetu concitabatur, eam erigit et a tergo, hircos imitatus, ei adhaesit. at multo magis animi pendens sedit, et ploravit quod arietibus rudior rerum amatoriarum esset.

  12. But there was a certain neighbour of his, a landed man, Chromis his name, and was now by his age somewhat declining. He married out of the city a young, fair, and buxom girl, one that was too fine and delicate for the country and a clown. Her name was Lycaenium, and she, observing Daphnis as every day early in the morning he drove his goats by to the fields and home again at the first twilight, had a great mind to beguile the youth by gifts to become her sweetheart. And therefore once when she had skulked for her opportunity and catched him alone, she had given him a curious fine pipe, some precious honeycombs, and a new scrip of stag-skin, but durst not break her mind to him because she could easily conjecture at that dear love he bore to Chloe; for she saw him wholly addicted to the girl.

  So much then she had perceived before by the winking, nodding, laughing, and tittering that was between them. But that morning she had made Chromis believe that she was to go to a woman’s labour, and had followed softly behind them two at some distance, and then slipped away into a thicket and hid herself; and so had heard all that they said and seen too all that they did, and even the tears of the untaught Daphnis had bin perfectly within her sight. Wherefore she began to condole the condition of the wretched lovers, and finding that she had light upon a double opportunity she projected to accomplish both her desires by this device:

  13. The next day, making as if she went to that woman again, she came up openly to the oak where Daphnis and Chloe were sitting together, and skilfully counterfeiting that she was scared, “Help, Daphnis, help me,” quoth she; “an eagle has carried clean away from me the goodliest goose of twenty in a flock, which yet by reason of the great weight she was not able to carry to the top of that her wonted high crag, but is fallen down with her into yonder copse. For the Nymphs’ sake and this Pan’s, do thou, Daphnis, come in the wood with me and rescue my goose. For I dare not go in myself alone. Let me not thus lose the tale of my geese. And it may be thou mayst kill the eagle too, and then she will scarce come hither any more to prey upon the kids and lambs. Chloe for so long will look to the flock; the goats know her as thy perpetual companion in the fields.”

  14. Now Daphnis, suspecting nothing of that that was to come, gets up quickly, and taking his staff, followed Lycaenium, who led him as far from Chloe as possibly she could. And when they were come into the thickest part of the wood and she had bid him sit down by a fountain, “Daphnis,” quoth she, “thou dost love Chloe, and that I learnt last night of the Nymphs. Those tears which yesterday thou didst pour down were shewn to me in a dream by - them, and they commanded me that I should save thee by teaching thee all that thou shouldst know. Haec autem non sunt basia et amplexus et qualia faciunt arietes hircique, sed saltus hi alii longeque illis dulciores; habent enim longius tempus voluptatis.

  If then thou wouldst be rid of thy misery, come on, deliver thyself to me a sweet scholar, and I, to gratify the Nymphs, will be thy mistress.”

  15. At this, Daphnis, as being a rustic goatherd and a sanguine youth, could not contain himself for mere pleasure, but throws himself at the foot of Lycaenium and begs her that she would teach him that lesson quickly; and as if he were about to accept some rare and brave thing sent from the Gods, for her kindness he promised he would give her too a young kid, some of the finest beastings, nay, besides, he promised her the dam herself. Wherefore Lycaenium, now she had found a rustic simplicity beyond her expectation, gave the lad all his instruction. Iussit eum quam proxime ipsi posset sedere, necnon oscula figere qualia et quot consueverat, simul inter basiandum mere in amplexus seseque humi reclinare. Vt ergo sedit et basiavit atque reclinato corpore iacuit, ipsa iam edocta eum ad patrandum et capacem esse et turgentem, ab reclinatione in latus facta eum erexit, seseque turn perite substemens ad viam diu quaesitam direxit; deinde nihil praeterea fecit, ipsa natura quod porro agendum restabat docente.

  16. Peracta tandem hac amatoria mfonuatioue, Daphnis, qui pastoralem adhuc habebat mentem, statim ad Chloen cursum instituit et quaecumque didicerat statim exsequi parat, tanquam veritus ne, si paulisper moratus esset, illud ipsum oblivioni traderet verum Lycaenium ipsum inhibuit sic locuta: “Insuper ista quoque te discere oportet, Daphni ego, quae sum mulier, nihil nunc passa sum insolens; olim enim me haec vir alius docuit, pro mercede virginitate mea accepta. Chloe autem ubi tecum in hac palaestra colluctata erit, plorabit eiulabitque, immo iacebit haud secus ac volnerata multo manans sanguine verum non est quod cruorem timeas, sed quando ei persuaseris ut tibi morem gerat, tunc tu earn in hunc adducito locum, ubi si forte clamaverit nemo audiat, si lacrimaverit nemo videat, si cruore foedata erit fonte se abluat; neque unquam oblivioni trade quod ego te virum antequam Chloe fecerim.

  20. These advertisements given, Lycaenium went away through another glade of the wood, as if still she would look for her goose. Daphnidi autem dicta ilia mente agitanti prior ille impetus deferbuerat, verebaturque ullum Chloae facessere negotium ultra osculum amplexumque, cavens ne vel ilia veluti hoste conspecto conclamaret vel tanquam dolore affecta fleret, vel sanguine foedaretur tanquam contrucidata modo enim edoctus a sanguine abhorrebat sanguinemque de solo volnere sequi opinabatur itaque constituit se cum ilia consuetum in modum oblectare.

  And so he comes out of the wood up to the place where Chloe sate platting a garland of violets, and tells her he had rescued the goose from the claws of the eagle,
then flinging his arms about her and clasping her to him, kissed her as he had Lycaenium. But Chloe fits the chaplet to his head, and then kisses his locks as fairer and sweeter then the violets; and out of her scrip she gave him of her cakes and simnels to eat, and snatched it by stealth from his mouth again as he was eating, and fed like a young bird in a nest.

  17. While thus they eat and take more kisses then bits, they saw a fisherman’s boat come by. The wind was down, the sea was smooth, and there was a great calm. Wherefore when they saw there was need of rowing, they fell to ply the oars stoutly. For they made haste to bring in some fish fresh from the sea to fit the palate of one of the richer citizens of Mytilene. That therefore which other mariners use to elude the tediousness of labour, these began, and held on as they rowed along. There was one amongst them that was the boatswain, and he had certain sea-songs. The rest, like a chorus all together, strained their throats to a loud holla, and catched his voice at certain intervals. While they did thus in the open sea, their voices vanished, as being diffused in the vast air. But when they came under a promontore into a flexuous, homed, hollow bay, there, as the voices of the rowers were heard stronger, so the songs of the boatswain to the answering mariners fell clearer to the land. For a hollow valley below received into itself that shrill sound as into an organ, and by an imitating voice rendered from itself all that was said, all that was done, and everything distinctly by itself; by itself the clattering of the oars, by itself the whooping of the seamen; and certainly it was a most pleasant hearing. The sound coming first from the sea, the sound from the land ended so much the later by how much it was slower to begin.