Alexandro Gillio.
ACcepi literas tuas, & quæ me mirifice oblectavêre, Carmina sane grandia, & Majestatem vere
Poeticam, Virgilianumque ubique ingenium redolentia. Sciebam equidem quam tibi tuóque genio
impossibile futurum esset, à rebus Poeticis avocare animum, & furores illos cælitus instinctos, sacrúmque & æthereum ignem intimo pectore eluere, cum tua
(quod de seipso Claudianus) — Totum spirant Præcordia Phœbum. Itaque si tua tibi ipse promissa fefelleris, laudo hîc tuam (quod ais) inconstantiam, laudo, siqua est, improbitatem; me autem tam præclari Poematis arbitrum a te factum esse, non minus glorior, & honori mihi duco, quam si certantes ipsi Dii Musici ad meum venissent judicium; quod Tmolo Lydii montis Deo populari olim contigisse fabulantur. Nescio sane an Henrico Nassovio plus gratuler de urbe capta, an de tuis Carminibus: nihil enim existimo victoriam hanc peperisse Poematio hoc tuo illustrius, aut celebrius. Te vero, cum prosperos sociorum successus tam sonorâ triumphalique tubâ canere audiamus, quantum vatem sperabimus, si forte res nostræ demum feliciores tuas Musas poscant Gratulatrices. Vale Vir Erudite, summasque à me tibi gratias Carminum tuorum nomine haberi scias.
Londino, Maii 20. 1628.
To Alexander Gill.
I have received your letter, and also the verses, which
gave me intense delight. They are indeed magnificent, inspired throughout by a truly poetic majesty
and a spirit worthy of Virgil himself. I knew well
enough how impossible it would prove for one gifted
with your genius to renounce Poetry and banish from
his inmost heart that heaven-sent inspiration and that
sacred and celestial fire. For of you one may truly say,
as Claudian said of himself, "Phoebus alone is my life's
breath." And so, if you have broken the promise you
made to yourself, I have nothing but praise for your
fickleness, as you call it, in this respect, and for your
dishonourable conduct, if such it is. And I am as proud
of being chosen by you to give an opinion upon so noble
a poem, and feel as greatly honored, as if the gods of
music themselves had asked my judgment on a contest
between them — an experience which, they say, once befell Tmolus, the local god of the Lydian mountain. Indeed
I know not whether to congratulate Henry of Nassau
more upon the capture of the city or upon your verses,
for I do not believe that this victory has brought in its
train anything more noble or more worthy of renown
than this poem of yours.
Now that we hear you sound such triumphant and
sonorous trumpet tones in honor of our allies' success,
what a laureate we shall look to find in you, if at last our
own fortunes should mend and claim your congratulatory Muse!
Farewell then, my accomplished friend, and accept
my most heartfelt thanks for your verses.
London, May 20th, 1628
Translation by Phyllis B. Tillyard
