"May this be true, or doth the Fable fayne, When corps is deade the Sprite to live as yet? When Death our eies with heavy hand doth strain, And fatall day our leames of light hath shet, And in the Tombe our ashes once be sat, Hath not the soule likewyse his funerall, But stil (alas) do wretches live in thrall?
"Or els doth all at once togeather die? And may no part his fatal howre delay, But with the breath the Soule from hence doth flie? And eke the Cloudes to vanish quite awaye, As danky shade fleeth from the poale by day? And may no iote escape from desteny, When once the brand hath burned the body?"
In Sherburne's translation of 1702 the same lines are rendered as follows:--
"Is it a Truth? or Fiction blinds Our fearful Minds? That when to Earth we Bodies give, Souls yet do live? That when the Wife hath clos'd with Cries The Husband's Eyes, When the last fatal Day of Light, Hath spoil'd our Sight And when to Dust and Ashes turn'd Our Bones are urn'd; Souls stand yet in nead at all Of Funeral, But that a longer Life with Pain They still retain? Or dye we quite? Nor ought we have Survives the Grave? When like to Smoake immixed with skies, The Spirit flies, And Funeral Tapers are apply'd To th' naked Side, Whatere Sol rising does disclose Or setting shows," etc.
It is also interesting to compare Sherburne's version with the earlier one in the famous passage which closes the chorus at the end of the second act of the Medea; Newton's edition gives the lines as follows:--
"Now seas controulde doe suffer passage free, The Argo proude erected by the hand Of Pallas first, doth not complayne that shee, Conveyde hath back, the kynges unto theyr land. Eche whirry boate now scuddes about the deepe All stynts and warres are taken cleane away, The Cities frame new walles themselves to keepe, The open worlde lettes nought rest where it lay; The Hoyes of Ind Arexis lukewarme leake, The Persians stout in Rhene and Albis streame Doth bath their Barkes, time shall in fine outbreake When Ocean wave shall open every Realme, The Wandering World at Will shall open lye, And Typhis will some newe founde Land survay Some travelers shall the Countreys farre escrye, Beyonde small Thule, knowen furthest at this day."