The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #162727   Message #3874604
Posted By: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
31-Aug-17 - 10:51 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Chanties of Capt. Tho. Forrest
Subject: Lyr Add: Chanties of Capt. Tho. Forrest
For lack of a better title:

Ceſſatis, pueri, nihilque môſtis?
Vatreno, Eridanoque pigriores?
Quorum per vada tarda navigantes,
Lentos figitis ad celeuſma remos.
Jam prono Phaëthonte ſudat Æthon;
Exarſitque dies, et hora laſſos
Interjungit equos meridiana.
At vos tam placidas vagi per undas,
Tuta luditis otium carina:
Non nautas puto vos, ſed Argonautas.
(Note, from: Martial's Epigram XXXVI. To a motionless crew., Rome c.100AD)

Why, my lads, more ſluggiſh go,
Than Vatrenus, or the Po?
Think ye through their ſtill ye ſteer,
Drawling-oars to wait the chear?
Phaeton begins to fire,
Ethon lo! in full perſpire;
Now the noon-tide hour proceeds,
To repoſe the panting ſteeds.
Ye, ſerene upon the wave,
Sun, and wind, and water brave.
No mere navigators now,
Ye are Argonauts,* I vow.


* Argonauts, (in one ſenſe) ſluggiſh mariners.

A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas, from Balambangan: An Account of Magindano, SooLoo, and other Islands; And Illustrated with Thirty Copperplates. Performed in the Tartar Galley Belonging to The Honourable East India Company, During the Years 1774, 1775, 1776, By Captain Thomas Forrest, (London: G. Scott, pp. 303-305)