Bridging the Continental divide: neo-Latin and its cultural role in Jacobean Scotland, as seen in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (1637)

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Sylva III: Lethington House

1Stand, house built on ancient pillars into heaven, house of great fortune, to whom it has been granted to bring forth from yourself so many children of a blessed race, lucky lords, and fathers of the nation into the heavenly shores of light. And as your noble outlines are called to mind by so many ages, so now you, having repulsed sorrow-bringing ruin, make equal the countless years of the age with happiness. After I had escaped from the prison of my mother's womb, you were the first deemed worthy to receive a small burden, drawing life-giving dew from a tender breast, among your household gods (with rejoicing at my delivery), within a secure home. From whence, although twice ten winters, bound by icy cold, have flowed past,   [p168] and with just as many courses run Phoebus has spewed out summery embers from his mouth, no Lethe-like forgetfulness a of you has shrouded my mind. And now, as a visitor returning from foreign shores far off, how eagerly do I look upon you, how do I worship the incense burning in the lamps of your doorway, long desired, and your Lares, b how passionately do I give kisses to your doorposts, with lips pressed and mouth placed against them? And I sing of you, noble house, a house (no doubt) to be wondered at more for the talent of its skilled architect, or the honour of its pre-eminent master, or its own genius. Surely such a citadel is not to be thought the work of mortals, but rather built by the hands of gods, when ancient deities inhabited Caledonian lands?

25O he nourished so many souls closed up within his noble breast, who first established the foundations of such a pile, and who obstructed the winds, and who divided the clouds with a lofty peak of tower-bearing rock, and pressed down the subservient earth with its remarkable weight. Straightaway let Jupiter, his right hand armed with ravening thunderbolt, cast down Pindus c onto broken Olympus, and throw the overturned Alps into smoking Etna: may you endure, undaunted, against heavenly fires. I have seen bronze towers, liquified by a sulphurous hurricane, collapse and become reduced to unmentionable piles of rubble, while you remain unhurt and impervious to the cruel blasts. Often old Aeolus (who keeps the winds bridled in sealed caves), d enraged by how much your glory offends, strikes against rocks impervious to his crazed storms. Hence terror-causing Boreas, e hissing with a rough whisper, whirls rocks about and turns over torches, and hence he rushes in with a fierce whirlwind from Zephyr, and hence Eurus, f even more furious, presses upon the flank, and every tower shudders with the violent thud of hail, and is drenched with clouds from rainy Auster: g but to no avail does the controller of Zephyr and Eurus rage: nor is he able to cast down the tower with his terror-bringing blasts; nor does it quake any more before Boreas than when, in early Spring, a light breeze from the breath of Favonius h shakes the unmoved oaks. Such strength lies settled deep within the enduring rock.

50But when, with reins loosened, the more gentle Phoebus rushes in; he casts burning brands from his flame-spouting mouth, and whirling missiles of blazing light throws down a challenge to that tower, resplendent in its native marble,  [p169] and rejoices that his darts are deflected with a gentle stroke, and that all the gates give no admission to his rays. At dawn, shaking the waves from his ocean-drenched curls, when he first puts on his yellow cloak, he sees it, and greets it with such a rejoicing countenance. Soon after, as he turns his horses across the spacious expanse of the heavenly course, when he has stood above the head of the house, he then ascends to the middle arch of the thirst-filled sun; checking his course, he draws up the loosened reins in his right hand, and first throws slender embers against the walls: then, with the game growing in excitement, he presses in and sends full quivers and vibrating arrows against the midst of the gates. But when, having grown thoroughly bored of the pleasing contest, and while the citadel spits back Phoebus' fiery darts from its closed windows, straightaway with his missiles and torches resheathed he proceeds the more happily to seek again the ocean waves: and as he flees, he soothes the roofs with his luke-warm heat.

70But there is a spirit who defends the sacred temple, the guardian-spirit of the house, under whose supervision it is established that the fierce conflagrations be kept off of the innocent roofs. For when the foremost threat belonged with the Saxon enemy, to plunder with fire the nation and the national spirits, they heaped on torches, and the tower shook with the terrifying din which rushed up from the fire below, and they stretched out secret veins filled with sulphurous powder: it did not (wondrous to tell) flash over the stricken walls, but held the site of the fire in a central partition of the bronze roof, as if through burst entrails. i

81Furthermore, look upon the roofs, adorned with proud turrets, envied by others, as they show off to a great distance the beautiful towers, and seem to look down on all sides upon the neighbouring peaks of the cloud-bearing mountain. He who joined Abydos to Sestos with rafts, and who dug a trench upon Athos, j and burst apart the massive rocks, and would turn over the massive mountains with a great many a soldier, even he (I think), where Phoebus enters from the Eastern fields, would not be able to conceal the doors, nor with a weight from above overwhelm the opposing tower, with valleys all around. So brightly shine the battlements erected on the high roof.

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What should I relate of its decoration? Why tell how its most esteemed ensemble blinds the eyes with rays as if shot from the lightning? The walls are not disgraced with Parian marble, k nor do the carved ceilings glitter with bronze gold: contented with native goods, nor demeaned by foreign excess, its beauty delights, rightly, to be seen. Look, as veins of living granite cling fast to the joints, and a structure of planed wood joins together well-fitted little beams, so that the gables, fashioned from polished stone, are themselves the equal of royal buildings. The hall lies open to the people, and an envy-causing atrium with proud galleries, and beds for gentle sleep, and its wide space is revealed by innumerable steps. Deep within, where golden statues hang with a variety of figures from the bronzed ceilings of the highest roof, you will see the work of skilled Combirus, l the tapestries that hang interwoven with reddish gold, and garments of such quality as once Arachne, the rash rival of the victress, spun in a fatal contest for glory. m And couches shine with silver, and many a golden rank of vases embellish polished tables. Here the crowd, girt round with festal garlands, are wont to burden couches with banquets and to amuse themselves with dances. Here play and charming sport lighten minds, and even Venus chooses for herself a residence in the beloved castle. House of good fortune! Around whose foundations such great devotion accords with unconquered strength. That spirited warrior-maiden n (I know) once erected a miraculous tower on the level planes of Babylon: let Priam's o royal residence be, let the towers which father Nile washes be, and let the immense wealth that was displayed in the palaces of ancient Rome be, but let it also be right to speak truth: I am mistaken, or not, if ever the spirited virgin who erected the miraculous tower on the level planes of Babylon, or the towers of Pharoah or the palaces of ancient Rome, would have preferred themselves to you: nor, when Priam ruled the kingdoms, did the magnificence of Laoemdontean Troy afford any comparison.