Cosi, se ben un tempo al tempo guerra
Fanno l'opre famose, a passo lento

E l'opre e i uomi il tempo attena :
Vivrò dunque fra miei martir contento;

Ché se'l tempo dà fine a cio ch'e in terra,
Darà forse ancor fine al mio tormento.

This sonnet, which was famous in its day, was soon multiplied into many poems by the imitative humanists. Thus Giorgio Fiammingo made a Latin version of it beginning

En domitæ colles Urbis, sacræque ruinæ,
Quæ veteris Romæ nonnisi nomen habent,

expanding the sonnet into sixteen lines; and another humanist, "il celebre Conte

d'Arco," wrote another

Excelsi colles Urbis, sacræque ruinæ,

Queis Romæ nomen vix tenuisse datum est..

Niccolà

Castiglioni's sonnet and the different Latin variations on it were the origins of Du Bellay's "Antiquitez de Rome," the seventh sonnet of which is a close translation

Sacrez costaux, et vous sainctes ruines,

Qui le seul nom de Rome retenez,

Vieux monuments, qui encore soustenez

L'honneur poudreux de tant d'âmes divines, etc.

But apart from this, there are two other sonnets of the "Antiquitez" derived straight from the

neo-Latinists. One is from the Latin of Lazzaro Buonamico and the other from "Ianus Vitalis." Buonamico is a traceable person, whose poetry was reprinted as late as 1770 in Italy; but investigation has failed to discover anything of Ianus Vitalis except his poems. Since the honour of one of Du Bellay's best-known sonnets belongs largely to Vitalis, it is only justice to give his Latin its due

Qui Romam in media quæris novus advena Roma,
Et Romæ in Roma nil reperis media,
Adspice murorum moles, præruptaque saxa,

Obrutaque horrenti vasta theatra situ :

Hæc sunt Roma: viden velut ipsa cadavera tantæ
Urbis adhuc spirent imperiosa minas ?

Nunc victa in Roma victrix Roma illa sepulta est.
Atque eadem victrix, victaque Roma fuit.
Albula Romani restat nunc nominis index,

Qui quoque nunc rapidis fertur in æquor aquis.
Disce hinc quid possit fortuna: immota labescunt,
Et quæ perpetuo sunt agitata manent.

Du Bellay turned this into a sonnet, which has been highly admired by critics and is to be found in many anthologies of classic French poetry—

Nouveau venu qui cherches Rome en Rome
Et rien de Rome en Rome n'apperçois,

Ces vieux palais, ces vieux arcz que tu vois

Et ces vieux murs, c'est ce que Rome en nomme.

Voy quel orgueil, quelle ruine : et comme
Celle qui mist le monde sous ses loix,

Pour donter tout, se donta quelquefois,

Et devint proye au temps, qui tout consomme.

Rome de Rome est le seul monument,
Et Rome Rome a vaincu seulement.
Le Tybre seul, qui vers la mer s'enfuit,
Reste de Rome. O mondaine inconstance !
Ce qui est ferme, est par le temps destruit,
Et ce qui fuit, au temps fait resistance.

The" Antiquitez " were put into English by Spenser ; so that one Italian sonnet, expanded into a number of Latin poems, was still further expanded into a series of French sonnets, finally appearing in England as the "Ruines of Rome of Bellay."

What is perhaps the most delightful part of Du Bellay's poetry is contained in the little book called "Jeux Rustiques," written largely in imitation of the "Lusus Pastorales " of Andrea Navagero and Marc-Antonio Flaminio. These two Italians wrote Latin epigrams in imitation of those in the Greek anthology, and during the sixteenth century their work was largely read. Du Bellay translated about a dozen of Navagero's poems, giving them in the translation a strange lightness and beauty. Of these the most famous is the "Vanneur du Blé," taken by Navagero from an epigram of Bacchylides—

A vous troppe legère,

Qui d'œele passagère
Par le monde volez,
Et d'un sifflant murmure
L'ombrageuse verdure
Doulcement esbranlez,

J'offre ces violettes,

Ces lis et ces fleurettes,
Et ces roses icy,

Ces merveillettes roses,
Tout freschement écloses,

Et ces œilletz aussi.
De vostre doulce halaine
Eventez ceste plaine,
Eventez ce séjour :

Ce pendant que j'ahanne
A mon blé, que je vanne
A la chaleur du jour.

Navagero's Latin has already been quoted by Sainte-Beuve, but since it has a certain suavity of its own it may be quoted again—

Auræ, qui levibus percurritis aëra pennis,

Et strepitis blando per nemora alta sono:
Serta dat hæc vobis, vobis hæc rusticus Idmon
Spargit odorato plena canistra croco.
Vos lenite æstum, et paleas sejungite inanes :
Dum medio fruges ventilat ille die.

It is curious to note that, though one can trace Du Bellay's translations in so many cases, he does not seem to have touched Flaminio at all. Flaminio is in some respects the best of the neo-Latins, and it is odd that so active a translator as Du Bellay should have left him alone. The difficulty is to know when Du Bellay is translating and when he is original. Thus even the learned M. Chamard has stumbled sometimes. After pointing out how

Bembo and Navagero supplied matter for the " Jeux Rustiques" he turns and praises highly as original the "Bayser "—

Sus, ma petite Columbelle,

Ma petite belle rebelle,

Qu'on me paye ce qu'on me doit :
Qu'autant des baysers on me donne,
Que le poëte de Veronne

A sa Lesbie en demandoit

Mais pourquoi te fay-je demande
De si peu de baysers, friande,
Si Catulle en demanda peu ?
Et peu se peuvent-ils bien dire,
Puis que compter il les a peu.

But Emilio Costa, writing on the Italians, says, "Giocchino Du Bellay piuttosto che imitare, in gran parte traduceva ne suoi 'Jeux Rustiques' un epigramma Ad Amicam. Vediamo i primi due distici del Sannazaro "

Da mihi tu, mea lux, tot basia rapta petenti
Quot dederat vati Lesbia blanda suo.

Sed quid pauca peto, petiit si pauca Catullus
Basia? pauca quidem, si numerentur, erunt.

These quotations should bear out the contention made earlier that Du Bellay ought to be considered less as an original author than as one of those innumerable humanists whose enthusiasm and learning created the Renaissance. Du Bellay was lucky,