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The Dies Iræ.
53
the moſt fervent devotion, two lines of his own verſion of Dies Iræ:
'My God, my Father, and my Friend,
Do not forſake me in my end.'"
In the beautiful fervor of its devotion, Roſcommon's excels all other tranſlations, but its verſe is not that of the Dies Iræ.
VI.
Craſhaw, the contemporary of Herbert, and friend of Cowley, is the author of this verſion. It is the oldeſt in our language (1646), though there is a weak paraphraſe by Drummond of Hawthornden, beginning:
Ah, ſilly ſoul! what wilt thou ſay
When He, whom heaven and earth obey,
Comes man to judge in the laſt day!
No tranſlation ſurpaſſes Craſhaw's in ſtrength, but the form of his ſtanza and the meaſure of his verſe are leaſt like thoſe of the original.
