760

765

Him in Calypfo's cave of late I view'd,
When fireaming grief his faded cheek bedew'd.
But vain his prayer, his arts are vain, to move
Th' enamour'd Goddess, or elude her love:
His veffel funk, and dear companions loft,
He lives reluctant on a foreign coaft.
But oh, belov'd by Heaven! referv'd to thee
A happier lot the fmiling Fates decree
Free from that law, beneath whofe mortal fway
Matter is chang'd, and varying forms decay;
Elyfium fhall be thine; the blifsful plains
of utmost earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns.
Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,
Fill the wide circle of th' eternal year:
Stern winter fmiles on that aufpicious clime;
The fields are florid with unfading prime;
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy fnow:
But from the breezy deep the bleft inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.
This grace peculiar will the Gods afford

770

775

To thee the fon of Jove, and beauteous Helen's

lord.

780

He ceas'd, and, plunging in the vast profound,
Beneath the God the whirling billows bound.
Then speeding back, involv'd in various thought,
My friends attending at the fhore I fought.
Arriv'd, the rage of hunger we control,
Till night with filent shade invests the pole;
Then lofe the cares of life in pleafing reft.-
Soon as the morn reveals the roseate east,
With fails we wing the mafts, our anchors weigh,
Unmoor the fleet, and rush into the sea. 786
Rang'd on the banks, beneath our equal oars
White curl the waves, and the vex'd ocean roars.
Then, fteering backward from the Pharian Ifle,
We gain the ftream of Jove-defcending Nile: 799
There quit the fhips, and on the deftin'd thore
With ritual hecatombs the Gods adore:
Their wrath aton'd, to Agamemnon's name
A cenotaph I raife of deathlefs fame.
Thefe rites to piety and grief discharg'd,
The friendly Gods a springing gale enlarg'd;
The fleet swift tilting o'er the furges flew,
Till Grecian cliffs appear'd, a blissful view!
Thy patient ear hath heard me long relate
A ftory, fruitful of difaftrous fate :
800
And now, young prince, indulge my fond requel;
Be Sparta honour'd with his royal gueft,
Till, from his eastern goal, the joyous fun
His twelfth diurnal race begins to run.
Mean time my train the friendly gifts prepare,
Three fprightly courfers and a polish'd car;
With thele, a goblet of capacious mould,
Figur'd with art to dignify the gold,
(Form'd for libation to the Gods) fhall prove
A pledge and monument of facred love.

795

The courfers, for the champain fports, retain ;
That gift our barren rocks will render vain;
Horrid with cliffs our meagre land allows
Thin herbage for the mountain goat to browze,
But neither mead nor plain fupplies, to feed 825
The fprightly courfer, or indulge his speed:
To fea-furrounding realms the Gods affign
Small tract of fertile lawn, the least to mine.

His hand the king with tender paffion prefs'd,
And, fmiling, thus the royal youth address'd: 830
O early worth! a foul fo wife, and young,
Proclaims you from the fage Ulyffes fprung,
Selected from my ftores, of matchlefs price
An urn fhall recompence your prudent choice
Not mean, the maffy mould of filver, grac'd 835
By Vulcan's art, the verge with gold enchas'd;
A pledge the fcepter'd power of Sidon gave,
When to his realm I plough'd the orient wave.

840

Thus they alternate; while with artful care
The menial train the regal feaft prepare:
The firftlings of the flock are doom'd to die;
Rich fragrant wines the cheering bowls fupply;
A female band the gift of Ceres bring;
And the gilt roofs with genial triumph ring.

Mean while, in Ithaca, the fuitor-powers 845
In active game divide their jovial hours;
In areas vary'd with mofaic art,

Some whirl the disk, and fome the javelin dart.
Afide, fequefter'd from the vaft refort,
Antinous fate fpectator of the sport;
With great Eurymachus of worth confeft,
And high descent, superior to the reft:
Whom young Noëmon lowly thus addreft:

850

}

866

My fhip equipp'd within the neighbouring port,
The prince, departing from the Pylian court, 855
Requested for his fpeed; but, courteous, fay
When fleers he home, or why this long delay?
For Elis I fhould fail with utmost speed, [feed.
'T' import twelve mares which there luxurious
And twelve young mules, a strong laborious race,
New to the plough, unpractis'd in the trace. 861
Unknowing of the course to Pyle design'd,
A fudden horror feiz'd on either mind :
The prince in rural bower they fondly thought,
Numbering his flocks and herds, not far remote.
Relate, Antinous cries, devoid of guile,
When fpread the prince his fail for diftant Pyle?
Did chofen chiefs across the gulfy main
Attend his voyage, or domestic train?
Spontaneous did you speed his facred course, 870
Or was the veffel feiz'd by fraud or force?
With willing duty, not reluctant mind,
(Noëmon cry'd) the veffel was refign'd.
Who, in the balance, with the great affairs [875
Of courts, prefume to weigh their private cares?
With him, the peerage next in power to you:
And Mentor, captain of the lordly crew,
Or fome celeftial in his reverend form,
Safe from the fecret rock and adverie norm,
Pilots the course; for when the glimmering ray
Of yetter dawn difclos'd the tender day,
Mentor himself I faw, and much admir'd-
Then ceas'd the youth, and from the court retir'd.
Confounded and appall'd, th' unfinish'd game
The fuitors quit, and all to council came.
Antinous first th' affembled peers addreft, [breaft.
820 Rage (parkling in his eyes, and burning in his

806

810

My quick return, young Ithacus rejoin'd,
Damps the warm wines of my raptur'd mind;
Did not my fate my needful halte coulirain,
Charm'd by your fpeach, foraceful and humane.
Loft in delight the circling year would roll, 815
While deep attention fix'd my listening soul.
But now to Pyle permit n
deltin'd way,
My lov'd affociates chide my long delay ;
In dear remembrance of your royal grace,
I take the prefent of the promis'd vafe;

885

890

O fhame to manhood! shall one daring boy
The scheme of all our happiness destroy?
Fly unperceiv'd, feducing half the flower
Of nobles, and invite a foreign power?
The ponderous engine rais'd to crush us all,
Recoiling, on his head is fure to fall.
Inftant prepare me, on the neighbouring strand,
With twenty chosen mates a vessel mann'd;
For ambush close beneath the Samian fhore
His fhip returning fhall my fpies explore :
He foon his rafhnefs fhall with life atone,
Seek for his father's fate, but find his own.

895

Words to her dumb complaint a pause supplies
And breath, to waste in unavailing cries.
Around their fovereign wept the menial fair,
To whom she thus addrefs'd her deep defpair:
Behold a wretch whom all the Gods confign
To woe! Did ever forrows equal mine?
Long to my joys my deareft lord is loft,
His country's buckler, and the Grecian boast :
Now from my fond embrace, by tempefts torn,
Our other column of the state is borne:
Nor took a kind adieu, nor fought confent !—
Unkind confederates in his dire intent!

With vaft applaufe the fentence all approve; 900 Ill fuits it with your fhews of duteous zeal,

905

Then rife, and to the feastful hail remove;

Swift to the queen the herald Mcdon ran,
Who heard the confult of the dire divan:
Before her dome the royal matron ftands,
And thus the meffage of his hafte demands:
What will the fuitors? maft my fervant-train
Th' allotted labours of the day refrain,
For them to form fome exquifite repast?
Heaven grant this feftival may prove their laft!

Or, if they ftill must live, from me remove

910

The double plague of luxury and love?
Forbear, ye fons of Infolence! forbear,
In riot to confume a wretched heir.

In the young foul illuftrious thought to raise,
Were ye not tutor'd with Ulyffes' praife?
Have not your fathers oft my lord defin'd,
Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind?
Some kings with arbitrary rage devour,
Or in their tyrant minions veft the power:
Ulyffes let no partial favours fall,
The people's parent, he protected all :
But abfent now, perfidious and, ingrate!
His ftores ye ravage, and ufurp his state.

He thus: O were the woes you fpeak
worst

915

From me the purpos'd voyage to conceal':
Though at the folemn midnight hour he rose,
Why did you fear to trouble my repofe?
He either had obey'd my fond defire,
Or feen his mother, pierc'd with grief, expire.
Bid Dolius quick attend, the faithful flave
Whom to my nuptial train Icarius gave,

To tend the fruit-groves: with inceffant speed
He fhall this violence of death decreed,
To good Laertes tell. Experienc'd age
May timely intercept the ruffian-rage,
Convene the tribes, the murderous plot reveal,
And to their power to fave his race appeal.

955

960

965

970

973

Then Euryclea thus: My dearest dread! 980
Though to the fword I bow this hoary head,
Or if a dungeon be the pain decreed,

I own nie confcious of th' unpleafing deed:
Auxiliar to his flight, my aid implor'd,

With wine and viands I the veffel ftor'd':

920 A folemn oath, impos'd, the fecret feal'd,

the

985.

Till the twelfth dawn the light of heaven reveal'd.
Dreading th' effect of a fond mother's fear,
He dar'd not violate your royal ear.

But bathe, and, in imperial robes array'd, 990'
Pay due devotions to the martial Maid,

And reft affianc'd in her guardian aid.
Send not to good Laertes, nor engage
In toils of state the miferies of age:

Tis impious to furmife, the Powers divine
To ruin doom the Jove-defcended line:
Long fhall the race of just Arcefius reign,
And ifles remote enlarge his old domain.

999}

Pallas in a council of the Gods complains of the detention of Ulysses in the island of Calypfo; whereupon Mercury. is fent to command bis removal. The feat of Calypfo defcribed. She confents with much difficulty; and Ulyffes builds a vessel with bis oron bands, in which be embarks. Neptune overtakes bim with a terrible tenpeft, in which he is shipwrecked, and in the laft danger of death: till Leucothea, a Sea Goddess, affifts him, and · after innumerable perils, he gets afbore on Phæacia.

75

Her Hero's danger touch'd the pitying Power, 10 | She fate, and fung: the rocks refound her lays ;
The nymph's feducements, and the magic bower.
Thus fhe began her plaint: Immortal Jove!
And you who fill the blissful feats above!
Let kings no more with gentle mercy fway,
Or bless a people willing to obey,
But crush the nations with an iron rod,
And every monarch be the fcourge of God:
If from your thoughts Ulyffes you remove,
Who rul'd his fubjects with a father's love.
Sole in an ifle, encircled by the main,
Abandon'd, banish'd from his native reign,
Unbleft he fighs, detain'd by lawless charms,
And prefs'd unwilling in Calypfo's arms.
Nor friends are there, nor veffels to convey,
Nor oars to cut th' inumeasurable way.
And now fierce traitors, ftudious to destroy
His only fon, their ambush'd fraud employ;
Who, pious, following his great father's fame,
To facred Pylos and to Sparta came.

The cave was brighten'd with a rifing blaze:
Cedar and frankincense, an odorous pile,
Flam'd on the hearth, and wide perfum'd the ifle;
While the with work and fong the time divides,
And through the loom the golden fhuttle guides.
Without the grot a various fylvan scene 80
Appear'd around, and groves of living green;
Poplars and alders ever quivering play'd,
And nodding cypress form'd a fragrant fhade;
On whofe high branches, waving with the storm,
The birds of broadeft wing their mansion form, 85
The chough, the fea-new, the loquacibus crow,
And scream aloft, and skim the deeps below.
Depending vines the shelving caverns fcreen,
25 With purple clusters blushing through the green.
Four limpid fountains from the clefts diftil; 901
And every fountain pours a several rill,

20

What words are these, (reply'd the Power who forms

35

40

The clouds of night, and darkens Heaven with
Is not already in thy foul decreed, [ftorms)
The chief's return fhall make the guilty bleed?
What cannot wisdom do? Thou may'ft restore
The fon in fafety to his native fhore:
While the fell foes, who late in ambush lay,
With fraud defeated, measure back their way.
Then thus to Hermes the command was given:
Hermes, thou chofen meffenger of heaven!`
Go, to the nymph be these our orders borne:
'Tis Jove's decree, Ulyffes fhall return :
The patient man fhall view his old abodes,
Nor help'd by mortal hand, nor guiding Gods:
In twice ten days fhall fertile Sheria find,
Alone, and floating to the wave and wind.
The bold Phracians there, whose haughty line
Is mix'd with Gods, half human, half divine,
The chief fhall honour as fome heavenly gueft,
And swift transport him to his place of reft.
His veffels loaded with a plenteous store
Of brafs, of veftures, and refplendent ore
(A richer prize than if his joyful isle
Receiv'd him charg'd with Ilion's noble spoil).
His friends, his country, he shall fee, though late;
Such is our fovereign will, and fuch is fate.
He spoke. The God who mounts the winged
winds

45

In mazy windings wandering down the hill: Where bloomy meads with vivid greens were crown'd,

100

And glowing violets threw odours round,
A fcene, where if a God should caft his fight, 95
A God might gaze, and wander with delight!
Joy touch'd the meffenger of heaven: he ftay'd
Entranc'd, and all the blissful haunt furvey'd.
Him, entering in the cave, Calypfo knew;
For Powers celestial to each other's view
Stand ftill confeft, though diftant far they lie
To 'habitants of earth, or fea, or fky.
But fad Ulyffes, by himself apart,
Pour'd the big forrows of his fwelling heart;
All on the lonely shore he fate to weep,
And roll'd his eyes around the restless deep;
Tow'rd his lov'd coaft he roll'd his eyes in vain,
Till, dimm'd with rifing grief, they stream'd
again.

105

115

Now graceful feated on her fhining throne,
To Hermes thus the nymph divine begun: 110
God of the golden wand! on what beheft
Arriv'st thou here, an unexpected guest ?
Lov'd as thou art, thy free injunctions lay;
"Tis mine with joy and duty to obey.
Till now a franger, in a happy hour
Approach, and tafte the dainties of my bower.
Thus having spoke, the nymph the table spread
55(Ambrofial cates, with nectar rofy-red):
Hermes the hofpitable rite partook,
Divine refection! then, recruited, spoke:
What mov'd this journey from my native sk,
A Goddets afks, nor can a God deny :
Hear then the truth. By mighty Jove's command,
Unwilling have I trod this pleasing land;
For who, felf-mov'd, with weary wings would

Faft to his feet the golden pinions binds,
That high through fields of air his flight fuftain
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the boundless main.
He grafps the wand that caufes fleep to fly,
Or in foft flumbers feals the wakeful eye :
Then fhoots from heaven to high Pieria's steep,
And ftoops incumbent on the rolling deep.
So watery fowl, that feek their fifhy food,
With wings expanded o'er the foaming flood,
Now failing fmooth the level furface fweep,
Now dip their pinions in the briny deep.
Thus o'er the world of waters Hermes flew,
'Till now the diftant ifla: d role in view:
Then, fwift afcending hom the azure wave,
He took the path that vinded to the cave.
Large was the grot, 1. which the nymph he
found
[crown'd);
(The fair-hair'd nymph with every beauty

Tweep

120

125

Such length of ocean and unmea r'd deep: A world of waters! far from all the ways 65 Where men frequent, or facred altars blaze? But to Jove's will fubmiffion we mult pay; What power fo great to dare to fobey? A man, he says, a man refides with thee, Of all his kind moft worn with mifery: 70 The Greeks (whofe arms for ne long years employ'd

130

Hence on the guilty race her vengeance hurl'd,
With forms purfu'd them through the liquid

world.

There all his veffels funk beneath the wave!
There all his dear companions found their grave! 140
Sav'd from the jaws of death by Heaven's decree,
The tempeft drove him to these fhores and thee.
Him Jove now orders to his native lands
Straight to difmifs; fo destiny commands:
Impatient Fate his near return attends,
And calls him to his country and his friends.

Ev'n to her inmost foul the Goddess shook;
Then thus her anguifh and her paffion broke:
Ungracious Gods with spite and cnvy curft!
Still to your own ethereal race the worst!
Ye envy mortal and immortal joy,

And love, the only fweet of life, destroy.
Did ever Goddess by her charms engage

A favour'd mortal, and not feel your rage?
So when Aurora fought Orion's love,
Her joys difturb'd your blifsful hours above,
Till, in Ortygia, Dian's winged dart
Had pierc'd the hapless hunter to the heart.
So when the covert of the thrice ear'd field
Saw ftately Ceres to her paffion yield,
Scarce could lafion tafte her heavenly charms,
But Jove's fwift lightning fcorch'd him in

arms

And is it now my turn, ye mighty Powers |
Am I the envy of your blifsful bowers?
A man, an outcaft to the ftorm and wave,
It was my crime to pity, and to fave;
When he who thunders rent his bark in twain,
And funk his brave companions in the main.
Alone, abar don'd, in mid ocean toft,

145

150

155

160

her

There fate all defolate, and figh'd alone,
With echoing forrows made the mountains groan,
And roll'd his eyes o'er all the refless main,
Till, dimm'd with rifing grief, they stream'd a
gain.

215

Here, on his mufing mood the Goddess preft, 205
Approaching foft; and thus the chief addreft:
Unhappy man! to waling foes a prey,
No more in forrows languifh life away:
Free as the winds I give thee now to rove-
Go, fell the timber of yon lofty grove,
And form a raft, and build the rifing fhip,
Subi me to bear thee o'er the gloomy deep.
To fore the vffel let the care be mine,
With water from the rock, and rofy wine,
And life fuftaining bread, and fair array,
And profperous gales to waft thee on the way.
Thefe, if the Gods with my defires comply,
(The Gods, alas! more mighty far than 1,
And better skill'd in dark events to come)
In peace fhall land thee at thy native home.
With fighs, Ulyffes heard the words fhe spoke,
Then thus his melancholy filence broke:
Some other motive, Goddess! fways thy mind,
(Some clofe defign, or turn of womankind)
Nor my return the end, nor this the way,
On a flight raft to pass the fwelling fea,
Huge, horrid, vaft! where fcarce in fafety fails
The beft-built fhip, though Jove infpire the gales.
The bold propofal how fhall I fulfil,

220

225

The fport of winds, and driven from every coaft, 170
Hither this man of miferies 1 led,

Receiv'd the friendleis, and the hungry fed;
Nay promis'd (vainly promis'd; to beftow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe.
Tis paft--and Jove decrees he fhall remove;
Gods as we are, we are but flaves to Jove.
Go then he may (he muft, if He ordain,
Try all thofe dangers, al! thofe deeps, again):
But never, never fhall Calypfo fend

175

To toils like thefe, her husband and her friend. 180
What fhips have 1, what failors to convey,
What oars to cut the long laborious way?
Yet, I'll direct the safeft means to go:
That laft advice is all I can beftow.

To her, the Power who bears the charming
rod:

Difmifs the man, nor irritate the God:
Prevent the rage of him who reigns above,
For what fo dreadful as the wrath of Jove?
Thus having faid, he cut the cleaving sky,
And in a moment vanish'd from her eye.
The nymph, obedient to divine command,
To feek Ulyffes, pac'd along the fand.
Him penfive on the lonely beach fhe found,
With freaming eyes in briny torrents drown'd,
And inly pining for his native fhore:

For now the foft enchantress pleas'd no more:
For now, reluctant, and conftrain'd by charms,

Abfent he lay in her defiring arms,

io flumber wore the heavy night away,

185

No form'd defign, no meditated end,
Lurks in the counfel of thy faithful friend;
Kind the perfuafion, and fincere my aim;
The fame my practice, were my fate the fame.
Heaven has not curft me with a heart of fleel, 245
But given the fenfe, to pity and to feel.

Thus having faid, the Goddess march'd before:
He trod her footsteps in the fandy fhore.
At the cool cave arriv'd, they took their state;
He fill'd the throne where Mercury had fate. 250
For him the nymph a rich repaft ordains,
Such as the mortal life of man fuftains;
Before herfelf were plac'd the cates divine,

190 Ambrofial banquet, and celeftial wine

195

Their hunger fatiate, and their thirst represt, 255
Thus fpoke Calypfo to her godlike guest:
Ulyffes (with a figh fhe thus began)

O fprung from Gods! in wifdom more than man;
Is then thy home the paffion of thy heart?

Thus wilt thou leave me, are we time to part? 250
Farewell! and ever joyful may'st thou be,

Nor break the tranfport with one thought of me.
But ah, Ulyffes! wert thou given to know

On rocks and fheres cenfuim'd the tedious day; 200 What Fate yet dooms thee, yet, to undergo;
VOL. VI.

DU