315

320

Two races now, ally'd to Jove, offend:
To punith thefe, fee jove himself defcend.
The Theban Kings their line from (admus trace,
From godlike Perfeus thofe of Argive race.
Cappy Cadmus' fate who does not know,
And the long feries of fucceeding woe?
How out the Furies, from the deeps of night,
Arofe, and mix'd with men in mortal fght:
Th exulting mother, ftai.'d with filial blood; /
The favage hunter, and the haunted wood?
The direful banquet why fhould I proclaim, 325
And crimes that grieve the trembling Gods to
name?

335

Ere I recount the fins of these prophase,
The fun would fok into the weltern main
And rifing gild the radiat eaft again.
Have we not feen (the blood of aius fhed) 330
The murdering fon afcend his parent's bed,
Through violate nature force his way,
And itain the facred womb where once he lay?
Yet now in darknef and defpar he groans,
And for the crimes of guilty fate atones;
Plis fons with fcorn their eyelefs father view.
Infult his woued and make them bleed anew.
Tay curfe, oh Oedipus, inft heaven alarms,
Ad fets th' avengig Thunderer in ar.as.
Irom the root thy guilty race will tear,
And give the nations to the waste of war.
Adra.tus foon, with Gods averfe, fhall join
Ja dire alliance with the The ban line:
Hence ftrife fhall rife, and mortal war fucceed;
The guilty realms of Tantalus shall bleed:
Fix'd is their doom; this all-remembering breat
Yet harbours vengea ce for the tyrant's feat.
He faid; and thus the Queen of heaven re-
turu'd

340

prove

Ah, why fhould Argos feel the rage of Jove? 365
Yet, fince thou wilt thy fifter Queen controul,
Since ftill the luft of difcord fres thy foul,
Co, rafe my Samos, let Mycene fall,
And level with the duft the Spartan wall;
No more let mortals Juno's power invoke, 370
Her fanes no more with eaftern incenfe finoke,
Nor victims fink beneath the facred firoke;
But to your Ifis all my rights transfer,
Let altars blaze and temples fmoke for her;
For her, through Egypt's fruitful clime renown'd,
Let weeping Nilus hear the timbrel found.

376

400

406

The dire, though juft, rever ge which I prepare
Against a 1 at on thy p culiar care :
No lefs Dione mightier Thebes contend,
Nor Eacchus lef's has Lative town de end:
Yet thefe in 1le: ce fee the fates full

420

Their work, and revere, ce our fuperior will. 410
For, by the black infernal Styx ) fwear,
(hat dreadiul oath which bi. ds the Thunderer)
'Tis ix'd; th' irrevocable doom of jove;
No force can bend me, no perfuation move.
Hafte then, yllenius, through the liquid air;
Go mount the winds, and to the fades repair;
Bid hell's black monarch my commands obey,
And give up Laius to the realms o day,
Whose ghot, yet shiveri, g on Cocytus fand,
Expects its paí age to the farther forand:
Let the pale i re revit i hebs, and bar
Thefe plaig order to the ty a t car;
That, from hi exi'd brother, fwell'd with pride
Of foreign forces, and hi Argive bride,
Almighty, ove comma ds hi to detain
The Fromie'd empire, ad alternate reign:
Be this the cause of more than mortal hate:
The reft, fuccending times all ripe into Fate.
The god obeys, a d to his feet applies
Thofe golden wigs that cut the yielding fkice.
His ample hat his beamy locks o'erfpread,
And veil'd the narry glork of his head.
He feiz'd the wa d that caufes Leep to fly,
Cr in foft Dumbers feals the wakeful eye;
That drives the dead to dark Tartarian coafts, 435
Or back to life compels the wandering ghoits.
Y y 2

425

431

Thus, through the parting clouds, the fon of May

Wings on the whittling winds his rapid way'; Now fnoothly fteers through air his equal tight, Now fprings aloit, and towers th' etherial height; Then wheeling down the feep of heaven he flies, And draws a radiant circle o'er the skies.

Meantime the Lanifh d Polynices roves (His Thebes abandon'd) through th' Aonian groves,

While future realms his wandering thoughts delight,

His daily vi on, and his dream by night;
Forbidden Thebes appears before his eye,
From whence he fees his abfent brother fly,
With tranfport views the airy rule his own,
And fwells on an imagi, ary throne.
Fain would he caft a tedious age away,
And live out all in one triumhant day.
He chides the lazy progreís of the fun,
And bids the year with fwifter motion run.
With anxious hopes his craving mind is toft,
And all his joys in length of wishes lost.

450

455

}

The hero then refolves his courfe to bend Where ancient Danaus fruitiul fields extend, And fam'd Mycene's lofty towers afcend, (Where late the fun did Atreus crimes deteft, And disappear'd in horror of the feaft,) And now, by chance, by fate, or furies led, From Bacchus' confecrated caves he fled, Where the fhrill cries of trantic matrons found, And Pentheus' blood enrich'd the ring ground, Then fees Citharok towering o'er the plain, And thence declining gently to the main. Next to the bounds of Nifus' realm repaits, Where treacherous Scylla cut the purple hairs: The hanging cliffs of Scyron's rock explores, 470 And hears the murmurs of the different fhores : Paffes the straight that parts the foaming feas, And stately Corinth's pleafing ite surveys.

'Twas now the time when Phoebus yields to night,

475

And ring Cynthia fheds her filver light,
Wide o'er the world in folemn pomp the drew
Her airy chariot hung with pearly dew;

431

All birds and beafts lie hufh'd: Sleep fteals away
The wild defres of men, and toils of day,
And brings, defcending through the flent air,
A fweet forgetfulness of human care.
Yet no red clouds, with golden borders gay,
Promise the fkies the bright return of day;
No faint reflections of the diftant light
Streak with long gleams the fcattering frades of
night;

From the damp earth impervious vapour3 rife,
Encrease the darkness, and involve the flies.
At once the rufting wind, with roaring found
Burft from th' Æolian caves, and rend the ground,
With equal rage their airy quarrel try,
And win by turns the kingdom of the fky;
But with a thicker night black Aufter throuds
The heavens, and drives on heaps the rolling
clouds,

490

Tom whofe dark womb a rattling tempeft pours cold North congeals to haily showers.

From pole to pole the thunder roars aloud,
And broken lightnings tiafh from every cloud.
Now fmoaks with flowers the mifty mountain
ground,

And floated fields lie undiftinguish'd round.
Th' Inachian streams with headlong fury run,
And Erifinus rolls a deluge on:

The foaming Lerna fwells above its bounds,
And spreads its ancient poifons o'er the grounds:
Where late was duft, now rapid torrents play,
Rufh through the mounds, and bear the dams
away:

Old limbs of trees from crackling forests torn,
Are whirl'd in air, and on the winds are borne:
The form the dark Lycæan groves display'd,
And firft to light expos'd the facred shade,
T' intrepid Theban hears the burfting ky, 510
Sees yawning rocks in mafly fragments fly,
And views aftonifh'd from the hills afar,
The floods defcending, and the watery war,
That, driven by storms, and pouring o'er the
plain

514 Swept herds, and hinds, and houfes to the mair, Through the brown horrors of the night he fled, Nor knows, amaz'd, what doubtful path to tread; His brother's image to his mind appears, Inflames his heart with rage, and wings his feet with fears.

Till he beheld, where from Lariffa's height 530
The shelving walls reflect a glancing light:
Thither with hafle the Theban Hero flies;
On this fide Lerna's poifonous water lies,
On that Profymna's grove and temple rife:
He pafs'd the gates which then unguarded lay,
And to the regal palace bent his way;
535
On the cold marble, pent with toil-he lies,
And wait till pleafing flumbers feal his eyes.

545

Adraftus here his happy people fways, Bleft with calm peace in his declining days. 540 By both his parents of defcent divine, Great Jove and Phoebus grac'd his noble line: Heaven had not crown'd his wifhes with a fon, But two fair daughters heir'd his ftate and throne. To him Apollo (wondrous to relate! But who can pierce into the depths of fate?) Had fung"Expect thy fons on Argos' fhore, "A yellow lion, and a brifly boar." This long revelv'd in his paternal breaft, Sate heavy on his heart, and broke his reft: 550 This, great Amphiaraus, lay hid from thee, Though kill'd in fate, and dark futurity. The father's care and prophet's art were vain, For thus did the predicting God ordaio,

Lo hapless Tydeus, whofe ill-fated hand 555 Had flain his brother, leaves his native land, And feiz'd with horror in the fades of night, Through the thick defarts headlong urg'd his flight:

Now by the fury of the tempeft driven,

571

He fecks a fhelter from th' inclement heaven, 560
Till, led by Fate, the Theban's fteps he treads,
And to fair Argos' open court fucceeds.
When thus the chiefs from difierent lands refort
T' Adraftus' realms, and hospitable court;
The king furveys his guefts with curious eyes,
And views their arms and habit with surprize.
A lion's yellow fkin the Theban wears,
Horrid his mane, and rough with curling hairs;
Such one employ'd Alcides' youthful toils,
Ere yet adorn'd with Nemea's dreadful fpoils.
A boar's ftiff hide, of Calydonian breed,
Genides' manly fhoulders overipread:
Oblique his tulks, erect his briftles ftood';
Alive, the pride and terier of the wood.
Struck with the fight, and fix'd in deep amaze,
The King th' accomplith'd Oracle furveys, 576
Reveres Apollo's vocal caves, and owns
The guided Godhead, and his future fons.
O'er all his bofom fecret tranfports reign,
And a glad horror shoots through every vein. 580
To heaven he lifts his hands, erects his fight,
And thus invokes the filent Queen of night:
Goddess of fhades, beneath whofe gloomy
reign

| And now the king, his royal feast to grace.
Aceftis calls, the guardian of his race,
Who frft their youth in arts of virtue train'd,
And their ripe years in modeít grace maintain’d;

590

605

The king once more the folemn rites requires,
And bids renew the feafts and wake the fires.
His train obey, while all the courts around
With noify care and various tumult found.
Embroider'd purple clothes the golden beds;
This fave the floor, and that the table spreads;
A third difpels the darkness of the night,
And fills depending lamps with beams of light;
Here loaves in canifters are pil'd on high,
And there in flames the flaughter'd victims fly.
Sublime in regal ftate Adraftus fhone,
Stretch'd on rich carpets on his ivory throne ;
A lofty couch receives each princely guest;
Around at awful diftance wait the rett.

(20

625

Then foftly whifper'd in her faithful ear,.
And bade his daughters at the rites appear.
When from the clofe apartments of the night,
The royal Nymphs approach divinely bright;
Such was Diana's, fuch Minerva's face;
Nor fhine their beauties with fuperior grace,
But that in thefe a milder charm endears,
And lefs of terror in their looks appears.
As on the heroes firit they caft their eyes,
O'er their fair cheeks the glowing bluthes rife,
Their downcaft looks a decent fame confefs'd,
Then on their father's reverend features reft.

635

The banquet done, the monarch gives the fign To fill the goblet high with sparkling wine, Which Daraus us'd in facred rites of old, With fculpture grac'd, and rough with rifing gold. Here to the clouds victorious Perfeus flies, Medufa feems to move with languid eyes, And, ev'n in gold, turns paler as the dies. There from the chace Jove's towering cagle bears, On golden wings, the Phrygian to the stars: | Still as he rifes in the ethereal height, His native mountains leffen to his fight; While all his fad companions upward gaze, Fix'd on the glorious fcene in wild amaze; And the swift hounds, affrighted as he flies, Run to the fade, and bark against the skies. This golden bowl with generous juice was crown'd,

611

615

645

650

The firft libation fprinkled on the ground:
By turns on each celeftial power they call;
With Phebus name refounds the vaulted hall,
The courtly train, the ftrangers, and the reft,
Crown'd with chafte laurel, and with garlands

drefs'd,

While with rich gums the fuming altars blaze,
Salute the God in numerous hymns of praife. 655
Then thus the King: Perhaps, my noble guefis,
Thefe honour'd altars, and thefe annual feafts
To bright Apollo's awful name defign'd,
Unknown, with wonder may perplex your mind.
Great was the caufe: our old folemnities
From no blind zeal or fond tradition`rife;
But, fav'd from death, our Argives yearly pay
Thefe grateful honours to the God of Day.

660

When by a thoufand arts the Python flain
With orbs unroll'd lay covering all the plain, 665
(Transfix'd as o'er Caftalia's ftreams he hung,
And fuck'd new poifons with his ple tongue)
To Argos' realms the victor god reforts,
And enters old Crotopus' humble courts.
This rural prince one only daughter blefs',
That all the charms of blooming youth po
fefs'd;

Fair was her face and spotlefs was her mind,
Where filial love with virgin fweetnefs join'd.
Happy! and happy fill fre might have provid,
Were fe lefs beautiful, or is belov'd!
But Phoebus lov'd, and on the flowery fda
Of Nemea's ftream the yielding fair enjoy'd :

675

680

Now, ere ten moons their orb with light adorn,
Th' illuftrious offspring of the God was born;
The Nymph, her father's anger to evade,
Retires from Argos to the fylvan fhade;
To woods and wilds the pleafing burden bears,
And trufts her infant to a shepherd's cares.

685

690

How mean a fate, unhappy child, is thine! Ah, how unworthy thofe of race divine! On flowery herbs in fome green covert laid, His bed the ground, his canopy the frade, He nixes with the bleating lambs his cries, While the rude fwain his rural mufic tries, To call foft flumber on his infant eyes Yet even in thofe obfcure abodes to live, Was more, alas! than crucl fate would give; For on the grafiy verdure as he lay, And breath' the freshnefs of the early day, Devouring dogs the helplefs infant tore, Fed on his trembling limbs, and lapp'd the gore. Th' aftonish'd mother, when the rumour came, Forgets her father, and neglects her fame, With loud complaints fhe ills the yielding air, And beats her breaft, and rends her flowing hair; Then wild with a guish to her fire fe flies, 701 Demands the fentence, and contented dies.

695

Devours young babes before their parents eyes, And feeds and thrives on public miferies.

715

But generous rage the bold Chorcbus warms, Chorobus, fam'd for virtue, as for arms; Some few like him, infpir'd with martial flame, Thought a fhort life well loft for endless fame. Thefe, where two ways in equal parts divide, The direful monster from afar defcry'd; Two bleeding babes depending at her fide, 720 Whofe panting vitals, warm with 1 fe, fhe draws, And in their hearts embrues her cruel claws. The youths furround her with extended spears; But brave (horabus in the front appears, Deep in her breat he plung'd hisining fword, And hell's dire monfter back to hell reftor'd. Th' Irachians view the flain with vast surprize, Her twifing volumes, and her rolling eyes, Her fpotted breaft, and gaping wombembru'd With livid poifon, and our children's blood. 730 The croud in stupid wonder fix`d appear, 'ale ev'nin joy, nor yet forget to fear. Some with vaft beams the fqualid corpfe engage, And weary all the wild efforts of rage. The birds obfcene that nightly fock'd to tafte, With hollow fcreeches fled the dire repaft;

And ravenous dogs, allar'd by fcented blood,

And ftarving wolves ran how ling to the wood.
But, fr'd with rage, from Cleft Parnaffus
brow

Avenging Phobus bent his deadly bow,
And hiflag flew the feather'd fates below:

740

A night of fultry clouds involv'd around
The towers, the field-, and the devoted ground:
And now a thou a id lives together fled,
Death with his fcythe cut off the fatal thread,
And a whole province in his triumph led: 746
But Phoebus, afk'd why noxious fires appear,
And raging Sirius blats the ickly year;
Demands their lives by whom his moniter fell,
And dooms a dread ul facrifice to hell.

Bleit be thy duft, and let eternal fame
Attend thy Ma.es, and preferve thy name,
Undaunted hero! who divinely brave,
In fuch a caufe difdain'd thy life to fave;
But view'd the fhrine with a fuperior look,
And its upbraided Godhead thus bespoke :

With piety, the foul's fecureft guard,
And confcious virtue, ftill its own reward,
Willing I come, unknowing how to fear;
Nor

770

750

755

766

alt thou, Phoebus, find a fuppliant here. Thy monster's death to me was ow'd alone, 761 And 'tis a deed too glorious to difown. Behold him here, for whom fo many days, Impervious clouds conceal'd thy fullen rays; For whom, as May no longer claim'd thy care, Such numbers fell by peftilential air! But if th'abandon'd race of human kind From Gods above no more compaffion find; If fuch inclemency in Heaven can dwell, Yet why muft unonending Argos feel The vengeance due to this unlucky fteel? On me, on me, let all thy fury fall, Nor err from me, fince I deferve it all: Unless our defert cities please thy fght, Cr funeral flames reflect a grateful light, Difcharge thy fhafts, this ready bofom rend, And to the fhades a ghoft triumphant fend; But for my country let my fate atone, Be mine the vengeance, as the crime my own. Merit diftrefd, impartial Heaven relieves: Unwelcome life relenting Phabus gives; 787 For not the vengeful power, that glow'd with

rage,

775

With fuch amazing virtue durft engage.
The clouds difpers'd, Apollo's wrath expir'd,
And from the wondering God th❜ unwilling youth

retir❜d.

785

Thence we thefe altars in his temple raife,
And offer annual honours, feafts, and praife;
I hofe folemn feats pr pitious Phoebus please:
These honour, ftill renew'd, his ancient wrath
appcafe.

But fay, illuftrious guest! (adjoin'd the King) What name you bear, from what high race you fpring?

The noble Tydeus ftands confefs'd and known
Our neighbour Prince, and heir of Calydon.
Relate your fortunes, while the friendly night
And flent hours to various talk invite.

791

795

Know then, from Cadmus I derive my race,
Jocalta's fon, and Thebes my native place. 805
To whom the King (who felt his generous breat
Touch'd with concern for his unhappy guest)
Replies:-Ah why forbears the fou. to name
His wretched father, known too well by fame?
Fame, that delights around the world to fray,
Scorns not to take our Argos in her way, 811
Ev'n thofe who dwell where fuus at diflance
roll,

820

}

825

In northern wilds, and freeze beneath the pole;
And those who tread the burning Libyan la. ds, -
The faithlefs Syrtes, and the moving fads; 815
Who view the wettern fea's extremeit bounds,
Or drink of Ganges in their eaftern grounds;
All these the woes of Oedipus have known,
Your fates, your furies, and your haunted town.
If on the fons the parents' crimes defcend,
What Prince from thofe his lineage can defend?
Be this thy comfort, that 'tis thine t'efface
With virtuous acts thy ancestor's difgrace,
And be thyfelf the honour of thy race.
But fee! the ftars begin to iteal way,
Ard fine more faintly at approaching day.
Now pour the wine; and in your tu etul lays
Once more refound the great Apollo's praife.
O father Phoebus! whether Lycia's coaft
And fnowy mountains thy bright prefence boaft;
Whether to fweet (aftalia thou repair,
And bathe in flver dews thy yellow hair;
Or, pleas'd to find fair Delos Hoat no more,
Delight in Cynthus, and the fhady frore;
Or chufe thy feat in Ilion's proud abodes, 835
The fhining structures rais'd by labouring Gods;
By thee the bow and mortal frafts are borne;
Eter al charms thy blooming youth adorn:
Skill'd in the laws of fecret fate above,
And the dark counfels of almighty jove,
'Tis thine the feeds of future war to know,
The change of fceptres, and impending woc;
When direful meteors fpread through glowing

air

831

840

THE

FABLE

OF

DR YO P. E.

From OVID'S METAMORPHOSES, Book IX.

HE faid, and for her loft Galanthis figs, When the fir Contert of her fon replies: since you a fervant's ravish'd form bemoan, And kindly figh for forrows not your own; Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate A nearer woe, a fifter's ftranger fate. No Nymph of all Oechalia could compare For beauteous form with Dryope the fair, Her tender mother's only hope and pride (Myfelf the offspring of a fecond bride). This Nymph comprefs'd by him 'who rules the day,

Whom Delphi and the Delian ifle obey, Andræmon lov'd; and bleis'd in all thofe charms That pleas'd a God, fucceeded to her arms.

A lake there was, with fhelving banks around, Whofe verdant fummit fragrant myrtles crown'd. Thefe fhades, unknowing of the fates, the fought And to the Naiads flowery garlands brought; Her finiling babe (a pleafing charge) fhe prett Within her arms, and nourish'd at her breast. 20 Not diftant far, a watery Lotos grows; The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs, Adorn'd with bloffoms, promis'd fruits that vie In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye: Of thefe the cropp'd to please her infant fon; 25 And I myself the fame rafh act had done, But lo! I faw (as near her fide I ftood) The violated bloffoms drop with blood. Upon the tree I caft a frightful look: The trembling tree with fudden horror fhook. Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true), As from Priapus lawless luft fhe flew, Forfook her form; and fixing here became A flowery plant, which fill preferves her name, This change unknown, aftonish'd at the fight, My trembling fifter ftrove to urge her flight: And firit the pardon of the nymphs implor'd, And thofe of ended fylvan powers ador'd: But when the backward would have fled, the found Her fiffening feet were rooted in the ground: 40 In vain to free her faften'd feet the ftrove, And, as the ftruggles, only moves above; She feels th' encroaching bark around her grow By quick degrees, and cover all below: Surpriz'd at this, her trembling hand the heaves To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves : Where late was hair, the fhooting leaves are feen To rife, and fade her with a fudden green. The child Amphiffus, to her bofom prefs'd, Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breaft, And found the fprings, that ne'er till then deny'd Their milky moisture, on a fudden dry'd, I faw unhappy! what I now relate, And, flood the helplefs witnefs of thy fate,

50