420

431

With speed the god's directions we pursue,
And soon in part the ready vessel view;
My sire embark'd, to Neptune's watchful care,
And Eolus, I oft commend with pray'r.
No bound th' alternate stream of sorrow knows,
Till beamy Phosphor, rising on our woes,
Gave warning of Aurora's hastening car,
And deep in ocean sunk each paler star.
Unwilling then the vessel I forsook,
And often backward cast a wishful look;
Till now the long-expected gales arise,
And snatch the less'ning object from my eyes.
At length the morn, the blushing morn arose,
Whose beans the horrours of the night disclose,
Black interposing clouds arise between,
And from her sight exclude the loathsome scene.
Their actions now expos'd in open day,
'The trembling matrons curse the treach'rous ray;
Each would her share of guilt with joy disclaim,
And blushing meets the partner of her shame.
They burn the bodies, or inhume with speed,
And hope in vain to veil the glaring deed.
But when the Cyprian goddess, cloy'd with gore,
And her fell co-aids ieft the captive shore,
The wretches, stung with sharp reflection, tear
Their locks, and weep involv'd in deep despair.
An island late enrich'd with Thracian spoils,
Fam'd for its produce, wealth, and martial toils,
Bewails the ravish'd glory of her coast,
Her infants, senate, and victorious host.
Nor does she this irreparable woe

440

No more her vigʼrous sons exert their toil
To plough the deeps, or break the stubborn soil.
O'er the whole town unwonted silence reigns,
And clotted blood each widow'd mansion stains.
Stern phantoms, rising from the shades beneath,
The sounds of vengeance in low whispers breathe.
Within the inner court in haste I raise
A sylvan pile, to feed the fun'ral blaze;
On this the sceptre, arms and robes, that grac'd
The Lemnian monarch, are in order plac'd.

460

470

With looks dejected, near the pile I stand,
A bloody dagger arms my better hand.
My scatter'd hair in wild disorder flows,
My babit such as suited with my woes.
Nor tears, the token of a wounded heart,
Were wanting to complete the mourner's part.
To prove their approbation of the deed,
The Lemnian sceptre is to me decreed.
(So much my flowing tears and ready tale
Did o'er each female's easy faith prevail)
What could I do, thus press'd by their demands?
Oft I confess'd my undeserving hands
Before the gods-Constrain'd at length t'obey,
I take the crown and mutilated sway.
From hence a load of watchful cares arose,
And anxious thoughts, impatient of repose,
Polyxo's guilt in visions stands renew'd,
And Lemnian horrours in our slumbers brood;
Till altars to their angry shades we rear,
And by their ashes with devotion swear.
Thus when the savage monarch of the wood,
Impell'd with anger, or desire of food,
Has torn some lordly bull, who long had led
The subject cattle, ruler of the mead,
The beadless herd in straggling parties roves,
Unmindful of their pasture or their loves;
Hush'd are the fields, the rivers cease to roar,
And the mute herds their common loss deplore.
But lo! the Argo, loaded with a train

Of heroes, cleaves th' inviolated main :

Tu secreta pyram tecto inferiore sub auras
Erige, & arma viri, thalamo quæ fixa reliquit
Dextra feras.-

480

490

En. lib. 4.
Philoctetes likewise, in the Hercules Oeteus of
Seneca, says,

Hic nodus, inquit, nulla quem capiet manus,
Mecum per ignem flagrat, hoc telum Herculem
Tantum sequatur. Hoc quoque acciperes, ait,
Si ferre posses. Adjuvet Domini rogum.
Tum rigida secum spolia Nemæi mali
Arsura poscit.-

Act 5. v. 1660.

481. Thus when the savage] Those who always expect in Statius those minute resemblances in 439. But when the Cyprian goddess] From every branch of a comparison, which are the pride the present passage, we may see to what a degree disappointed in the course of this work. He seems of modern similes, will frequently find themselves the smallest circumstance is aggrandized and heightened in the hands of a great poet. The so secure of the main likeness, that he makes no sense of the allegory is obviously this: when their scruple of neglecting the small circumstances in such a manner as to leave the reader to supply rage and passion had subsided, and gave place to them himself, and seems more desirous of precooler and more mature' reflection. This personification of the affections was introduced first in-senting the mind with a great image, than fixing to Greece by the Egyptians, and translated thence it down to an exact one. The writers of the preto Italy. Valerius Flaccus, who has slightlycious manner, and distract and confound the reader sent age act in a quite different, though less juditouched on this subject in his Argonautics, says, they were infatuated to such a degree, as to set their own houses on fire.

Diras aliæ ad fastigia tædas

Injiciunt, adduntque domos.

with a multiplicity of images, as the ingenious authors of the Monthly Review have rightly ob. served. Their poems are not unlike the Dutch pieces of painting, where the figures are so thick, that they are lost and confounded in each other. This simile, however, is applicable in every parti

The latter part of this remark belongs to Bar-cular; the headless herd answers to the people thius.

459. On this the sceptre] That this was an established custom among the ancient heathens, may be inferred from the following verses of Virgil, where Dido is introduced giving her last com

mands to her sister,

Lemnos, the silence of the fields, rivers, &c. to that of the town, and the slaughtered bull to the men massacred by the women.

490. Of heroes] They were sent by Pelias king of Thessaly, to fetch the golden fleece from Col chis. The reader may find their voyage and ad

Then first reflection with their fears return'd,
And their past actions with regret they mourn'd,
Lest Heav'n, to punish their presumptuous crime,
Had sent the vessel from some hostile clime.

Like some huge mountain, white with ancient snows, They now had almost gain'd the sandy beach,

ventures described at large in Valerius Flaccus
and Apollonius, who have both written a large
poem on this subject only.

503. 'Twas Orpheus] The history of Orpheus is too well known to need an explanatory note. It will be sufficient to observe, that he was a Thracian by birth, the son of Apollo and Calliope, and murdered by the Thracian Bacchanals. The extraordinary effects of his skill in music are thus summed up by Horace.

510. The straits of Bosphorus] The Bosphorus is a part of the sea, which lies in two different coasts; the one by Constantinople, and the other at the entrance of the Black Sea.

523. On fronting Hæmus] The epithet adverso, which I have rendered by fronting, has afforded matter of speculation to the judicious Barthius, who informs us, that it is very doubtful whether it should be applied to the situation of the mountain, or the enmity Mars bore the Lemnians on account of their patron Vulcan. With submission to this critic's superior judgment, we must beg leave to observe, that there is a more natural reason to be given for the enmity of Hamus, (if we suppose adversus to signify hostile in this place, which we very much doubt,) viz, the invasion of Thrace by Barthius had certhe Lemnians a little before. tainly forgotten this, or he never would have

And stood within a Cretan arrow's reach;
When pregnant clouds o'erhang the boiling main,
And Jove descends in sluicy sheets of rain.
Horrour sits brooding o'er the liquid way,
And Sol deserts the violated day.
From ev'ry quarter rushing winds resound,
Plough up the deep, and hurl the sands around.
Surges on surges roll with hideous roar,

And clash and break, and thunder to the shore.
Obsequious to the wind the vessel plies,
And, wafted by the billows, seeks the skies, 540
Or, as the gaping main at once divides,

The beasts beneath the fleecy ruin lie,
And intercepted birds forsake the sky.
Pale Ceres droops reclining on the ground,
The mountains echo, and the deeps rebound.
But, as the light'ning, beaming thro' the shade,
The manly features of each face display'd,
The failing arms our feeble gripe forsook,
And ev'ry limb with chilling horrour shook.
Prevailing nature rose in ev'ry breast,
And tenderness, our sex's only test.

620

And by their arms and princely vestments known,
570 With shouts are welcoin'd to the widow'd town.
Their features undisturb'd with wrath or fear,
Attract our eyes, and doubly fair appear.
Thus oft the gods (as ancient fame reports)
Resign their pomp, and quit th' etherial courts:
When to fair Æthiopia they repair,
And make awhile the genial feast their care.
To leave their passage clear, the seas divide,
And mountains, level with the vales, subside.
On Earth a sudden spring is seen to rise,
Nor Atlas groans beneath th' incumbent skies.
Here valiant Theseus, clad in shaggy spoils,
The trophies of his Marathonian toils,
The sons of Boreas, on whose temples grew
A wing, that flutter'd oft as Boreas blew,

580

630

621. Thus oft the gods] The following simil is exquisitely beautiful, and full of that sublime simplicity, which Longinus commends so much in Homer. Had that critic seen it, he had undoubt 590 edly given it a place in his collection, and ranked it with the celebrated description of Neptune in the 13th book of the Iliad, which, if it was not for the anticlimax at the close of our poet's, would not, we believe, be thought superior. There are some stanzas in a poem on the king's coming to Oxford (where the same comparison is made use of which, we think, are imitated from our author's with great happiness.

Th' acidæ first strike our wond'ring eyes,
And stern Ancæus of gigantic size.
Next 1phitus, who with protended spear
From threat'ning rocks preserv'd the vessel clear.
Then Hercules, impatient for the land,
We soon distinguish from th' inferior band:
The vessel leans beneath the future god,
From side to side alternate as he strode.
But nimble Jason, haply then unknown,
Amidst his comrades far conspicuous shone.
From bench to bench incessantly he flew,
And animates by turns the drooping crew.
On Ida now, Oenides then he calls,
And threatens much th' inhospitable walls;
With wrath the ling'ring Salaus he view'd,
And Tyndar's son with briny foam bedew'd,
Nor unapprov'd the son of Boreas past,
Who toil'd to fix the canvas to the mast.
With animating shouts the liquid plain,
And echoing walls they shake, but shake in vain.
The tempest grows reluctant to their toils,
And from the tow'rs each shiver'd spear recoils.
In vain tre pilot plies his weary hands;
The waves and rudder hear not his commands.
Whether to right or left he turns the prow,
The labour rises, and the dangers grow;
Till Æson's offspring from the stern display'd
The olive, sacred to the martia! maid;
And peace and an aliance asks aloud,
Tho' interrupted by the noisy crowd.

601

610

Scarce could the falt'ring accents reach the shore,
Lost in the louder sea's tempestuous roar.
At length the storm and war together cease,
The waves unruffle and subside in peace:
While Phoebus, issuing from a ruddy cloud,
Restor'd the day, and more serenely glow'd.
From planks compacted with a furious bound,
The warriors gain the late unfriendly ground;

Υψηλῶν ὀρέων κορυφάς, και πρώονας άκρες,
Καὶ πεδία λωτε τα, καὶ ἀνδρυν πίονα έργα,
Καὶ τ ̓ ἐφ' αλὸς πολιής κέχυται λιμέσιν τε καὶ ἀκταῖς,
Κύμα δέ μιν προς πλάζον ἐρύκεται, άλλα τε πάντα
Εἰλύαται καθύπερ θ' ὅτ' ἐπιβρίση Διὸς ὄμβρ

Iliad, b. 12. 575. The falling arms] This circumstance was a favourite of the poets in their descriptions of the effects of a sudden fright.

Τῆς δ' ἐλελίχθη γύια, χαμαὶ δὲ οἱ ἔκπεσε κερκίς.
Homer's Iliad, b. 22. v. 448.

Nuncia fama ruit, matrisque adlabitur aures]
Euryali; ac

Excussi manibus radii, revolutaque pensa.
Virgil's En. b. 9. v. 474.

Primo qui cædis in ictu

Diriguit, ferrumque manu torpente remisit.

Lucan's Phan b. 2. v. 77.

629. Here valiant Theseus] Thesens was the son of Ageus, king of Athens, famous for his friendship and valorous actions, among which the slaughter of the Marathonian bull was the principal. Minos, during the preparations for a sacrifice to Jove, demanded in prayer a victim worthy of the god; upon which he sent a bull of exquisite beauty. His daughter Pasiphae falling in love with him, persuaded her father to preserve him alive, which enraged Jupiter so much, that he caused him to go mad: at length, being tamed by Hercu les, he was dedicated to Juno at Argos, from whence he escaped to Marathon, where he was slain by Theseus.

631. The sons of Boreas] Their names were Calais and Zethes. Pindar has given the follow ing account of them.

καὶ γὰρ ἑκὼν θυμῶ γελανε θάσσον ἔνα

1

比

Great Peleus, vanquish'd by his greater son,
The daring youth, the pride of Caledon,
Admetus, by the god of day obey'd,
And Orpheus, scarce a Thracian, we survey'd,
The Spartan twins, alike in shape and size,
An errour cause in each spectator's eyes.
A shining tunic either champion wore,
Each in his hand a pointed jav'lin bore.

640

Bare are the cheeks of each, their shoulders bare,
And starry glories grace their sparkling hair.
Behind his lord, young Hylas tript along,
Lost and obscur'd amidst the tow'ring throng:
With pain his tender feet the stripling ply'd
To match the demigod's gigantic stride,
And sweating under the huge quiver bore
The shafts envenom'd with Lernæan gore.
The Paphian queen repeats her fraudful arts,
And tempts again with love our soften'd hearts.
Saturnia, too, divulges thro' the town
The warrior's nation, rank and high renown.
Then first our altars blaz'd, our rites began,
But Heav'n and Jove are lost in dearer man.
The gates are open to each welcome guest,
(Our late aversion to the sex suppress'd)
edy The dead is to the living love resign'd,

651

660

And sweet oblivion calms each anxious mind.
the Then were the pleasures of the genial board,
part And lost repose by pitying Heav'n restor'd,
Nor, as her crime is known, O chiefs, refuse
To hear an artless woman's just excuse.
By the late furies of our sex I vow,
And ashes of my friends inurn'd below,
Unmov'd by lust, I gave my plighted hand,
Constrain'd by fate, and adverseHeav'n's command.
But he, the treach'rous partner of my bed
(My love unheeded, and my person fled)
Adores and gazes on another's charms,
And revels in a Colchian harlot's arms.
Returning spring had now prolong'd the day,
And earth relenting felt the genial ray,

ta

670

CWhen fav'ring Heav'n, our nuptial joys to crown,
With unexpected clamours fills the town.

τύειν βασιλευς ἀνέμων

Ζήταν Κάλαΐν τε παλὴς Βορέας,
*Ανδρας πλεροῖσι νωτα πε

ogixovtas aμpa woppugios. Pyth. ode ▲. epode 8. 654. But Heav'n] This line calls to my remembrance some fine ones in Mr. Pope's Eloisa and Abelard.

The dear ideas, where I fly pursue, Rise in the grove, before the altar rise, Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes. I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee, Thy image steals between my God and me. Thy voice I seem in ev'ry hymn to hear, With ev'ry bead I drop a tender tear. When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll, And swelling organs lift the rising soul, One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight, Priests, tapers, temples swim before my sight. 669. On another's charms] When Jason arrived at Colchos, and was informed, that the capture of the golden fleece depended on the assistance of Medea, he married, and afterwards left her for Creusa, daughter of Creon king of Corinth. Euripides and Seneca have written a tragedy on this subject.

690

Myself, constrain'd a mother's throes to prove,
Disclose a double pledge of mutual love:
One still retains his wretched grandsire's name,
(The most, perhaps, that fate allows to claim.)
Full twenty suns have deck'd the courts above,
Since first they breath'd the vital air of Jove; 680
Lycaste then receiv'd them as her own,
From that sad day their fortune is unknown.
Calm was old ocean's face, and southern gales
In rising murmurs tempt the swelling sails.
The ship, impatient for the liquid way,
Frets in the port, and loathes the long delay.
There Jason calls the ling'ring chiefs aboard,
And the glad vessel with provision stor❜d.
Oh! had he never touch'd the Lemnian shore,
But pass'd direct to Colchos, since no more
My acts of kindness his compassion move,
Nor vows, nor dearer pledges of his love.
Yet shall impartial fame to latest times
Transmit his guilt, and brand the traitor's crimes.
When now the Sun, whose next revolving beam
Must close our loves, had sought the western stream,
The groans of the late dreadful night return,
And rage again and jealous fury burn.
Scarce had Aurora chas'd the stars away,
And op'd the rosy portals of the day,
When Eson's son, conspicuous from afar,
Plies the first oar, and leads the wat'ry war.
From ev'ry rock, and hill's impending steep
We long pursue them o'er the expanded deep,
Till, the waves joining with the distant skies,
Th' excluded objects vanish from our eyes.
A rumour spread, that wafted o'er the main,
Old Thoas shares his brother's ample reign,
That all my sorrow was a feint alone,'
And but for show the pyres thick flaming shone;
Stung with remorse, arose the guilty crowd, 711
And, for my share of slaughter, call aloud.
'Shall only she,' they cry, refuse to bear
A part in guilt, while joyful we appear.
No more believe we, 'twas the fates' decree,
Or will of Heav'n, if she alone is free.'
Warn'd by these words to shun their vengeful hate,
I quit the burden of imperial state,
And seek my father's well-known track of flight
Along the shore, befriended by the night;
But Bacchus then was wanting in his aid,
For, as through woods and devious wilds I stray'd,
A band of ruthless pirates forc'd aboard,
And sold me to proud Nemea's haughty lord."

700

720

635. The ship] The diction in this place, daring as it seems, is not too big for the sense, but just in proportion to it. A man who condemus this as extravagant, can have no relish for poetry, since it is the very soul and essence of it. 'Tis composed of what Aristotle, with great propriety, stiles living words, i. e. such as exalt and enliven 1 the sentiment. Homer often tells us, an arrow is impatient to be discharged, and a weapon thirsts for blood, which is equally bold and flighty with this before us.

689. Oh! had he never] This is more moderate than

O! utinam tunc cum Lacedæmona classe petivit,
Obrutus insanis esset adulter aquis.

Though perhaps Hypsipile had the greatest reason
to complain,

While thus the queen harangues the list'ning train, | Was it from each succeeding age to claim