No longer Circe could her flame disguise,
But to the suppliant god marine replies :
"When maids are coy, have manlier aims in view;
Leave those that fly, but those that like, pursue.
If love can be by kind compliance won;
See, at your feet, the daughter of the sun.'
'Sooner,' said Glaucus, ' shall the ash remove
From mountains, and the swelling surges love;
Or humble sea-weed to the hills repair,
Ere I think any but my Scylla fair.'
Straight Circe reddens with a guilty shame,
And vows revenge for her rejected flame.
Fierce liking oft a spite as fierce creates ;
For love refus'd, without aversion, hates.
To hurt her hapless rival she proceeds;
And, by the fall of Scylla, Glaucus bleeds.
Some fascinating beverage now she brews,
Compos'd of deadly drugs, and baneful juice.
At Rhegium she arrives; the ocean braves,
And treads with unwet feet the boiling waves.
Upon the beach a winding bay there lies,
Shelter'd from seas, and shaded from the skies:
This station Scylla chose; a soft retreat
From chilling winds, and raging Cancer's heat.
The vengeful sorceress visits this recess;
Her charms infuses, and infects the place.
Soon as the nymph wades in, her nether parts
Turn into dogs; then at herself she starts;
A ghastly horror in her eyes appears;
But yet she knows not who it is she fears:
In vain she offers from herself to run,
And drags about her what she strives to shun.
Oppress'd with grief the pitying god appears, And swells the rising surges with his tears;
From the detested sorceress he flies;
Her art reviles, and her address denies;
Whilst hapless Scylla, chang'd to rocks, decrees
Destruction to those barks that beat the seas.
- THE VOYAGE OF ENEAS CONTINUED.
Here bulg'd the pride of fam'd Ulysses' fleet, But good Æneas 'scap'd the fate he met. As to the Latian shore the Trojan stood, And cut with well-tim'd oars the foaming flood, He weather'd fell Charybdis; but ere long The skies were darken'd, and the tempest strong. Then to the Libyan coast he stretches o'er, And makes at length the Carthaginian shore. Here Dido, with an hospitable care, Into her heart receives the wanderer. From her kind arms the' ungrateful hero flies; The injur'd queen looks on with dying eyes, Then to her folly falls a sacrifice.
Æneas now sets sail, and plying gains Fair Eryx, where his friend Acestes reigns: First to his sire does funeral rites decree, Then gives the signal next, and stands to sea: Outruns the islands where volcanos roar; Gets clear of Sirens, and their faithless shore ; But loses Palinurus in the way,
Then makes Inarime and Prochyta.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF CERCOPIANS INTO
APES.
The galleys now by Pythecusa pass:
The name is from the natives of the place.
The father of the gods, detesting lies,
Oft with abhorrence beard their perjuries.
The' abandon'd race, transform'd to beast, began To mimic the impertinence of man.
Flat nos'd and furrow'd, with grimace they grin;
And look, to what they were, too near akin :
Merry in make, and busy to no end,
This moment they divert, the next offend :
So much this species of their past retains;
Though lost the language, yet the noise remains.
ENEAS DESCENDS TO HELL.
Now on his right he leaves Parthenopè;
His left, Misenus jutting in the sea;
Arrives at Cumæ, and with awe survey'd
The grotto of the venerable maid:
Begs leave through black Avernus to retire,
And view the much-lov'd manes of his sire.
Straight the divining virgin rais'd her eyes;
And, foaming with a holy rage, replies:
[claim; 'O thou! whose worth thy wondrous works proThe flames, thy piety; the world, thy fame; Though great be thy request, yet shalt thou see The' Elysian fields, the' infernal monarchy; Thy parent's shade: this arm thy steps shall guide; To suppliant virtue nothing is denied.'
She spoke, and pointing to the golden bough, Which in the' Avernian grove refulgent grew, 'Seize that,' she bids: he listens to the maid, Then views the mournful mansions of the dead: The shade of great Anchises, and the place By Fates determin'd to the Trojan race. As back to upper light the hero came, He thus salutes the visionary dame : " 'Oh, whether some propitious deity, Or lov'd by those bright rulers of the sky!
With grateful incense I shall style you one,
And deem no godhead greater than your own.
Twas you restor❜d me from the realms of night,
And gave me to behold the fields of light,
To feel the breezes of congenial air,
And nature's bless'd benevolence to share.”
THE STORY OF THE SIBYL.
'I am no deity,' replied the dame,
'But mortal, and religious rites disclaim :
Yet had avoided death's tyrannic sway,
Had I consented to the god of day.
With promises he sought my love, and said,
'Have all you wish, my fair Cumaan maid."
I pans'd; then pointing to a heap of sand,
For every grain, to live a year, demand.
But ah! unmindful of the' effect of time,
Forgot to covenant for youth and prime.
The smiling bloom I boasted once is gone,
And feeble age with lagging limbs creeps on.
Seven centuries have I liv'd; three more fulfil
The period of the years to finish still.
Who'll think that Phoebus, dress'd in youth divine,
Had once believ'd his lustre less than mine?
This wither'dframe (so Fates have will'd) shall waste
To nothing but prophetic words at last.'
The Sibyl mounting now from nether skies,
And the fam'd Ilian prince, at Cumæ rise.
He sail'd, and near the place to anchor came,
Since call'd Cajeta, from his nurse's name.
Here did the luckless Macareus, a friend
To wise Ulysses, his long labours end.
Here, wandering, Achæmenides he meets,
And, sudden, thus his late associate greets :—
'Whence came you here, O friend! and whi
All gave you lost on far Cyclopean ground;
A Greek's at last aboard a Trojan found.'
THE ADVENTURES OF ACHEMENIDES.
Thus Achæmenides- With thanks I name
Æneas, and his piety proclaim.
I 'scap'd the Cyclops through the hero's aid,
Else in his maw my mangled limbs had laid.
When first your navy under sail he found,
He rav'd till Ætna labour'd with the sound.
Raging, he stalk'd along the mountain's side,
And vented clouds of breath at every stride.
His staff a mountain ash; and in the clouds
Oft, as he walks, his grisly front be shrowds.
Eyeless, he grop'd about with vengeful haste,
And justled promontories as he pass'd :
Then heav'd a rock's high summit to the main,
And bellow'd like some bursting hurricane:
"Oh! could I seize Ulysses in his flight,
How unlamented were my loss of sight!
These jaws should piecemeal tear each panting vein,
Grind every crackling bone, and pound his brain.”
As thus he rav'd, my joints with horror shook ;
The tide of blood my chilling heart forsook.
I saw him once disgorge huge morsels raw,
Of wretches undigested in his maw:
From the pale breathless trunks whose limbs he tore,
His beard all clotted with o'erflowing gore.
My anxious hours I pass'd in caves; my food
Was forest fruits, and wildings of the wood.
At length a sail I wafted, and aboard
My fortune found an hospitable lord.
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