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The Fourth Satire of Perfius

451

The Fifth Satire of Perfius

461

The Fifth Satire. Infcribed to the Rev. Dr. Busby

463

The Sixth Satire of Perfius

-

479

The Sixth Satire. To Cæfius Baffus, a Lyric Poet

The First Book of Homer's Ilias

481

495

The laft parting of Hector and Andromache: from

the Sixth Book of the Iliad

533

The Art of Poetry. Canto I.

547

THE

SPEECHES

OF

AJAX AND ULYSSES:

FROM THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES*.

THE chiefs were fet, the foldiers crown'd the

field:

To these the master of the fevenfold fhield
Upftarted fierce and kindled with difdain,
Eager to fpeak, unable to contain

The Metamorphofes (as well as the Fafti of Ovid) have preferved, it must be owned, many curious particulars of ancient hiftory, philofophy, and mythology. For Ovid was a great and learned antiquarian, which from the levity and fportiveness of fome of his poems, one would not suspect. An old French tranflator of Ovid, Thomas Vallois, called the Metamorphofes, the Bible of the poets; his work was printed at Paris, in black letter, 1523. The Abbè Banier published a magnificent edition in 4to. 4 vols. 1767, with hiftorical and mythological illustrations.Benferade made a kind of travestie of Ovid in Rondeaux, printed in 4to. with beautiful fculptures. The Abbè Bellegarde tranflated at the fame time Ovid's Metamorphofes, and the pious Thomas à Kempis. Perhaps he was ordered by his confeffor to undertake the latter work as an act of penance; as Dryden was ordered by his confeffor to write the Hind and Panther, as an expiation for having written the Spanish Friar.

Dr. JOSEPH Warton,

His boiling rage, he roll'd his

5

eyes around The fhore, and Grecian gallies hal'd a-ground. Then ftretching out his hands, O Jove, he cry'd, Muft then our caufe before the fleet be try'd? And dares Ulyffes for the prize contend, In fight of what he durft not once defend? 10 But bafely fled, that memorable day,

When I from Hector's hands redeem'd the flaming prey.

So much 'tis fafer at the noisy bar

With words to flourish, than engage in war.
By different methods we maintain'd our right, 15
Nor am I made to talk, nor he to fight.
In bloody fields I labour to be great ;
His arms are a smooth tongue, and foft deceit.
Nor need I fpeak my deeds, for those
The fun and day are witneffes for me.
Let him who fights unfeen relate his own,
And vouch the filent ftars, and confcious moon.
Great is the prize demanded, I confefs,

But fuch an abject rival makes it lefs.

you

fee;

20

26

That gift, thofe honours, he but hop'd to gain,
Can leave no room for Ajax to be vain:
Lofing he wins, becaufe his name will be
Ennobled by defeat, who durft contend with me.
Were mine own valour queftion'd, yet my blood
Without that plea would make my title good :30
My fire was Telamon, whofe arms, employ'd
With Hercules, thefe Trojan walls destroy'd;

And who before, with Jafon, fent from Greece, In the first ship brought home the golden fleece: Great Telamon from Æacus derives

His birth (the inquifitor of guilty lives

35

In fhades below; where Sifyphus, whose fon This thief is thought, rolls up the refilefs heavy stone,)

40

45

Juft Eacus the king of gods above
Begot: thus Ajax is the third from Jove.
Nor fhould I feek advantage from my line,
Unless (Achilles) it were mix'd with thine
As next of kin Achilles' arms I claim ;
This fellow would ingraft a foreign name
Upon our ftock, and the Sifyphian feed
By fraud and theft afferts his father's breed.
Then muft I lose these arms, because I came
To fight uncall'd, a voluntary name ?
Nor fhunn'd the caufe, but offer'd you my aid,
While he long lurking was to war betray'd: 50
Forc'd to the field he came, but in the rear;
And feign'd diftraction to conceal his fear:
Till one more cunning caught him in the fnare,
(Ill for himself) and dragg'd him into war.
Now let a hero's arms a coward veft,
And he, who fhunn'd all honours, gain the best ;
And let me ftand excluded from my right,
Robb'd of my kinfman's arms, who firft ap-
pear'd in fight.

57

Better for us, at home he had remain'd,
Had it been true the madnefs which he feign'd,
Or fo believ'd; the lefs had been our shame, 61
The lefs his counfell'd crime, which brands the
Grecian name;

Nor Philoctetes had been left inclos'd

In a bare ifle, to wants and pains expos'd,
Where to the rocks, with folitary groans,
His fuff'rings and our baseness he bemoans;
And wishes (fo may heav'n his with fulfil)
The due reward to him who caus'd his ill.
Now he, with us to Troy's destruction sworn,
Our brother of the war, by whom are borne 70
Alcides' arrows, pent in narrow bounds,
With cold and hunger pinch'd, and pain'd with
wounds,

To find him food and clothing, muft employ
Against the birds the fhafts due to the fate of
Troy.

Yet ftill he lives, and lives from treafon free, 75 Because he left Ulyffes' company:

Poor Palamede might wish, fo void of aid Rather to have been left, than fo to death betray'd.

80

The coward bore the man immortal fpite,
Who fham'd him out of madnefs into fight: so
Nor daring otherwife to vent his hate,

Accus'd him firft of treafon to the state;