Her haply on her father's bank he spy'd,
While fearless fhe her filver treffes dry'd;
Away fhe fled not ftags with half such speed,
Before the prowling wolf, fcud o'er the mead;
Not ducks, when they the fafer flood forfake,
Pursued by hawks, fo fwift regain the lake.
As faft he follow'd in the hot career :
Defire the lover wing'd, the virgin fear.
A fnake unseen now pierc'd her heedlefs foot;
Quick through the veins the venom'd juices fhoot:
She fell, and 'fcap'd by death his fierce pursuit.
Her lifeless body, frighted, he embrac'd,
And cry'd, Not this I dreaded, but thy hafte :
O had my love been lefs, or lefs thy fear!
The victory thus bought is far too dear.
Accurfed fnake! yet I more curs'd than he!
He gave the wound; the cause was given by me.
Yet none fhall fay, that unreveng'd you dy'd.
He spoke; then climb'd a cliff's o'er-hanging fide,
And, refolute, leap'd on the foaming tide.
Tethys receiv'd him gently on the wave;
The death he fought deny'd, and feathers gave.
Debarr'd the fureft remedy of grief,
And forc'd to live, he curft th' unafk'd relief.
Then on his airy pinions upward flies,
And at a fecond fall fuccefsless tries:
The downy plume a quick defcent denies.
Enrag'd, he often dives beneath the wave,
And there in vain expects to find a grave.
His ceafelefs forrow for th' unhappy maid
Meager'd his look, and on his spirits prey'd.
Still near the founding deep he lives; his name
From frequent diving and emerging came.
facus, the fon of Priam, loving a country life, forfakes the court: living obfcurely, he falls in love with a nymph; who, flying from him, was killed by a Serpent; for grief of this, he would have drowned himself; but, by the pity of the Gods, is turned into a Cormorant. Priam, not hearing of Efacus, believes him to be dead, and raises a tomb to preferve his memory. By this tranfition, which is one of the finest in all Ovid, the poet naturally falls into the ftory of the Trojan war, which is fummed up, in the prefent book, but fo very briefly, in many places, that Ovid feems more short than Virgil, contrary to his ufual ftyle. Yet the House of Fame, which is here defcribed, is one of the most beautiful pieces in the whole Metamorphofes. The fight of Achilles and Cygnus, and the fray betwixt the Lapithe and Centaurs,
yield to no other part of this poet: and particularly the loves and death of Cyllarus and Hylonome, the male and female Centaur, are wonderfully moving.
PRIAM, to whom the story was unknown,
As dead, deplor'd his metamorphos'd fon :
A cenotaph his name and title kept,
And Hector round the tomb, with all his brothers, wept.
This pious office Paris did not share;
Absent alone, and author of the war,
Which, for the Spartan queen, the Grecians drew
T'avenge the rape, and Afia to fubdue.
A thousand fhips were mann'd, to fail the fea:
Nor had their just resentments found delay,
Had not the winds and waves oppos'd their way.
At Aulis, with united powers, they meet;
But there, crofs winds or calms detain'd the fleet.
Now, while they raise an altar on the fhore,
And Jove with folemn facrifice adore;
A boding fign the priests and people fee:
A fnake of fize immenfe afcends a tree,
And, in the leafy fummit, fpy'd a neft,
Which, o'er her callow young, a fparrow prefs'd.
Eight were the birds unfledg'd; their mother flew,
And hover'd round her care; but still in view:
Till the fierce reptile first devour'd the brood;
Then feiz'd the fluttering dam, and drank her blood.
This dire oftent the fearful people view;
Calchas alone, by Phoebus taught, foreknew
What heaven decreed: and with a fmiling glance,
Thus gratulates to Greece her happy chance.
O Argives, we shall conquer; Troy is ours,
But long delays shall first afflict our powers:
Nine years of labour the nine birds portend;
The tenth fhall in the town's deftruction end.
The ferpent, who his maw obfcene had fill'd,
The branches in his curl'd' embraces held :
But, as in fpires he ftood, he turn'd to stone:
The ftony fnake retain'd the figure still his own.
Yet not for this the wind-bound navy weigh'd;
Slack were their fails; and Neptune disobey'd.
Some thought him loth the town should be destroy'd,
Whofe building had his hands divine employ'd:
Not fo the feer; who knew, and known foreshow'd,
The virgin Phoebe with a virgin's blood
Muft first be reconcil'd; the common cause
Prevail'd; and, pity yielding to the laws,
Fair Iphigenia the devoted maid
Was, by the weeping priests, in linen robes array'd;
All mourn her fate; but no relief appear'd:
The royal victim bound, the knife already rear'd : When that offended power, who caus'd their woe, Relenting ceas'd her wrath; and ftopp'd the coming blow.
A mift before the minifters fhe caft;
And, in the virgin's room, a hind she plac'd.
Th' oblation flain, and Phoebe reconcil'd,
The ftorm was hufh'd, and dimpled ocean fmil'd:
A favourable gale arofe from fhore,
Which to the port defir'd the Grecian gallies bore.
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