THE SPEECHES OF AJAX AND ULYSSES: From the Thirteenth Book of OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. HE chiefs were fet, the foldiers crown'd the field: T To these the master of the fevenfold fhield Upstarted fierce and kindled with disdain, His boiling rage, he roll'd his eyes around VOL. IV. 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. His arms are a smooth tongue, and foft decelt. Let him who fights unfeen relate his own, But fuch an abject rival makes it lefs. Great Telamon from Eacus derives His birth (th' inquifitor of guilty lives In fhades below; where Sifyphus, whofe fon This thief is thought, rolls up the restless heavy stone,) Juft Eacus the king of Gods above Begot: thus Ajax is the third from Jove. Nor should 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 stock, 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 cause, but offer'd you my aid, While he long lurking was to war betray'd: Forc'd to the field he came, but in the rear ;' And feign'd distraction 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 shunn'd all honors, gain the best; And let me ftand excluded from my right, kinfman's arms, who first appear'd Robb'd of my in fight. Better for us, at home he had remain'd, Had it been true the madness which he feign'd, Nor Philoctetes had been left inclos'd In a bare ifle, to wants and pains expos'd, To find him food and clothing, muft employ Against the birds the fhafts due to the fate of Yet ftill he lives, and lives from treafon free, |