But all was cover'd with the flimy brood,

The fnaily offspring of the unctuous flood.
And now obedient to his dreadful fire,
High o'er the wave his brawny arms aspire;

To his black mouth his crooked fhell applied,

The blaft rebellows o'er the ocean wide:

Wide o'er their fhores, where'er their waters flow,
The watery powers the awful fummons know;
And inftant darting to the palace hall,

Attend the founder of the Dardan g wall.

Old

Thus rendered by Fanshaw,

He had (for a *montera) on his crown

The shell of a red lobster overgrown.

The description of Triton, who, as Fanshaw says,

Was a great nafty clown

is in the style of the claffics. His parentage is differently related. Hefiod makes him the son of Neptune and Amphitrité. By Triton, in the physical fense of the fable, is meant the noise, and by Salacé, the mother, by fome afcribed to him, the falt of the ocean. The origin of the fable of Triton, it is probable, was founded on the appearance of a sea animal, which, according to fome ancient and modern naturalists, in the upward parts refembles the human figure. Paufanias relates a wonderful story of a monstrously large one, which often came afhore on the meadows of Boetia. Over his head was a kind of finny cartilage, which, at a distance, appeared like hair, the body covered with brown scales; and nose and ears like the human, the mouth of a dreadful width, jagged with teeth like those of a panther; the eyes of a greenish hue; the hands divided into fingers, the nails of which were crooked, and of a shelly substance. This monster, whofe extremities ended in a tail like a dolphin's, devoured both men and beasts as they chanced in his way. The citizens of Tanagra, at last, contrived his deftruction. They fet a large veffel full of wine on the fea fhore. Triton got drunk with it, and fell into a profound sleep, in which condition the Tanagrians beheaded him, and afterwards, with great propriety, hung up his body in the temple of Bacchus; where, fays Paufanias, it continued a long time.

Neptune.

* Montera, the Spanish word for a huntsman's cap.

Old father ocean, with his numerous race
Of daughters and of fons, was first in place.
Nereus and Doris, from whofe nuptials fprung
The lovely Nereid train for ever young,
Who people every sea on every strand
Appear'd, attended with their filial band;
And changeful Proteus, whofe prophetic mind
The fecret caufe of Bacchus' rage divined,
Attending, left the flocks, his fcaly charge,
To graze the bitter weedy foam at large
In charms of power the raging waves to tame,
The lovely spouse of Ocean's fovereign' came :
From Heaven and Vesta sprung the birth divine;
Her fnowy limbs bright through the vestments fhine.
Here with the dolphin, who persuasive k led
Her modest steps to Neptune's fpoufal bed
Fair Amphitrite moved, more fweet, more gay,
Than vernal fragrance and the flowers of May;
Together with her fifter spouse the came,

The fame their wedded lord, their love the fame;

VOL. II.

M

The

ʼn And changeful Proteus, whose prophetic mind—The fullest and best account of the fable of Proteus is in the fourth Odyssey.

i Thetis.

* Here with the Dolphin-Castera has a moft curious note on this paffage. "Neptune, (fays he) is the vivifying spirit, and Amphitrite the humidity of the fea, which the Dolphin, the divine intelligence, unites for the generation and nourishment of fishes. Who fays, he, cannot but be struck with admiration to find how confonant this is to the facred fcripture; Spiritus Domini fertur fuper aquas; the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

The fame the brightness of their sparkling eyes,
Bright as the fun and azure as the skies.
She who the rage of Athamas to 1 fhun
Plunged in the billows with her infant fon;
A goddess now, a god the fmiling boy
Together fped; and Glaucus loft to m joy,
Curft in his love by vengeful Circe's hate,
Attending wept his Scylla's hapless fate.

And now affembled in the hall divine,
The ocean gods in folemn council join ;
The goddeffes on pearl embroidery fate,
The gods on fparkling crystal chairs of state;
And proudly honour'd on the regal throne,
Befide the ocean's lord, Thyoneus n fhone.

High

She who the rage of Athamas to feun-Ino, the daughter of Cadmus and Hermione, and second spouse of Athamas, king of Thebes. The fables of her fate are various. That which Camoens follows is the most common. Athamas, seized with madness, imagined that his spouse was a lioness, and her two fons young lions. In this frenzy he flew Learchus, and drove the mother and her other fon Melicertus into the sea. The corpfe of the mother was thrown ashore on Megaria, and that of the fon at Corinth. They were afterwards deified, the one as a fea Goddess, the other as the God of harbours.

mand Glaucus loft to joy-A fisherman, fays the fable, who, on eating a certain herb, was turned into a fea God. Circe was enamoured of him, and in revenge of her flighted love, poifoned the fountain where his miftrefs ufually bathed. By the force of the enchantment the favoured Scylla was changed into an hideous monfter, whofe loins were furrounded with the ever barking heads of dogs and wolves. Scylla, on this, threw herself into the sea, and was metamorphofed into the rock which bears her name. The rock Scylla at a distance appears like the statute of a woman: The furious dashing of the waves in the cavities which are level with the water, resembles the barking of wolves and dogs. Hence the fable.

■ Thyoneus, a name of Bacchus.

High from the roof the living amber glows,
High from the roof the stream of glory flows,
And richer fragrance far around exhales
Than that which breathes on fair Arabia's gales.

Attention now in liftening filence waits : The power, whofe bofom raged against the fates, Rifing, cafts round his vengeful eyes, while rage Spread o'er his brows the wrinkled seams of age; O thou, he cries, whose birthright sovereign sway, From pole to pole, the raging waves obey; Of human race 'tis thine to fix the bounds, And fence the nations with thy watery mounds: And thou, dread power, O father ocean, hear, Thou, whose wide arms embrace the world's wide sphere,

'Tis thine the haughtieft victor to restrain,

And bind each nation in its own domain :

And you, ye gods, to whom the feas are given,

Your juft partition with the Gods of heaven;

You who, of old unpunish'd never bore

The daring trespass of a foreign oar;

You who beheld, when Earth's dread offspring ftrove

To fcale the vaulted fky, the feat of Jove:

M 2

• High from the roof the living amber glows-

-From the arched roof,

Pendent by fubtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps, and blazing creflets, fed
With naphtha and afphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky

Indignant

MILTON.

Indignant Jove deep to the nether world

The rebel band in blazing thunders hurl'd.
Alas! the great monition loft on you,

Supine you flumber, while a roving crew,
With impious fearch, explore the watery way,
And unrefifted through your empire stray:
To feize the facred treasures of the main
Their fearless prows your ancient laws difdain:
Where far from mortal fight his hoary head
Old ocean hides, their daring fails they fpread,
And their glad fhouts are echoed where the roar
Of mounting billows only howl'd before.

In wonder, filent, ready Boreas fees

Your paffive languor, and neglectful ease;
Ready with force auxiliar to restrain

The bold intruders on your awful reign;
Prepared to burft his tempefts, as of old,

When his black whirlwinds o'er the ocean roll'd,

Р

And rent the Mynian fails, whofe impious pride

First braved their fury, and your power defied.
Nor deem that, fraudful, I my hope deny;
My darken'd glory sped me from the sky.
How high my honours on the Indian fhore!
How foon these honours must avail no more!
Unless these rovers, who with double shame
To ftain my conquests, bear my vaffal's name,

Unlefs

℗ And rent the Mynian fails.—The fails of the Argonauts of Mynia. See the first note on the first book of the Lufiad.