As faft he follow'd in the hot career;
Defire the lover wing'd, the virgin fear.
A fnake unfeen now pierc'd her heedlefs foot;
Quick thro' the veins the venom'd juices fhoot:
She fell, and 'fcap'd by death his fierce purfuit.
Her lifeless body, frighted, he embrac'd,
And cry'd, Not this I dreaded, but thy hafte:
O had my love been lefs, or less thy fear!
The victory thus bought is far too dear.
Accurfed fnake! yet I more curs'd than hé!
He gave the wound; the caufe 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 fuccefslefs 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.

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THE

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 ferpent; for grief of this, he would have drowned himself; but by the pity of the Gods, is turned into a Cormorant. Priam, not bearing 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 fhort than Virgil, contrary to his ufual Style. Yet the House of Fame, which is here described, is one of the most beautiful pieces in the whole Metamorphoses. The fight of Achilles and Cygnus, and the fray betwixt the Lapitha 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.

RIAM, to whom the story was unknown,

PR

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;

Abfent alone, and author of the war,

Which, for the Spartan queen, the Grecians drew
T' avenge the rape, and Afia to subdue.

A thoufand fhips were mann'd, to fail the fea:
Nor had their juft refentments 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 shore,
And Jove with folemn facrifice adore;

A boding fign the priests and people see :
A fnake of fize immense afcends a tree,
And, in the leafy fummit, fpy'd a neft,
Which, o'er her callow young, a sparrow prefs'd.
Eight were the birds unfledg'd; their mother flew,
And hover'd round her care; but ftill in view :
Till the fierce reptile firft devour'd the brood;
Then feiz'd the flutt'ring dam, and drank her blood.
This dire oftent the fearful people view;
Calchas alone, by Phoebus taught, foreknew
What heav'n decreed: and with a fmiling glance,
Thus gratulates to Greece her happy chance.
O Argives, we shall conquer; Troy is ours,
But long delays fhall first afflict our pow'rs:
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 difobey'd.
Some thought him loth the town fhould be deftroy'd,
Whofe building had his hands divine employ'd:
Not fo the feer; who knew, and known foreshow'd,
The virgin Phabe with a virgin's blood

Muf

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 pow'r, who caus'd their woe,
Relenting ceas'd her wrath; and ftop'd the coming blow.
A mift before the minifters the caft;

And, in the virgin's room, a hind fhe plac'd.
Th' oblation flain, and Phoebe reconcil'd,

The storm was hush'd, and dimpled ocean fmil'd:
A favourable gale arofe from fhore,

Which to the port defir'd the Grecian gallies bore.
Full in the midft of this created space,

}

Betwixt heav'n, earth and fkies, there ftands a place
Confining on all three; with tripple bound;
Whence all things, tho' remote, are view'd around,
And thither bring their undulating found.
The palace of loud fame; her feat of pow'r;
Plac'd on the fummit of a lofty tow'r;
A thoufand winding entries, long and wide,
Receive of fresh reports a flowing tide.
A thousand crannies in the walls are made;
Nor gate nor bars exclude the busy trade.
'Tis built of brafs, the better to diffuse
The fpreading founds, and multiply the news;
Where echo's in repeated echo's play:

A mart for ever full, and open night and day.
Nor filence is within, nor voice express,
But a deaf noife of founds that never cease;
Confus'd, and chiding, like the hollow roar
Of tides, receding from th' infulted shore :
Or like the broken thunder, heard from far,
When Jove to diftance drives the rolling war.

4

The

The courts are fill'd with a tumultuous din

Of crouds, or iffuing forth, or entering in:
A thorough-fare of news: where fome devise
Things never heard; fome mingle truth with lies:
The troubled air with empty founds they beat;
Intent to hear, and eager to repeat.

Error fits brooding there; with added train
Of vain credulity, and joys as vain :
Sufpicion, with fedition join'd, are near;

And rumors rais'd, and murmurs mix'd, and panique fear.
Fame fits aloft; and fees the fubject ground,

And feas about, and skies above; enquiring all around.
The Goddess gives th' alarm; and foon is known
The Grecian fleet, defcending on the town.
Fix'd on defence the Trojans are not flow
To guard their fhore from an expected foe.
They meet in fight: by Hector's fatal hand
Protefilaus falls, and bites the ftrand,
Which with expence of blood the Grecians won ;
And prov'd the ftrength unknown of Priam's fon.
And to their coft the Trojan leaders felt
The Grecian heroes, and what deaths they dealt.
From these first onfets, the Sigæan fhore
Was ftrew'd with carcaffes, and ftain'd with gore:
Neptunian Cygnus troops of Greeks had flain;
Achilles in his car had scour'd the plain,

And clear'd the Trojan ranks: where e'er he fought,
Cygnus, or Hector, through the fields he fought:
Cygnus he found; on him his force effay'd:
For Hector was to the tenth year delay'd.

His white-maned fteeds, that bow'd beneath the yoke,
He chear'd to courage with a gentle stroke ;
Then urg'd his fiery chariot on the foe:
And rifing fhook his lance, in act to throw.
But firft he cry'd, O youth, be proud to bear
Thy death, enobled by Pelides' spear.

The