In fuch heroic games I yield to none,
Or yield to brave Laodamas alone:
Shall I with brave Laodamas contend?
A friend is facred, and I ftyle him friend.
Ungen'rous were the man, and base of heart,
Who takes the kind, and pays th'ungrateful part:
Chiefly the man, in foreign realms confin'd,
Bafe to his friend, to his own intereft blind.

§ 29. Defcription of the ancient Honours which
were conferred on Poetry and Mufic.

THE herald now arrives, and guides along
The facred master of celeftial fong,
Dear to the mufe! who gave his days to flow
With mighty bleffings, mix'd with mighty woe:
With clouds of darknefs quench'd his vifual ray,
But gave him fkill to raife the lofty lay.
High on a radiant throne fublime in ftate,
Encircled by huge multitudes he fate:
With filver thone the throne; his lyre, well ftrung
To rapt'rous founds, at hand Pontonous hung:
Before his feat a polifh'd table fhines;
And a full goblet foams with gen'rous wines!
His food a herald bore; and now they fed;
And now the rage of craving hunger fled.

Then fir'd by all the mute, aloud he fings
The mighty deeds of demigods and kings:
From that fierce wrath the noble fong arofe,
That made Ulyffes and Achilles focs:
How o'er the feat they doom the fall of Troy;
The ftern debate Atrides hears with joy:
For Heaven foretold the conteft when he trod
The marble threshold of the Delphic god,
Curious to learn the counfels of the sky,
Ere yet he loos'd the rage of war on Troy.
Touch'd at the fong, Ulyffes ftraight refign'd
To foft affliction all his manly mind:
Before his eyes the purple veft he drew,
Industrious to conceal the falling dew:
But when the mufic paus'd, he ceas'd to shed
The flowing tear, and rais'd his drooping head:
And lifting to the gods a goblet crown'd,
He pour'd a pure libation to the ground.

Tranfported with the fong, the lift'ning train
Again with loud applaufe demand the ftrain:
Again Ulyffes veil'd his penfive head;
Again, unmann'd, a fhow'r of forrow shed.

Now each partakes the feaft, the wine prepares,
Portions the food, and each the portion fhares.
The bard an herald guides: the gazing throng
Pay low obcyfance as he moves along:
Beneath a fculptur'd arch he fits enthron'd,
The peers encircling form an awful round.
Then from the chine Ulyffes carves with art
Delicious food, an honorary part:
This let the matter of the lyre receive,
A pledge of love! 'tis all a wretch can give.
Lives there a man beneath the spacious skies,
Who facred honours to the bard denies ?
The mufe the bard infpires, exalts his mind;
The mufe indulgent loves th' harmonious kind.

The herald to his hand the charge conveys,
Not fond of flatt'ry, nor unpleas'd with praife.
When now the rage of hunger was allay'd,
Thus to the lyrift wife Ulyffes faid:
O more than man! thy foul the mufe infpires,
Or Phoebus animates with all his fires:
For who, by Phœbus uniform'd, could know
The woe of Greece, and fing fo well the woe?
Just to the tale, as prefent at the fray,
Or taught the labours of the dreadful day;
The fong recals paft horror to my eyes,
And bids proud Ilion from her athes rife.
Once more harmonious ftrike the founding ftring,
Th' Epean fabric, fram'd by Pallas, fing:
How fern Ulyffes, furious to deftroy,
With latent heroes fack'd imperial Troy.
If faithful thou record the tale of fame,
The god himself infpires thy breaft with flame:
And mine thall be the task henceforth to raise
In ev'ry land thy monument of praife.

Full of the god he rais'd his lofty strain,
How the Greeks rush'd tumultuous to the main:
How blazing tents illumin'd half the skies,
While from the thores the winged navy flies:
How even in Ilion's walls, in deathful bands,
Came the ftern Grecks, by Troy's affifting hands;
All Troy up-heav'd the steed: of diff'ring mind,
Various the Trojans counsell'd; part confign'd
The monster to the fword, part fentence gave
To plunge it headlong in the whelming wave:
Th' unwife award to lodge it in the tow'rs,
An off ring facred to th' immortal pow'rs:
Th'unwife prevail, they lodge it in the walls
And by the gods decree proud Ilion falls;
Destruction enters in the treach'rous wood,
And vengeful flaughter, fierce for human blood,
He fung the Greeks ftern-iffuing from the fteed;
How Ilion burns, how all her fathers bleed:
How to thy dome, Deiphobus! afcends,
The Spartan king; how Ithacus attends,
Horrid as Mars; and how with dire alarms
He fights, fubdues; for Pallas ftrings his arms.

Thus, while he fung, Ulifes' griefs renew,
Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground bedew:
Conceal'd be griev'd: the king obferv'd alone
The filent tear, and heard the fecret groan:
Then to the bard aloud: Oh ceafe to fing,
Dumb be thy voice, and mute the tuneful string;
To ev'ry note his tears refponfive flow,

And his great heart heaves with tumultuous woe;
Thy lay too deeply moves: then cease the lay,
And o'er the banquet ev'ry heart be gay.

A

§30. Introduction to the Story of Polyphemus.
GIANT fhepherd here his flock maintains
Far from the reft, and folitary reigns,
In fhelter thick of horrid fhade reclin'd;
And gloomy mischiefs labour in his mind.
A form enormous! far unlike the race
Of human birth, in ftature or in face:
As fome lone mountain's monftrous growth he
ftood,

Crown'd with rough thickets, and a nodding wond.

L The ruins of himself! now worn away
With age, yet ftill majestic in decay!
Sudden his eyes releas'd their wat'ry ftore;
The much-enduring man could bear no more.
Doubtful he ftood, if inftant to embrace
His aged limbs, to kifs his rev'rend face,
With eager tranfport to difclofe the whole,
And pour at once the torrent of his foul?
Not fo: his judgment takes the winding way
Of queftion diftant, and of foft effay,
More gentle methods on weak age employs,
And moves the forrows to enhance the joys.
Then to his fire with beating heart he moves,
And with a tender pleafantry reproves :
Who digging round the plant ftill hangs his head,
Nor aught remits the work, while thus he faid:
Great is thy fkill, O father! great thy toil,
Thy careful hand is ftamp'd on all the foil:
Thy fquadron'd vineyards well thy art declare,
The olive green, blue fig, and pendant pear;
And not one empty fpot escapes thy care.
On ev'ry plant and tree thy cares are thewn,
Nothing neglected but thyfelf alone.
Forgive me, father, if this fault I blame;
Age fo advanc'd may fome indulgence claim.
Not for thy floth, I deem thy lord unkind;
Nor fpeaks thy form a mean or fervile mind:
I read a monarch in that princely air,
The fame thy afpect, if the fame thy care;
Soft fleep, fair garments, and the joys of wine,
Thefe are the rights of age, and fhould be thine.
Who then thy matter, fay? and whose the land
So drefs'd and manag'd by thy fkilful hand?
But chief, oh tell me (what I question moft),
Is this the far-fam'd Ithacenfian coaft?
For fo reported the first man I view'd,
(Some furly iflander, of manners rude)
Nor farther conference vouchfaf'd to ftav;
Heedlefs he whiftled, and purfued his way.
But thou whom years have taught to understand,
Humanely hear, and anfwer my demand:
A friend I feek, a wife one and a brave,
Say, lives he yet, or moulders in the grave?
Time was (my fortunes then were at the beft)
When at my houfe I lodg'd this foreign gueft;
He faid, from Ithaca's fair ifle he came,
And old Laertes was his father's name.
To him, whatever to a gueft is ow'd
I paid, and hofpitable gifts bestow'd;
To him feven talents of pure ore I told,
Twelve cloaks, twelve vefts, twelve tunics ftiff
with gold;

A bowl, that rich with polish'd filver flames;
And, fkill'd with female works, four lovely dames.
At this the father, with a father's fears
(His venerable eyes bedimm'd with tears),
This is the land; but, ab! thy gifts are loft,
For godlefs men, and rude, poffefs the coaft:
Sunk is the glory of this once-fam'd shore !
Thy ancient friend, O ftranger, is no more!
Full recompence thy bounty elfe had borne;
For ev'ry good man yields a juft return:
So civil rights demand; and who begins
The track of friendship, not purfuing, fins.

But tell me, ftranger, be the truth confeft,
What years have circled fince thou faw 'st that
That haplefs gueft, alas! for ever gone! [gueft?
Wretch that he was! and that I am! my ion!
If ever man to mifery was born,

"Twas his to fuffer, and 'tis mine to mourn!
Far from his friends, and from his native reign,
He lies, a prey to monfters of the main,
Or favage beafts his mangled reliques tear,
Or fcreaming vultures fcatter through the air:
Nor could his mother fun'ral unguents fhed,
Nor wail'd his father o'er th' untimely dead,
Nor his fad confort on the mournful bier
Seal'd his cold eyes, or dropp'd a tender tear!

}

But tell me who thou art, and what thy race?
Thy town, thy parents, and thy native place?
Or, if a merchant in purfuit of gain,
What port receiv'd thy veffel from the main?
Or com'ft thou fingle, or attend thy train?
Then thus the fon : From Alybas I came,
My palace there; Eperitus my name.
Not vulgar born, from Aphidas the king
Of Polyphemon's royal line I fpring.
Some adverfe dæmon from Sicania bore
Our wand'ring courfe, and drove us on your fhores
Far from the town, an unfrequented bay
Receiv'd our weary veffel from the fea.
Five years have circled fince thefe eyes purfued
Ulyffes parting through the fable foed;"
Profp'rous he fail'd, with dexter auguries,
And all the wing'd good omens of the skies.
Well hop'd we then to incet on this fair thore,
Whom Heaven, alas! decreed to meet no more.

Quick thro' the father's,heart thefe accents ran;
Grief feiz'd at once, and wrapp'd up all the man;
Deep from his foul he figh'd, and forrowing fpread
A cloud of afhes on his hoary head.
Trembling with agonies of ftrong delight
Stood the great fon, heart-wounded with the fight:
He ran, he fciz'd him with a strict embrace,
With thousand kifles wand'ring o'er his face.
I, I am he; O father! rife, behold
Thy fon, with twenty winters now grown old;
Thy fon, fo long defir'd, fo long detain'd,
Reftor'd and breathing in his native land:
Thefe floods of forrow, O my fire, reftrain!
The vengeance is complete; the fuitor-train,
Stretch'd in our palace, by thefe hands lie flain.

Amaz'd Laertes: "Give fome certain fign,
"If fuch thou art, to manifeft thee mine.'
Lo here the wound, he cries, receiv'd of yore,
The fear indented by the tufky boar,
When by thyfelf and by Anticlea fent,
To old Autelychus's re: Ims I went.
Yet by another fign thy offspring know;
The feveral trees you gave me long ago,
While, yet a child, thefe fields I lov'd to trace,
And trod thy footsteps with unequal pace:
To ev'ry plant in order as we came,
Well pleas'd you told its nature and its name,
Whate'er my childish fancy afk'd, bestow'd;
Twelve pear-trees bowing with their pendant
load,

And ten, that red with blufhing apples glow'd;
Full

Full fifty purple figs; and many a row
Of various vines that then began to blow,
A future vintage! when the hours produce
Their latent buds, and Sol exhales the juice.
Smit with the figns which all his doubts explain,

His heart within him melts; his knees fuftain
Their feeble weight no more; his arms alone
Support him, round the lov'd Ulyffes thrown;
He faints, he finks, with mighty joys oppreft.
Ulyffes clafps him to his eager breast.
Soon as returning life regains its feat,
And his breath lengthens, and his pulfes beat;
Yes, I believe, he cries, almighty Jove!
Heaven rules us yet, and gods there are above.

A

FAIRFAX's TASSO.

$37. Defeription of Armida's wonderful Parrot,
WITH party-colour'd plumes, and purple bill,
A wondrous bird among the reft there flew,
That in plain fpeech fung love-lays loud and

fhrill;

Here Leden was like human language true;
So much the talk'd, and with fuch wit and skill,
That strange it seemed, how much good the
knew:

Her feather'd fellows all stood hush to hear;
Dumb was the wind, the waters filent were.
The gentle budding rofe, quoth fhe, behold,
That firft fcant peeping forth with virgin beams,
Half ope, half fhut, her beauties doth unfold
In its fair leaves, and, lefs feen, fairer seems,
And after fpreads them forth more broad and
bold,

35. Defcription of the Vision conjured up by Then languifheth, and dies in laft extremes;

Alecto.

MURDER'D body huge befide him stood,
Of head and right-hand both but lately
fpoil'd;

The left-hand bore the head, whofe vifage good
Both pale and wan, with duft and gore defil'd,
Yet fpake, tho' dead; with those fad words the

blood

Forth at his lips in huge abundance boil’d—

Fly, Argillan, from this false camp fly far,
Whofe guide a traitor, captains murd'rers arc.

§36. Image of Armida and Attendants, enraged at Rinaldo's bewing down the Myrtle to diffolve the Charm.

Elift his brand; nor car'd, tho' oft fhe pray'd,

HE

And the her form to other fhape did change;
Such monsters huge, when men in dreams are laid,
Oft in their idle fancies roame and range:
Her body fwell'd, her face obfcure was made;
Vanish'd her garments rich, and veftures ftrange;
A giantess before him high the stands,

Arm'd, like Briareus, with an hundred hands:
With fifty fwords, and fifty targets bright,
She threaten'd death, she roar‍d, the cried, and
fought;

Each other nymph, in armour likewife dight,
A Cyclops great became; he fear'd them nought,
But on the myrtle fmote with all his might,
Which groan'd, like living fouls to death nigh
brought;

:

The fky feem'd Pluto's court, the air feem'd hell, Therein fuch monsters roar, fuch fpirits yell Lighten'd the heaven above, the earth below Roared aloud that thunder'd, and this fhook : Blufter'd the tempefts ftrong; the whirlwinds blow; The bitter ftorm drove hail-ftones in his look; But yet his arm grew neither weak nor flow, Till low to earth the wounded tree down bended: Nor of that fury heed or care he took,

Nor feems the fame that decked bed and bow'r
Of many a lady late and paramour.
So, in the paffing of a day, doth pass
The bud and bloffom of the life of man,
Nor erc doth flourish more; but, like the grass
Oh, gather then the rofe, while time thou haft;
Cut down, becometh wither'd, pale, and wan:
Short is the day, done when it fcant began;

Gather the role of Love, while yet thou mayft,
Loving be lov'd, embracing be embrac'd.
She ceas'd; and, as approving all the fpoke,
The choir of birds their heavenly tune renew;
The turtles figh'd, and fighs with kiffes broke;
The fowls to fhades unfeen by pairs withdrew:
It feem'd, the laurel chafte, and stubborn oak,

And all the gentle trees on earth that grew,

It feem'd, the land, the fea, and heaven above, All breath'd out fancy fweet, and sigh'd out love.

GLOVER'S LEONIDAS.

§ 38. Leonidas's Addrefs to bis Countrymen.
0

He alone
Remains unfhaken. Rifing he displays
Adorn his frame, and manly beauty, join'd
His godlike prefence. Dignity and grace
Sublimest virtue, and defire of fame,
With ftrength Herculean. On his afpect thines
The inextinguishable spark, which fires
Where justice gives the laurel; in his eye
The fouls of patriots; while his brow fupports
Undaunted valour, and contempt of death.
Serene he rofe, and thus addrefs'd the throng:

Why this aftonishment on ev'ry face,
Ye men of Sparta? Does the name of death
Create this fear and wonder? O my friends!
Why do we labour thro' the arduous paths
Which lead to virtue? Fruitlefs were the toi
Above the reach of human feet were plac'd
* Rinaldo.

Then fled the fpirits all, the charms all ended.

The