RATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes alarms,
Th' alternate reign deftroy'd by impious arms
Demand our fong; a facred fury fires
My ravish'd breaft, and all the muse inspires.
O Goddess, fay, shall I deduce my rhimes
From the dire nation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's ftern decree,
And Cadmus fearching round the spacious fea?
How with the ferpent's teeth he fow'd the foil,
And reap'd an iron harveft of his toil?
Or how from joining ftones the city sprung,
While to his harp divine Amphion fung?
Or fhall I Juno's hate to Thebes refound,
Whofe fatal rage th' unhappy monarch found
The fire against the fon his arrow drew,
O'er the wide fields the furious 'mother flew,
And while her arms her fecond hope contain,
Spring from the rocks and plung'd into the main.
But wave whate'er to Cadmus may belong,
And fix, O mufe! the barrier of thy fong
At Oedipus-From his difafters trace
The long confufions of his guilty race :
Nor yet attempt to ftretch thy bolder wing,
And mighty Cæfar's conqu'ring eagles fing;
VOL. I.
How twice he tam'd proud Ifter's rapid flood,
While Dacian mountains ftream'd with barb'rous blood,
Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll,
And ftretch'd his empire to the frozen pole,
Or long before, with early valour ftrove
In youthful arms t'affert the cause of Jove.
And Thou, great heir of all thy father's fame,
Encrease of glory to the Latian name!
Oh blefs thy Rome with an eternal reign,
Nor let defiring worlds, intreat in vain.
What tho' the ftars contract their heav'nly space,
And croud their fhining ranks to yield thee place;
Tho' all the fkies, ambitious of thy fway,
Confpire to court thee from our world away
Tho' Phoebus longs to mix his rays with thine,
And in thy glories more ferenely fhine;
Tho' Jove himself no lefs content would be,
To part his throne and fhare his heav'n with thee
Yet ftay, great Cæfar and vouchfafe to reign
O'er the wide carth, and o'er the watry main;
Refign to Jove his empire of the fkies,
And people heav'n with Roman deities.
The time will come, when a diviner flame
Shall warm my breaft to fing of Cæfar's fame:
Meanwhile permit, that my preluding mufe
In Theban wars an humbler theme may chufe:
Of furious hate, furviving death, fhe fings,
A fatal throne to two contending kings,
And fun'ral flames, that parting wide in air
Exprefs the difcord of the fouls they bear i
Of towns difpeopled, and the wand'ring ghosts
Of kings unbury'd on the wafted coafts;
When Dirce's fountain blufh'd with Grecian blood,
And Thetis, near Ifinenos' fwelling flood,
With dread beheld the rolling furges sweep
In heaps, his flaughter'd fons into the deep.
What here, Clio! wilt thou first related
The rage of Tydeus, or the prophet's fate
Or how with hills of flain on ev'ry fide,
Hippomedon repell'd the hoftile tide ?
Or how the youth with ev'ry grace adorn'd,
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verfe extend,
And fing, with horror, his prodigious end.
Now wretched Oedipus, depriv'd of fight,
Led a long death in everlasting night;
But while he dwells where not a chearful ray
Can pierce the darkness, and abhors the day;
The clear, reflecting mind, prefents his fin
In frightful views, and makes it day within;
Returning thoughts in endless circles roll,
And thousand furies haunt his guilty foul.
The wretch then lifted to th' unpitying fkies
Thofe empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes,
Whose wounds yet frefh, with bloody hands he ftrook,
While from his breaft thefe dreadful accents broke.
Ye gods that o'er the gloomy regions reign,
Where guilty fpirits feel eternal pain;
Thou, fable Styx! whofe livid ftreams are roll'd
Thro' dreary coafts, which I tho' blind behold:
Tifiphone, that oft' haft heard my pray❜r,
Affift, if Oedipus deferve thy care!
If you receiv'd me from Jocafta's womb,
And nurs'd the hope of mischiefs yet to come;
If leaving Polybus, I took my way
To Cyrrha's temple, on that fatal day,
When by the fon the trembling father dy'd,
Where the three roads the Phocian fields divide:
If I the Sphynx's riddles durft explain,
Taught by thyself to win the promis'd reign:
If wretched I, by baleful furies led,
With monftrous mixture ftain'd my mother's bed,
For hell and thee begot an impious brood,
And with full luft thofe horrid joys renew'd;
Then felf-condemn'd to fhades of endless night,
Forc'd from these orbs the bleeding balls of fight.
Oh hear, and aid the vengeance I require,
If worthy thee, and what thou night'ft infpire!
My fons their old, unhappy fire despise,
Spoil'd of his kingdom, and depriv'd of eyes;
Guidelefs I wander, unregarded mourn,
While thefe exalt their fceptres o'er my urn;
These fons, ye gods! who with flagitious pride, !
Infult my darkness, and my groans deride,
Art thou a father, unregarding Jove!
And fleeps thy thunder in the realms above?
Thou fury, then, some lafting curfe entail,
Which o'er their children's children fhall prevail :
Place on their heads that crown diftain'd with gore,
Which these dire hands from my flain father tore;
Go, and a parent's heavy curfes bear;
Break all the bonds of nature, and prepare
Their kindred fouls to mutual hate and war,
Give them to dare, what I might wish to fee
Blind as I am, fome glorious villany!
Soon fhalt thou find, if thou but arm their hands, 120 Their ready guilt preventing thy commands :
Could't thou fome great, proportion'd mischief frame,
They'd prove the father from whofe loins they came.
The fury heard, while on Cocytus' brink
Her fnakes unty'd, fulphureous waters drink;
But at the fummons, roll'd her eyes around,
And fnatch'd the starting ferpents from the ground.
Not half fo fwiftly fhoots along in air,
The gliding light'ning, or defcending star.
Thro' crouds of airy fhades fhe wing'd her flight,
And dark dominions of the filent night;
Swift as fhe pafs'd, the flitting ghofts withdrew,
And the pale spectres trembled at her view:
To th' iron gates of Tenarus fhe flies,
There fpreads her dusky pinions to the skies.
The day beheld, and fickning at the fight,
Veil'd her fair glories in the fhades of night.
Affrighted Atlas, on the distant shore,
Trembled, and fhook the heav'ns and gods he bore.
Now from beneath Malea's airy height
Aloft fhe fprung, and steer'd to Thebes her flight;
With eager speed the well-known journey took,
Nor here regrets the hell fhe late forfook.
A hundred fnakes her gloomy visage fhade,
A hundred ferpents guard her horrid head,
In her funk eye-balls dreadful meteors glow,
Such rays from Phoebe's bloody circles flow,
When lab'ring with strong charms, the fhoots from high A fiery gleam, and reddens all the sky.
Blood ftain'd her cheeks, and from her mouth there came Blue fteaming poifons, and a length of flame;
From ev'ry blaft of her contagious breath,
A robe obscene was o'er her shoulders thrown,
Famine and drought proceed, and plagues and death:
A drefs by fates and furies worn alone :
She tofs'd her meagre arms; her better hand
In waving circles whirl'd a fun'ral brand;
A ferpent from her left was feen to rear
His flaming creft, and lash the yielding air,
But when the fury took her ftand on high,
Where vaft Cythæron's top falutes the sky,
A hifs from all the fnaky tire went round:
The dreadful fignal all the rocks rebound,
And thro' th' Achaian cities fend the found.
Oete, with high Parnaffus, heard the voice;
Eurota's banks remurmur'd to the noife;
Again Leucothoe shook at these alarms,
And prefs'd Palamon clofer in her arms.
Headlong from thence the glowing fury fprings,
And o'er the Theban palace spreads her wings,
Once more invades the guilty dome, and fhrouds
Its bright pavillions in a veil of clouds.
Strait with the rage of all their race poffefs'd,
Stung to the foul, the brothers ftart from reft,
And all the furies wake within their breaft.
Their tortur'd minds repining envy tears,
And hate, engender'd by fufpicious fears;
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