Europa's Rape, Agenor's ftern Decree,
And Cadmus fearching round the spacious Sea?
How with the Serpent's Teeth he fow'd the Soil,
And reap'd an Iron Harvest of his Toil;
Or how from joyning Stones 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 Sire against the Son his Arrows drew,
O'er the wide Fields the furious Mother flew,
And while her Arms her Second Hope contain,
Sprung 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 Song,
The long Confufions of his guilty Race.
Nor yet attempt to stretch thy bolder Wing,
And mighty Cafar's conqu'ring Eagles fing;
How twice the Mountains ran with Dacian Blood,
And trembling Ifter check'd his rapid Flood;
How twice he vanquifh'd where the Rhine does roll,
And stretch'd his Empire to the frozen Pole;
Or long before, with early Valour strove
In youthful Arms t'affert the Caufe of Jove.
And Thou, great Heir of all thy Father's Fame,
Encrease of Glory to the Latian Name;
Oh bless thy Rome with an Eternal Reign,
Nor let defiring Worlds intreat in vain!
What tho' the Stars.contract their Heav'nly Space,
And crowd their fhining Ranks to yield thee place;
Tho' all the Skies, ambitious of thy Sway,
Confpire to court thee from our World away;
Tho' Phebus longs to mix his Rays with thine,
And in thy Glories more ferenely fhine;
Tho' Jove himself no less content wou'd be,
To part his Throne and share his Heav'n with thee;
Yet ftay, great Cæfar! and vouchsafe to reign
O'er the wide Earth, and o'er the watry Main,
Refign to Jove his Empire of the Skies,
And People Heav'n with Roman Deities.
The Time will come, when a diviner Flame Shall warm my Breast to fing of Cafar's Fame: Mean while permit that my preluding Muse In Theban Wars an humbler Theme may chufe: Of furious Hate surviving Death, she sings, A fatal Throne to two contending Kings,, And Fun'ral Flames, that parting wide in Air, Express the Discord of the Souls they bear: Of Towns difpeopled, and the wandring Ghosts Of Kings unbury'd, on the wafted Coasts;
When Dirce's Fountain blufh'd with Grecian [Blood,
And Thetis, near Ifmenos' fwelling Flood,
With Dread beheld the rolling Surges fweep
In Heaps his flaughter'd Sons into the Deep.
What Hero, Clio! wilt thou first relate?
The raging Tydeus, or the Prophet's Fate?
Or how with Hills of flain on ev'ry fide,
Hippomedon repell'd the hostile Tyde?
Or how the * Youth with ev'ry Grace adorn'd,
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy Verse extend,
And fing, with Horror, his prodigious End.
Now wretched Oedipus, depriv'd of Sight, Led a long Death in everlasting Night; But while he dwells where not a chearful Ray Can pierce the Darkness, and abhors the Day; Parthenopeus.
The clear, reflecting Mind, presents his Sin
In frightful Views, and makes it Day within;
Returning Thoughts in endless Circles roll,
And thousand Furies haunt his guilty Soul.
The Wretch then lifted to th' unpitying Skies
Thofe empty Orbs, from whence he tore his Eyes,
Whofe Wounds yet fresh, with bloody Hands he
[ftrook,
While from hisBreast these dreadful Accents broke.
Ye Gods that o'er the gloomy Regions reign Where guilty Spirits feel Eternal Pain; Thou, fable Styx! whofe livid Streams are roll'd Thro' dreary Coafts which I, tho' Blind, behold: Tifiphone! that oft hast heard my Pray'r, Affift, if Oedipus deferve thy Care!
you receiv'd me from Jocafta's Womb,
And nurft the Hope of Mischiefs yet to come :
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