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But since their wealth (the best they had) was mine,
The rest, without much loss, I could resign.
Sure to be lov'd, I took no pains to please,
Yet had more pleasure far than they had ease.
Presents flow'd in apace: with showers of gold,
They made their court, like Jupiter of old.
If I but smil'd, a sudden youth they found,
And a new palsy seiz'd them when I frown'd.

Ye sovereign wives! give ear and understand,
Thus shall ye speak, and exercise command.
For never was it given to mortal man,
To lie so boldly as we women cán :
Forswear the fact, though seen with both his eyes,
And call your maids to witness how he lies.
"Hark, old sir Paul!" ('twas thus I us'd to say)
"Whence is our neighbour's wife so rich and gay?
Treated, caress'd, where'er she's pleas'd to roamTM
I sit in tatters, and immur'd at home.
Why to her house dost thou so oft repair?
Art thou so amorous? and is she so fair?
If I but see a cousin or a friend,
Lord! how you swell, and rage like any fiend!
But you reel home, a drunken beastly bear,
Then preach till midnight in your easy chair;
Cry, wives are false, and every woman evil,
And give up all that's female to the devil.
"If poor (you say) she drains her husband's
purse;

If rich, she keeps her priest, or something worse;
If highly born, intolerably vain,
Vapours and pride by turns possess her brain,
Now gayly mad, now sourly splenetic;
Freakish when well, and fretful when she's sick.
If fair, then chaste she cannot long abide,
By pressing youth attack'd-on every side;
If foul, her wealth the lusty lover lures,
Or else her wit some fool-gallant procures,
Or else she dances with becoming grace,
Or shape excuses the defects of face.
There swims no goose so grey, but, soon or late,
She finds some honest gander for her mate.

"Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try,
And ring suspected vessels ere they buy:
But wives, a random choice, untry'd they take;
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake:
Then, nor till then, the veil's remov'd away,
And all the woman glares in open day.
"You tell me, to preserve your wife's good grace,
Your eyes must always languish on my face,
Your tongue with constant flatteries feed my ear,
And tag each sentence with, My life! my dear!
If by strange chance, a modest blush be rais'd,
Be sure my fine complexion must be prais'd.
My garments always must be new and gay,
And feasts still kept upon my wedding-day.
Then must my nurse be pleas'd, and favourite
And endless treats, and endless visits paid, [maid;
To a long train of kindred, friends, allies.
All this thou say'st, and all thou say'st are lies.
"On Jenkin too you cast a squinting eye:
What! can your 'prentice raise your jealousy?
Fresh are his ruddy cheeks, his forehead fair,
And like the burnish'd gold his curling hair.
But clear thy wrinkled brow, and quit thy sorrow,
I'd scorn your 'prentice, should you die to-morrow.
"Why are thy chests all lock'd? on what design?
Are not thy worldly goods and treasure mine?
Sir, Pm no fool; nor shall you, by St. John,
Have goods and body to yourself alone.

One you shall quit, in spite of both your eyes-
I heed not, I, the bolts, and locks, and spies.
VOL XII.

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If you had wit, you'd say, 'Go where you will, Dear spouse, I credit not the tales they tell : Take all the freedoms of a married life;

I know thee for a virtuous, faithful wife.'
"Lord! when you have enough, what need you
How merrily soever others fare?

Though all the day I give and take delight,
Doubt not, sufficient will be left at night.
"Tis but a just and rational desire,

To light a taper at a neighbour's fire.

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There's danger too, you think, in rich array, And none can long be modest that are gay. The cat, if you but singe her tabby skin, The chimney keeps, and sits content within ; But once grown sleek, will from her corner run, Sport with her tail, and wanton in the sun; She licks her fair round face, and frisks abroad, To show her fur, and to be catterwaw'd."

Lo thus, my friends, 1 wrought to my desires
These three right ancient venerable sires.
I told them, thus you say, and thus you do,
And told them false, but Jenkin swore 'twas true.
I, like a dog, could bite as well as whine,
And first complain'd, whene'er the guilt was mine.
I tax'd them oft with wenching and amours,
When their weak legs scarce dragg'd them out of
And swore the rambles that I took by night, [doors;
Were all to spy what damsels they bedight.
That colour brought me many hours of mirth;
For all this wit is given us from our birth.
Heaven gave to women the peculiar grace,
To spin, to weep, and cully human race.
By this nice conduct, and this prudent course,
By murmuring, wheedling, stratagem, and force,
I still prevail'd, and would be in the right,
Or curtain-lectures made a restless night.
If once my husband's arm was o'er my side,
What! so familiar with your spouse? I cry'd:
I levied first a tax upon his need:
Then let him-'twas a nicety indeed!
Let all mankind this certain maxim hold,
Marry who will, our sex is to be sold.
With empty hands no tassels you can lure,
But fulsome love for gain we can endure;
For gold we love the impotent and old,
And heave, and pant, and kiss, and cling, for gold
Yet with embraces, curses oft I mix'd,
Then kiss'd again, and chid, and rail'd betwixt.
Well, I may make my will in peace, and die,
For not one word in man's arrears am I.
To drop a dear dispute 1 was unable,
Ev'n though the pope himself had sat at table.
But when my point was gain'd, then thus I spoke;
Billy, my dear, how sheepishly you look!
Approach, my spouse, and let me kiss thy cheek
Thou shouldst be always thus, resign'd and meek!
Of Job's great patience since so oft you preach,
Well should you practise, who so well can teach.
'Tis difficult to do, I must allow,

But 1, my dearest, will instruct you how.
Great is the blessing of a prudent wife,
Who puts a period to domestic strife.
One of us two faust rule, and one obey;
And since in man right reason bears the sway,
Let that frail thing, weak woman, have her way.
The wives of all my family have rul'd

Their tender husbands, and their passions cool'd.
Fy, 'tis unmanly thus to sigh and groan;
What! would you have me to yourself alone?
Why take me, love! take all and every part!
Here's your revenge! you love it at your heart,

Would I vouchsafe to sell what Nature gave,
You little think what custom I could have.
But see! I'm all your own-nay hold--for shame;
What means my dear-indeed-you are to blame."
Thus with my first three lords I past my life;
A very woman, and a very wife.

What sums from these old spouses I could raise,
Procur'd young husbands in my riper days.
Though past my bloom, not yet decay'd was I,
Wanton and wild, and chatter'd like a pie.
In country dances still I bore the bell,
And sung as sweet as evening Philomel.
To clear my quailpipe, and refresh my soul,
Full oft I drain'd the spicy nut-brown bowl;
Rich luscious wines, that youthful blood improve,
And warm the swelling veins to feats of love:
For 'tis as sure, as cold engenders hail,
A liquorish mouth must have a lecherous tail:
Wine lets no lover unrewarded go,
As all true gamesters by experience know.
But oh, good gods! whene'er a thought I cast
On all the joys of youth and beauty past,
To find in pleasures I have had my part,
Still warms me to the bottom of my heart.
This wicked world was once my dear delight;
Now, all my conquests, all my charms, good night!
The flour consum'd, the best that now I can,
Is e'en to make my market of the bran.

My fourth dear spouse was not exceeding true;
He kept, 'twas thought, a private miss or two;
But all that score I paid-as how? you'll say,
Not with my body in a filthy way:

But I so dress'd, and danc'd, and drank, and din'd,
And view'd a friend with eyes so very kind,
As stung his heart, and made his marrow fry
With burning rage, and frantic jealousy.
His soul, I hope, enjoys eternal glory,
For here on Earth I was his purgatory.
Oft, when his shoe the most severely wrung,
He put on careless airs, and sate and sung.
How sore I gall'd him, only Heaven could know,
And he that felt, and I that caus'd the woe..
He dy'd, when last from pilgrimage I came,
With other gossips, from Jerusalem ;
And now lies buried underneath a rood,
Fair to be seen, and rear'd of honest wood :
A tomb indeed, with fewer sculptures grac'd
Than that Mausolus' pious widow plac'd,
Or where inshrin'd the great Darius lay;
But cost on graves is merely thrown away.
The pit fill'd up, with turf we cover'd o'er ;
So blest the good man's soul, I say no more.

Now for my fifth lov'd lord, the last and best;
(Kind Heaven afford him everlasting rest!)
Full hearty was his love, and I can shew
The tokens on my ribs in black and blue;
Yet, with a knack, my heart he could have won,
While yet the smart was shooting in the bone.
How quaint an appetite in women reigns !
Free gifts we scorn, and love what costs us pains:
Let men avoid us, and on them we leap;
A glutted market makes provision cheap.

In pure good-will I took this jovial spark,
Of Oxford he, a most egregious clerk.
He boarded with a widow in the town,
A trusty gossip, one dame Alison.

Full well the secrets of my soul she knew,
Better than e'er our parish priest could do.
To her I told whatever could befall:
Had but my husband piss'd against a wall,

Or done a thing that might have cost his life,
She and my niece-and one more worthy wife,
Had known it all: what most he would conceal,
To these I made no scruple to reveal.
Oft has he blush'd from ear to ear for shame,
That e'er he told a secret to his dame.
It so befel, in holy time of Lent,
That oft a day I to this gossip went ;
(My husband, thank my stars, was out of town)
From house to house we rambled up and down,
This clerk, myself, and my good neighbour Alse,
To see, be seen, to tell, and gather tales.
Visits to every church we daily paid,
And march'd in every holy masquerade,
The stations duly and the vigils kept ;
Not much we fasted, but scarce ever slept.
At sermons too I shone in scarlet gay ;
The wasting moths ne'er spoil'd my best array;
The cause was this, I wore it every day.
'Twas when fresh May her early blossoms yields,
This clerk and I were walking in the fields,
We grew so intimate, I can't tell how,

I pawn'd my honour, and engag'd my vow,
If e'er I laid my husband in his urn,
That he, and only he, should serve my turn.
We straight struck hands, the bargain was agreed ;
I still have shifts against a time of need:
The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole,
Can never be a mouse of any soul.

I vow'd I scarce could sleep since first I knew him,
And durst be sworn he had bewitch'd me to him;
If e'er I slept, I dream'd of him alone,
And dreams foretel, as learned mcn have shown.
All this I said; but dreams, sirs, I had none :
I follow'd but my crafty crony's lore,
Who bid me tell this lie-and twenty more.

Thus day by day, and month by month we past,
It pleas'd the Lord to take my spouse at last.
I tore my gown, I soil'd my locks with dust,
And beat my breasts, as wretched widows-must.
Before my face my handkerchief I spread,
To hide the flood of tears I did not shed.
The good man's coffin to the church was borne ;
Around, the neighbours, and my clerk too, mourn.
But as he march'd, good gods! he show'd a pair
Of legs and feet, so clean, so strong, so fair!
Of twenty winters age he seem'd to be;
I (to say truth) was twenty more than he ;
But vigorous still, a lively buxom dame;
And had a wonderous gift to quench a flame.
A conjuror once, that deeply could divine,
Assur'd me, Mars in Taurus was my sign.
As the stars order'd, such my life has been:
Alas, alas, that ever love was sin !
Fair Venus gave me fire and sprightly grace,
And Mars assurance and a dauntless face.
By virtue of this powerful constellation,

I follow'd always my own inclination.
But to my tale: A month scarce pass'd away,
With dance and song we kept the nuptial day.
All I possess'd I gave to his command,

My goods and chattels, money, house, and landi
But oft repented, and repent it still;

He prov'd a rebel to my sovereign will :
Nay once, by Heaven, he struck me on the face;
Hear but the fact, and judge yourselves the case,
Stubborn as any lioness was I;

And knew full well to raise my voice on high;
As true a rambler as I was before,

And would be so, in spite of all he swore.

He against this right sagely would advise,
And old examples set before my eyes;
Tell how the Roman matrons led their life,
Of Gracchus' mother, and Duilius' wife;
And close the sermon, as beseem'd his wit,
With some grave sentence out of holy writ.
Oft would he say,
"Who builds his house on sands,
Pricks his blind horse across the fallow lands;
Or let his wife abroad with pilgrims roam,
Deserves a fool's-cap, and long ears at home."
All this avail'd not; for whoe'er he be
That tells my faults, I hate him mortally:
And so do numbers more, I boldly say,
Men, women, clergy, regular, and lay.

My spouse (who was, you know, to learning bred)
A certain treatise oft at evening read,
Where divers authors (whom the Devil confound
For all their lies) were in one volume bound.
Valerius, whole; and of St. Jerome, part;
Chrysippus and Tertullian, Ovid's Art,
Solomon's Proverbs, Eloisa's Loves;
And many more than sure the church approves.
More legions were there here of wicked wives,
Than good in all the Bible and saints lives.
Who drew the lion vanquish'd? 'twas a man.
But could we women write as scholars can,
Men should stand mark'd with far more wickedness,
Than all the sons of Adam could redress.
Love seldom haunts the breast were learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
Those play the scholars, who can't play the men,
And use that weapon which they have, their pen ;
When old, and past the relish of delight,
Then down they sit, and in their dotage write,
That not one woman keeps her marriage vow.
(This by the way, but to my purpose now).

It chane'd my husband, on a winter's night,
Read in this book, aloud, with strange delight,
How the first female (as the Scriptures show)
Brought her own spouse and all his race to woe.
How Samson fell; and he whom Dejanire
Wrapp'd in the envenom'd shirt, and set on fire.
How curs'd Eryphile her lord betray'd,
And the dire ambush Clytemnestra laid.
But what most pleas'd him was the Cretan Dame,
And Husband-bulloh monstrous! fly for shame!
He had by heart the whole detail of woe
Xantippe made her good man undergo;
"How oft she scolded in a day, he knew,
How many piss-pots on the sage she threw ;
Who took it patiently, and wip'd his head;
"Rain follows thunder," that was all he said.

He read, how Arius to his friend complain'd,
A fatal tree was growing in his land,
On which three wives successively had twin'd
A sliding noose, and waver'd in the wind.
"Where grows this plant," reply'd the friend,
For better fruit did never orchard bear.
Give me some slip of this most blissful tree,
And in my garden planted shall it be."

"oh

[where?

Then how two wives their lord's destruction prove,
Through hatred one, and one through too much love;
That for her husband mix'd a poisonous draught,
And this for lust an amorous philtre bought :
The nimble juice soon seiz'd his giddy head,
Frantic at night, and in the inorning dead.
How some with swords their sleeping lords have slain,
And some have hammer'd nails into their brain,
And some have drench'd them with a deadly potion;
All this be read, and read with great devotion.

195

Long time I heard, and swell'd, and blush'd and
frown'd:

But when no end of these vile tales I found,
When still he read, and laugh'd, and read again,
And half the night was thus consum'd in vain :
And with one buffet fell'd him on the floor.
Provok'd to vengeance, three large leaves I tore,
With that my husband in a fury rose.
And down he settled me with hearty blows.
I groan'd, and lay extended on my side;
"Oh! thou hast slain me for my wealth," I cry'd,
"Yet I forgive thee-take my last embrace-"
He wept, kind soul! and stoop'd to kiss my face,
Then sigh'd and cry'd, “ Adieu, my dear, adieu!"
I took him such a box as turn'd him blue,
But after many a hearty struggle past,

I condescended to be pleas'd at last.
Soon as he said, "My mistress and my wife,
Do what you list, the term of all your life;"
I took to heart the merits of the cause,
And stood content to rule by wholesome laws;
Receiv'd the reins of absolute command,
With all the government of house and land,
And empire o'er his tongue, and o'er his hand.
As for the volume that revil'd the dames,
"Twas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to flames'

Now Heaven on all my husbands gone bestow
Pleasures above, for tortures felt below:
That rest they wish'd for, grant them in the grave,
And bless those souls my conduct help'd to save!

THE FIRST BOOK OF

STATIUS HIS THEBAIS.

TRANSLATED IN THE YEAR MDCCIII.

THE ARGUMENT. EDIPUS king of Thebes, having by mistake slain his father Laius, and married his mother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resigned the realm to his sons, Eteocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tisiphone, to sow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at last to reign singly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtained by Etcocles. Jupiter, in a council of the gods, declares his resolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives also, by ineans of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is sent on a message to the Shades, to the ghost of Laïus, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices in the mean time departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos; where he meets with Tydeus, who had fled from Calydon, having killed his brother.. Adrastus entertains them, having received an oracle from Apollo, that his daughter should be married to a boar and a lion, which he understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the hides of those beasts were worn, and who, arrived at the time when he kept an annual feast in honour of that god. The rise of this solemnity he relates to his guests, the loves of Phobus and Psamathe, and the story of Chorobus. He inquires, and is made acquainted with their

descent and quality. The sacrifice is renewed, and the book concludes with a hymn to Apollo. The translator hopes he need not apologise for his choice of this piece, which was made almost in his childhood; but, finding the version better than he expected, he gave it some correction a few years afterwards.

THE FIRST BOOK OP

STATIUS HIS THEBAIS.
FRATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes alarms,
The alternate reign destroy'd by impious arms,
Demand our song; a sacred fury fires
My ravish'd breast, and all the Muse inspires.
O goddess, say, shall I deduce my rhymes
From the dire nation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's stern decree,
And Cadmus searching round the spacious sea?
How with the serpent's teeth he sow'd the soil,
And reap'd an iron harvest of his toil?
Or how from joining stones the city sprung,
While to his harp divine Amphion sung?
Or shall I Juno's hate to Thebes resound,
Whose 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 a second hope contain,
Sprung from the rocks, and plung'd into the main.
But wave whate'er to Cadinus may belong,
And fix, O Muse! the barrier of thy song
At Edipus from his disasters trace
The long confusions of his guilty race:
Nor yet attempt to stretch thy bolder wing,
And mighty Casar's conquering eagles sing;
How twice he tam'd proud Ister's rapid flood,
While Dacian mountains stream'd with barbarous
blood;

Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll,
And stretch'd his empire to the frozen pole:
Or long before, with early valour, strove
In youthful arms t' assert the cause of Jove.
And thou, great heir of all thy father's fame,
Increase of glory to the Latian name!

FRATERNAS acies, alternaque regna profanis
Decertata odiis, sontesque evolvere Thebas,
Picrius menti calor incidit. Unde jubetis
Ire, Deæ gentisne canam primordia diræ ?
Sidonios raptus, et inexorabile pactum
Legis Agenorea? scrutantemque æquora Cadmum?
Longo retro series, trepidum si Martis operti
Agricolam infandis condentem prælia sulcis
Expediam, penitusque sequar quo carmine muris
Jusserit Amphion Tyrios accedere montes:
Unde graves iræ cognata in moenia Baccho,
Quod sævæ Junonis opus; cui sumpserit arcum
Infelix Athamas, cur non expaverit ingens
Ionium, socio casura Palæmone mater.
Atque adeo jam nunc gemitus, et prospera Cadmi
Præteriisse sinam: limes mihi carminis esto
Edipode confusa domus: quando Itala nondum
Signa, nec Arctoos ausim sperare triumphos,
Bisque jugo Rhenum, bis adactum legibus Istrum,
Et conjurato dejectos vertice Dacos:
Aut defensa prius vix pubescentibus annis
Bella Jovis. Tuque o Latiæ decus addite famæ,
Quem nove maturi subeuntem exorsa parentis

O bless thy Rome with an eternal reigti,
Nor let desiring worlds entreat in vain.
What though the stars contract theirheavenly space
And croud their shining ranks to yield thee place;
Though all the skies, ambitious of thy sway,
Conspire to court thee from our world away;
Though Phoebus longs to mix his rays with thine,
And in thy glories more serenely shine,
Though Jove himself no less content would be
To part his throne, and share his Heaven with thee;
Yet stay, great Cæsar! and vouchsafe to reign
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the watery main;
Resign to Jove his empire of the skies,
And people Heaven with Roman deities.

The time will come, when a diviner flame
Shall warm my breast to sing of Cæsar's fame :
Meanwhile permit, that my preluding Muse
In Theban wars an humbler theme may chuse :
Of furious hate surviving death, she sings,
A fatal throne to two contending kings,
And funeral flames, that parting wide in air
Express the discord of the souls they bear:
Of towns dispeopled, and the wandering ghosts
Of kings unbury'd in the wasted coasts;
When Dirce's fountain blush'd with Grecian blood,
And Thetis, near Ismenos' swelling flood,
With dread beheld the rolling surges sweep,
In heaps, his slaughter'd sons into the deep.
What hero, Clio! wilt thou first relate?
The rage of Tydeus, or the prophet's fate?
Or how, with hills of slain on every side,
Hippomedon repell'd the hostile tide?
Or how the youth, with every grace adorn'd,
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verse extend,
And sing with horrour his prodigious end.

Now wretched Edipus, depriv'd of sight, But, while he dwells where not a chearful ray Led a long death in everlasting night; Can pierce the darkness, aud abhors the day, The clear reflecting mind presents his sin In frightful views, and makes it day within; Æternum sibi Roma cupit; licet arctior omnes Limes agat stellas, et te plaga lucida cœli Pleïadum, Boreæque, et hiulci fulminis expers Sollicitet; licet ignipedum frænator equornum Ipse tuis alte radiantem crinibus arcum Imprimat, aut magni cedat tibi Jupiter æqua Parte poli; maneas hominum contentus habenis Undarum terræque potens, et sidera dones. Tempus erit, cum Pierio tua fortior astro Facta canam : nunc tendo chelyn. Satis arma referre Aonia, et geminis sceptrum exitiale tyrannis, Nec furiis post fata modum, flammasque rebelles Seditione rogi, tumulisque carentia regum Funera, et egestas alternis mortibus urbes ; Cærula cum rubuit Lernæo sanguine Dirce, Et Thetis arentes assuetum stringere ripas, Horruit ingenti venientem Ismenon acervo.

Quem prius heroum Clio dabis? immodicum iræ Tydea? laurigeri subitos an vatis hiatus? Urget et hostilem propellens cædibus amnem Turbidus Hippomedon, plorandaque bella proterv Arcados, atque alio Capaneus horrore canendus. Impia jam merita scrutatus lumina dextra Merserat æterna damnatum nocte pudorem Edipodes, longaque animam sub morte tenebats Illum indulgentem tenebris, imæque recessu Sedis, inaspectos cœlo, radiisque penates Servantem, tamen assiduis circumvolat alis

Returning thoughts in endless circles roll,
And thousand furies haunt his guilty soul;
The wretch then lifted to th' unpitying skies
Those empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes,
Whose wounds, yet fresh, with bloody hands he
strook,

While from his breast these dreadful accents broke:
"Ye gods! that o'er the gloomy regions reign,
Where guilty spirits feel eternal pain;
Thou, sable Styx! whose livid streams are roll'd
Through dreary coasts, which I, though blind, be-
Tisiphone, that oft has heard my prayer,
Assist, if Oedipus deserve thy care!
If you receiv'd me from Jocasta's womb,

[hold:

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 son the trembling father dy'd,
Where the three roads the Phocian fields divide:
If I the Sphynx's riddles durst explain,
Taught by thyself to win the promis'd reign:
If wretched I, by baleful Furies led,
With monstrous mixture stain'd my mother's bed,
For Hell and thee begot an impious brood,
And with full lust those horrid joys renew'd;
Then, self-condemn'd to shades of endless night,
Fore'd from these orbs the bleeding balls of sight:
O hear, and aid the vengeance I require,
If worthy thee, and what thou mightst inspire!
My sons their old unhappy sire despise,
Spoil'd of his kingdom, and depriv'd of eyes;
Guideless I wander, unregarded mourn,
While these exalt their sceptres o'er my urn;
These sons, ye gods! who, with flagitious pride,
Insult my darkness, and my groans deride.
Art thou a father, unregarding Jove?
And sleeps thy thunder in the realms above?

Sæva dies animi, scelerumque in pectore Diræ.
Tunc vacuos orbes, crudum ac miserabile vitæ
Supplicium, ostentat cœlo, manibusque cruentis
Pulsat inane solum, sævaque ita voce precatur:
Di sontes animas, angustaque Tartara pœnis
Qui regitis, tuque umbriferò Styx livida fundo,
Quam video, multumque mihi consueta vocari
Annue Tissiphone, perversaque vota secunda,
Si bene quid merui, si me de matre cadentem
Fovisti gremio, et trajectum vulnere plantas
Firmásti; si stagna peti Cyrrhæa bicorni
Interfusa jugo, possem cum degere falso
Contentus Polybo, trifidæque in Phocidos arce
Longævum implicui regem, secuique trementis
Ora senis, dum quæro patrem; si Sphingos iniquæ
Callidus ambages, te præmonstrante, resolvi ;
Si dulces furias, et lamentabile matris
Connubium gavisus inî; noctemque nefandam
Sæpe tuli, natosque tibi (seis ipsa) paravi;
Max avidus pœnæ digitis cædentibus ultro
Incubui, miseraque oculos in matre reliqui:
Exaudi, si digua precor, quaque ipsa furenti
Subjiceres: orbum visu regnisque parentem
Non regere, aut dictis merentein flectere adorti
Quos genui, quocunque toro: quin ecce superbi
(Proh dolor) et nostro jamdudum funere reges,
Insultant tenebris, gemitusque odere paternos.
Hisne etiam funestus ego? et videt ista deorum
Ignavus genitor? tu saltem debita vindex

Huc ades, et totos in pœnam ordire nepotes.
Indue quod madidum tabo diadema cruentis
Unguibus arrigui, votisque instinėta paternis

Thou Fury, then, some lasting curse entail,
Which o'er their children's children shall prevail:
Place on their heads that crown distain'd with gore.
Which these dire hands from my slain father tore;
Go, and a parent's heavy curses bear;
Break all the bonds of Nature, and prepare
Their kindred souls to mutual hate and war.
Give them to dare, what I might wish to see
Blind as I am, some glorious villainy!
Soon shalt thou find, if thou but arm their hands,
Their ready guilt preventing thy commands:
Couldst thou some great, proportion'd mischief
frame,
[came."
They'd prove the father from whose loins they
The Fury heard, while on Cocytus' brink

Her snakes, unty'd, sulphureous waters drink;
But at the summons roll'd her eyes around,
And snatch'd the starting serpents from the ground.
Not half so swiftly shoots along in air
The gliding light'ning, or descending star.
Through crowds of airy shades she wing'd her flight,
And dark dominions of the silent night;
Swift as she pass'd, the flitting ghosts withdrew,
And the pale spectres trembled at her view:
To th' iron gates of Tænarus she flies,
There spreads her dusky pinions to the skies.
The Day beheld, and, sickning at the sight,
Veil'd her fair glories in the shades of night.
Affrighted Atlas, on the distant shore,
Trembled, and shook the heavens and gods he bore.
Now from beneath Malca's airy height
Aloft she sprung, and steer'd to Thebes her flight;
With eager speed the well-known journey took,
Nor here regrets the Hell she late forsook.
A hundred snakes her gloomy visage shade,
A hundred serpents guard her horrid head,
In her sunk eye-balls dreadful meteors glow:
Such rays from Phoebe's bloody circles flow,
When, labouring with strong charms, she shoots
from high

A fiery gleam, and reddens all the sky.

Blood stain'd her cheeks, and from her mouth there

came

Blue steaming poisons, and a length of flame.

[nosces,

[bras

I media in fratres, generis consortia ferro
Dissiliant: da Tartarei regina barathri
Quod cupiam vidisse nefas, nec tarda sequetur
Mens juvenum; modo digna veni, mea pignora
Talia jactanti crudelis Diva severos
Advertit vultus; inamænum forte sedebat
Cocyton juxta, resolutaque vertice crines,
Lambere sulfureas permiserat anguibus undas.
Ilicet igne Jovis, lapsisque citatior astris
Tristibus exiliit ripis, discedit inane
Vulgus, et occursis dominæ pavet; illa per um
Et caligantes animarum examine campos,
Tænariæ limen petit irremeabile porta.
Sensit adesse dies; picco nox obvia nimbo
Lucentes turbavit equos. Procul arduus Atlas
Horruit, et dubia cœlum cervice remisit.
Arripit extemplo Maleæ de valle resurgens
Notum iter ad Thebas: neque enim velocior ullas
Itque reditque vias, cognataque Tartara mavult.
Centum illi stantes umbrabant ora cerastæ,
Turba minor diri capitis: sedet intus abactis
Ferrea lux oculis; qualis per nubila Phœbes
Atracea rubet arte labor: suffusa veneno
Tenditur, ac sanie gliscit cutis: igneus atra
Ore vapor, quo longa sitis, morbique, famesque,

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