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- const book1 = `Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
- And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
- Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
- Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
- And in the doubtful war, before he won
- The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
- His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
- And settled sure succession in his line,
- From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
- And the long glories of majestic Rome.
- O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;
- What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;
- For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began
- To persecute so brave, so just a man;
- Involv'd his anxious life in endless cares,
- Expos'd to wants, and hurried into wars!
- Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,
- Or exercise their spite in human woe?
- Against the Tiber's mouth, but far away,
- An ancient town was seated on the sea;
- A Tyrian colony; the people made
- Stout for the war, and studious of their trade:
- Carthage the name; belov'd by Juno more
- Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore.
- Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav'n were kind,
- The seat of awful empire she design'd.
- Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly,
- (Long cited by the people of the sky,)
- That times to come should see the Trojan race
- Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface;
- Nor thus confin'd, the yoke of sov'reign sway
- Should on the necks of all the nations lay.
- She ponder'd this, and fear'd it was in fate;
- Nor could forget the war she wag'd of late
- For conqu'ring Greece against the Trojan state.
- Besides, long causes working in her mind,
- And secret seeds of envy, lay behind;
- Deep graven in her heart the doom remain'd
- Of partial Paris, and her form disdain'd;
- The grace bestow'd on ravish'd Ganymed,
- Electra's glories, and her injur'd bed.
- Each was a cause alone; and all combin'd
- To kindle vengeance in her haughty mind.
- For this, far distant from the Latian coast
- She drove the remnants of the Trojan host;
- And sev'n long years th' unhappy wand'ring train
- Were toss'd by storms, and scatter'd thro' the main.
- Such time, such toil, requir'd the Roman name,
- Such length of labor for so vast a frame.
- Now scarce the Trojan fleet, with sails and oars,
- Had left behind the fair Sicilian shores,
- Ent'ring with cheerful shouts the wat'ry reign,
- And plowing frothy furrows in the main;
- When, lab'ring still with endless discontent,
- The Queen of Heav'n did thus her fury vent:
- "Then am I vanquish'd? must I yield?" said she,
- "And must the Trojans reign in Italy?
- So Fate will have it, and Jove adds his force;
- Nor can my pow'r divert their happy course.
- Could angry Pallas, with revengeful spleen,
- The Grecian navy burn, and drown the men?
- She, for the fault of one offending foe,
- The bolts of Jove himself presum'd to throw:
- With whirlwinds from beneath she toss'd the ship,
- And bare expos'd the bosom of the deep;
- Then, as an eagle gripes the trembling game,
- The wretch, yet hissing with her father's flame,
- She strongly seiz'd, and with a burning wound
- Transfix'd, and naked, on a rock she bound.
- But I, who walk in awful state above,
- The majesty of heav'n, the sister wife of Jove,
- For length of years my fruitless force employ
- Against the thin remains of ruin'd Troy!
- What nations now to Juno's pow'r will pray,
- Or off'rings on my slighted altars lay?"
- Thus rag'd the goddess; and, with fury fraught.
- The restless regions of the storms she sought,
- Where, in a spacious cave of living stone,
- The tyrant Aeolus, from his airy throne,
- With pow'r imperial curbs the struggling winds,
- And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.
- This way and that th' impatient captives tend,
- And, pressing for release, the mountains rend.
- High in his hall th' undaunted monarch stands,
- And shakes his scepter, and their rage commands;
- Which did he not, their unresisted sway
- Would sweep the world before them in their way;
- Earth, air, and seas thro' empty space would roll,
- And heav'n would fly before the driving soul.
- In fear of this, the Father of the Gods
- Confin'd their fury to those dark abodes,
- And lock'd 'em safe within, oppress'd with mountain loads;
- Impos'd a king, with arbitrary sway,
- To loose their fetters, or their force allay.
- To whom the suppliant queen her pray'rs address'd,
- And thus the tenor of her suit express'd:
- "O Aeolus! for to thee the King of Heav'n
- The pow'r of tempests and of winds has giv'n;
- Thy force alone their fury can restrain,
- And smooth the waves, or swell the troubled main-
- A race of wand'ring slaves, abhorr'd by me,
- With prosp'rous passage cut the Tuscan sea;
- To fruitful Italy their course they steer,
- And for their vanquish'd gods design new temples there.
- Raise all thy winds; with night involve the skies;
- Sink or disperse my fatal enemies.
- Twice sev'n, the charming daughters of the main,
- Around my person wait, and bear my train:
- Succeed my wish, and second my design;
- The fairest, Deiopeia, shall be thine,
- And make thee father of a happy line."
- To this the god: "'T is yours, O queen, to will
- The work which duty binds me to fulfil.
- These airy kingdoms, and this wide command,
- Are all the presents of your bounteous hand:
- Yours is my sov'reign's grace; and, as your guest,
- I sit with gods at their celestial feast;
- Raise tempests at your pleasure, or subdue;
- Dispose of empire, which I hold from you."
- He said, and hurl'd against the mountain side
- His quiv'ring spear, and all the god applied.
- The raging winds rush thro' the hollow wound,
- And dance aloft in air, and skim along the ground;
- Then, settling on the sea, the surges sweep,
- Raise liquid mountains, and disclose the deep.
- South, East, and West with mix'd confusion roar,
- And roll the foaming billows to the shore.
- The cables crack; the sailors' fearful cries
- Ascend; and sable night involves the skies;
- And heav'n itself is ravish'd from their eyes.
- Loud peals of thunder from the poles ensue;
- Then flashing fires the transient light renew;
- The face of things a frightful image bears,
- And present death in various forms appears.
- Struck with unusual fright, the Trojan chief,
- With lifted hands and eyes, invokes relief;
- And, "Thrice and four times happy those," he cried,
- "That under Ilian walls before their parents died!
- Tydides, bravest of the Grecian train!
- Why could not I by that strong arm be slain,
- And lie by noble Hector on the plain,
- Or great Sarpedon, in those bloody fields
- Where Simois rolls the bodies and the shields
- Of heroes, whose dismember'd hands yet bear
- The dart aloft, and clench the pointed spear!"
- Thus while the pious prince his fate bewails,
- Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails,
- And rent the sheets; the raging billows rise,
- And mount the tossing vessels to the skies:
- Nor can the shiv'ring oars sustain the blow;
- The galley gives her side, and turns her prow;
- While those astern, descending down the steep,
- Thro' gaping waves behold the boiling deep.
- Three ships were hurried by the southern blast,
- And on the secret shelves with fury cast.
- Those hidden rocks th' Ausonian sailors knew:
- They call'd them Altars, when they rose in view,
- And show'd their spacious backs above the flood.
- Three more fierce Eurus, in his angry mood,
- Dash'd on the shallows of the moving sand,
- And in mid ocean left them moor'd aland.
- Orontes' bark, that bore the Lycian crew,
- (A horrid sight!) ev'n in the hero's view,
- From stem to stern by waves was overborne:
- The trembling pilot, from his rudder torn,
- Was headlong hurl'd; thrice round the ship was toss'd,
- Then bulg'd at once, and in the deep was lost;
- And here and there above the waves were seen
- Arms, pictures, precious goods, and floating men.
- The stoutest vessel to the storm gave way,
- And suck'd thro' loosen'd planks the rushing sea.
- Ilioneus was her chief: Alethes old,
- Achates faithful, Abas young and bold,
- Endur'd not less; their ships, with gaping seams,
- Admit the deluge of the briny streams.
- Meantime imperial Neptune heard the sound
- Of raging billows breaking on the ground.
- Displeas'd, and fearing for his wat'ry reign,
- He rear'd his awful head above the main,
- Serene in majesty; then roll'd his eyes
- Around the space of earth, and seas, and skies.
- He saw the Trojan fleet dispers'd, distress'd,
- By stormy winds and wintry heav'n oppress'd.
- Full well the god his sister's envy knew,
- And what her aims and what her arts pursue.
- He summon'd Eurus and the western blast,
- And first an angry glance on both he cast;
- Then thus rebuk'd: "Audacious winds! from whence
- This bold attempt, this rebel insolence?
- Is it for you to ravage seas and land,
- Unauthoriz'd by my supreme command?
- To raise such mountains on the troubled main?
- Whom I- but first 't is fit the billows to restrain;
- And then you shall be taught obedience to my reign.
- Hence! to your lord my royal mandate bear-
- The realms of ocean and the fields of air
- Are mine, not his. By fatal lot to me
- The liquid empire fell, and trident of the sea.
- His pow'r to hollow caverns is confin'd:
- There let him reign, the jailer of the wind,
- With hoarse commands his breathing subjects call,
- And boast and bluster in his empty hall."
- He spoke; and, while he spoke, he smooth'd the sea,
- Dispell'd the darkness, and restor'd the day.
- Cymothoe, Triton, and the sea-green train
- Of beauteous nymphs, the daughters of the main,
- Clear from the rocks the vessels with their hands:
- The god himself with ready trident stands,
- And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands;
- Then heaves them off the shoals. Where'er he guides
- His finny coursers and in triumph rides,
- The waves unruffle and the sea subsides.
- As, when in tumults rise th' ignoble crowd,
- Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud;
- And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly,
- And all the rustic arms that fury can supply:
- If then some grave and pious man appear,
- They hush their noise, and lend a list'ning ear;
- He soothes with sober words their angry mood,
- And quenches their innate desire of blood:
- So, when the Father of the Flood appears,
- And o'er the seas his sov'reign trident rears,
- Their fury falls: he skims the liquid plains,
- High on his chariot, and, with loosen'd reins,
- Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains.
- The weary Trojans ply their shatter'd oars
- To nearest land, and make the Libyan shores.
- Within a long recess there lies a bay:
- An island shades it from the rolling sea,
- And forms a port secure for ships to ride;
- Broke by the jutting land, on either side,
- In double streams the briny waters glide.
- Betwixt two rows of rocks a sylvan scene
- Appears above, and groves for ever green:
- A grot is form'd beneath, with mossy seats,
- To rest the Nereids, and exclude the heats.
- Down thro' the crannies of the living walls
- The crystal streams descend in murm'ring falls:
- No haulsers need to bind the vessels here,
- Nor bearded anchors; for no storms they fear.
- Sev'n ships within this happy harbor meet,
- The thin remainders of the scatter'd fleet.
- The Trojans, worn with toils, and spent with woes,
- Leap on the welcome land, and seek their wish'd repose.
- First, good Achates, with repeated strokes
- Of clashing flints, their hidden fire provokes:
- Short flame succeeds; a bed of wither'd leaves
- The dying sparkles in their fall receives:
- Caught into life, in fiery fumes they rise,
- And, fed with stronger food, invade the skies.
- The Trojans, dropping wet, or stand around
- The cheerful blaze, or lie along the ground:
- Some dry their corn, infected with the brine,
- Then grind with marbles, and prepare to dine.
- Aeneas climbs the mountain's airy brow,
- And takes a prospect of the seas below,
- If Capys thence, or Antheus he could spy,
- Or see the streamers of Caicus fly.
- No vessels were in view; but, on the plain,
- Three beamy stags command a lordly train
- Of branching heads: the more ignoble throng
- Attend their stately steps, and slowly graze along.
- He stood; and, while secure they fed below,
- He took the quiver and the trusty bow
- Achates us'd to bear: the leaders first
- He laid along, and then the vulgar pierc'd;
- Nor ceas'd his arrows, till the shady plain
- Sev'n mighty bodies with their blood distain.
- For the sev'n ships he made an equal share,
- And to the port return'd, triumphant from the war.
- The jars of gen'rous wine (Acestes' gift,
- When his Trinacrian shores the navy left)
- He set abroach, and for the feast prepar'd,
- In equal portions with the ven'son shar'd.
- Thus while he dealt it round, the pious chief
- With cheerful words allay'd the common grief:
- "Endure, and conquer! Jove will soon dispose
- To future good our past and present woes.
- With me, the rocks of Scylla you have tried;
- Th' inhuman Cyclops and his den defied.
- What greater ills hereafter can you bear?
- Resume your courage and dismiss your care,
- An hour will come, with pleasure to relate
- Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.
- Thro' various hazards and events, we move
- To Latium and the realms foredoom'd by Jove.
- Call'd to the seat (the promise of the skies)
- Where Trojan kingdoms once again may rise,
- Endure the hardships of your present state;
- Live, and reserve yourselves for better fate."
- These words he spoke, but spoke not from his heart;
- His outward smiles conceal'd his inward smart.
- The jolly crew, unmindful of the past,
- The quarry share, their plenteous dinner haste.
- Some strip the skin; some portion out the spoil;
- The limbs, yet trembling, in the caldrons boil;
- Some on the fire the reeking entrails broil.
- Stretch'd on the grassy turf, at ease they dine,
- Restore their strength with meat, and cheer their souls with wine.
- Their hunger thus appeas'd, their care attends
- The doubtful fortune of their absent friends:
- Alternate hopes and fears their minds possess,
- Whether to deem 'em dead, or in distress.
- Above the rest, Aeneas mourns the fate
- Of brave Orontes, and th' uncertain state
- Of Gyas, Lycus, and of Amycus.
- The day, but not their sorrows, ended thus.
- When, from aloft, almighty Jove surveys
- Earth, air, and shores, and navigable seas,
- At length on Libyan realms he fix'd his eyes-
- Whom, pond'ring thus on human miseries,
- When Venus saw, she with a lowly look,
- Not free from tears, her heav'nly sire bespoke:
- "O King of Gods and Men! whose awful hand
- Disperses thunder on the seas and land,
- Disposing all with absolute command;
- How could my pious son thy pow'r incense?
- Or what, alas! is vanish'd Troy's offense?
- Our hope of Italy not only lost,
- On various seas by various tempests toss'd,
- But shut from ev'ry shore, and barr'd from ev'ry coast.
- You promis'd once, a progeny divine
- Of Romans, rising from the Trojan line,
- In after times should hold the world in awe,
- And to the land and ocean give the law.
- How is your doom revers'd, which eas'd my care
- When Troy was ruin'd in that cruel war?
- Then fates to fates I could oppose; but now,
- When Fortune still pursues her former blow,
- What can I hope? What worse can still succeed?
- What end of labors has your will decreed?
- Antenor, from the midst of Grecian hosts,
- Could pass secure, and pierce th' Illyrian coasts,
- Where, rolling down the steep, Timavus raves
- And thro' nine channels disembogues his waves.
- At length he founded Padua's happy seat,
- And gave his Trojans a secure retreat;
- There fix'd their arms, and there renew'd their name,
- And there in quiet rules, and crown'd with fame.
- But we, descended from your sacred line,
- Entitled to your heav'n and rites divine,
- Are banish'd earth; and, for the wrath of one,
- Remov'd from Latium and the promis'd throne.
- Are these our scepters? these our due rewards?
- And is it thus that Jove his plighted faith regards?"
- To whom the Father of th' immortal race,
- Smiling with that serene indulgent face,
- With which he drives the clouds and clears the skies,
- First gave a holy kiss; then thus replies:
- "Daughter, dismiss thy fears; to thy desire
- The fates of thine are fix'd, and stand entire.
- Thou shalt behold thy wish'd Lavinian walls;
- And, ripe for heav'n, when fate Aeneas calls,
- Then shalt thou bear him up, sublime, to me:
- No councils have revers'd my firm decree.
- And, lest new fears disturb thy happy state,
- Know, I have search'd the mystic rolls of Fate:
- Thy son (nor is th' appointed season far)
- In Italy shall wage successful war,
- Shall tame fierce nations in the bloody field,
- And sov'reign laws impose, and cities build,
- Till, after ev'ry foe subdued, the sun
- Thrice thro' the signs his annual race shall run:
- This is his time prefix'd. Ascanius then,
- Now call'd Iulus, shall begin his reign.
- He thirty rolling years the crown shall wear,
- Then from Lavinium shall the seat transfer,
- And, with hard labor, Alba Longa build.
- The throne with his succession shall be fill'd
- Three hundred circuits more: then shall be seen
- Ilia the fair, a priestess and a queen,
- Who, full of Mars, in time, with kindly throes,
- Shall at a birth two goodly boys disclose.
- The royal babes a tawny wolf shall drain:
- Then Romulus his grandsire's throne shall gain,
- Of martial tow'rs the founder shall become,
- The people Romans call, the city Rome.
- To them no bounds of empire I assign,
- Nor term of years to their immortal line.
- Ev'n haughty Juno, who, with endless broils,
- Earth, seas, and heav'n, and Jove himself turmoils;
- At length aton'd, her friendly pow'r shall join,
- To cherish and advance the Trojan line.
- The subject world shall Rome's dominion own,
- And, prostrate, shall adore the nation of the gown.
- An age is ripening in revolving fate
- When Troy shall overturn the Grecian state,
- And sweet revenge her conqu'ring sons shall call,
- To crush the people that conspir'd her fall.
- Then Caesar from the Julian stock shall rise,
- Whose empire ocean, and whose fame the skies
- Alone shall bound; whom, fraught with eastern spoils,
- Our heav'n, the just reward of human toils,
- Securely shall repay with rites divine;
- And incense shall ascend before his sacred shrine.
- Then dire debate and impious war shall cease,
- And the stern age be soften'd into peace:
- Then banish'd Faith shall once again return,
- And Vestal fires in hallow'd temples burn;
- And Remus with Quirinus shall sustain
- The righteous laws, and fraud and force restrain.
- Janus himself before his fane shall wait,
- And keep the dreadful issues of his gate,
- With bolts and iron bars: within remains
- Imprison'd Fury, bound in brazen chains;
- High on a trophy rais'd, of useless arms,
- He sits, and threats the world with vain alarms."
- He said, and sent Cyllenius with command
- To free the ports, and ope the Punic land
- To Trojan guests; lest, ignorant of fate,
- The queen might force them from her town and state.
- Down from the steep of heav'n Cyllenius flies,
- And cleaves with all his wings the yielding skies.
- Soon on the Libyan shore descends the god,
- Performs his message, and displays his rod:
- The surly murmurs of the people cease;
- And, as the fates requir'd, they give the peace:
- The queen herself suspends the rigid laws,
- The Trojans pities, and protects their cause.
- Meantime, in shades of night Aeneas lies:
- Care seiz'd his soul, and sleep forsook his eyes.
- But, when the sun restor'd the cheerful day,
- He rose, the coast and country to survey,
- Anxious and eager to discover more.
- It look'd a wild uncultivated shore;
- But, whether humankind, or beasts alone
- Possess'd the new-found region, was unknown.
- Beneath a ledge of rocks his fleet he hides:
- Tall trees surround the mountain's shady sides;
- The bending brow above a safe retreat provides.
- Arm'd with two pointed darts, he leaves his friends,
- And true Achates on his steps attends.
- Lo! in the deep recesses of the wood,
- Before his eyes his goddess mother stood:
- A huntress in her habit and her mien;
- Her dress a maid, her air confess'd a queen.
- Bare were her knees, and knots her garments bind;
- Loose was her hair, and wanton'd in the wind;
- Her hand sustain'd a bow; her quiver hung behind.
- She seem'd a virgin of the Spartan blood:
- With such array Harpalyce bestrode
- Her Thracian courser and outstripp'd the rapid flood.
- "Ho, strangers! have you lately seen," she said,
- "One of my sisters, like myself array'd,
- Who cross'd the lawn, or in the forest stray'd?
- A painted quiver at her back she bore;
- Varied with spots, a lynx's hide she wore;
- And at full cry pursued the tusky boar."
- Thus Venus: thus her son replied again:
- "None of your sisters have we heard or seen,
- O virgin! or what other name you bear
- Above that style- O more than mortal fair!
- Your voice and mien celestial birth betray!
- If, as you seem, the sister of the day,
- Or one at least of chaste Diana's train,
- Let not an humble suppliant sue in vain;
- But tell a stranger, long in tempests toss'd,
- What earth we tread, and who commands the coast?
- Then on your name shall wretched mortals call,
- And offer'd victims at your altars fall."
- "I dare not," she replied, "assume the name
- Of goddess, or celestial honors claim:
- For Tyrian virgins bows and quivers bear,
- And purple buskins o'er their ankles wear.
- Know, gentle youth, in Libyan lands you are-
- A people rude in peace, and rough in war.
- The rising city, which from far you see,
- Is Carthage, and a Tyrian colony.
- Phoenician Dido rules the growing state,
- Who fled from Tyre, to shun her brother's hate.
- Great were her wrongs, her story full of fate;
- Which I will sum in short. Sichaeus, known
- For wealth, and brother to the Punic throne,
- Possess'd fair Dido's bed; and either heart
- At once was wounded with an equal dart.
- Her father gave her, yet a spotless maid;
- Pygmalion then the Tyrian scepter sway'd:
- One who condemn'd divine and human laws.
- Then strife ensued, and cursed gold the cause.
- The monarch, blinded with desire of wealth,
- With steel invades his brother's life by stealth;
- Before the sacred altar made him bleed,
- And long from her conceal'd the cruel deed.
- Some tale, some new pretense, he daily coin'd,
- To soothe his sister, and delude her mind.
- At length, in dead of night, the ghost appears
- Of her unhappy lord: the specter stares,
- And, with erected eyes, his bloody bosom bares.
- The cruel altars and his fate he tells,
- And the dire secret of his house reveals,
- Then warns the widow, with her household gods,
- To seek a refuge in remote abodes.
- Last, to support her in so long a way,
- He shows her where his hidden treasure lay.
- Admonish'd thus, and seiz'd with mortal fright,
- The queen provides companions of her flight:
- They meet, and all combine to leave the state,
- Who hate the tyrant, or who fear his hate.
- They seize a fleet, which ready rigg'd they find;
- Nor is Pygmalion's treasure left behind.
- The vessels, heavy laden, put to sea
- With prosp'rous winds; a woman leads the way.
- I know not, if by stress of weather driv'n,
- Or was their fatal course dispos'd by Heav'n;
- At last they landed, where from far your eyes
- May view the turrets of new Carthage rise;
- There bought a space of ground, which (Byrsa call'd,
- From the bull's hide) they first inclos'd, and wall'd.
- But whence are you? what country claims your birth?
- What seek you, strangers, on our Libyan earth?"
- To whom, with sorrow streaming from his eyes,
- And deeply sighing, thus her son replies:
- "Could you with patience hear, or I relate,
- O nymph, the tedious annals of our fate!
- Thro' such a train of woes if I should run,
- The day would sooner than the tale be done!
- From ancient Troy, by force expell'd, we came-
- If you by chance have heard the Trojan name.
- On various seas by various tempests toss'd,
- At length we landed on your Libyan coast.
- The good Aeneas am I call'd- a name,
- While Fortune favor'd, not unknown to fame.
- My household gods, companions of my woes,
- With pious care I rescued from our foes.
- To fruitful Italy my course was bent;
- And from the King of Heav'n is my descent.
- With twice ten sail I cross'd the Phrygian sea;
- Fate and my mother goddess led my way.
- Scarce sev'n, the thin remainders of my fleet,
- From storms preserv'd, within your harbor meet.
- Myself distress'd, an exile, and unknown,
- Debarr'd from Europe, and from Asia thrown,
- In Libyan desarts wander thus alone."
- His tender parent could no longer bear;
- But, interposing, sought to soothe his care.
- "Whoe'er you are- not unbelov'd by Heav'n,
- Since on our friendly shore your ships are driv'n-
- Have courage: to the gods permit the rest,
- And to the queen expose your just request.
- Now take this earnest of success, for more:
- Your scatter'd fleet is join'd upon the shore;
- The winds are chang'd, your friends from danger free;
- Or I renounce my skill in augury.
- Twelve swans behold in beauteous order move,
- And stoop with closing pinions from above;
- Whom late the bird of Jove had driv'n along,
- And thro' the clouds pursued the scatt'ring throng:
- Now, all united in a goodly team,
- They skim the ground, and seek the quiet stream.
- As they, with joy returning, clap their wings,
- And ride the circuit of the skies in rings;
- Not otherwise your ships, and ev'ry friend,
- Already hold the port, or with swift sails descend.
- No more advice is needful; but pursue
- The path before you, and the town in view."
- Thus having said, she turn'd, and made appear
- Her neck refulgent, and dishevel'd hair,
- Which, flowing from her shoulders, reach'd the ground.
- And widely spread ambrosial scents around:
- In length of train descends her sweeping gown;
- And, by her graceful walk, the Queen of Love is known.
- The prince pursued the parting deity
- With words like these: "Ah! whither do you fly?
- Unkind and cruel! to deceive your son
- In borrow'd shapes, and his embrace to shun;
- Never to bless my sight, but thus unknown;
- And still to speak in accents not your own."
- Against the goddess these complaints he made,
- But took the path, and her commands obey'd.
- They march, obscure; for Venus kindly shrouds
- With mists their persons, and involves in clouds,
- That, thus unseen, their passage none might stay,
- Or force to tell the causes of their way.
- This part perform'd, the goddess flies sublime
- To visit Paphos and her native clime;
- Where garlands, ever green and ever fair,
- With vows are offer'd, and with solemn pray'r:
- A hundred altars in her temple smoke;
- A thousand bleeding hearts her pow'r invoke.
- They climb the next ascent, and, looking down,
- Now at a nearer distance view the town.
- The prince with wonder sees the stately tow'rs,
- Which late were huts and shepherds' homely bow'rs,
- The gates and streets; and hears, from ev'ry part,
- The noise and busy concourse of the mart.
- The toiling Tyrians on each other call
- To ply their labor: some extend the wall;
- Some build the citadel; the brawny throng
- Or dig, or push unwieldly stones along.
- Some for their dwellings choose a spot of ground,
- Which, first design'd, with ditches they surround.
- Some laws ordain; and some attend the choice
- Of holy senates, and elect by voice.
- Here some design a mole, while others there
- Lay deep foundations for a theater;
- From marble quarries mighty columns hew,
- For ornaments of scenes, and future view.
- Such is their toil, and such their busy pains,
- As exercise the bees in flow'ry plains,
- When winter past, and summer scarce begun,
- Invites them forth to labor in the sun;
- Some lead their youth abroad, while some condense
- Their liquid store, and some in cells dispense;
- Some at the gate stand ready to receive
- The golden burthen, and their friends relieve;
- All with united force, combine to drive
- The lazy drones from the laborious hive:
- With envy stung, they view each other's deeds;
- The fragrant work with diligence proceeds.
- "Thrice happy you, whose walls already rise!"
- Aeneas said, and view'd, with lifted eyes,
- Their lofty tow'rs; then, entiring at the gate,
- Conceal'd in clouds (prodigious to relate)
- He mix'd, unmark'd, among the busy throng,
- Borne by the tide, and pass'd unseen along.
- Full in the center of the town there stood,
- Thick set with trees, a venerable wood.
- The Tyrians, landing near this holy ground,
- And digging here, a prosp'rous omen found:
- From under earth a courser's head they drew,
- Their growth and future fortune to foreshew.
- This fated sign their foundress Juno gave,
- Of a soil fruitful, and a people brave.
- Sidonian Dido here with solemn state
- Did Juno's temple build, and consecrate,
- Enrich'd with gifts, and with a golden shrine;
- But more the goddess made the place divine.
- On brazen steps the marble threshold rose,
- And brazen plates the cedar beams inclose:
- The rafters are with brazen cov'rings crown'd;
- The lofty doors on brazen hinges sound.
- What first Aeneas this place beheld,
- Reviv'd his courage, and his fear expell'd.
- For while, expecting there the queen, he rais'd
- His wond'ring eyes, and round the temple gaz'd,
- Admir'd the fortune of the rising town,
- The striving artists, and their arts' renown;
- He saw, in order painted on the wall,
- Whatever did unhappy Troy befall:
- The wars that fame around the world had blown,
- All to the life, and ev'ry leader known.
- There Agamemnon, Priam here, he spies,
- And fierce Achilles, who both kings defies.
- He stopp'd, and weeping said: "O friend! ev'n here
- The monuments of Trojan woes appear!
- Our known disasters fill ev'n foreign lands:
- See there, where old unhappy Priam stands!
- Ev'n the mute walls relate the warrior's fame,
- And Trojan griefs the Tyrians' pity claim."
- He said (his tears a ready passage find),
- Devouring what he saw so well design'd,
- And with an empty picture fed his mind:
- For there he saw the fainting Grecians yield,
- And here the trembling Trojans quit the field,
- Pursued by fierce Achilles thro' the plain,
- On his high chariot driving o'er the slain.
- The tents of Rhesus next his grief renew,
- By their white sails betray'd to nightly view;
- And wakeful Diomede, whose cruel sword
- The sentries slew, nor spar'd their slumb'ring lord,
- Then took the fiery steeds, ere yet the food
- Of Troy they taste, or drink the Xanthian flood.
- Elsewhere he saw where Troilus defied
- Achilles, and unequal combat tried;
- Then, where the boy disarm'd, with loosen'd reins,
- Was by his horses hurried o'er the plains,
- Hung by the neck and hair, and dragg'd around:
- The hostile spear, yet sticking in his wound,
- With tracks of blood inscrib'd the dusty ground.
- Meantime the Trojan dames, oppress'd with woe,
- To Pallas' fane in long procession go,
- In hopes to reconcile their heav'nly foe.
- They weep, they beat their breasts, they rend their hair,
- And rich embroider'd vests for presents bear;
- But the stern goddess stands unmov'd with pray'r.
- Thrice round the Trojan walls Achilles drew
- The corpse of Hector, whom in fight he slew.
- Here Priam sues; and there, for sums of gold,
- The lifeless body of his son is sold.
- So sad an object, and so well express'd,
- Drew sighs and groans from the griev'd hero's breast,
- To see the figure of his lifeless friend,
- And his old sire his helpless hand extend.
- Himself he saw amidst the Grecian train,
- Mix'd in the bloody battle on the plain;
- And swarthy Memnon in his arms he knew,
- His pompous ensigns, and his Indian crew.
- Penthisilea there, with haughty grace,
- Leads to the wars an Amazonian race:
- In their right hands a pointed dart they wield;
- The left, for ward, sustains the lunar shield.
- Athwart her breast a golden belt she throws,
- Amidst the press alone provokes a thousand foes,
- And dares her maiden arms to manly force oppose.
- Thus while the Trojan prince employs his eyes,
- Fix'd on the walls with wonder and surprise,
- The beauteous Dido, with a num'rous train
- And pomp of guards, ascends the sacred fane.
- Such on Eurotas' banks, or Cynthus' height,
- Diana seems; and so she charms the sight,
- When in the dance the graceful goddess leads
- The choir of nymphs, and overtops their heads:
- Known by her quiver, and her lofty mien,
- She walks majestic, and she looks their queen;
- Latona sees her shine above the rest,
- And feeds with secret joy her silent breast.
- Such Dido was; with such becoming state,
- Amidst the crowd, she walks serenely great.
- Their labor to her future sway she speeds,
- And passing with a gracious glance proceeds;
- Then mounts the throne, high plac'd before the shrine:
- In crowds around, the swarming people join.
- She takes petitions, and dispenses laws,
- Hears and determines ev'ry private cause;
- Their tasks in equal portions she divides,
- And, where unequal, there by lots decides.
- Another way by chance Aeneas bends
- His eyes, and unexpected sees his friends,
- Antheus, Sergestus grave, Cloanthus strong,
- And at their backs a mighty Trojan throng,
- Whom late the tempest on the billows toss'd,
- And widely scatter'd on another coast.
- The prince, unseen, surpris'd with wonder stands,
- And longs, with joyful haste, to join their hands;
- But, doubtful of the wish'd event, he stays,
- And from the hollow cloud his friends surveys,
- Impatient till they told their present state,
- And where they left their ships, and what their fate,
- And why they came, and what was their request;
- For these were sent, commission'd by the rest,
- To sue for leave to land their sickly men,
- And gain admission to the gracious queen.
- Ent'ring, with cries they fill'd the holy fane;
- Then thus, with lowly voice, Ilioneus began:
- "O queen! indulg'd by favor of the gods
- To found an empire in these new abodes,
- To build a town, with statutes to restrain
- The wild inhabitants beneath thy reign,
- We wretched Trojans, toss'd on ev'ry shore,
- From sea to sea, thy clemency implore.
- Forbid the fires our shipping to deface!
- Receive th' unhappy fugitives to grace,
- And spare the remnant of a pious race!
- We come not with design of wasteful prey,
- To drive the country, force the swains away:
- Nor such our strength, nor such is our desire;
- The vanquish'd dare not to such thoughts aspire.
- A land there is, Hesperia nam'd of old;
- The soil is fruitful, and the men are bold-
- Th' Oenotrians held it once- by common fame
- Now call'd Italia, from the leader's name.
- To that sweet region was our voyage bent,
- When winds and ev'ry warring element
- Disturb'd our course, and, far from sight of land,
- Cast our torn vessels on the moving sand:
- The sea came on; the South, with mighty roar,
- Dispers'd and dash'd the rest upon the rocky shore.
- Those few you see escap'd the Storm, and fear,
- Unless you interpose, a shipwreck here.
- What men, what monsters, what inhuman race,
- What laws, what barb'rous customs of the place,
- Shut up a desart shore to drowning men,
- And drive us to the cruel seas again?
- If our hard fortune no compassion draws,
- Nor hospitable rights, nor human laws,
- The gods are just, and will revenge our cause.
- Aeneas was our prince: a juster lord,
- Or nobler warrior, never drew a sword;
- Observant of the right, religious of his word.
- If yet he lives, and draws this vital air,
- Nor we, his friends, of safety shall despair;
- Nor you, great queen, these offices repent,
- Which he will equal, and perhaps augment.
- We want not cities, nor Sicilian coasts,
- Where King Acestes Trojan lineage boasts.
- Permit our ships a shelter on your shores,
- Refitted from your woods with planks and oars,
- That, if our prince be safe, we may renew
- Our destin'd course, and Italy pursue.
- But if, O best of men, the Fates ordain
- That thou art swallow'd in the Libyan main,
- And if our young Iulus be no more,
- Dismiss our navy from your friendly shore,
- That we to good Acestes may return,
- And with our friends our common losses mourn."
- Thus spoke Ilioneus: the Trojan crew
- With cries and clamors his request renew.
- The modest queen a while, with downcast eyes,
- Ponder'd the speech; then briefly thus replies:
- "Trojans, dismiss your fears; my cruel fate,
- And doubts attending an unsettled state,
- Force me to guard my coast from foreign foes.
- Who has not heard the story of your woes,
- The name and fortune of your native place,
- The fame and valor of the Phrygian race?
- We Tyrians are not so devoid of sense,
- Nor so remote from Phoebus' influence.
- Whether to Latian shores your course is bent,
- Or, driv'n by tempests from your first intent,
- You seek the good Acestes' government,
- Your men shall be receiv'd, your fleet repair'd,
- And sail, with ships of convoy for your guard:
- Or, would you stay, and join your friendly pow'rs
- To raise and to defend the Tyrian tow'rs,
- My wealth, my city, and myself are yours.
- And would to Heav'n, the Storm, you felt, would bring
- On Carthaginian coasts your wand'ring king.
- My people shall, by my command, explore
- The ports and creeks of ev'ry winding shore,
- And towns, and wilds, and shady woods, in quest
- Of so renown'd and so desir'd a guest."
- Rais'd in his mind the Trojan hero stood,
- And long'd to break from out his ambient cloud:
- Achates found it, and thus urg'd his way:
- "From whence, O goddess-born, this long delay?
- What more can you desire, your welcome sure,
- Your fleet in safety, and your friends secure?
- One only wants; and him we saw in vain
- Oppose the Storm, and swallow'd in the main.
- Orontes in his fate our forfeit paid;
- The rest agrees with what your mother said."
- Scarce had he spoken, when the cloud gave way,
- The mists flew upward and dissolv'd in day.
- The Trojan chief appear'd in open sight,
- August in visage, and serenely bright.
- His mother goddess, with her hands divine,
- Had form'd his curling locks, and made his temples shine,
- And giv'n his rolling eyes a sparkling grace,
- And breath'd a youthful vigor on his face;
- Like polish'd ivory, beauteous to behold,
- Or Parian marble, when enchas'd in gold:
- Thus radiant from the circling cloud he broke,
- And thus with manly modesty he spoke:
- "He whom you seek am I; by tempests toss'd,
- And sav'd from shipwreck on your Libyan coast;
- Presenting, gracious queen, before your throne,
- A prince that owes his life to you alone.
- Fair majesty, the refuge and redress
- Of those whom fate pursues, and wants oppress,
- You, who your pious offices employ
- To save the relics of abandon'd Troy;
- Receive the shipwreck'd on your friendly shore,
- With hospitable rites relieve the poor;
- Associate in your town a wand'ring train,
- And strangers in your palace entertain:
- What thanks can wretched fugitives return,
- Who, scatter'd thro' the world, in exile mourn?
- The gods, if gods to goodness are inclin'd;
- If acts of mercy touch their heav'nly mind,
- And, more than all the gods, your gen'rous heart.
- Conscious of worth, requite its own desert!
- In you this age is happy, and this earth,
- And parents more than mortal gave you birth.
- While rolling rivers into seas shall run,
- And round the space of heav'n the radiant sun;
- While trees the mountain tops with shades supply,
- Your honor, name, and praise shall never die.
- Whate'er abode my fortune has assign'd,
- Your image shall be present in my mind."
- Thus having said, he turn'd with pious haste,
- And joyful his expecting friends embrac'd:
- With his right hand Ilioneus was grac'd,
- Serestus with his left; then to his breast
- Cloanthus and the noble Gyas press'd;
- And so by turns descended to the rest.
- The Tyrian queen stood fix'd upon his face,
- Pleas'd with his motions, ravish'd with his grace;
- Admir'd his fortunes, more admir'd the man;
- Then recollected stood, and thus began:
- "What fate, O goddess-born; what angry pow'rs
- Have cast you shipwrack'd on our barren shores?
- Are you the great Aeneas, known to fame,
- Who from celestial seed your lineage claim?
- The same Aeneas whom fair Venus bore
- To fam'd Anchises on th' Idaean shore?
- It calls into my mind, tho' then a child,
- When Teucer came, from Salamis exil'd,
- And sought my father's aid, to be restor'd:
- My father Belus then with fire and sword
- Invaded Cyprus, made the region bare,
- And, conqu'ring, finish'd the successful war.
- From him the Trojan siege I understood,
- The Grecian chiefs, and your illustrious blood.
- Your foe himself the Dardan valor prais'd,
- And his own ancestry from Trojans rais'd.
- Enter, my noble guest, and you shall find,
- If not a costly welcome, yet a kind:
- For I myself, like you, have been distress'd,
- Till Heav'n afforded me this place of rest;
- Like you, an alien in a land unknown,
- I learn to pity woes so like my own."
- She said, and to the palace led her guest;
- Then offer'd incense, and proclaim'd a feast.
- Nor yet less careful for her absent friends,
- Twice ten fat oxen to the ships she sends;
- Besides a hundred boars, a hundred lambs,
- With bleating cries, attend their milky dams;
- And jars of gen'rous wine and spacious bowls
- She gives, to cheer the sailors' drooping souls.
- Now purple hangings clothe the palace walls,
- And sumptuous feasts are made in splendid halls:
- On Tyrian carpets, richly wrought, they dine;
- With loads of massy plate the sideboards shine,
- And antique vases, all of gold emboss'd
- (The gold itself inferior to the cost),
- Of curious work, where on the sides were seen
- The fights and figures of illustrious men,
- From their first founder to the present queen.
- The good Aeneas, paternal care
- Iulus' absence could no longer bear,
- Dispatch'd Achates to the ships in haste,
- To give a glad relation of the past,
- And, fraught with precious gifts, to bring the boy,
- Snatch'd from the ruins of unhappy Troy:
- A robe of tissue, stiff with golden wire;
- An upper vest, once Helen's rich attire,
- From Argos by the fam'd adultress brought,
- With golden flow'rs and winding foliage wrought,
- Her mother Leda's present, when she came
- To ruin Troy and set the world on flame;
- The scepter Priam's eldest daughter bore,
- Her orient necklace, and the crown she wore
- Of double texture, glorious to behold,
- One order set with gems, and one with gold.
- Instructed thus, the wise Achates goes,
- And in his diligence his duty shows.
- But Venus, anxious for her son's affairs,
- New counsels tries, and new designs prepares:
- That Cupid should assume the shape and face
- Of sweet Ascanius, and the sprightly grace;
- Should bring the presents, in her nephew's stead,
- And in Eliza's veins the gentle poison shed:
- For much she fear'd the Tyrians, double-tongued,
- And knew the town to Juno's care belong'd.
- These thoughts by night her golden slumbers broke,
- And thus alarm'd, to winged Love she spoke:
- "My son, my strength, whose mighty pow'r alone
- Controls the Thund'rer on his awful throne,
- To thee thy much-afflicted mother flies,
- And on thy succor and thy faith relies.
- Thou know'st, my son, how Jove's revengeful wife,
- By force and fraud, attempts thy brother's life;
- And often hast thou mourn'd with me his pains.
- Him Dido now with blandishment detains;
- But I suspect the town where Juno reigns.
- For this 't is needful to prevent her art,
- And fire with love the proud Phoenician's heart:
- A love so violent, so strong, so sure,
- As neither age can change, nor art can cure.
- How this may be perform'd, now take my mind:
- Ascanius by his father is design'd
- To come, with presents laden, from the port,
- To gratify the queen, and gain the court.
- I mean to plunge the boy in pleasing sleep,
- And, ravish'd, in Idalian bow'rs to keep,
- Or high Cythera, that the sweet deceit
- May pass unseen, and none prevent the cheat.
- Take thou his form and shape. I beg the grace
- But only for a night's revolving space:
- Thyself a boy, assume a boy's dissembled face;
- That when, amidst the fervor of the feast,
- The Tyrian hugs and fonds thee on her breast,
- And with sweet kisses in her arms constrains,
- Thou may'st infuse thy venom in her veins."
- The God of Love obeys, and sets aside
- His bow and quiver, and his plumy pride;
- He walks Iulus in his mother's sight,
- And in the sweet resemblance takes delight.
- The goddess then to young Ascanius flies,
- And in a pleasing slumber seals his eyes:
- Lull'd in her lap, amidst a train of Loves,
- She gently bears him to her blissful groves,
- Then with a wreath of myrtle crowns his head,
- And softly lays him on a flow'ry bed.
- Cupid meantime assum'd his form and face,
- Foll'wing Achates with a shorter pace,
- And brought the gifts. The queen already sate
- Amidst the Trojan lords, in shining state,
- High on a golden bed: her princely guest
- Was next her side; in order sate the rest.
- Then canisters with bread are heap'd on high;
- Th' attendants water for their hands supply,
- And, having wash'd, with silken towels dry.
- Next fifty handmaids in long order bore
- The censers, and with fumes the gods adore:
- Then youths, and virgins twice as many, join
- To place the dishes, and to serve the wine.
- The Tyrian train, admitted to the feast,
- Approach, and on the painted couches rest.
- All on the Trojan gifts with wonder gaze,
- But view the beauteous boy with more amaze,
- His rosy-color'd cheeks, his radiant eyes,
- His motions, voice, and shape, and all the god's disguise;
- Nor pass unprais'd the vest and veil divine,
- Which wand'ring foliage and rich flow'rs entwine.
- But, far above the rest, the royal dame,
- (Already doom'd to love's disastrous flame,)
- With eyes insatiate, and tumultuous joy,
- Beholds the presents, and admires the boy.
- The guileful god about the hero long,
- With children's play, and false embraces, hung;
- Then sought the queen: she took him to her arms
- With greedy pleasure, and devour'd his charms.
- Unhappy Dido little thought what guest,
- How dire a god, she drew so near her breast;
- But he, not mindless of his mother's pray'r,
- Works in the pliant bosom of the fair,
- And molds her heart anew, and blots her former care.
- The dead is to the living love resign'd;
- And all Aeneas enters in her mind.
- Now, when the rage of hunger was appeas'd,
- The meat remov'd, and ev'ry guest was pleas'd,
- The golden bowls with sparkling wine are crown'd,
- And thro' the palace cheerful cries resound.
- From gilded roofs depending lamps display
- Nocturnal beams, that emulate the day.
- A golden bowl, that shone with gems divine,
- The queen commanded to be crown'd with wine:
- The bowl that Belus us'd, and all the Tyrian line.
- Then, silence thro' the hall proclaim'd, she spoke:
- "O hospitable Jove! we thus invoke,
- With solemn rites, thy sacred name and pow'r;
- Bless to both nations this auspicious hour!
- So may the Trojan and the Tyrian line
- In lasting concord from this day combine.
- Thou, Bacchus, god of joys and friendly cheer,
- And gracious Juno, both be present here!
- And you, my lords of Tyre, your vows address
- To Heav'n with mine, to ratify the peace."
- The goblet then she took, with nectar crown'd
- (Sprinkling the first libations on the ground,)
- And rais'd it to her mouth with sober grace;
- Then, sipping, offer'd to the next in place.
- 'T was Bitias whom she call'd, a thirsty soul;
- He took challenge, and embrac'd the bowl,
- With pleasure swill'd the gold, nor ceas'd to draw,
- Till he the bottom of the brimmer saw.
- The goblet goes around: Iopas brought
- His golden lyre, and sung what ancient Atlas taught:
- The various labors of the wand'ring moon,
- And whence proceed th' eclipses of the sun;
- Th' original of men and beasts; and whence
- The rains arise, and fires their warmth dispense,
- And fix'd and erring stars dispose their influence;
- What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays
- The summer nights and shortens winter days.
- With peals of shouts the Tyrians praise the song:
- Those peals are echo'd by the Trojan throng.
- Th' unhappy queen with talk prolong'd the night,
- And drank large draughts of love with vast delight;
- Of Priam much enquir'd, of Hector more;
- Then ask'd what arms the swarthy Memnon wore,
- What troops he landed on the Trojan shore;
- The steeds of Diomede varied the discourse,
- And fierce Achilles, with his matchless force;
- At length, as fate and her ill stars requir'd,
- To hear the series of the war desir'd.
- "Relate at large, my godlike guest," she said,
- "The Grecian stratagems, the town betray'd:
- The fatal issue of so long a war,
- Your flight, your wand'rings, and your woes, declare;
- For, since on ev'ry sea, on ev'ry coast,
- Your men have been distress'd, your navy toss'd,
- Sev'n times the sun has either tropic view'd,
- The winter banish'd, and the spring renew'd."`;
- const book6 = `He said, and wept; then spread his sails before
- The winds, and reach'd at length the Cumaean shore:
- Their anchors dropp'd, his crew the vessels moor.
- They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land,
- And greet with greedy joy th' Italian strand.
- Some strike from clashing flints their fiery seed;
- Some gather sticks, the kindled flames to feed,
- Or search for hollow trees, and fell the woods,
- Or trace thro' valleys the discover'd floods.
- Thus, while their sev'ral charges they fulfil,
- The pious prince ascends the sacred hill
- Where Phoebus is ador'd; and seeks the shade
- Which hides from sight his venerable maid.
- Deep in a cave the Sibyl makes abode;
- Thence full of fate returns, and of the god.
- Thro' Trivia's grove they walk; and now behold,
- And enter now, the temple roof'd with gold.
- When Daedalus, to fly the Cretan shore,
- His heavy limbs on jointed pinions bore,
- (The first who sail'd in air,) 't is sung by Fame,
- To the Cumaean coast at length he came,
- And here alighting, built this costly frame.
- Inscrib'd to Phoebus, here he hung on high
- The steerage of his wings, that cut the sky:
- Then o'er the lofty gate his art emboss'd
- Androgeos' death, and off'rings to his ghost;
- Sev'n youths from Athens yearly sent, to meet
- The fate appointed by revengeful Crete.
- And next to those the dreadful urn was plac'd,
- In which the destin'd names by lots were cast:
- The mournful parents stand around in tears,
- And rising Crete against their shore appears.
- There too, in living sculpture, might be seen
- The mad affection of the Cretan queen;
- Then how she cheats her bellowing lover's eye;
- The rushing leap, the doubtful progeny,
- The lower part a beast, a man above,
- The monument of their polluted love.
- Not far from thence he grav'd the wondrous maze,
- A thousand doors, a thousand winding ways:
- Here dwells the monster, hid from human view,
- Not to be found, but by the faithful clew;
- Till the kind artist, mov'd with pious grief,
- Lent to the loving maid this last relief,
- And all those erring paths describ'd so well
- That Theseus conquer'd and the monster fell.
- Here hapless Icarus had found his part,
- Had not the father's grief restrain'd his art.
- He twice assay'd to cast his son in gold;
- Twice from his hands he dropp'd the forming mold.
- All this with wond'ring eyes Aeneas view'd;
- Each varying object his delight renew'd:
- Eager to read the rest- Achates came,
- And by his side the mad divining dame,
- The priestess of the god, Deiphobe her name.
- "Time suffers not," she said, "to feed your eyes
- With empty pleasures; haste the sacrifice.
- Sev'n bullocks, yet unyok'd, for Phoebus choose,
- And for Diana sev'n unspotted ewes."
- This said, the servants urge the sacred rites,
- While to the temple she the prince invites.
- A spacious cave, within its farmost part,
- Was hew'd and fashion'd by laborious art
- Thro' the hill's hollow sides: before the place,
- A hundred doors a hundred entries grace;
- As many voices issue, and the sound
- Of Sybil's words as many times rebound.
- Now to the mouth they come. Aloud she cries:
- "This is the time; enquire your destinies.
- He comes; behold the god!" Thus while she said,
- (And shiv'ring at the sacred entry stay'd,)
- Her color chang'd; her face was not the same,
- And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.
- Her hair stood up; convulsive rage possess'd
- Her trembling limbs, and heav'd her lab'ring breast.
- Greater than humankind she seem'd to look,
- And with an accent more than mortal spoke.
- Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;
- When all the god came rushing on her soul.
- Swiftly she turn'd, and, foaming as she spoke:
- "Why this delay?" she cried- "the pow'rs invoke!
- Thy pray'rs alone can open this abode;
- Else vain are my demands, and dumb the god."
- She said no more. The trembling Trojans hear,
- O'erspread with a damp sweat and holy fear.
- The prince himself, with awful dread possess'd,
- His vows to great Apollo thus address'd:
- "Indulgent god, propitious pow'r to Troy,
- Swift to relieve, unwilling to destroy,
- Directed by whose hand the Dardan dart
- Pierc'd the proud Grecian's only mortal part:
- Thus far, by fate's decrees and thy commands,
- Thro' ambient seas and thro' devouring sands,
- Our exil'd crew has sought th' Ausonian ground;
- And now, at length, the flying coast is found.
- Thus far the fate of Troy, from place to place,
- With fury has pursued her wand'ring race.
- Here cease, ye pow'rs, and let your vengeance end:
- Troy is no more, and can no more offend.
- And thou, O sacred maid, inspir'd to see
- Th' event of things in dark futurity;
- Give me what Heav'n has promis'd to my fate,
- To conquer and command the Latian state;
- To fix my wand'ring gods, and find a place
- For the long exiles of the Trojan race.
- Then shall my grateful hands a temple rear
- To the twin gods, with vows and solemn pray'r;
- And annual rites, and festivals, and games,
- Shall be perform'd to their auspicious names.
- Nor shalt thou want thy honors in my land;
- For there thy faithful oracles shall stand,
- Preserv'd in shrines; and ev'ry sacred lay,
- Which, by thy mouth, Apollo shall convey:
- All shall be treasur'd by a chosen train
- Of holy priests, and ever shall remain.
- But O! commit not thy prophetic mind
- To flitting leaves, the sport of ev'ry wind,
- Lest they disperse in air our empty fate;
- Write not, but, what the pow'rs ordain, relate."
- Struggling in vain, impatient of her load,
- And lab'ring underneath the pond'rous god,
- The more she strove to shake him from her breast,
- With more and far superior force he press'd;
- Commands his entrance, and, without control,
- Usurps her organs and inspires her soul.
- Now, with a furious blast, the hundred doors
- Ope of themselves; a rushing whirlwind roars
- Within the cave, and Sibyl's voice restores:
- "Escap'd the dangers of the wat'ry reign,
- Yet more and greater ills by land remain.
- The coast, so long desir'd (nor doubt th' event),
- Thy troops shall reach, but, having reach'd, repent.
- Wars, horrid wars, I view- a field of blood,
- And Tiber rolling with a purple flood.
- Simois nor Xanthus shall be wanting there:
- A new Achilles shall in arms appear,
- And he, too, goddess-born. Fierce Juno's hate,
- Added to hostile force, shall urge thy fate.
- To what strange nations shalt not thou resort,
- Driv'n to solicit aid at ev'ry court!
- The cause the same which Ilium once oppress'd;
- A foreign mistress, and a foreign guest.
- But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes,
- The more thy fortune frowns, the more oppose.
- The dawnings of thy safety shall be shown
- From whence thou least shalt hope, a Grecian town."
- Thus, from the dark recess, the Sibyl spoke,
- And the resisting air the thunder broke;
- The cave rebellow'd, and the temple shook.
- Th' ambiguous god, who rul'd her lab'ring breast,
- In these mysterious words his mind express'd;
- Some truths reveal'd, in terms involv'd the rest.
- At length her fury fell, her foaming ceas'd,
- And, ebbing in her soul, the god decreas'd.
- Then thus the chief: "No terror to my view,
- No frightful face of danger can be new.
- Inur'd to suffer, and resolv'd to dare,
- The Fates, without my pow'r, shall be without my care.
- This let me crave, since near your grove the road
- To hell lies open, and the dark abode
- Which Acheron surrounds, th' innavigable flood;
- Conduct me thro' the regions void of light,
- And lead me longing to my father's sight.
- For him, a thousand dangers I have sought,
- And, rushing where the thickest Grecians fought,
- Safe on my back the sacred burthen brought.
- He, for my sake, the raging ocean tried,
- And wrath of Heav'n, my still auspicious guide,
- And bore beyond the strength decrepid age supplied.
- Oft, since he breath'd his last, in dead of night
- His reverend image stood before my sight;
- Enjoin'd to seek, below, his holy shade;
- Conducted there by your unerring aid.
- But you, if pious minds by pray'rs are won,
- Oblige the father, and protect the son.
- Yours is the pow'r; nor Proserpine in vain
- Has made you priestess of her nightly reign.
- If Orpheus, arm'd with his enchanting lyre,
- The ruthless king with pity could inspire,
- And from the shades below redeem his wife;
- If Pollux, off'ring his alternate life,
- Could free his brother, and can daily go
- By turns aloft, by turns descend below-
- Why name I Theseus, or his greater friend,
- Who trod the downward path, and upward could ascend?
- Not less than theirs from Jove my lineage came;
- My mother greater, my descent the same."
- So pray'd the Trojan prince, and, while he pray'd,
- His hand upon the holy altar laid.
- Then thus replied the prophetess divine:
- "O goddess-born of great Anchises' line,
- The gates of hell are open night and day;
- Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
- But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
- In this the task and mighty labor lies.
- To few great Jupiter imparts this grace,
- And those of shining worth and heav'nly race.
- Betwixt those regions and our upper light,
- Deep forests and impenetrable night
- Possess the middle space: th' infernal bounds
- Cocytus, with his sable waves, surrounds.
- But if so dire a love your soul invades,
- As twice below to view the trembling shades;
- If you so hard a toil will undertake,
- As twice to pass th' innavigable lake;
- Receive my counsel. In the neighb'ring grove
- There stands a tree; the queen of Stygian Jove
- Claims it her own; thick woods and gloomy night
- Conceal the happy plant from human sight.
- One bough it bears; but (wondrous to behold!)
- The ductile rind and leaves of radiant gold:
- This from the vulgar branches must be torn,
- And to fair Proserpine the present borne,
- Ere leave be giv'n to tempt the nether skies.
- The first thus rent a second will arise,
- And the same metal the same room supplies.
- Look round the wood, with lifted eyes, to see
- The lurking gold upon the fatal tree:
- Then rend it off, as holy rites command;
- The willing metal will obey thy hand,
- Following with ease, if favor'd by thy fate,
- Thou art foredoom'd to view the Stygian state:
- If not, no labor can the tree constrain;
- And strength of stubborn arms and steel are vain.
- Besides, you know not, while you here attend,
- Th' unworthy fate of your unhappy friend:
- Breathless he lies; and his unburied ghost,
- Depriv'd of fun'ral rites, pollutes your host.
- Pay first his pious dues; and, for the dead,
- Two sable sheep around his hearse be led;
- Then, living turfs upon his body lay:
- This done, securely take the destin'd way,
- To find the regions destitute of day."
- She said, and held her peace. Aeneas went
- Sad from the cave, and full of discontent,
- Unknowing whom the sacred Sibyl meant.
- Achates, the companion of his breast,
- Goes grieving by his side, with equal cares oppress'd.
- Walking, they talk'd, and fruitlessly divin'd
- What friend the priestess by those words design'd.
- But soon they found an object to deplore:
- Misenus lay extended the shore;
- Son of the God of Winds: none so renown'd
- The warrior trumpet in the field to sound;
- With breathing brass to kindle fierce alarms,
- And rouse to dare their fate in honorable arms.
- He serv'd great Hector, and was ever near,
- Not with his trumpet only, but his spear.
- But by Pelides' arms when Hector fell,
- He chose Aeneas; and he chose as well.
- Swoln with applause, and aiming still at more,
- He now provokes the sea gods from the shore;
- With envy Triton heard the martial sound,
- And the bold champion, for his challenge, drown'd;
- Then cast his mangled carcass on the strand:
- The gazing crowd around the body stand.
- All weep; but most Aeneas mourns his fate,
- And hastens to perform the funeral state.
- In altar-wise, a stately pile they rear;
- The basis broad below, and top advanc'd in air.
- An ancient wood, fit for the work design'd,
- (The shady covert of the salvage kind,)
- The Trojans found: the sounding ax is plied;
- Firs, pines, and pitch trees, and the tow'ring pride
- Of forest ashes, feel the fatal stroke,
- And piercing wedges cleave the stubborn oak.
- Huge trunks of trees, fell'd from the steepy crown
- Of the bare mountains, roll with ruin down.
- Arm'd like the rest the Trojan prince appears,
- And by his pious labor urges theirs.
- Thus while he wrought, revolving in his mind
- The ways to compass what his wish design'd,
- He cast his eyes upon the gloomy grove,
- And then with vows implor'd the Queen of Love:
- "O may thy pow'r, propitious still to me,
- Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree,
- In this deep forest; since the Sibyl's breath
- Foretold, alas! too true, Misenus' death."
- Scarce had he said, when, full before his sight,
- Two doves, descending from their airy flight,
- Secure upon the grassy plain alight.
- He knew his mother's birds; and thus he pray'd:
- "Be you my guides, with your auspicious aid,
- And lead my footsteps, till the branch be found,
- Whose glitt'ring shadow gilds the sacred ground.
- And thou, great parent, with celestial care,
- In this distress be present to my pray'r!"
- Thus having said, he stopp'd with watchful sight,
- Observing still the motions of their flight,
- What course they took, what happy signs they shew.
- They fed, and, flutt'ring, by degrees withdrew
- Still farther from the place, but still in view:
- Hopping and flying, thus they led him on
- To the slow lake, whose baleful stench to shun
- They wing'd their flight aloft; then, stooping low,
- Perch'd on the double tree that bears the golden bough.
- Thro' the green leafs the glitt'ring shadows glow;
- As, on the sacred oak, the wintry mistletoe,
- Where the proud mother views her precious brood,
- And happier branches, which she never sow'd.
- Such was the glitt'ring; such the ruddy rind,
- And dancing leaves, that wanton'd in the wind.
- He seiz'd the shining bough with griping hold,
- And rent away, with ease, the ling'ring gold;
- Then to the Sibyl's palace bore the prize.
- Meantime the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes,
- To dead Misenus pay his obsequies.
- First, from the ground a lofty pile they rear,
- Of pitch trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir:
- The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew,
- And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew.
- The topmost part his glitt'ring arms adorn;
- Warm waters, then, in brazen caldrons borne,
- Are pour'd to wash his body, joint by joint,
- And fragrant oils the stiffen'd limbs anoint.
- With groans and cries Misenus they deplore:
- Then on a bier, with purple cover'd o'er,
- The breathless body, thus bewail'd, they lay,
- And fire the pile, their faces turn'd away-
- Such reverend rites their fathers us'd to pay.
- Pure oil and incense on the fire they throw,
- And fat of victims, which his friends bestow.
- These gifts the greedy flames to dust devour;
- Then on the living coals red wine they pour;
- And, last, the relics by themselves dispose,
- Which in a brazen urn the priests inclose.
- Old Corynaeus compass'd thrice the crew,
- And dipp'd an olive branch in holy dew;
- Which thrice he sprinkled round, and thrice aloud
- Invok'd the dead, and then dismissed the crowd.
- But good Aeneas order'd on the shore
- A stately tomb, whose top a trumpet bore,
- A soldier's fauchion, and a seaman's oar.
- Thus was his friend interr'd; and deathless fame
- Still to the lofty cape consigns his name.
- These rites perform'd, the prince, without delay,
- Hastes to the nether world his destin'd way.
- Deep was the cave; and, downward as it went
- From the wide mouth, a rocky rough descent;
- And here th' access a gloomy grove defends,
- And there th' unnavigable lake extends,
- O'er whose unhappy waters, void of light,
- No bird presumes to steer his airy flight;
- Such deadly stenches from the depths arise,
- And steaming sulphur, that infects the skies.
- From hence the Grecian bards their legends make,
- And give the name Avernus to the lake.
- Four sable bullocks, in the yoke untaught,
- For sacrifice the pious hero brought.
- The priestess pours the wine betwixt their horns;
- Then cuts the curling hair; that first oblation burns,
- Invoking Hecate hither to repair:
- A pow'rful name in hell and upper air.
- The sacred priests with ready knives bereave
- The beasts of life, and in full bowls receive
- The streaming blood: a lamb to Hell and Night
- (The sable wool without a streak of white)
- Aeneas offers; and, by fate's decree,
- A barren heifer, Proserpine, to thee,
- With holocausts he Pluto's altar fills;
- Sev'n brawny bulls with his own hand he kills;
- Then on the broiling entrails oil he pours;
- Which, ointed thus, the raging flame devours.
- Late the nocturnal sacrifice begun,
- Nor ended till the next returning sun.
- Then earth began to bellow, trees to dance,
- And howling dogs in glimm'ring light advance,
- Ere Hecate came. "Far hence be souls profane!"
- The Sibyl cried, "and from the grove abstain!
- Now, Trojan, take the way thy fates afford;
- Assume thy courage, and unsheathe thy sword."
- She said, and pass'd along the gloomy space;
- The prince pursued her steps with equal pace.
- Ye realms, yet unreveal'd to human sight,
- Ye gods who rule the regions of the night,
- Ye gliding ghosts, permit me to relate
- The mystic wonders of your silent state!
- Obscure they went thro' dreary shades, that led
- Along the waste dominions of the dead.
- Thus wander travelers in woods by night,
- By the moon's doubtful and malignant light,
- When Jove in dusky clouds involves the skies,
- And the faint crescent shoots by fits before their eyes.
- Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell,
- Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell,
- And pale Diseases, and repining Age,
- Want, Fear, and Famine's unresisted rage;
- Here Toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother, Sleep,
- Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep;
- With anxious Pleasures of a guilty mind,
- Deep Frauds before, and open Force behind;
- The Furies' iron beds; and Strife, that shakes
- Her hissing tresses and unfolds her snakes.
- Full in the midst of this infernal road,
- An elm displays her dusky arms abroad:
- The God of Sleep there hides his heavy head,
- And empty dreams on ev'ry leaf are spread.
- Of various forms unnumber'd specters more,
- Centaurs, and double shapes, besiege the door.
- Before the passage, horrid Hydra stands,
- And Briareus with all his hundred hands;
- Gorgons, Geryon with his triple frame;
- And vain Chimaera vomits empty flame.
- The chief unsheath'd his shining steel, prepar'd,
- Tho' seiz'd with sudden fear, to force the guard,
- Off'ring his brandish'd weapon at their face;
- Had not the Sibyl stopp'd his eager pace,
- And told him what those empty phantoms were:
- Forms without bodies, and impassive air.
- Hence to deep Acheron they take their way,
- Whose troubled eddies, thick with ooze and clay,
- Are whirl'd aloft, and in Cocytus lost.
- There Charon stands, who rules the dreary coast-
- A sordid god: down from his hoary chin
- A length of beard descends, uncomb'd, unclean;
- His eyes, like hollow furnaces on fire;
- A girdle, foul with grease, binds his obscene attire.
- He spreads his canvas; with his pole he steers;
- The freights of flitting ghosts in his thin bottom bears.
- He look'd in years; yet in his years were seen
- A youthful vigor and autumnal green.
- An airy crowd came rushing where he stood,
- Which fill'd the margin of the fatal flood:
- Husbands and wives, boys and unmarried maids,
- And mighty heroes' more majestic shades,
- And youths, intomb'd before their fathers' eyes,
- With hollow groans, and shrieks, and feeble cries.
- Thick as the leaves in autumn strow the woods,
- Or fowls, by winter forc'd, forsake the floods,
- And wing their hasty flight to happier lands;
- Such, and so thick, the shiv'ring army stands,
- And press for passage with extended hands.
- Now these, now those, the surly boatman bore:
- The rest he drove to distance from the shore.
- The hero, who beheld with wond'ring eyes
- The tumult mix'd with shrieks, laments, and cries,
- Ask'd of his guide, what the rude concourse meant;
- Why to the shore the thronging people bent;
- What forms of law among the ghosts were us'd;
- Why some were ferried o'er, and some refus'd.
- "Son of Anchises, offspring of the gods,"
- The Sibyl said, "you see the Stygian floods,
- The sacred stream which heav'n's imperial state
- Attests in oaths, and fears to violate.
- The ghosts rejected are th' unhappy crew
- Depriv'd of sepulchers and fun'ral due:
- The boatman, Charon; those, the buried host,
- He ferries over to the farther coast;
- Nor dares his transport vessel cross the waves
- With such whose bones are not compos'd in graves.
- A hundred years they wander on the shore;
- At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er."
- The Trojan chief his forward pace repress'd,
- Revolving anxious thoughts within his breast,
- He saw his friends, who, whelm'd beneath the waves,
- Their fun'ral honors claim'd, and ask'd their quiet graves.
- The lost Leucaspis in the crowd he knew,
- And the brave leader of the Lycian crew,
- Whom, on the Tyrrhene seas, the tempests met;
- The sailors master'd, and the ship o'erset.
- Amidst the spirits, Palinurus press'd,
- Yet fresh from life, a new-admitted guest,
- Who, while he steering view'd the stars, and bore
- His course from Afric to the Latian shore,
- Fell headlong down. The Trojan fix'd his view,
- And scarcely thro' the gloom the sullen shadow knew.
- Then thus the prince: "What envious pow'r, O friend,
- Brought your lov'd life to this disastrous end?
- For Phoebus, ever true in all he said,
- Has in your fate alone my faith betray'd.
- The god foretold you should not die, before
- You reach'd, secure from seas, th' Italian shore.
- Is this th' unerring pow'r?" The ghost replied;
- "Nor Phoebus flatter'd, nor his answers lied;
- Nor envious gods have sent me to the deep:
- But, while the stars and course of heav'n I keep,
- My wearied eyes were seiz'd with fatal sleep.
- I fell; and, with my weight, the helm constrain'd
- Was drawn along, which yet my gripe retain'd.
- Now by the winds and raging waves I swear,
- Your safety, more than mine, was then my care;
- Lest, of the guide bereft, the rudder lost,
- Your ship should run against the rocky coast.
- Three blust'ring nights, borne by the southern blast,
- I floated, and discover'd land at last:
- High on a mounting wave my head I bore,
- Forcing my strength, and gath'ring to the shore.
- Panting, but past the danger, now I seiz'd
- The craggy cliffs, and my tir'd members eas'd.
- While, cumber'd with my dropping clothes, I lay,
- The cruel nation, covetous of prey,
- Stain'd with my blood th' unhospitable coast;
- And now, by winds and waves, my lifeless limbs are toss'd:
- Which O avert, by yon ethereal light,
- Which I have lost for this eternal night!
- Or, if by dearer ties you may be won,
- By your dead sire, and by your living son,
- Redeem from this reproach my wand'ring ghost;
- Or with your navy seek the Velin coast,
- And in a peaceful grave my corpse compose;
- Or, if a nearer way your mother shows,
- Without whose aid you durst not undertake
- This frightful passage o'er the Stygian lake,
- Lend to this wretch your hand, and waft him o'er
- To the sweet banks of yon forbidden shore."
- Scarce had he said, the prophetess began:
- "What hopes delude thee, miserable man?
- Think'st thou, thus unintomb'd, to cross the floods,
- To view the Furies and infernal gods,
- And visit, without leave, the dark abodes?
- Attend the term of long revolving years;
- Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears.
- This comfort of thy dire misfortune take:
- The wrath of Heav'n, inflicted for thy sake,
- With vengeance shall pursue th' inhuman coast,
- Till they propitiate thy offended ghost,
- And raise a tomb, with vows and solemn pray'r;
- And Palinurus' name the place shall bear."
- This calm'd his cares; sooth'd with his future fame,
- And pleas'd to hear his propagated name.
- Now nearer to the Stygian lake they draw:
- Whom, from the shore, the surly boatman saw;
- Observ'd their passage thro' the shady wood,
- And mark'd their near approaches to the flood.
- Then thus he call'd aloud, inflam'd with wrath:
- "Mortal, whate'er, who this forbidden path
- In arms presum'st to tread, I charge thee, stand,
- And tell thy name, and bus'ness in the land.
- Know this, the realm of night- the Stygian shore:
- My boat conveys no living bodies o'er;
- Nor was I pleas'd great Theseus once to bear,
- Who forc'd a passage with his pointed spear,
- Nor strong Alcides- men of mighty fame,
- And from th' immortal gods their lineage came.
- In fetters one the barking porter tied,
- And took him trembling from his sov'reign's side:
- Two sought by force to seize his beauteous bride."
- To whom the Sibyl thus: "Compose thy mind;
- Nor frauds are here contriv'd, nor force design'd.
- Still may the dog the wand'ring troops constrain
- Of airy ghosts, and vex the guilty train,
- And with her grisly lord his lovely queen remain.
- The Trojan chief, whose lineage is from Jove,
- Much fam'd for arms, and more for filial love,
- Is sent to seek his sire in your Elysian grove.
- If neither piety, nor Heav'n's command,
- Can gain his passage to the Stygian strand,
- This fatal present shall prevail at least."
- Then shew'd the shining bough, conceal'd within her vest.
- No more was needful: for the gloomy god
- Stood mute with awe, to see the golden rod;
- Admir'd the destin'd off'ring to his queen-
- A venerable gift, so rarely seen.
- His fury thus appeas'd, he puts to land;
- The ghosts forsake their seats at his command:
- He clears the deck, receives the mighty freight;
- The leaky vessel groans beneath the weight.
- Slowly she sails, and scarcely stems the tides;
- The pressing water pours within her sides.
- His passengers at length are wafted o'er,
- Expos'd, in muddy weeds, upon the miry shore.
- No sooner landed, in his den they found
- The triple porter of the Stygian sound,
- Grim Cerberus, who soon began to rear
- His crested snakes, and arm'd his bristling hair.
- The prudent Sibyl had before prepar'd
- A sop, in honey steep'd, to charm the guard;
- Which, mix'd with pow'rful drugs, she cast before
- His greedy grinning jaws, just op'd to roar.
- With three enormous mouths he gapes; and straight,
- With hunger press'd, devours the pleasing bait.
- Long draughts of sleep his monstrous limbs enslave;
- He reels, and, falling, fills the spacious cave.
- The keeper charm'd, the chief without delay
- Pass'd on, and took th' irremeable way.
- Before the gates, the cries of babes new born,
- Whom fate had from their tender mothers torn,
- Assault his ears: then those, whom form of laws
- Condemn'd to die, when traitors judg'd their cause.
- Nor want they lots, nor judges to review
- The wrongful sentence, and award a new.
- Minos, the strict inquisitor, appears;
- And lives and crimes, with his assessors, hears.
- Round in his urn the blended balls he rolls,
- Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls.
- The next, in place and punishment, are they
- Who prodigally throw their souls away;
- Fools, who, repining at their wretched state,
- And loathing anxious life, suborn'd their fate.
- With late repentance now they would retrieve
- The bodies they forsook, and wish to live;
- Their pains and poverty desire to bear,
- To view the light of heav'n, and breathe the vital air:
- But fate forbids; the Stygian floods oppose,
- And with circling streams the captive souls inclose.
- Not far from thence, the Mournful Fields appear
- So call'd from lovers that inhabit there.
- The souls whom that unhappy flame invades,
- In secret solitude and myrtle shades
- Make endless moans, and, pining with desire,
- Lament too late their unextinguish'd fire.
- Here Procris, Eriphyle here he found,
- Baring her breast, yet bleeding with the wound
- Made by her son. He saw Pasiphae there,
- With Phaedra's ghost, a foul incestuous pair.
- There Laodamia, with Evadne, moves,
- Unhappy both, but loyal in their loves:
- Caeneus, a woman once, and once a man,
- But ending in the sex she first began.
- Not far from these Phoenician Dido stood,
- Fresh from her wound, her bosom bath'd in blood;
- Whom when the Trojan hero hardly knew,
- Obscure in shades, and with a doubtful view,
- (Doubtful as he who sees, thro' dusky night,
- Or thinks he sees, the moon's uncertain light,)
- With tears he first approach'd the sullen shade;
- And, as his love inspir'd him, thus he said:
- "Unhappy queen! then is the common breath
- Of rumor true, in your reported death,
- And I, alas! the cause? By Heav'n, I vow,
- And all the pow'rs that rule the realms below,
- Unwilling I forsook your friendly state,
- Commanded by the gods, and forc'd by fate-
- Those gods, that fate, whose unresisted might
- Have sent me to these regions void of light,
- Thro' the vast empire of eternal night.
- Nor dar'd I to presume, that, press'd with grief,
- My flight should urge you to this dire relief.
- Stay, stay your steps, and listen to my vows:
- 'T is the last interview that fate allows!"
- In vain he thus attempts her mind to move
- With tears, and pray'rs, and late-repenting love.
- Disdainfully she look'd; then turning round,
- But fix'd her eyes unmov'd upon the ground,
- And what he says and swears, regards no more
- Than the deaf rocks, when the loud billows roar;
- But whirl'd away, to shun his hateful sight,
- Hid in the forest and the shades of night;
- Then sought Sichaeus thro' the shady grove,
- Who answer'd all her cares, and equal'd all her love.
- Some pious tears the pitying hero paid,
- And follow'd with his eyes the flitting shade,
- Then took the forward way, by fate ordain'd,
- And, with his guide, the farther fields attain'd,
- Where, sever'd from the rest, the warrior souls remain'd.
- Tydeus he met, with Meleager's race,
- The pride of armies, and the soldiers' grace;
- And pale Adrastus with his ghastly face.
- Of Trojan chiefs he view'd a num'rous train,
- All much lamented, all in battle slain;
- Glaucus and Medon, high above the rest,
- Antenor's sons, and Ceres' sacred priest.
- And proud Idaeus, Priam's charioteer,
- Who shakes his empty reins, and aims his airy spear.
- The gladsome ghosts, in circling troops, attend
- And with unwearied eyes behold their friend;
- Delight to hover near, and long to know
- What bus'ness brought him to the realms below.
- But Argive chiefs, and Agamemnon's train,
- When his refulgent arms flash'd thro' the shady plain,
- Fled from his well-known face, with wonted fear,
- As when his thund'ring sword and pointed spear
- Drove headlong to their ships, and glean'd the routed rear.
- They rais'd a feeble cry, with trembling notes;
- But the weak voice deceiv'd their gasping throats.
- Here Priam's son, Deiphobus, he found,
- Whose face and limbs were one continued wound:
- Dishonest, with lopp'd arms, the youth appears,
- Spoil'd of his nose, and shorten'd of his ears.
- He scarcely knew him, striving to disown
- His blotted form, and blushing to be known;
- And therefore first began: "O Tsucer's race,
- Who durst thy faultless figure thus deface?
- What heart could wish, what hand inflict, this dire disgrace?
- 'Twas fam'd, that in our last and fatal night
- Your single prowess long sustain'd the fight,
- Till tir'd, not forc'd, a glorious fate you chose,
- And fell upon a heap of slaughter'd foes.
- But, in remembrance of so brave a deed,
- A tomb and fun'ral honors I decreed;
- Thrice call'd your manes on the Trojan plains:
- The place your armor and your name retains.
- Your body too I sought, and, had I found,
- Design'd for burial in your native ground."
- The ghost replied: "Your piety has paid
- All needful rites, to rest my wand'ring shade;
- But cruel fate, and my more cruel wife,
- To Grecian swords betray'd my sleeping life.
- These are the monuments of Helen's love:
- The shame I bear below, the marks I bore above.
- You know in what deluding joys we pass'd
- The night that was by Heav'n decreed our last:
- For, when the fatal horse, descending down,
- Pregnant with arms, o'erwhelm'd th' unhappy town
- She feign'd nocturnal orgies; left my bed,
- And, mix'd with Trojan dames, the dances led
- Then, waving high her torch, the signal made,
- Which rous'd the Grecians from their ambuscade.
- With watching overworn, with cares oppress'd,
- Unhappy I had laid me down to rest,
- And heavy sleep my weary limbs possess'd.
- Meantime my worthy wife our arms mislaid,
- And from beneath my head my sword convey'd;
- The door unlatch'd, and, with repeated calls,
- Invites her former lord within my walls.
- Thus in her crime her confidence she plac'd,
- And with new treasons would redeem the past.
- What need I more? Into the room they ran,
- And meanly murther'd a defenseless man.
- Ulysses, basely born, first led the way.
- Avenging pow'rs! with justice if I pray,
- That fortune be their own another day!
- But answer you; and in your turn relate,
- What brought you, living, to the Stygian state:
- Driv'n by the winds and errors of the sea,
- Or did you Heav'n's superior doom obey?
- Or tell what other chance conducts your way,
- To view with mortal eyes our dark retreats,
- Tumults and torments of th' infernal seats."
- While thus in talk the flying hours they pass,
- The sun had finish'd more than half his race:
- And they, perhaps, in words and tears had spent
- The little time of stay which Heav'n had lent;
- But thus the Sibyl chides their long delay:
- "Night rushes down, and headlong drives the day:
- 'T is here, in different paths, the way divides;
- The right to Pluto's golden palace guides;
- The left to that unhappy region tends,
- Which to the depth of Tartarus descends;
- The seat of night profound, and punish'd fiends."
- Then thus Deiphobus: "O sacred maid,
- Forbear to chide, and be your will obey'd!
- Lo! to the secret shadows I retire,
- To pay my penance till my years expire.
- Proceed, auspicious prince, with glory crown'd,
- And born to better fates than I have found."
- He said; and, while he said, his steps he turn'd
- To secret shadows, and in silence mourn'd.
- The hero, looking on the left, espied
- A lofty tow'r, and strong on ev'ry side
- With treble walls, which Phlegethon surrounds,
- Whose fiery flood the burning empire bounds;
- And, press'd betwixt the rocks, the bellowing noise resounds
- Wide is the fronting gate, and, rais'd on high
- With adamantine columns, threats the sky.
- Vain is the force of man, and Heav'n's as vain,
- To crush the pillars which the pile sustain.
- Sublime on these a tow'r of steel is rear'd;
- And dire Tisiphone there keeps the ward,
- Girt in her sanguine gown, by night and day,
- Observant of the souls that pass the downward way.
- From hence are heard the groans of ghosts, the pains
- Of sounding lashes and of dragging chains.
- The Trojan stood astonish'd at their cries,
- And ask'd his guide from whence those yells arise;
- And what the crimes, and what the tortures were,
- And loud laments that rent the liquid air.
- She thus replied: "The chaste and holy race
- Are all forbidden this polluted place.
- But Hecate, when she gave to rule the woods,
- Then led me trembling thro' these dire abodes,
- And taught the tortures of th' avenging gods.
- These are the realms of unrelenting fate;
- And awful Rhadamanthus rules the state.
- He hears and judges each committed crime;
- Enquires into the manner, place, and time.
- The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal,
- (Loth to confess, unable to conceal),
- From the first moment of his vital breath,
- To his last hour of unrepenting death.
- Straight, o'er the guilty ghost, the Fury shakes
- The sounding whip and brandishes her snakes,
- And the pale sinner, with her sisters, takes.
- Then, of itself, unfolds th' eternal door;
- With dreadful sounds the brazen hinges roar.
- You see, before the gate, what stalking ghost
- Commands the guard, what sentries keep the post.
- More formidable Hydra stands within,
- Whose jaws with iron teeth severely grin.
- The gaping gulf low to the center lies,
- And twice as deep as earth is distant from the skies.
- The rivals of the gods, the Titan race,
- Here, sing'd with lightning, roll within th' unfathom'd space.
- Here lie th' Alaean twins, (I saw them both,)
- Enormous bodies, of gigantic growth,
- Who dar'd in fight the Thund'rer to defy,
- Affect his heav'n, and force him from the sky.
- Salmoneus, suff'ring cruel pains, I found,
- For emulating Jove; the rattling sound
- Of mimic thunder, and the glitt'ring blaze
- Of pointed lightnings, and their forky rays.
- Thro' Elis and the Grecian towns he flew;
- Th' audacious wretch four fiery coursers drew:
- He wav'd a torch aloft, and, madly vain,
- Sought godlike worship from a servile train.
- Ambitious fool! with horny hoofs to pass
- O'er hollow arches of resounding brass,
- To rival thunder in its rapid course,
- And imitate inimitable force!
- But he, the King of Heav'n, obscure on high,
- Bar'd his red arm, and, launching from the sky
- His writhen bolt, not shaking empty smoke,
- Down to the deep abyss the flaming felon strook.
- There Tityus was to see, who took his birth
- From heav'n, his nursing from the foodful earth.
- Here his gigantic limbs, with large embrace,
- Infold nine acres of infernal space.
- A rav'nous vulture, in his open'd side,
- Her crooked beak and cruel talons tried;
- Still for the growing liver digg'd his breast;
- The growing liver still supplied the feast;
- Still are his entrails fruitful to their pains:
- Th' immortal hunger lasts, th' immortal food remains.
- Ixion and Perithous I could name,
- And more Thessalian chiefs of mighty fame.
- High o'er their heads a mold'ring rock is plac'd,
- That promises a fall, and shakes at ev'ry blast.
- They lie below, on golden beds display'd;
- And genial feasts with regal pomp are made.
- The Queen of Furies by their sides is set,
- And snatches from their mouths th' untasted meat,
- Which if they touch, her hissing snakes she rears,
- Tossing her torch, and thund'ring in their ears.
- Then they, who brothers' better claim disown,
- Expel their parents, and usurp the throne;
- Defraud their clients, and, to lucre sold,
- Sit brooding on unprofitable gold;
- Who dare not give, and ev'n refuse to lend
- To their poor kindred, or a wanting friend.
- Vast is the throng of these; nor less the train
- Of lustful youths, for foul adult'ry slain:
- Hosts of deserters, who their honor sold,
- And basely broke their faith for bribes of gold.
- All these within the dungeon's depth remain,
- Despairing pardon, and expecting pain.
- Ask not what pains; nor farther seek to know
- Their process, or the forms of law below.
- Some roll a weighty stone; some, laid along,
- And bound with burning wires, on spokes of wheels are hung
- Unhappy Theseus, doom'd for ever there,
- Is fix'd by fate on his eternal chair;
- And wretched Phlegyas warns the world with cries
- (Could warning make the world more just or wise):
- 'Learn righteousness, and dread th' avenging deities.'
- To tyrants others have their country sold,
- Imposing foreign lords, for foreign gold;
- Some have old laws repeal'd, new statutes made,
- Not as the people pleas'd, but as they paid;
- With incest some their daughters' bed profan'd:
- All dar'd the worst of ills, and, what they dar'd, attain'd.
- Had I a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
- And throats of brass, inspir'd with iron lungs,
- I could not half those horrid crimes repeat,
- Nor half the punishments those crimes have met.
- But let us haste our voyage to pursue:
- The walls of Pluto's palace are in view;
- The gate, and iron arch above it, stands
- On anvils labor'd by the Cyclops' hands.
- Before our farther way the Fates allow,
- Here must we fix on high the golden bough."
- She said: and thro' the gloomy shades they pass'd,
- And chose the middle path. Arriv'd at last,
- The prince with living water sprinkled o'er
- His limbs and body; then approach'd the door,
- Possess'd the porch, and on the front above
- He fix'd the fatal bough requir'd by Pluto's love.
- These holy rites perform'd, they took their way
- Where long extended plains of pleasure lay:
- The verdant fields with those of heav'n may vie,
- With ether vested, and a purple sky;
- The blissful seats of happy souls below.
- Stars of their own, and their own suns, they know;
- Their airy limbs in sports they exercise,
- And on the green contend the wrestler's prize.
- Some in heroic verse divinely sing;
- Others in artful measures led the ring.
- The Thracian bard, surrounded by the rest,
- There stands conspicuous in his flowing vest;
- His flying fingers, and harmonious quill,
- Strikes sev'n distinguish'd notes, and sev'n at once they fill.
- Here found they Tsucer's old heroic race,
- Born better times and happier years to grace.
- Assaracus and Ilus here enjoy
- Perpetual fame, with him who founded Troy.
- The chief beheld their chariots from afar,
- Their shining arms, and coursers train'd to war:
- Their lances fix'd in earth, their steeds around,
- Free from their harness, graze the flow'ry ground.
- The love of horses which they had, alive,
- And care of chariots, after death survive.
- Some cheerful souls were feasting on the plain;
- Some did the song, and some the choir maintain,
- Beneath a laurel shade, where mighty Po
- Mounts up to woods above, and hides his head below.
- Here patriots live, who, for their country's good,
- In fighting fields, were prodigal of blood:
- Priests of unblemish'd lives here make abode,
- And poets worthy their inspiring god;
- And searching wits, of more mechanic parts,
- Who grac'd their age with new-invented arts:
- Those who to worth their bounty did extend,
- And those who knew that bounty to commend.
- The heads of these with holy fillets bound,
- And all their temples were with garlands crown'd.
- To these the Sibyl thus her speech address'd,
- And first to him surrounded by the rest
- (Tow'ring his height, and ample was his breast):
- "Say, happy souls, divine Musaeus, say,
- Where lives Anchises, and where lies our way
- To find the hero, for whose only sake
- We sought the dark abodes, and cross'd the bitter lake?"
- To this the sacred poet thus replied:
- "In no fix'd place the happy souls reside.
- In groves we live, and lie on mossy beds,
- By crystal streams, that murmur thro' the meads:
- But pass yon easy hill, and thence descend;
- The path conducts you to your journey's end."
- This said, he led them up the mountain's brow,
- And shews them all the shining fields below.
- They wind the hill, and thro' the blissful meadows go.
- But old Anchises, in a flow'ry vale,
- Review'd his muster'd race, and took the tale:
- Those happy spirits, which, ordain'd by fate,
- For future beings and new bodies wait-
- With studious thought observ'd th' illustrious throng,
- In nature's order as they pass'd along:
- Their names, their fates, their conduct, and their care,
- In peaceful senates and successful war.
- He, when Aeneas on the plain appears,
- Meets him with open arms, and falling tears.
- "Welcome," he said, "the gods' undoubted race!
- O long expected to my dear embrace!
- Once more 't is giv'n me to behold your face!
- The love and pious duty which you pay
- Have pass'd the perils of so hard a way.
- 'T is true, computing times, I now believ'd
- The happy day approach'd; nor are my hopes deceiv'd.
- What length of lands, what oceans have you pass'd;
- What storms sustain'd, and on what shores been cast?
- How have I fear'd your fate! but fear'd it most,
- When love assail'd you, on the Libyan coast."
- To this, the filial duty thus replies:
- "Your sacred ghost before my sleeping eyes
- Appear'd, and often urg'd this painful enterprise.
- After long tossing on the Tyrrhene sea,
- My navy rides at anchor in the bay.
- But reach your hand, O parent shade, nor shun
- The dear embraces of your longing son!"
- He said; and falling tears his face bedew:
- Then thrice around his neck his arms he threw;
- And thrice the flitting shadow slipp'd away,
- Like winds, or empty dreams that fly the day.
- Now, in a secret vale, the Trojan sees
- A sep'rate grove, thro' which a gentle breeze
- Plays with a passing breath, and whispers thro' the trees;
- And, just before the confines of the wood,
- The gliding Lethe leads her silent flood.
- About the boughs an airy nation flew,
- Thick as the humming bees, that hunt the golden dew;
- In summer's heat on tops of lilies feed,
- And creep within their bells, to suck the balmy seed:
- The winged army roams the fields around;
- The rivers and the rocks remurmur to the sound.
- Aeneas wond'ring stood, then ask'd the cause
- Which to the stream the crowding people draws.
- Then thus the sire: "The souls that throng the flood
- Are those to whom, by fate, are other bodies ow'd:
- In Lethe's lake they long oblivion taste,
- Of future life secure, forgetful of the past.
- Long has my soul desir'd this time and place,
- To set before your sight your glorious race,
- That this presaging joy may fire your mind
- To seek the shores by destiny design'd."-
- "O father, can it be, that souls sublime
- Return to visit our terrestrial clime,
- And that the gen'rous mind, releas'd by death,
- Can covet lazy limbs and mortal breath?"
- Anchises then, in order, thus begun
- To clear those wonders to his godlike son:
- "Know, first, that heav'n, and earth's compacted frame,
- And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
- And both the radiant lights, one common soul
- Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
- This active mind, infus'd thro' all the space,
- Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
- Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain,
- And birds of air, and monsters of the main.
- Th' ethereal vigor is in all the same,
- And every soul is fill'd with equal flame;
- As much as earthy limbs, and gross allay
- Of mortal members, subject to decay,
- Blunt not the beams of heav'n and edge of day.
- From this coarse mixture of terrestrial parts,
- Desire and fear by turns possess their hearts,
- And grief, and joy; nor can the groveling mind,
- In the dark dungeon of the limbs confin'd,
- Assert the native skies, or own its heav'nly kind:
- Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains;
- But long-contracted filth ev'n in the soul remains.
- The relics of inveterate vice they wear,
- And spots of sin obscene in ev'ry face appear.
- For this are various penances enjoin'd;
- And some are hung to bleach upon the wind,
- Some plung'd in waters, others purg'd in fires,
- Till all the dregs are drain'd, and all the rust expires.
- All have their manes, and those manes bear:
- The few, so cleans'd, to these abodes repair,
- And breathe, in ample fields, the soft Elysian air.
- Then are they happy, when by length of time
- The scurf is worn away of each committed crime;
- No speck is left of their habitual stains,
- But the pure ether of the soul remains.
- But, when a thousand rolling years are past,
- (So long their punishments and penance last,)
- Whole droves of minds are, by the driving god,
- Compell'd to drink the deep Lethaean flood,
- In large forgetful draughts to steep the cares
- Of their past labors, and their irksome years,
- That, unrememb'ring of its former pain,
- The soul may suffer mortal flesh again."
- Thus having said, the father spirit leads
- The priestess and his son thro' swarms of shades,
- And takes a rising ground, from thence to see
- The long procession of his progeny.
- "Survey," pursued the sire, "this airy throng,
- As, offer'd to thy view, they pass along.
- These are th' Italian names, which fate will join
- With ours, and graff upon the Trojan line.
- Observe the youth who first appears in sight,
- And holds the nearest station to the light,
- Already seems to snuff the vital air,
- And leans just forward, on a shining spear:
- Silvius is he, thy last-begotten race,
- But first in order sent, to fill thy place;
- An Alban name, but mix'd with Dardan blood,
- Born in the covert of a shady wood:
- Him fair Lavinia, thy surviving wife,
- Shall breed in groves, to lead a solitary life.
- In Alba he shall fix his royal seat,
- And, born a king, a race of kings beget.
- Then Procas, honor of the Trojan name,
- Capys, and Numitor, of endless fame.
- A second Silvius after these appears;
- Silvius Aeneas, for thy name he bears;
- For arms and justice equally renown'd,
- Who, late restor'd, in Alba shall be crown'd.
- How great they look! how vig'rously they wield
- Their weighty lances, and sustain the shield!
- But they, who crown'd with oaken wreaths appear,
- Shall Gabian walls and strong Fidena rear;
- Nomentum, Bola, with Pometia, found;
- And raise Collatian tow'rs on rocky ground.
- All these shall then be towns of mighty fame,
- Tho' now they lie obscure, and lands without a name.
- See Romulus the great, born to restore
- The crown that once his injur'd grandsire wore.
- This prince a priestess of your blood shall bear,
- And like his sire in arms he shall appear.
- Two rising crests, his royal head adorn;
- Born from a god, himself to godhead born:
- His sire already signs him for the skies,
- And marks the seat amidst the deities.
- Auspicious chief! thy race, in times to come,
- Shall spread the conquests of imperial Rome-
- Rome, whose ascending tow'rs shall heav'n invade,
- Involving earth and ocean in her shade;
- High as the Mother of the Gods in place,
- And proud, like her, of an immortal race.
- Then, when in pomp she makes the Phrygian round,
- With golden turrets on her temples crown'd;
- A hundred gods her sweeping train supply;
- Her offspring all, and all command the sky.
- "Now fix your sight, and stand intent, to see
- Your Roman race, and Julian progeny.
- The mighty Caesar waits his vital hour,
- Impatient for the world, and grasps his promis'd pow'r.
- But next behold the youth of form divine,
- Ceasar himself, exalted in his line;
- Augustus, promis'd oft, and long foretold,
- Sent to the realm that Saturn rul'd of old;
- Born to restore a better age of gold.
- Afric and India shall his pow'r obey;
- He shall extend his propagated sway
- Beyond the solar year, without the starry way,
- Where Atlas turns the rolling heav'ns around,
- And his broad shoulders with their lights are crown'd.
- At his foreseen approach, already quake
- The Caspian kingdoms and Maeotian lake:
- Their seers behold the tempest from afar,
- And threat'ning oracles denounce the war.
- Nile hears him knocking at his sev'nfold gates,
- And seeks his hidden spring, and fears his nephew's fates.
- Nor Hercules more lands or labors knew,
- Not tho' the brazen-footed hind he slew,
- Freed Erymanthus from the foaming boar,
- And dipp'd his arrows in Lernaean gore;
- Nor Bacchus, turning from his Indian war,
- By tigers drawn triumphant in his car,
- From Nisus' top descending on the plains,
- With curling vines around his purple reins.
- And doubt we yet thro' dangers to pursue
- The paths of honor, and a crown in view?
- But what's the man, who from afar appears?
- His head with olive crown'd, his hand a censer bears,
- His hoary beard and holy vestments bring
- His lost idea back: I know the Roman king.
- He shall to peaceful Rome new laws ordain,
- Call'd from his mean abode a scepter to sustain.
- Him Tullus next in dignity succeeds,
- An active prince, and prone to martial deeds.
- He shall his troops for fighting fields prepare,
- Disus'd to toils, and triumphs of the war.
- By dint of sword his crown he shall increase,
- And scour his armor from the rust of peace.
- Whom Ancus follows, with a fawning air,
- But vain within, and proudly popular.
- Next view the Tarquin kings, th' avenging sword
- Of Brutus, justly drawn, and Rome restor'd.
- He first renews the rods and ax severe,
- And gives the consuls royal robes to wear.
- His sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain,
- And long for arbitrary lords again,
- With ignominy scourg'd, in open sight,
- He dooms to death deserv'd, asserting public right.
- Unhappy man, to break the pious laws
- Of nature, pleading in his children's cause!
- Howeer the doubtful fact is understood,
- 'T is love of honor, and his country's good:
- The consul, not the father, sheds the blood.
- Behold Torquatus the same track pursue;
- And, next, the two devoted Decii view:
- The Drusian line, Camillus loaded home
- With standards well redeem'd, and foreign foes o'ercome
- The pair you see in equal armor shine,
- Now, friends below, in close embraces join;
- But, when they leave the shady realms of night,
- And, cloth'd in bodies, breathe your upper light,
- With mortal hate each other shall pursue:
- What wars, what wounds, what slaughter shall ensue!
- From Alpine heights the father first descends;
- His daughter's husband in the plain attends:
- His daughter's husband arms his eastern friends.
- Embrace again, my sons, be foes no more;
- Nor stain your country with her children's gore!
- And thou, the first, lay down thy lawless claim,
- Thou, of my blood, who bearist the Julian name!
- Another comes, who shall in triumph ride,
- And to the Capitol his chariot guide,
- From conquer'd Corinth, rich with Grecian spoils.
- And yet another, fam'd for warlike toils,
- On Argos shall impose the Roman laws,
- And on the Greeks revenge the Trojan cause;
- Shall drag in chains their Achillean race;
- Shall vindicate his ancestors' disgrace,
- And Pallas, for her violated place.
- Great Cato there, for gravity renown'd,
- And conqu'ring Cossus goes with laurels crown'd.
- Who can omit the Gracchi? who declare
- The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war,
- The double bane of Carthage? Who can see
- Without esteem for virtuous poverty,
- Severe Fabricius, or can cease t' admire
- The plowman consul in his coarse attire?
- Tir'd as I am, my praise the Fabii claim;
- And thou, great hero, greatest of thy name,
- Ordain'd in war to save the sinking state,
- And, by delays, to put a stop to fate!
- Let others better mold the running mass
- Of metals, and inform the breathing brass,
- And soften into flesh a marble face;
- Plead better at the bar; describe the skies,
- And when the stars descend, and when they rise.
- But, Rome, 't is thine alone, with awful sway,
- To rule mankind, and make the world obey,
- Disposing peace and war by thy own majestic way;
- To tame the proud, the fetter'd slave to free:
- These are imperial arts, and worthy thee."
- He paus'd; and, while with wond'ring eyes they view'd
- The passing spirits, thus his speech renew'd:
- "See great Marcellus! how, untir'd in toils,
- He moves with manly grace, how rich with regal spoils!
- He, when his country, threaten'd with alarms,
- Requires his courage and his conqu'ring arms,
- Shall more than once the Punic bands affright;
- Shall kill the Gaulish king in single fight;
- Then to the Capitol in triumph move,
- And the third spoils shall grace Feretrian Jove."
- Aeneas here beheld, of form divine,
- A godlike youth in glitt'ring armor shine,
- With great Marcellus keeping equal pace;
- But gloomy were his eyes, dejected was his face.
- He saw, and, wond'ring, ask'd his airy guide,
- What and of whence was he, who press'd the hero's side:
- "His son, or one of his illustrious name?
- How like the former, and almost the same!
- Observe the crowds that compass him around;
- All gaze, and all admire, and raise a shouting sound:
- But hov'ring mists around his brows are spread,
- And night, with sable shades, involves his head."
- "Seek not to know," the ghost replied with tears,
- "The sorrows of thy sons in future years.
- This youth (the blissful vision of a day)
- Shall just be shown on earth, and snatch'd away.
- The gods too high had rais'd the Roman state,
- Were but their gifts as permanent as great.
- What groans of men shall fill the Martian field!
- How fierce a blaze his flaming pile shall yield!
- What fun'ral pomp shall floating Tiber see,
- When, rising from his bed, he views the sad solemnity!
- No youth shall equal hopes of glory give,
- No youth afford so great a cause to grieve;
- The Trojan honor, and the Roman boast,
- Admir'd when living, and ador'd when lost!
- Mirror of ancient faith in early youth!
- Undaunted worth, inviolable truth!
- No foe, unpunish'd, in the fighting field
- Shall dare thee, foot to foot, with sword and shield;
- Much less in arms oppose thy matchless force,
- When thy sharp spurs shall urge thy foaming horse.
- Ah! couldst thou break thro' fate's severe decree,
- A new Marcellus shall arise in thee!
- Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring,
- Mix'd with the purple roses of the spring;
- Let me with fun'ral flow'rs his body strow;
- This gift which parents to their children owe,
- This unavailing gift, at least, I may bestow!"
- Thus having said, he led the hero round
- The confines of the blest Elysian ground;
- Which when Anchises to his son had shown,
- And fir'd his mind to mount the promis'd throne,
- He tells the future wars, ordain'd by fate;
- The strength and customs of the Latian state;
- The prince, and people; and forearms his care
- With rules, to push his fortune, or to bear.
- Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn;
- Of polish'd ivory this, that of transparent horn:
- True visions thro' transparent horn arise;
- Thro' polish'd ivory pass deluding lies.
- Of various things discoursing as he pass'd,
- Anchises hither bends his steps at last.
- Then, thro' the gate of iv'ry, he dismiss'd
- His valiant offspring and divining guest.
- Straight to the ships Aeneas his way,
- Embark'd his men, and skimm'd along the sea,
- Still coasting, till he gain'd Cajeta's bay.
- At length on oozy ground his galleys moor;
- Their heads are turn'd to sea, their sterns to shore.`;
- const book11 = `Scarce had the rosy Morning rais'd her head
- Above the waves, and left her wat'ry bed;
- The pious chief, whom double cares attend
- For his unburied soldiers and his friend,
- Yet first to Heav'n perform'd a victor's vows:
- He bar'd an ancient oak of all her boughs;
- Then on a rising ground the trunk he plac'd,
- Which with the spoils of his dead foe he grac'd.
- The coat of arms by proud Mezentius worn,
- Now on a naked snag in triumph borne,
- Was hung on high, and glitter'd from afar,
- A trophy sacred to the God of War.
- Above his arms, fix'd on the leafless wood,
- Appear'd his plumy crest, besmear'd with blood:
- His brazen buckler on the left was seen;
- Truncheons of shiver'd lances hung between;
- And on the right was placed his corslet, bor'd;
- And to the neck was tied his unavailing sword.
- A crowd of chiefs inclose the godlike man,
- Who thus, conspicuous in the midst, began:
- "Our toils, my friends, are crown'd with sure success;
- The greater part perform'd, achieve the less.
- Now follow cheerful to the trembling town;
- Press but an entrance, and presume it won.
- Fear is no more, for fierce Mezentius lies,
- As the first fruits of war, a sacrifice.
- Turnus shall fall extended on the plain,
- And, in this omen, is already slain.
- Prepar'd in arms, pursue your happy chance;
- That none unwarn'd may plead his ignorance,
- And I, at Heav'n's appointed hour, may find
- Your warlike ensigns waving in the wind.
- Meantime the rites and fun'ral pomps prepare,
- Due to your dead companions of the war:
- The last respect the living can bestow,
- To shield their shadows from contempt below.
- That conquer'd earth be theirs, for which they fought,
- And which for us with their own blood they bought;
- But first the corpse of our unhappy friend
- To the sad city of Evander send,
- Who, not inglorious, in his age's bloom,
- Was hurried hence by too severe a doom."
- Thus, weeping while he spoke, he took his way,
- Where, new in death, lamented Pallas lay.
- Acoetes watch'd the corpse; whose youth deserv'd
- The father's trust; and now the son he serv'd
- With equal faith, but less auspicious care.
- Th' attendants of the slain his sorrow share.
- A troop of Trojans mix'd with these appear,
- And mourning matrons with dishevel'd hair.
- Soon as the prince appears, they raise a cry;
- All beat their breasts, and echoes rend the sky.
- They rear his drooping forehead from the ground;
- But, when Aeneas view'd the grisly wound
- Which Pallas in his manly bosom bore,
- And the fair flesh distain'd with purple gore;
- First, melting into tears, the pious man
- Deplor'd so sad a sight, then thus began:
- "Unhappy youth! when Fortune gave the rest
- Of my full wishes, she refus'd the best!
- She came; but brought not thee along, to bless
- My longing eyes, and share in my success:
- She grudg'd thy safe return, the triumphs due
- To prosp'rous valor, in the public view.
- Not thus I promis'd, when thy father lent
- Thy needless succor with a sad consent;
- Embrac'd me, parting for th' Etrurian land,
- And sent me to possess a large command.
- He warn'd, and from his own experience told,
- Our foes were warlike, disciplin'd, and bold.
- And now perhaps, in hopes of thy return,
- Rich odors on his loaded altars burn,
- While we, with vain officious pomp, prepare
- To send him back his portion of the war,
- A bloody breathless body, which can owe
- No farther debt, but to the pow'rs below.
- The wretched father, ere his race is run,
- Shall view the fun'ral honors of his son.
- These are my triumphs of the Latian war,
- Fruits of my plighted faith and boasted care!
- And yet, unhappy sire, thou shalt not see
- A son whose death disgrac'd his ancestry;
- Thou shalt not blush, old man, however griev'd:
- Thy Pallas no dishonest wound receiv'd.
- He died no death to make thee wish, too late,
- Thou hadst not liv'd to see his shameful fate:
- But what a champion has th' Ausonian coast,
- And what a friend hast thou, Ascanius, lost!"
- Thus having mourn'd, he gave the word around,
- To raise the breathless body from the ground;
- And chose a thousand horse, the flow'r of all
- His warlike troops, to wait the funeral,
- To bear him back and share Evander's grief:
- A well-becoming, but a weak relief.
- Of oaken twigs they twist an easy bier,
- Then on their shoulders the sad burden rear.
- The body on this rural hearse is borne:
- Strew'd leaves and funeral greens the bier adorn.
- All pale he lies, and looks a lovely flow'r,
- New cropp'd by virgin hands, to dress the bow'r:
- Unfaded yet, but yet unfed below,
- No more to mother earth or the green stern shall owe.
- Then two fair vests, of wondrous work and cost,
- Of purple woven, and with gold emboss'd,
- For ornament the Trojan hero brought,
- Which with her hands Sidonian Dido wrought.
- One vest array'd the corpse; and one they spread
- O'er his clos'd eyes, and wrapp'd around his head,
- That, when the yellow hair in flame should fall,
- The catching fire might burn the golden caul.
- Besides, the spoils of foes in battle slain,
- When he descended on the Latian plain;
- Arms, trappings, horses, by the hearse are led
- In long array- th' achievements of the dead.
- Then, pinion'd with their hands behind, appear
- Th' unhappy captives, marching in the rear,
- Appointed off'rings in the victor's name,
- To sprinkle with their blood the fun'ral flame.
- Inferior trophies by the chiefs are borne;
- Gauntlets and helms their loaded hands adorn;
- And fair inscriptions fix'd, and titles read
- Of Latian leaders conquer'd by the dead.
- Acoetes on his pupil's corpse attends,
- With feeble steps, supported by his friends.
- Pausing at ev'ry pace, in sorrow drown'd,
- Betwixt their arms he sinks upon the ground;
- Where grov'ling while he lies in deep despair,
- He beats his breast, and rends his hoary hair.
- The champion's chariot next is seen to roll,
- Besmear'd with hostile blood, and honorably foul.
- To close the pomp, Aethon, the steed of state,
- Is led, the fun'rals of his lord to wait.
- Stripp'd of his trappings, with a sullen pace
- He walks; and the big tears run rolling down his face.
- The lance of Pallas, and the crimson crest,
- Are borne behind: the victor seiz'd the rest.
- The march begins: the trumpets hoarsely sound;
- The pikes and lances trail along the ground.
- Thus while the Trojan and Arcadian horse
- To Pallantean tow'rs direct their course,
- In long procession rank'd, the pious chief
- Stopp'd in the rear, and gave a vent to grief:
- "The public care," he said, "which war attends,
- Diverts our present woes, at least suspends.
- Peace with the manes of great Pallas dwell!
- Hail, holy relics! and a last farewell!"
- He said no more, but, inly thro' he mourn'd,
- Restrained his tears, and to the camp return'd.
- Now suppliants, from Laurentum sent, demand
- A truce, with olive branches in their hand;
- Obtest his clemency, and from the plain
- Beg leave to draw the bodies of their slain.
- They plead, that none those common rites deny
- To conquer'd foes that in fair battle die.
- All cause of hate was ended in their death;
- Nor could he war with bodies void of breath.
- A king, they hop'd, would hear a king's request,
- Whose son he once was call'd, and once his guest.
- Their suit, which was too just to be denied,
- The hero grants, and farther thus replied:
- "O Latian princes, how severe a fate
- In causeless quarrels has involv'd your state,
- And arm'd against an unoffending man,
- Who sought your friendship ere the war began!
- You beg a truce, which I would gladly give,
- Not only for the slain, but those who live.
- I came not hither but by Heav'n's command,
- And sent by fate to share the Latian land.
- Nor wage I wars unjust: your king denied
- My proffer'd friendship, and my promis'd bride;
- Left me for Turnus. Turnus then should try
- His cause in arms, to conquer or to die.
- My right and his are in dispute: the slain
- Fell without fault, our quarrel to maintain.
- In equal arms let us alone contend;
- And let him vanquish, whom his fates befriend.
- This is the way (so tell him) to possess
- The royal virgin, and restore the peace.
- Bear this message back, with ample leave,
- That your slain friends may fun'ral rites receive."
- Thus having said- th' embassadors, amaz'd,
- Stood mute a while, and on each other gaz'd.
- Drances, their chief, who harbor'd in his breast
- Long hate to Turnus, as his foe profess'd,
- Broke silence first, and to the godlike man,
- With graceful action bowing, thus began:
- "Auspicious prince, in arms a mighty name,
- But yet whose actions far transcend your fame;
- Would I your justice or your force express,
- Thought can but equal; and all words are less.
- Your answer we shall thankfully relate,
- And favors granted to the Latian state.
- If wish'd success our labor shall attend,
- Think peace concluded, and the king your friend:
- Let Turnus leave the realm to your command,
- And seek alliance in some other land:
- Build you the city which your fates assign;
- We shall be proud in the great work to join."
- Thus Drances; and his words so well persuade
- The rest impower'd, that soon a truce is made.
- Twelve days the term allow'd: and, during those,
- Latians and Trojans, now no longer foes,
- Mix'd in the woods, for fun'ral piles prepare
- To fell the timber, and forget the war.
- Loud axes thro' the groaning groves resound;
- Oak, mountain ash, and poplar spread the ground;
- First fall from high; and some the trunks receive
- In loaden wains; with wedges some they cleave.
- And now the fatal news by Fame is blown
- Thro' the short circuit of th' Arcadian town,
- Of Pallas slain- by Fame, which just before
- His triumphs on distended pinions bore.
- Rushing from out the gate, the people stand,
- Each with a fun'ral flambeau in his hand.
- Wildly they stare, distracted with amaze:
- The fields are lighten'd with a fiery blaze,
- That cast a sullen splendor on their friends,
- The marching troop which their dead prince attends.
- Both parties meet: they raise a doleful cry;
- The matrons from the walls with shrieks reply,
- And their mix'd mourning rends the vaulted sky.
- The town is fill'd with tumult and with tears,
- Till the loud clamors reach Evander's ears:
- Forgetful of his state, he runs along,
- With a disorder'd pace, and cleaves the throng;
- Falls on the corpse; and groaning there he lies,
- With silent grief, that speaks but at his eyes.
- Short sighs and sobs succeed; till sorrow breaks
- A passage, and at once he weeps and speaks:
- "O Pallas! thou hast fail'd thy plighted word,
- To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword!
- I warn'd thee, but in vain; for well I knew
- What perils youthful ardor would pursue,
- That boiling blood would carry thee too far,
- Young as thou wert in dangers, raw to war!
- O curst essay of arms, disastrous doom,
- Prelude of bloody fields, and fights to come!
- Hard elements of unauspicious war,
- Vain vows to Heav'n, and unavailing care!
- Thrice happy thou, dear partner of my bed,
- Whose holy soul the stroke of Fortune fled,
- Praescious of ills, and leaving me behind,
- To drink the dregs of life by fate assign'd!
- Beyond the goal of nature I have gone:
- My Pallas late set out, but reach'd too soon.
- If, for my league against th' Ausonian state,
- Amidst their weapons I had found my fate,
- (Deserv'd from them,) then I had been return'd
- A breathless victor, and my son had mourn'd.
- Yet will I not my Trojan friend upbraid,
- Nor grudge th' alliance I so gladly made.
- 'T was not his fault, my Pallas fell so young,
- But my own crime, for having liv'd too long.
- Yet, since the gods had destin'd him to die,
- At least he led the way to victory:
- First for his friends he won the fatal shore,
- And sent whole herds of slaughter'd foes before;
- A death too great, too glorious to deplore.
- Nor will I add new honors to thy grave,
- Content with those the Trojan hero gave:
- That funeral pomp thy Phrygian friends design'd,
- In which the Tuscan chiefs and army join'd.
- Great spoils and trophies, gain'd by thee, they bear:
- Then let thy own achievements be thy share.
- Even thou, O Turnus, hadst a trophy stood,
- Whose mighty trunk had better grac'd the wood,
- If Pallas had arriv'd, with equal length
- Of years, to match thy bulk with equal strength.
- But why, unhappy man, dost thou detain
- These troops, to view the tears thou shedd'st in vain?
- Go, friends, this message to your lord relate:
- Tell him, that, if I bear my bitter fate,
- And, after Pallas' death, live ling'ring on,
- 'T is to behold his vengeance for my son.
- I stay for Turnus, whose devoted head
- Is owing to the living and the dead.
- My son and I expect it from his hand;
- 'T is all that he can give, or we demand.
- Joy is no more; but I would gladly go,
- To greet my Pallas with such news below."
- The morn had now dispell'd the shades of night,
- Restoring toils, when she restor'd the light.
- The Trojan king and Tuscan chief command
- To raise the piles along the winding strand.
- Their friends convey the dead fun'ral fires;
- Black smold'ring smoke from the green wood expires;
- The light of heav'n is chok'd, and the new day retires.
- Then thrice around the kindled piles they go
- (For ancient custom had ordain'd it so)
- Thrice horse and foot about the fires are led;
- And thrice, with loud laments, they hail the dead.
- Tears, trickling down their breasts, bedew the ground,
- And drums and trumpets mix their mournful sound.
- Amid the blaze, their pious brethren throw
- The spoils, in battle taken from the foe:
- Helms, bits emboss'd, and swords of shining steel;
- One casts a target, one a chariot wheel;
- Some to their fellows their own arms restore:
- The fauchions which in luckless fight they bore,
- Their bucklers pierc'd, their darts bestow'd in vain,
- And shiver'd lances gather'd from the plain.
- Whole herds of offer'd bulls, about the fire,
- And bristled boars, and woolly sheep expire.
- Around the piles a careful troop attends,
- To watch the wasting flames, and weep their burning friends;
- Ling'ring along the shore, till dewy night
- New decks the face of heav'n with starry light.
- The conquer'd Latians, with like pious care,
- Piles without number for their dead prepare.
- Part in the places where they fell are laid;
- And part are to the neighb'ring fields convey'd.
- The corps of kings, and captains of renown,
- Borne off in state, are buried in the town;
- The rest, unhonor'd, and without a name,
- Are cast a common heap to feed the flame.
- Trojans and Latians vie with like desires
- To make the field of battle shine with fires,
- And the promiscuous blaze to heav'n aspires.
- Now had the morning thrice renew'd the light,
- And thrice dispell'd the shadows of the night,
- When those who round the wasted fires remain,
- Perform the last sad office to the slain.
- They rake the yet warm ashes from below;
- These, and the bones unburn'd, in earth bestow;
- These relics with their country rites they grace,
- And raise a mount of turf to mark the place.
- But, in the palace of the king, appears
- A scene more solemn, and a pomp of tears.
- Maids, matrons, widows, mix their common moans;
- Orphans their sires, and sires lament their sons.
- All in that universal sorrow share,
- And curse the cause of this unhappy war:
- A broken league, a bride unjustly sought,
- A crown usurp'd, which with their blood is bought!
- These are the crimes with which they load the name
- Of Turnus, and on him alone exclaim:
- "Let him who lords it o'er th' Ausonian land
- Engage the Trojan hero hand to hand:
- His is the gain; our lot is but to serve;
- 'T is just, the sway he seeks, he should deserve."
- This Drances aggravates; and adds, with spite:
- "His foe expects, and dares him to the fight."
- Nor Turnus wants a party, to support
- His cause and credit in the Latian court.
- His former acts secure his present fame,
- And the queen shades him with her mighty name.
- While thus their factious minds with fury burn,
- The legates from th' Aetolian prince return:
- Sad news they bring, that, after all the cost
- And care employ'd, their embassy is lost;
- That Diomedes refus'd his aid in war,
- Unmov'd with presents, and as deaf to pray'r.
- Some new alliance must elsewhere be sought,
- Or peace with Troy on hard conditions bought.
- Latinus, sunk in sorrow, finds too late,
- A foreign son is pointed out by fate;
- And, till Aeneas shall Lavinia wed,
- The wrath of Heav'n is hov'ring o'er his head.
- The gods, he saw, espous'd the juster side,
- When late their titles in the field were tried:
- Witness the fresh laments, and fun'ral tears undried.
- Thus, full of anxious thought, he summons all
- The Latian senate to the council hall.
- The princes come, commanded by their head,
- And crowd the paths that to the palace lead.
- Supreme in pow'r, and reverenc'd for his years,
- He takes the throne, and in the midst appears.
- Majestically sad, he sits in state,
- And bids his envoys their success relate.
- When Venulus began, the murmuring sound
- Was hush'd, and sacred silence reign'd around.
- "We have," said he, "perform'd your high command,
- And pass'd with peril a long tract of land:
- We reach'd the place desir'd; with wonder fill'd,
- The Grecian tents and rising tow'rs beheld.
- Great Diomede has compass'd round with walls
- The city, which Argyripa he calls,
- From his own Argos nam'd. We touch'd, with joy,
- The royal hand that raz'd unhappy Troy.
- When introduc'd, our presents first we bring,
- Then crave an instant audience from the king.
- His leave obtain'd, our native soil we name,
- And tell th' important cause for which we came.
- Attentively he heard us, while we spoke;
- Then, with soft accents, and a pleasing look,
- Made this return: 'Ausonian race, of old
- Renown'd for peace, and for an age of gold,
- What madness has your alter'd minds possess'd,
- To change for war hereditary rest,
- Solicit arms unknown, and tempt the sword,
- A needless ill your ancestors abhorr'd?
- We- for myself I speak, and all the name
- Of Grecians, who to Troy's destruction came,
- Omitting those who were in battle slain,
- Or borne by rolling Simois to the main-
- Not one but suffer'd, and too dearly bought
- The prize of honor which in arms he sought;
- Some doom'd to death, and some in exile driv'n.
- Outcasts, abandon'd by the care of Heav'n;
- So worn, so wretched, so despis'd a crew,
- As ev'n old Priam might with pity view.
- Witness the vessels by Minerva toss'd
- In storms; the vengeful Capharean coast;
- Th' Euboean rocks! the prince, whose brother led
- Our armies to revenge his injur'd bed,
- In Egypt lost! Ulysses with his men
- Have seen Charybdis and the Cyclops' den.
- Why should I name Idomeneus, in vain
- Restor'd to scepters, and expell'd again?
- Or young Achilles, by his rival slain?
- Ev'n he, the King of Men, the foremost name
- Of all the Greeks, and most renown'd by fame,
- The proud revenger of another's wife,
- Yet by his own adult'ress lost his life;
- Fell at his threshold; and the spoils of Troy
- The foul polluters of his bed enjoy.
- The gods have envied me the sweets of life,
- My much lov'd country, and my more lov'd wife:
- Banish'd from both, I mourn; while in the sky,
- Transform'd to birds, my lost companions fly:
- Hov'ring about the coasts, they make their moan,
- And cuff the cliffs with pinions not their own.
- What squalid specters, in the dead of night,
- Break my short sleep, and skim before my sight!
- I might have promis'd to myself those harms,
- Mad as I was, when I, with mortal arms,
- Presum'd against immortal pow'rs to move,
- And violate with wounds the Queen of Love.
- Such arms this hand shall never more employ;
- No hate remains with me to ruin'd Troy.
- I war not with its dust; nor am I glad
- To think of past events, or good or bad.
- Your presents I return: whate'er you bring
- To buy my friendship, send the Trojan king.
- We met in fight; I know him, to my cost:
- With what a whirling force his lance he toss'd!
- Heav'ns! what a spring was in his arm, to throw!
- How high he held his shield, and rose at ev'ry blow!
- Had Troy produc'd two more his match in might,
- They would have chang'd the fortune of the fight:
- Th' invasion of the Greeks had been return'd,
- Our empire wasted, and our cities burn'd.
- The long defense the Trojan people made,
- The war protracted, and the siege delay'd,
- Were due to Hector's and this hero's hand:
- Both brave alike, and equal in command;
- Aeneas, not inferior in the field,
- In pious reverence to the gods excell'd.
- Make peace, ye Latians, and avoid with care
- Th' impending dangers of a fatal war.'
- He said no more; but, with this cold excuse,
- Refus'd th' alliance, and advis'd a truce."
- Thus Venulus concluded his report.
- A jarring murmur fill'd the factious court:
- As, when a torrent rolls with rapid force,
- And dashes o'er the stones that stop the course,
- The flood, constrain'd within a scanty space,
- Roars horrible along th' uneasy race;
- White foam in gath'ring eddies floats around;
- The rocky shores rebellow to the sound.
- The murmur ceas'd: then from his lofty throne
- The king invok'd the gods, and thus begun:
- "I wish, ye Latins, what we now debate
- Had been resolv'd before it was too late.
- Much better had it been for you and me,
- Unforc'd by this our last necessity,
- To have been earlier wise, than now to call
- A council, when the foe surrounds the wall.
- O citizens, we wage unequal war,
- With men not only Heav'n's peculiar care,
- But Heav'n's own race; unconquer'd in the field,
- Or, conquer'd, yet unknowing how to yield.
- What hopes you had in Diomedes, lay down:
- Our hopes must center on ourselves alone.
- Yet those how feeble, and, indeed, how vain,
- You see too well; nor need my words explain.
- Vanquish'd without resource; laid flat by fate;
- Factions within, a foe without the gate!
- Not but I grant that all perform'd their parts
- With manly force, and with undaunted hearts:
- With our united strength the war we wag'd;
- With equal numbers, equal arms, engag'd.
- You see th' event.- Now hear what I propose,
- To save our friends, and satisfy our foes.
- A tract of land the Latins have possess'd
- Along the Tiber, stretching to the west,
- Which now Rutulians and Auruncans till,
- And their mix'd cattle graze the fruitful hill.
- Those mountains fill'd with firs, that lower land,
- If you consent, the Trojan shall command,
- Call'd into part of what is ours; and there,
- On terms agreed, the common country share.
- There let'em build and settle, if they please;
- Unless they choose once more to cross the seas,
- In search of seats remote from Italy,
- And from unwelcome inmates set us free.
- Then twice ten galleys let us build with speed,
- Or twice as many more, if more they need.
- Materials are at hand; a well-grown wood
- Runs equal with the margin of the flood:
- Let them the number and the form assign;
- The care and cost of all the stores be mine.
- To treat the peace, a hundred senators
- Shall be commission'd hence with ample pow'rs,
- With olive the presents they shall bear,
- A purple robe, a royal iv'ry chair,
- And all the marks of sway that Latian monarchs wear,
- And sums of gold. Among yourselves debate
- This great affair, and save the sinking state."
- Then Drances took the word, who grudg'd, long since,
- The rising glories of the Daunian prince.
- Factious and rich, bold at the council board,
- But cautious in the field, he shunn'd the sword;
- A close caballer, and tongue-valiant lord.
- Noble his mother was, and near the throne;
- But, what his father's parentage, unknown.
- He rose, and took th' advantage of the times,
- To load young Turnus with invidious crimes.
- "Such truths, O king," said he, "your words contain,
- As strike the sense, and all replies are vain;
- Nor are your loyal subjects now to seek
- What common needs require, but fear to speak.
- Let him give leave of speech, that haughty man,
- Whose pride this unauspicious war began;
- For whose ambition (let me dare to say,
- Fear set apart, tho' death is in my way)
- The plains of Latium run with blood around.
- So many valiant heroes bite the ground;
- Dejected grief in ev'ry face appears;
- A town in mourning, and a land in tears;
- While he, th' undoubted author of our harms,
- The man who menaces the gods with arms,
- Yet, after all his boasts, forsook the fight,
- And sought his safety in ignoble flight.
- Now, best of kings, since you propose to send
- Such bounteous presents to your Trojan friend;
- Add yet a greater at our joint request,
- One which he values more than all the rest:
- Give him the fair Lavinia for his bride;
- With that alliance let the league be tied,
- And for the bleeding land a lasting peace provide.
- Let insolence no longer awe the throne;
- But, with a father's right, bestow your own.
- For this maligner of the general good,
- If still we fear his force, he must be woo'd;
- His haughty godhead we with pray'rs implore,
- Your scepter to release, and our just rights restore.
- O cursed cause of all our ills, must we
- Wage wars unjust, and fall in fight, for thee!
- What right hast thou to rule the Latian state,
- And send us out to meet our certain fate?
- 'T is a destructive war: from Turnus' hand
- Our peace and public safety we demand.
- Let the fair bride to the brave chief remain;
- If not, the peace, without the pledge, is vain.
- Turnus, I know you think me not your friend,
- Nor will I much with your belief contend:
- I beg your greatness not to give the law
- In others' realms, but, beaten, to withdraw.
- Pity your own, or pity our estate;
- Nor twist our fortunes with your sinking fate.
- Your interest is, the war should never cease;
- But we have felt enough to wish the peace:
- A land exhausted to the last remains,
- Depopulated towns, and driven plains.
- Yet, if desire of fame, and thirst of pow'r,
- A beauteous princess, with a crown in dow'r,
- So fire your mind, in arms assert your right,
- And meet your foe, who dares you to the fight.
- Mankind, it seems, is made for you alone;
- We, but the slaves who mount you to the throne:
- A base ignoble crowd, without a name,
- Unwept, unworthy, of the fun'ral flame,
- By duty bound to forfeit each his life,
- That Turnus may possess a royal wife.
- Permit not, mighty man, so mean a crew
- Should share such triumphs, and detain from you
- The post of honor, your undoubted due.
- Rather alone your matchless force employ,
- To merit what alone you must enjoy."
- These words, so full of malice mix'd with art,
- Inflam'd with rage the youthful hero's heart.
- Then, groaning from the bottom of his breast,
- He heav'd for wind, and thus his wrath express'd:
- "You, Drances, never want a stream of words,
- Then, when the public need requires our swords.
- First in the council hall to steer the state,
- And ever foremost in a tongue-debate,
- While our strong walls secure us from the foe,
- Ere yet with blood our ditches overflow:
- But let the potent orator declaim,
- And with the brand of coward blot my name;
- Free leave is giv'n him, when his fatal hand
- Has cover'd with more corps the sanguine strand,
- And high as mine his tow'ring trophies stand.
- If any doubt remains, who dares the most,
- Let us decide it at the Trojan's cost,
- And issue both abreast, where honor calls-
- Foes are not far to seek without the walls-
- Unless his noisy tongue can only fight,
- And feet were giv'n him but to speed his flight.
- I beaten from the field? I forc'd away?
- Who, but so known a dastard, dares to say?
- Had he but ev'n beheld the fight, his eyes
- Had witness'd for me what his tongue denies:
- What heaps of Trojans by this hand were slain,
- And how the bloody Tiber swell'd the main.
- All saw, but he, th' Arcadian troops retire
- In scatter'd squadrons, and their prince expire.
- The giant brothers, in their camp, have found,
- I was not forc'd with ease to quit my ground.
- Not such the Trojans tried me, when, inclos'd,
- I singly their united arms oppos'd:
- First forc'd an entrance thro' their thick array;
- Then, glutted with their slaughter, freed my way.
- 'T is a destructive war? So let it be,
- But to the Phrygian pirate, and to thee!
- Meantime proceed to fill the people's ears
- With false reports, their minds with panic fears:
- Extol the strength of a twice-conquer'd race;
- Our foes encourage, and our friends debase.
- Believe thy fables, and the Trojan town
- Triumphant stands; the Grecians are o'erthrown;
- Suppliant at Hector's feet Achilles lies,
- And Diomede from fierce Aeneas flies.
- Say rapid Aufidus with awful dread
- Runs backward from the sea, and hides his head,
- When the great Trojan on his bank appears;
- For that's as true as thy dissembled fears
- Of my revenge. Dismiss that vanity:
- Thou, Drances, art below a death from me.
- Let that vile soul in that vile body rest;
- The lodging is well worthy of the guest.
- "Now, royal father, to the present state
- Of our affairs, and of this high debate:
- If in your arms thus early you diffide,
- And think your fortune is already tried;
- If one defeat has brought us down so low,
- As never more in fields to meet the foe;
- Then I conclude for peace: 't is time to treat,
- And lie like vassals at the victor's feet.
- But, O! if any ancient blood remains,
- One drop of all our fathers', in our veins,
- That man would I prefer before the rest,
- Who dar'd his death with an undaunted breast;
- Who comely fell, by no dishonest wound,
- To shun that sight, and, dying, gnaw'd the ground.
- But, if we still have fresh recruits in store,
- If our confederates can afford us more;
- If the contended field we bravely fought,
- And not a bloodless victory was bought;
- Their losses equal'd ours; and, for their slain,
- With equal fires they fill'd the shining plain;
- Why thus, unforc'd, should we so tamely yield,
- And, ere the trumpet sounds, resign the field?
- Good unexpected, evils unforeseen,
- Appear by turns, as fortune shifts the scene:
- Some, rais'd aloft, come tumbling down amain;
- Then fall so hard, they bound and rise again.
- If Diomede refuse his aid to lend,
- The great Messapus yet remains our friend:
- Tolumnius, who foretells events, is ours;
- Th' Italian chiefs and princes join their pow'rs:
- Nor least in number, nor in name the last,
- Your own brave subjects have your cause embrac'd
- Above the rest, the Volscian Amazon
- Contains an army in herself alone,
- And heads a squadron, terrible to sight,
- With glitt'ring shields, in brazen armor bright.
- Yet, if the foe a single fight demand,
- And I alone the public peace withstand;
- If you consent, he shall not be refus'd,
- Nor find a hand to victory unus'd.
- This new Achilles, let him take the field,
- With fated armor, and Vulcanian shield!
- For you, my royal father, and my fame,
- I, Turnus, not the least of all my name,
- Devote my soul. He calls me hand to hand,
- And I alone will answer his demand.
- Drances shall rest secure, and neither share
- The danger, nor divide the prize of war."
- While they debate, nor these nor those will yield,
- Aeneas draws his forces to the field,
- And moves his camp. The scouts with flying speed
- Return, and thro' the frighted city spread
- Th' unpleasing news, the Trojans are descried,
- In battle marching by the river side,
- And bending to the town. They take th' alarm:
- Some tremble, some are bold; all in confusion arm.
- Th' impetuous youth press forward to the field;
- They clash the sword, and clatter on the shield:
- The fearful matrons raise a screaming cry;
- Old feeble men with fainter groans reply;
- A jarring sound results, and mingles in the sky,
- Like that of swans remurm'ring to the floods,
- Or birds of diff'ring kinds in hollow woods.
- Turnus th' occasion takes, and cries aloud:
- "Talk on, ye quaint haranguers of the crowd:
- Declaim in praise of peace, when danger calls,
- And the fierce foes in arms approach the walls."
- He said, and, turning short, with speedy pace,
- Casts back a scornful glance, and quits the place:
- "Thou, Volusus, the Volscian troops command
- To mount; and lead thyself our Ardean band.
- Messapus and Catillus, post your force
- Along the fields, to charge the Trojan horse.
- Some guard the passes, others man the wall;
- Drawn up in arms, the rest attend my call."
- They swarm from ev'ry quarter of the town,
- And with disorder'd haste the rampires crown.
- Good old Latinus, when he saw, too late,
- The gath'ring storm just breaking on the state,
- Dismiss'd the council till a fitter time,
- And own'd his easy temper as his crime,
- Who, forc'd against his reason, had complied
- To break the treaty for the promis'd bride.
- Some help to sink new trenches; others aid
- To ram the stones, or raise the palisade.
- Hoarse trumpets sound th' alarm; around the walls
- Runs a distracted crew, whom their last labor calls.
- A sad procession in the streets is seen,
- Of matrons, that attend the mother queen:
- High in her chair she sits, and, at her side,
- With downcast eyes, appears the fatal bride.
- They mount the cliff, where Pallas' temple stands;
- Pray'rs in their mouths, and presents in their hands,
- With censers first they fume the sacred shrine,
- Then in this common supplication join:
- "O patroness of arms, unspotted maid,
- Propitious hear, and lend thy Latins aid!
- Break short the pirate's lance; pronounce his fate,
- And lay the Phrygian low before the gate."
- Now Turnus arms for fight. His back and breast
- Well-temper'd steel and scaly brass invest:
- The cuishes which his brawny thighs infold
- Are mingled metal damask'd o'er with gold.
- His faithful fauchion sits upon his side;
- Nor casque, nor crest, his manly features hide:
- But, bare to view, amid surrounding friends,
- With godlike grace, he from the tow'r descends.
- Exulting in his strength, he seems to dare
- His absent rival, and to promise war.
- Freed from his keepers, thus, with broken reins,
- The wanton courser prances o'er the plains,
- Or in the pride of youth o'erleaps the mounds,
- And snuffs the females in forbidden grounds.
- Or seeks his wat'ring in the well-known flood,
- To quench his thirst, and cool his fiery blood:
- He swims luxuriant in the liquid plain,
- And o'er his shoulder flows his waving mane:
- He neighs, he snorts, he bears his head on high;
- Before his ample chest the frothy waters fly.
- Soon as the prince appears without the gate,
- The Volscians, with their virgin leader, wait
- His last commands. Then, with a graceful mien,
- Lights from her lofty steed the warrior queen:
- Her squadron imitates, and each descends;
- Whose common suit Camilla thus commends:
- "If sense of honor, if a soul secure
- Of inborn worth, that can all tests endure,
- Can promise aught, or on itself rely
- Greatly to dare, to conquer or to die;
- Then, I alone, sustain'd by these, will meet
- The Tyrrhene troops, and promise their defeat.
- Ours be the danger, ours the sole renown:
- You, gen'ral, stay behind, and guard the town:"
- Turnus a while stood mute, with glad surprise,
- And on the fierce virago fix'd his eyes;
- Then thus return'd: "O grace of Italy,
- With what becoming thanks can I reply?
- Not only words lie lab'ring in my breast,
- But thought itself is by thy praise oppress'd.
- Yet rob me not of all; but let me join
- My toils, my hazard, and my fame, with thine.
- The Trojan, not in stratagem unskill'd,
- Sends his light horse before to scour the field:
- Himself, thro' steep ascents and thorny brakes,
- A larger compass to the city takes.
- This news my scouts confirm, and I prepare
- To foil his cunning, and his force to dare;
- With chosen foot his passage to forelay,
- And place an ambush in the winding way.
- Thou, with thy Volscians, face the Tuscan horse;
- The brave Messapus shall thy troops inforce
- With those of Tibur, and the Latian band,
- Subjected all to thy supreme command."
- This said, he warns Messapus to the war,
- Then ev'ry chief exhorts with equal care.
- All thus encourag'd, his own troops he joins,
- And hastes to prosecute his deep designs.
- Inclos'd with hills, a winding valley lies,
- By nature form'd for fraud, and fitted for surprise.
- A narrow track, by human steps untrode,
- Leads, thro' perplexing thorns, to this obscure abode.
- High o'er the vale a steepy mountain stands,
- Whence the surveying sight the nether ground commands.
- The top is level, an offensive seat
- Of war; and from the war a safe retreat:
- For, on the right and left, is room to press
- The foes at hand, or from afar distress;
- To drive 'em headlong downward, and to pour
- On their descending backs a stony show'r.
- Thither young Turnus took the well-known way,
- Possess'd the pass, and in blind ambush lay.
- Meantime Latonian Phoebe, from the skies,
- Beheld th' approaching war with hateful eyes,
- And call'd the light-foot Opis to her aid,
- Her most belov'd and ever-trusty maid;
- Then with a sigh began: "Camilla goes
- To meet her death amidst her fatal foes:
- The nymphs I lov'd of all my mortal train,
- Invested with Diana's arms, in vain.
- Nor is my kindness for the virgin new:
- 'T was born with her; and with her years it grew.
- Her father Metabus, when forc'd away
- From old Privernum, for tyrannic sway,
- Snatch'd up, and sav'd from his prevailing foes,
- This tender babe, companion of his woes.
- Casmilla was her mother; but he drown'd
- One hissing letter in a softer sound,
- And call'd Camilla. Thro' the woods he flies;
- Wrapp'd in his robe the royal infant lies.
- His foes in sight, he mends his weary pace;
- With shout and clamors they pursue the chase.
- The banks of Amasene at length he gains:
- The raging flood his farther flight restrains,
- Rais'd o'er the borders with unusual rains.
- Prepar'd to plunge into the stream, he fears,
- Not for himself, but for the charge he bears.
- Anxious, he stops a while, and thinks in haste;
- Then, desp'rate in distress, resolves at last.
- A knotty lance of well-boil'd oak he bore;
- The middle part with cork he cover'd o'er:
- He clos'd the child within the hollow space;
- With twigs of bending osier bound the case;
- Then pois'd the spear, heavy with human weight,
- And thus invok'd my favor for the freight:
- 'Accept, great goddess of the woods,' he said,
- 'Sent by her sire, this dedicated maid!
- Thro' air she flies a suppliant to thy shrine;
- And the first weapons that she knows, are thine.'
- He said; and with full force the spear he threw:
- Above the sounding waves Camilla flew.
- Then, press'd by foes, he stemm'd the stormy tide,
- And gain'd, by stress of arms, the farther side.
- His fasten'd spear he pull'd from out the ground,
- And, victor of his vows, his infant nymph unbound;
- Nor, after that, in towns which walls inclose,
- Would trust his hunted life amidst his foes;
- But, rough, in open air he chose to lie;
- Earth was his couch, his cov'ring was the sky.
- On hills unshorn, or in a desart den,
- He shunn'd the dire society of men.
- A shepherd's solitary life he led;
- His daughter with the milk of mares he fed.
- The dugs of bears, and ev'ry salvage beast,
- He drew, and thro' her lips the liquor press'd.
- The little Amazon could scarcely go:
- He loads her with a quiver and a bow;
- And, that she might her stagg'ring steps command,
- He with a slender jav'lin fills her hand.
- Her flowing hair no golden fillet bound;
- Nor swept her trailing robe the dusty ground.
- Instead of these, a tiger's hide o'erspread
- Her back and shoulders, fasten'd to her head.
- The flying dart she first attempts to fling,
- And round her tender temples toss'd the sling;
- Then, as her strength with years increas'd, began
- To pierce aloft in air the soaring swan,
- And from the clouds to fetch the heron and the crane.
- The Tuscan matrons with each other vied,
- To bless their rival sons with such a bride;
- But she disdains their love, to share with me
- The sylvan shades and vow'd virginity.
- And, O! I wish, contented with my cares
- Of salvage spoils, she had not sought the wars!
- Then had she been of my celestial train,
- And shunn'd the fate that dooms her to be slain.
- But since, opposing Heav'n's decree, she goes
- To find her death among forbidden foes,
- Haste with these arms, and take thy steepy flight.
- Where, with the gods, averse, the Latins fight.
- This bow to thee, this quiver I bequeath,
- This chosen arrow, to revenge her death:
- By whate'er hand Camilla shall be slain,
- Or of the Trojan or Italian train,
- Let him not pass unpunish'd from the plain.
- Then, in a hollow cloud, myself will aid
- To bear the breathless body of my maid:
- Unspoil'd shall be her arms, and unprofan'd
- Her holy limbs with any human hand,
- And in a marble tomb laid in her native land."
- She said. The faithful nymph descends from high
- With rapid flight, and cuts the sounding sky:
- Black clouds and stormy winds around her body fly.
- By this, the Trojan and the Tuscan horse,
- Drawn up in squadrons, with united force,
- Approach the walls: the sprightly coursers bound,
- Press forward on their bits, and shift their ground.
- Shields, arms, and spears flash horribly from far;
- And the fields glitter with a waving war.
- Oppos'd to these, come on with furious force
- Messapus, Coras, and the Latian horse;
- These in the body plac'd, on either hand
- Sustain'd and clos'd by fair Camilla's band.
- Advancing in a line, they couch their spears;
- And less and less the middle space appears.
- Thick smoke obscures the field; and scarce are seen
- The neighing coursers, and the shouting men.
- In distance of their darts they stop their course;
- Then man to man they rush, and horse to horse.
- The face of heav'n their flying jav'lins hide,
- And deaths unseen are dealt on either side.
- Tyrrhenus, and Aconteus, void of fear,
- By mettled coursers borne in full career,
- Meet first oppos'd; and, with a mighty shock,
- Their horses' heads against each other knock.
- Far from his steed is fierce Aconteus cast,
- As with an engine's force, or lightning's blast:
- He rolls along in blood, and breathes his last.
- The Latin squadrons take a sudden fright,
- And sling their shields behind, to save their backs in flight
- Spurring at speed to their own walls they drew;
- Close in the rear the Tuscan troops pursue,
- And urge their flight: Asylas leads the chase;
- Till, seiz'd, with shame, they wheel about and face,
- Receive their foes, and raise a threat'ning cry.
- The Tuscans take their turn to fear and fly.
- So swelling surges, with a thund'ring roar,
- Driv'n on each other's backs, insult the shore,
- Bound o'er the rocks, incroach upon the land,
- And far upon the beach eject the sand;
- Then backward, with a swing, they take their way,
- Repuls'd from upper ground, and seek their mother sea;
- With equal hurry quit th' invaded shore,
- And swallow back the sand and stones they spew'd before.
- Twice were the Tuscans masters of the field,
- Twice by the Latins, in their turn, repell'd.
- Asham'd at length, to the third charge they ran;
- Both hosts resolv'd, and mingled man to man.
- Now dying groans are heard; the fields are strow'd
- With falling bodies, and are drunk with blood.
- Arms, horses, men, on heaps together lie:
- Confus'd the fight, and more confus'd the cry.
- Orsilochus, who durst not press too near
- Strong Remulus, at distance drove his spear,
- And stuck the steel beneath his horse's ear.
- The fiery steed, impatient of the wound,
- Curvets, and, springing upward with a bound,
- His helpless lord cast backward on the ground.
- Catillus pierc'd Iolas first; then drew
- His reeking lance, and at Herminius threw,
- The mighty champion of the Tuscan crew.
- His neck and throat unarm'd, his head was bare,
- But shaded with a length of yellow hair:
- Secure, he fought, expos'd on ev'ry part,
- A spacious mark for swords, and for the flying dart.
- Across the shoulders came the feather'd wound;
- Transfix'd he fell, and doubled to the ground.
- The sands with streaming blood are sanguine dyed,
- And death with honor sought on either side.
- Resistless thro' the war Camilla rode,
- In danger unappall'd, and pleas'd with blood.
- One side was bare for her exerted breast;
- One shoulder with her painted quiver press'd.
- Now from afar her fatal jav'lins play;
- Now with her ax's edge she hews her way:
- Diana's arms upon her shoulder sound;
- And when, too closely press'd, she quits the ground,
- From her bent bow she sends a backward wound.
- Her maids, in martial pomp, on either side,
- Larina, Tulla, fierce Tarpeia, ride:
- Italians all; in peace, their queen's delight;
- In war, the bold companions of the fight.
- So march'd the Tracian Amazons of old,
- When Thermodon with bloody billows roll'd:
- Such troops as these in shining arms were seen,
- When Theseus met in fight their maiden queen:
- Such to the field Penthisilea led,
- From the fierce virgin when the Grecians fled;
- With such, return'd triumphant from the war,
- Her maids with cries attend the lofty car;
- They clash with manly force their moony shields;
- With female shouts resound the Phrygian fields.
- Who foremost, and who last, heroic maid,
- On the cold earth were by thy courage laid?
- Thy spear, of mountain ash, Eumenius first,
- With fury driv'n, from side to side transpierc'd:
- A purple stream came spouting from the wound;
- Bath'd in his blood he lies, and bites the ground.
- Liris and Pegasus at once she slew:
- The former, as the slacken'd reins he drew
- Of his faint steed; the latter, as he stretch'd
- His arm to prop his friend, the jav'lin reach'd.
- By the same weapon, sent from the same hand,
- Both fall together, and both spurn the sand.
- Amastrus next is added to the slain:
- The rest in rout she follows o'er the plain:
- Tereus, Harpalycus, Demophoon,
- And Chromis, at full speed her fury shun.
- Of all her deadly darts, not one she lost;
- Each was attended with a Trojan ghost.
- Young Ornithus bestrode a hunter steed,
- Swift for the chase, and of Apulian breed.
- Him from afar she spied, in arms unknown:
- O'er his broad back an ox's hide was thrown;
- His helm a wolf, whose gaping jaws were spread
- A cov'ring for his cheeks, and grinn'd around his head,
- He clench'd within his hand an iron prong,
- And tower'd above the rest, conspicuous in the throng.
- Him soon she singled from the flying train,
- And slew with ease; then thus insults the slain:
- "Vain hunter, didst thou think thro' woods to chase
- The savage herd, a vile and trembling race?
- Here cease thy vaunts, and own my victory:
- A woman warrior was too strong for thee.
- Yet, if the ghosts demand the conqu'ror's name,
- Confessing great Camilla, save thy shame."
- Then Butes and Orsilochus she slew,
- The bulkiest bodies of the Trojan crew;
- But Butes breast to breast: the spear descends
- Above the gorget, where his helmet ends,
- And o'er the shield which his left side defends.
- Orsilochus and she their courses ply:
- He seems to follow, and she seems to fly;
- But in a narrower ring she makes the race;
- And then he flies, and she pursues the chase.
- Gath'ring at length on her deluded foe,
- She swings her ax, and rises to the blow
- Full on the helm behind, with such a sway
- The weapon falls, the riven steel gives way:
- He groans, he roars, he sues in vain for grace;
- Brains, mingled with his blood, besmear his face.
- Astonish'd Aunus just arrives by chance,
- To see his fall; nor farther dares advance;
- But, fixing on the horrid maid his eye,
- He stares, and shakes, and finds it vain to fly;
- Yet, like a true Ligurian, born to cheat,
- (At least while fortune favor'd his deceit,)
- Cries out aloud: "What courage have you shown,
- Who trust your courser's strength, and not your own?
- Forego the vantage of your horse, alight,
- And then on equal terms begin the fight:
- It shall be seen, weak woman, what you can,
- When, foot to foot, you combat with a man,"
- He said. She glows with anger and disdain,
- Dismounts with speed to dare him on the plain,
- And leaves her horse at large among her train;
- With her drawn sword defies him to the field,
- And, marching, lifts aloft her maiden shield.
- The youth, who thought his cunning did succeed,
- Reins round his horse, and urges all his speed;
- Adds the remembrance of the spur, and hides
- The goring rowels in his bleeding sides.
- "Vain fool, and coward!" cries the lofty maid,
- "Caught in the train which thou thyself hast laid!
- On others practice thy Ligurian arts;
- Thin stratagems and tricks of little hearts
- Are lost on me: nor shalt thou safe retire,
- With vaunting lies, to thy fallacious sire."
- At this, so fast her flying feet she sped,
- That soon she strain'd beyond his horse's head:
- Then turning short, at once she seiz'd the rein,
- And laid the boaster grov'ling on the plain.
- Not with more ease the falcon, from above,
- Trusses in middle air the trembling dove,
- Then plumes the prey, in her strong pounces bound:
- The feathers, foul with blood, come tumbling to the ground.
- Now mighty Jove, from his superior height,
- With his broad eye surveys th' unequal fight.
- He fires the breast of Tarchon with disdain,
- And sends him to redeem th' abandon'd plain.
- Betwixt the broken ranks the Tuscan rides,
- And these encourages, and those he chides;
- Recalls each leader, by his name, from flight;
- Renews their ardor, and restores the fight.
- "What panic fear has seiz'd your souls? O shame,
- O brand perpetual of th' Etrurian name!
- Cowards incurable, a woman's hand
- Drives, breaks, and scatters your ignoble band!
- Now cast away the sword, and quit the shield!
- What use of weapons which you dare not wield?
- Not thus you fly your female foes by night,
- Nor shun the feast, when the full bowls invite;
- When to fat off'rings the glad augur calls,
- And the shrill hornpipe sounds to bacchanals.
- These are your studied cares, your lewd delight:
- Swift to debauch, but slow to manly fight."
- Thus having said, he spurs amid the foes,
- Not managing the life he meant to lose.
- The first he found he seiz'd with headlong haste,
- In his strong gripe, and clasp'd around the waist;
- 'T was Venulus, whom from his horse he tore,
- And, laid athwart his own, in triumph bore.
- Loud shouts ensue; the Latins turn their eyes,
- And view th' unusual sight with vast surprise.
- The fiery Tarchon, flying o'er the plains,
- Press'd in his arms the pond'rous prey sustains;
- Then, with his shorten'd spear, explores around
- His jointed arms, to fix a deadly wound.
- Nor less the captive struggles for his life:
- He writhes his body to prolong the strife,
- And, fencing for his naked throat, exerts
- His utmost vigor, and the point averts.
- So stoops the yellow eagle from on high,
- And bears a speckled serpent thro' the sky,
- Fast'ning his crooked talons on the prey:
- The pris'ner hisses thro' the liquid way;
- Resists the royal hawk; and, tho' oppress'd,
- She fights in volumes, and erects her crest:
- Turn'd to her foe, she stiffens ev'ry scale,
- And shoots her forky tongue, and whisks her threat'ning tail.
- Against the victor, all defense is weak:
- Th' imperial bird still plies her with his beak;
- He tears her bowels, and her breast he gores;
- Then claps his pinions, and securely soars.
- Thus, thro' the midst of circling enemies,
- Strong Tarchon snatch'd and bore away his prize.
- The Tyrrhene troops, that shrunk before, now press
- The Latins, and presume the like success.
- Then Aruns, doom'd to death, his arts assay'd,
- To murther, unespied, the Volscian maid:
- This way and that his winding course he bends,
- And, whereso'er she turns, her steps attends.
- When she retires victorious from the chase,
- He wheels about with care, and shifts his place;
- When, rushing on, she seeks her foes flight,
- He keeps aloof, but keeps her still in sight:
- He threats, and trembles, trying ev'ry way,
- Unseen to kill, and safely to betray.
- Chloreus, the priest of Cybele, from far,
- Glitt'ring in Phrygian arms amidst the war,
- Was by the virgin view'd. The steed he press'd
- Was proud with trappings, and his brawny chest
- With scales of gilded brass was cover'd o'er;
- A robe of Tyrian dye the rider wore.
- With deadly wounds he gall'd the distant foe;
- Gnossian his shafts, and Lycian was his bow:
- A golden helm his front and head surrounds
- A gilded quiver from his shoulder sounds.
- Gold, weav'd with linen, on his thighs he wore,
- With flowers of needlework distinguish'd o'er,
- With golden buckles bound, and gather'd up before.
- Him the fierce maid beheld with ardent eyes,
- Fond and ambitious of so rich a prize,
- Or that the temple might his trophies hold,
- Or else to shine herself in Trojan gold.
- Blind in her haste, she chases him alone.
- And seeks his life, regardless of her own.
- This lucky moment the sly traitor chose:
- Then, starting from his ambush, up he rose,
- And threw, but first to Heav'n address'd his vows:
- "O patron of Socrates' high abodes,
- Phoebus, the ruling pow'r among the gods,
- Whom first we serve, whole woods of unctuous pine
- Are fell'd for thee, and to thy glory shine;
- By thee protected with our naked soles,
- Thro' flames unsing'd we march, and tread the kindled coals
- Give me, propitious pow'r, to wash away
- The stains of this dishonorable day:
- Nor spoils, nor triumph, from the fact I claim,
- But with my future actions trust my fame.
- Let me, by stealth, this female plague o'ercome,
- And from the field return inglorious home."
- Apollo heard, and, granting half his pray'r,
- Shuffled in winds the rest, and toss'd in empty air.
- He gives the death desir'd; his safe return
- By southern tempests to the seas is borne.
- Now, when the jav'lin whizz'd along the skies,
- Both armies on Camilla turn'd their eyes,
- Directed by the sound. Of either host,
- Th' unhappy virgin, tho' concern'd the most,
- Was only deaf; so greedy was she bent
- On golden spoils, and on her prey intent;
- Till in her pap the winged weapon stood
- Infix'd, and deeply drunk the purple blood.
- Her sad attendants hasten to sustain
- Their dying lady, drooping on the plain.
- Far from their sight the trembling Aruns flies,
- With beating heart, and fear confus'd with joys;
- Nor dares he farther to pursue his blow,
- Or ev'n to bear the sight of his expiring foe.
- As, when the wolf has torn a bullock's hide
- At unawares, or ranch'd a shepherd's side,
- Conscious of his audacious deed, he flies,
- And claps his quiv'ring tail between his thighs:
- So, speeding once, the wretch no more attends,
- But, spurring forward, herds among his friends.
- She wrench'd the jav'lin with her dying hands,
- But wedg'd within her breast the weapon stands;
- The wood she draws, the steely point remains;
- She staggers in her seat with agonizing pains:
- (A gath'ring mist o'erclouds her cheerful eyes,
- And from her cheeks the rosy color flies:)
- Then turns to her, whom of her female train
- She trusted most, and thus she speaks with pain:
- "Acca, 't is past! he swims before my sight,
- Inexorable Death; and claims his right.
- Bear my last words to Turnus; fly with speed,
- And bid him timely to my charge succeed,
- Repel the Trojans, and the town relieve:
- Farewell! and in this kiss my parting breath receive."
- She said, and, sliding, sunk upon the plain:
- Dying, her open'd hand forsakes the rein;
- Short, and more short, she pants; by slow degrees
- Her mind the passage from her body frees.
- She drops her sword; she nods her plumy crest,
- Her drooping head declining on her breast:
- In the last sigh her struggling soul expires,
- And, murm'ring with disdain, to Stygian sounds retires.
- A shout, that struck the golden stars, ensued;
- Despair and rage the languish'd fight renew'd.
- The Trojan troops and Tuscans, in a line,
- Advance to charge; the mix'd Arcadians join.
- But Cynthia's maid, high seated, from afar
- Surveys the field, and fortune of the war,
- Unmov'd a while, till, prostrate on the plain,
- Welt'ring in blood, she sees Camilla slain,
- And, round her corpse, of friends and foes a fighting train.
- Then, from the bottom of her breast, she drew
- A mournful sigh, and these sad words ensue:
- "Too dear a fine, ah much lamented maid,
- For warring with the Trojans, thou hast paid!
- Nor aught avail'd, in this unhappy strife,
- Diana's sacred arms, to save thy life.
- Yet unreveng'd thy goddess will not leave
- Her vot'ry's death, nor; with vain sorrow grieve.
- Branded the wretch, and be his name abhorr'd;
- But after ages shall thy praise record.
- Th' inglorious coward soon shall press the plain:
- Thus vows thy queen, and thus the Fates ordain."
- High o'er the field there stood a hilly mound,
- Sacred the place, and spread with oaks around,
- Where, in a marble tomb, Dercennus lay,
- A king that once in Latium bore the sway.
- The beauteous Opis thither bent her flight,
- To mark the traitor Aruns from the height.
- Him in refulgent arms she soon espied,
- Swoln with success; and loudly thus she cried:
- "Thy backward steps, vain boaster, are too late;
- Turn like a man, at length, and meet thy fate.
- Charg'd with my message, to Camilla go,
- And say I sent thee to the shades below,
- An honor undeserv'd from Cynthia's bow."
- She said, and from her quiver chose with speed
- The winged shaft, predestin'd for the deed;
- Then to the stubborn yew her strength applied,
- Till the far distant horns approach'd on either side.
- The bowstring touch'd her breast, so strong she drew;
- Whizzing in air the fatal arrow flew.
- At once the twanging bow and sounding dart
- The traitor heard, and felt the point within his heart.
- Him, beating with his heels in pangs of death,
- His flying friends to foreign fields bequeath.
- The conqu'ring damsel, with expanded wings,
- The welcome message to her mistress brings.
- Their leader lost, the Volscians quit the field,
- And, unsustain'd, the chiefs of Turnus yield.
- The frighted soldiers, when their captains fly,
- More on their speed than on their strength rely.
- Confus'd in flight, they bear each other down,
- And spur their horses headlong to the town.
- Driv'n by their foes, and to their fears resign'd,
- Not once they turn, but take their wounds behind.
- These drop the shield, and those the lance forego,
- Or on their shoulders bear the slacken'd bow.
- The hoofs of horses, with a rattling sound,
- Beat short and thick, and shake the rotten ground.
- Black clouds of dust come rolling in the sky,
- And o'er the darken'd walls and rampires fly.
- The trembling matrons, from their lofty stands,
- Rend heav'n with female shrieks, and wring their hands.
- All pressing on, pursuers and pursued,
- Are crush'd in crowds, a mingled multitude.
- Some happy few escape: the throng too late
- Rush on for entrance, till they choke the gate.
- Ev'n in the sight of home, the wretched sire
- Looks on, and sees his helpless son expire.
- Then, in a fright, the folding gates they close,
- But leave their friends excluded with their foes.
- The vanquish'd cry; the victors loudly shout;
- 'T is terror all within, and slaughter all without.
- Blind in their fear, they bounce against the wall,
- Or, to the moats pursued, precipitate their fall.
- The Latian virgins, valiant with despair,
- Arm'd on the tow'rs, the common danger share:
- So much of zeal their country's cause inspir'd;
- So much Camilla's great example fir'd.
- Poles, sharpen'd in the flames, from high they throw,
- With imitated darts, to gall the foe.
- Their lives for godlike freedom they bequeath,
- And crowd each other to be first in death.
- Meantime to Turnus, ambush'd in the shade,
- With heavy tidings came th' unhappy maid:
- "The Volscians overthrown, Camilla kill'd;
- The foes, entirely masters of the field,
- Like a resistless flood, come rolling on:
- The cry goes off the plain, and thickens to the town."
- Inflam'd with rage, (for so the Furies fire
- The Daunian's breast, and so the Fates require,)
- He leaves the hilly pass, the woods in vain
- Possess'd, and downward issues on the plain.
- Scarce was he gone, when to the straits, now freed
- From secret foes, the Trojan troops succeed.
- Thro' the black forest and the ferny brake,
- Unknowingly secure, their way they take;
- From the rough mountains to the plain descend,
- And there, in order drawn, their line extend.
- Both armies now in open fields are seen;
- Nor far the distance of the space between.
- Both to the city bend. Aeneas sees,
- Thro' smoking fields, his hast'ning enemies;
- And Turnus views the Trojans in array,
- And hears th' approaching horses proudly neigh.
- Soon had their hosts in bloody battle join'd;
- But westward to the sea the sun declin'd.
- Intrench'd before the town both armies lie,
- While Night with sable wings involves the sky.`;
- const book1words = book1.split(' ');
- const book6words = book6.split(' ');
- const book11words = book11.split(' ');
- console.log(book11words[6826 - 1]);
- console.log(book1words[451 - 1]);
- console.log(book6words[1185 - 1]);
- console.log(book6words[1102 - 1]);
- console.log(book1words[62 - 1]);
- console.log(book6words[1237 - 1]);
- console.log(book11words[3539 - 1]);
- console.log(book11words[4182 - 1]);
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