Or how from joining ftones the city sprung,
While to his harp divine Amphion fung?
Or fhall I Juno's hate to Thebes refound,
Whose fatal rage th' unhappy Monarch found?
The fire against the son his arrow drew,
O'er the wide fields the furious mother flew,
And while her arms a fecond hope contain,
Sprung from the rocks, and plung'd into the main.
But wave whate'er to Cadmus may belong,
And fix, O Mufe! the barrier of thy fong
At Oedipus from his difafters trace
The long confufions of his guilty race:
Nor yet attempt to stretch thy bolder wing,
And mighty Cæfar's conqu'ring eagles fing;
How twice he tam'd proud Ifter's rapid flood,
While Dacian mountains ftream'd with barb'rous blood;
Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll,
And stretch'd his empire to the frozen Pole ;
Or long before, with early valour strove,
In youthful arms t' affert the cause of Jove.
Expediam, penitufque fequar quo carmine muris
Jufferit Amphion Tyrios accedere montes:
Unde graves irae cognata in moenia Baccho,
Quod faevae Junonis opus; cui fumpferit arcum
Infelix Athamas, cur non expaverit ingens
Ionium, focio cafura Palaemone mater.
Atque adeo jam nunc gemitus, et profpera Cadmi
Praeteriiffe finam; limes mihi carminis efto
Oedipodae confufa domus ; quando Itala nondum
Signa, nec Arctoos aufim fperare triumphos,
Bifque jugo Rhenum, bis ada&tum legibus Iftrum,
Et conjurato dejectos vertice Dacos:
Aut defenfa prius vix pubefcentibus annis
And Thou, great Heir of all thy father's fame,
Encrease of glory to the Latian name!
O blefs thy Rome with an eternal reign,
Nor let defiring worlds entreat in vain.
What tho' the stars contract their heav'nly space, 35
And croud their fhining ranks to yield thee place;
Tho' all the skies, ambitious of thy fway,
Conspire to court thee from our world away;
Tho' Phoebus longs to mix his rays with thine,
And in thy glories more ferenely shine;
Tho' Jove himself no lefs content would be
To part his throne, and share his heav'n with thee;
Yet ftay, great Cæfar! and vouchsafe to reign
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the wat'ry main
Refign to Jove his empire of the skies,
And people heav'n with Roman deities.
The time will come, when a diviner flame
Shall warm my breast to fing of Cæfar's fame:
Meanwhile permit, that my preluding Mufe
In Theban-wars an humbler theme may chufe:
Bella Jovis. Tuque o Latiae decus addite famae,
Quem nova maturi fubeuntem exorfa parentis
Aeternum fibi Roma cupit: licet arctior omnes
Limes agat ftellas, et te plaga lucida coeli
Pleïadum, Boreaeque, et hiulci fulminis expers
Sollicitet; licet ignipedum frænator equorum
Ipfe tuis alte radiantem crinibus arcum
Imprimat, aut magni cedat tibi Jupiter aequa
Parte poli; maneas hominum contentus habenis,
Undarum terraeque potens, et fidera dones.
Tempus erit, cum Pierio tua fortior oeftro
Facta canam: nunc tendo chelyn. fatis arma referre Aonia, et geminis fceptrum exitiale tyrannis,
Of furious hate surviving death, she fings,
A fatal throne to two contending Kings,
And fun'ral flames, that parting wide in air
Express the difcord of the fouls they bear :
Of towns difpeopled, and the wand'ring ghofts
Of Kings unbury'd in the wafted coafts;
When Dirce's fountain blush'd with Grecian blood,
And Thetis, near Ifmenos' fwelling flood,
With dread beheld the rolling furges fweep,
In heaps, his flaughter'd fons into the deep.
What Hero, Clio! wilt thou firft relate?
The rage of Tydeus, or the Prophet's fate?
Or how with hills of flain on ev'ry fide,
Hippomedon repell'd the hoftile tide?
Or how the youth with ev'ry grace adorn'd,
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verfe extend,
And fing with horror his prodigious end.
Nec furiis poft fata modum, flammafque rebelles
Seditione rogi, tumulifque carentia regum
Funera, et egestas alternis mortibus urbes ;
Caerula cum rubuit Lernaeo fanguine Dirce,
Et Thetis arentes affuetum ftringere ripas,
Horruit ingenti venientem Ifmenon acervo.
Quem prius heroum Clio dabis? immodicum irae
Tydea laurigeri fubitos an vatis hiatus ?
Urget et hoftilem propellens caedibus amnem
Turbidus Hippomedon, plorandaque bella protervi 64
Arcados, atque alio Capaneus horrore canendus.
VIR. 65. Or how the youth] Parthenopaus.
Now wretched Oedipus, depriv'd of fight, Led a long death in everlafting night; But while he dwells where not a cheerful ray Can pierce the darkness, and abhors the day; The clear reflecting mind presents his fin In frightful views, and makes it day within; Returning thoughts in endless circles roll, And thousand furies haunt his guilty foul, The wretch then lifted to th' unpitying skies Those empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes, Whofe wounds, yet fresh, with bloody hands he strook, While from his breaft thefe dreadful accents broke. 80 Ye Gods! that o'er the gloomy regions reign,
Where guilty-fpirits feel eternal pain;
Thou, fable Styx! whofe livid ftreams are roll'd
Thro' dreary coafts, which I, tho' blind, behold:
Tifiphone, that oft haft heard my pray'r,
Affift, if Oedipus deferve thy care!
Impia jam merita fcrutatus lumina dextra Merferat aeterna damnatum nocte pudorem Oedipodes, longaque animam fub morte tenebat. 70 Illum indulgentem tenebris, imaeque receffu Sedis, inafpectos coelo, radiifque penates Servantem, tamen affiduis circumvolat alis Saeva dies animi, fcelerumque in pectore Dirae. 75 Tunc vacuos orbes, crudum ac miferabile vitae Supplicium, oftentat coelo, manibufque cruentis Pulfat inane folum, faevaque ita voce precatur : Di fontes animas; auguftaque Tartara poenis Qui regitis, tuque umbrifero Styx livida fundo, Quam video, multumque mihi confueta vocari Annue Tifiphone, perverfaque vota fecunda,
If you receiv'd me from Jocafta's womb,
And nurs'd the hope of mischiefs yet to come:
If leaving Polybus, I took my way
With monstrous mixture ftain'd my mother's bed,
For hell and thee begot an impious brood,
And with full luft thofe horrid joys renew'd;
Then felf-condemn'd, to fhades of endless night,
Forc'd from these orbs the bleeding balls of fight; 100 O hear, and aid the vengeance I require,
If worthy thee, and what thou might'ft infpire!
Si bene quid merui, fi me de matre cadentem
Foviti gremio, et trajectum vulnere plantas
Firmâfti; fi ftagna petî Cyrrhaea bicorni
Interfufa jugo, poffem cum degere falfo
Contentus Polybo, trifidaeque in Phocidos arce
Longaevum implicui regem, fecuique trementis
Ora fenis, dum quaero patrem ; fi Sphingos iniquae
Callidus ambages, te praemonftrante, refolvi;
Si dulces furias, et lamentabile matris
Connubium gavifus inî; noctemque nefandam
Saepe tuli, natosque tibi (scis ipfa) paravi;
Mox avidus poenae digitis cedentibus ultro
Incubui, miferaque oculos in matre reliqui :
Exaudi, fi digna precor, quaeque ipfa furenti
Subjiceres orbum vifu regnifque parentem
|