How fome with fwords their fleeping lords have flain, And fome have hammer'd nails into their brain, And fome have drench'd them with a deadly potion; All this he read, and read with great devotion.

410

Long time I heard, and fwell'd, and blush'd, and frown'd;

But when no end of these vile tales I found,
When still he read, and laugh'd, and read again,
And half the night was thus confum'd in vain ;
Provok'd to vengeance, three large leaves I tore,
And with one buffet fell'd him on the floor.
With that
my husband in a fury rose,
And down he fettled me with hearty blows.
I groan'd, and lay extended on my fide;
Oh! thou haft flain me for my wealth (I cry'd),
Yet I forgive thee-take my last embrace-
He wept, kind foul! and stoop'd to kiss my face,
I took him fuch a box as turn'd him blue,
Then figh'd and cry'd, Adieu, my dear, adieu!

But after many a hearty struggle past,
I condefcended to be pleas'd at last.
Soon as he faid, My mistress and my wife,
Do what you lift, the term of all your life :
I took to heart the merits of the cause,

415

420

425

And stood content to rule by wholesome laws;

430

Receiv'd the reins of abfolute command,

With all the government of house and land,
And empire o'er his tongue, and o'er his hand.
As for the volume that revil'd the dames,

'Twas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to flames. 435

Now

Now heaven on all my hufbands gone bestow
Pleasures above, for tortures felt below :

That reft they wifh'd for, grant them in the grave,
And bless thofe fouls my conduct help'd to fave!

THE

OEDIPUS King of Thebes, having by mistake slain his father Laius, and married his mother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resigned the realm to his fons, Eteocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tifiphone, to fow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at laft to reign fingly each a year by turns, and the firft lot is obtained by Eteocles. Jupiter, in a council of the Gods, declares his refolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives alfo, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adraftus King of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is fent on a meffage to the Shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices in the mean time departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a form, and arrives at Argos; where he meets with Tydeus, who had fled from Calydon, having killed his brother. Adraftus entertains them, having received an oracle from Apollo, that his daughters fhould be married to a Boar and a Lion, which he understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the hides of thofe beafts were worn, and who arrived at the time when he kept an annual feaft in honour of that God. The rife of this folemnity he relates to his guefts, the loves of Phoebus and Pfamathe, and the itory of Chorcebus. He enquires, and is made acquainted with their defcent and quality. The facrifice is renewed, and the book concludes with a Hymn to Apollo.

The Tranflator hopes he needs not apologise for his choice of this piece, which was made almost in his Childhood. But, finding the Verfion better than he expected, he gave it fome Correction a few years afterwards.

THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

STATIUS

F

HIS

THE BAIS.

RATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes alarms,
The alternate reign destroy'd by impious arms,

Demand our fong; a facred fury fires

My ravish'd breast, and all the Muse inspires.
O Goddess, fay, Thall I deduce my rhymes
From the dire nation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's ftern decree,

And Cadmus fearching round the spacious fea?
How with the ferpent's teeth he fow'd the foil,
And reap'd an iron harvest of his toil?

F

RATERNAS acies, alternaque regna profanis
Decertata odiis, fontesque evolvere Thebas,
Pierius menti calor incidit. Unde jubetis
Ire, Deae? gentisne canam primordia dirae ?
Sidonios raptus, et inexorabile pactum

Legis Agenoreae? fcrutantemque aequora Cadmum?
Longo retro feries, trepidum fi Martis operti
Agricolam infandis condentem praelia fulcis

10