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Discourse, the food of souls, was their delight,
And pleasing chat prolong'd the summer's night.
The subject, deeds of arms, and valour shown,
Or on the Trojan side, or on their own.
Of dangers undertaken, fame achiev'd,
They talk'd by turns; the talk by turns reliev'd.
What things but these could fierce Achilles tell,
Or what could fierce Achilles hear so well?
The last great act perform'd, of Cygnus slain,
Did most the martial audience entertain:
Wondering to find a body, free by fate

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They sate and, summon'd by the bridegroom,

From steel, and which could ev'n that steel rebate: To mix with those, the Lapithean name:
Amaz'd their admiration they renew;
And scarce Pelides could believe it true.

Then Nestor thus; "What once this age has
In fated Cygnus, and in him alone, [known,
These eyes have seen in Cæneus long before,
Whose body not a thousand swords could bore.
Caneus, in courage, and in strength, excell'd,
And still his Othrys with his fame is fill'd:
But what did most his martial deeds adorn,
(Though since he chang'd his sex) a woman born."
A novelty so strange, and full of fate,
His listening audience ask'd him to relate.
Achilles thus commends their common suit:
"O father, first for prudence in repute,
Tell with that eloquence so much thy own,
What thou hast heard, or what of Caneus known.
What was he, whence his change of sex begun,
What trophies, join'd in wars with thee, he won ?
Who conquer'd him, and in what fatal strife
The youth, without a wound, could lose his life?'
Neleides then: "Though tardy age, and time
Have shrunk my sinews, and decay'd my prime;
Though much I have forgotten of my store,
Yet not exhausted, I remember more.
Of all that arms achiev'd, or peace design'd,
That action still is fresher in my mind
Than aught beside. If reverend age can give
To faith a sanction, in my third I live.

""Twas in my second century, I survey'd
Young Canis, then a fair Thessalian maid :
Canis the bright was born to high command;
A princess, and a native of thy land,
Divine Achilles: every tongue proclaim'd
Her beauty, and her eyes all hearts inflam'd.
Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed,
Among the rest; but he had either led
Thy mother then, or was by promise ty'd ;
But she to him, and all, alike her love deny'd.
"It was her fortune once to take her way
Along the sandy margin of the sea:

The power of ocean view'd her as she pass'd,
And, lov'd as soon as seen, by force embrac'd.
So Fame reports. Her virgin treasure seiz'd,
And his new joys the ravisher so pleas'd,
That thus, transported, to the nymph he cry'd:
Ask what thou wilt, no prayer shall be deny'd.'
This also Fame relates: the haughty fair,
Who not the rape ev'n of a god could bear,
This answer, proud, return'd: 'To mighty wrongs
A mighty recompense, of right, belongs.
Give me no more to suffer such a shame;
But change the woman, for a better name;
One gift for all:' she said; and while she spoke,
A stern, majestic, manly tone she took.
A man she was: and as the godhead swore,
To Cæneus turn'd, who Canis was before.
"To this the lover adds, without request:
No force of steel should violate his breast.

Nor wanted I: the roofs with joy resound:
And Hymen, lö Hymen, rung around.
Ra's'd altars shone with holy fires; the bride,
Lovely herself (and lovely by her side
A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace),
Came glittering like a star, and took her place:
Her heavenly form beheld, all wish'd her joy;
And little wanted, but in vain, their wishes all
employ.

"For one, most brutal of the brutal blood,
Or whether wine or beauty fir'd his blood,
Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes
The bride; at once resolv'd to make his prize.
Down went the board; and, fastening on her hair,
He seiz'd with sudden force the frighted fair.
'Twas Eurytus began: his bestial kind
His crime pursued ; and each as pleas'd his mind,
Or her, whom chance presented, took: the feast
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"The cave resounds with female shrieks; we
Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise:
And Theseus first; What frenzy has possess'd,
O Eurytus,' he cry'd, 'thy brutal breast,
To wrong Pirithous, and not him alone,
But, while I live, two friends conjoin'd in one?'

"To justify his threat, be thrusts aside
The crowd of Centaurs, and redeems the bride;
The monster nought reply'd: for words were vain;
And deeds could only deeds unjust maintain:
But answers with his hand; and forward press'd,
With blows redoubled, on his face and breast.
An ample goblet stood, of antique mold,
And rough with figures of the rising gold;
The hero snatch'd it up, and toss'd in air,
Full at the front of the foul ravisher:
He falls; and falling vomits forth a flood
Of wine, and foam and brains, and mingled blood.
Half roaring, and half neighing, through the hall,
'Arms, arms,' the double-form'd with fury call,
To wreak their brother's death: a medley flight
Of bowls and jars, at first, supply the fight,
Once instruments of feasts, but now of Fate:
Wine animates their rage, and arms their hate.

"Bold Amycus, from the robb'd vestry brings
The chalices of Heaven, and holy things
Of precious weight: a sconce that hung on high,
With tapers fill'd, to light the sacristy,
Torn from the cord, with his unhallow'd hand
He threw amid the Lapithæan band.
On Celadon the ruin fell; and left
His face of feature and of form bereft:
So, when some brawny sacrificer knocks,
Before an altar led, an offer'd ox,

His eye-balls rooted out are thrown to ground,
His nose dismantled in his mouth is found,
His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguish'd wound.
"This Belates, th' avenger, could not brook;
But, by the foot, a maple-board he took,

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cry'd, 'Have with their holy trade our hands supply'd: Why use we not their gifts?' Then from the floor An altar-stone he heav'd, with all the load it bore: Altar and altar's freight together flew Where thickest throng'd the Lapithean crew; And, at once, Broteas and Oryus slew: Oryus' mother, Mycale, was known

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Down from her sphere to draw the labouring Moon.
"Exadius cry'd, Unpunish'd shall not go
This fact, if arms are found against the foe.'
He look'd about, where on a pine were spread
The votive horns of a stag's branching head:
At Grineus these he throws; so just they fly,
That the sharp antlers stuck in either eye:
Breathless and blind he fell, with blood besmear'd,
His eye-balls, beaten out, hung dangling on his
beard.

Fierce Rhætus, from the hearth, a burning brand
Selects, and whirling waves; till from his hand
The fire took flame; then dash'd it from the right
On fair Charaxus' temples, near the sight:
The whistling pest came on, and pierc'd the bone
And caught the yellow hair, that shrivel'd while
it shone :

Caught, like dry stubble fir'd, or like seerwood;
Yet from the wound ensued no purple flood;
But look'd a bubbling mass of frying blood.
His blazing locks sent forth a crackling sound,
And hiss'd, like red hot ir'n within the smithy
drown'd.

The wounded warrior shook his flaming hair,
Then (what a team of horse could hardly rear)
He heaves the threshold-stone; but could not throw;
The weight itself forbad the threaten'd blow;
Which, dropping from his lifted arms, came down
Full on Cometes' head, and crush'd his crown.
Nor Rhætus then retain'd his joy: but said,
So by their fellows may our foes be sped!'
Then with redoubled strokes he plies his head:
The burning lever not deludes his pains;
Bat drives the batter'd skull within the brains.
"Thus flush'd, the conqueror, with force re-
new'd,

Evagrus, Dryas, Corythus pursued:
First, Corythus, with downy cheeks, he slew;
Whose fall when fierce Evagrus had in view,
He cry'd, 'What palm is from a beardless prey?'
Rhætus prevents what more he had to say;
And drove within his mouth the fiery death,
Which enter'd hissing in, and chok'd his breath.
At Dryas next he flew; but weary Chance
No longer would the same success advance.
But while he whirl'd in fiery circles round
The brand, a sharpen'd stake strong Dryas found;
And in the shoulder's joint inflicts the wound.
The weapon struck: which roaring out with pain
He drew: nor longer durst the fight maintain,
But turn'd his back, for fear; and fled amain.
With him fled Orneus, with like dread possess'd;
Thaumas and Medon, wounded in the breast;
And Mermeros, in the late race renown'd,
Now limping ran, and tardy with his wound.

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Pholus and Melaneus from fight withdrew,
And Abas maim'd, who boars encountering slew:
And Augur Astylos, whose art in vain
From fight dissuaded the four-footed train,
Now beat the hoof with Nessus on the plain;
But to his fellow cry'd, Be safely slow,
Thy death deferr'd is due to great Alcides' bow.'
"Mean time strong Dryas urg'd his chance so
That Lycidas, Areos, Imbreus fell;
All one by one, and fighting face to face:
Crenæus fled, to fall with more disgrace:
For, fearful, while he look'd behind, he bore
Betwixt his nose and front the blow before.
Amid the noise and tumult of the fray,
Snoring and drunk with wine, Aphidas lay.
Ev'n then the bowl within his hand he kept,
And on a bear's rough hide securely slept.
Him Phorbas with his flying dart transfix'd;
"Take thy next draught with Stygian waters mix'd,
And sleep thy fill,' th' insulting victor cy'd;
Surpriz'd with death unfelt, the Centaur dy'd;
The ruddy vomit, as he breath'd his soul,
Repass'd his throat, and fill'd his empty bowl.

"I saw Petræus' arms employ'd around A well-grown oak, to root it from the ground. This way, and that, he wrench'd the fibrous bands, The trunk was like a sapling in his hands, And still obey'd the bent: while thus he stood, Perithous' dart drove on, and nail'd him to the wood.

Lycus and Chromys fell, by him oppress'd:
Helops and Dictys added to the rest

A nobler palm: Helops, through either ear
Transfix'd, receiv'd the penetrating spear.
This Dictys saw; and, seiz'd with sudden fright,
Leapt headlong from the hill of steepy height;
Aud crush'd an ash beneath, that could not bear

his weight.

The shatter'd tree receives his fall, and strikes,
Within his full-blown paunch the sharpen'd spikes.
Strong Aphareus had heav'd a mighty stone,
The fragment of a rock, and would have thrown;
But Theseus, with a club of harden'd oak,
The cubit-bone of the bold Centaur broke,
And left him maim'd; nor seconded the stroke:
Then leapt on tall Bianor's back, (who bore
No mortal burthen but his own, before)
Press'd with his knees his sides; the double man,
His speed with spurs increas'd, unwilling ran.
One hand the hero fasten'd on his locks;
His other ply'd him with repeated strokes.
The club hung round his ears and batter'd brows;
He fails; and, lashing up his heels, his rider throws.
"The same Herculean arms Nedymnus wound,
And lay by him Lycotas on the ground;
And Hippasus, whose beard his breast invades ;
And Ripheus, haunter of the woodland shades;
And Tereus, us'd with mountain-bears to strive,
And from their dens to draw th' indignant beasts
alive.

"Demoleon could not bear this hateful sight,
Or the long fortune of th' Athenian knight:
But pull'd with all his force, to disengage
From earth a pine, the product of an age:
The root stuck fast: the broken trunk he sent
At Theseus: Theseus frustrates his intent,
And leaps aside, by Pallas warn'd, the blow
To shun (for so he said; and we believ❜d it so).
Yet not in vain th'enormous weight was cast,
Which Crantor's body sunder'd at the waist;

Thy father's squire, Achilles, and his care;
Whom conquer'd in the Delopeian war,
Their king, his present ruin fo prevent,
A pledge of peace implor'd, to Peleus sent.
Thy sire, with grieving eyes, beheld his fate;
And cry'd, Not long, lov'd Crantor, shalt thou
wait

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Thy vow'd revenge.' At once he said, and threw
His ashen-spear, which quiver'd as it flew,
With all his force and all his soul apply'd;
The sharp point enter'd in the Centaur's side:
Both hands, to wrench it out, the monster join'd;
And wrench'd it out; but left the steel behind.
Stuck in his lungs it stood: enrag'd he rears
His hoofs, and down to ground thy father bears.
Thus trampled under foot, his shield defends
His head; his other hand the lance protends.
Ev'n while he lay extended on the dust,
He sped the Centaur, with one single thrust.
Two more his lance before transfix'd from far;
And two his sword had slain in closer war.
To these was added Dorylas: who spread
A bull's two goring horns around his head.
With these he push'd; in blood already dy'd:
Him, fearless, I approach'd, and thus defy'd:
Now, monster, now, by proof it shall appear,
Whether thy horns are sharper, or my spear.'
At this, I threw for want of other ward,
He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
His hand it pass'd, and fix'd it to his brow:
Loud shouts of ours attend the lucky blow:
Him Peleus finish'd, with a second wound,
Which through the navel pierc'd: he reel'd around,
And dragg'd his dangling bowels on the ground:
Trod what he dragg'd, and what he trod he crush'd:
And to his mother-earth, with empty belly, rush'd.
"Nor could thy form, O Cyllarus, foreshow
Thy fate (if form to monsters men allow):
Just bloom'd thy beard, thy beard of golden hue:
Thy locks, in golden waves, about thy shoulders

flew.

Sprightly thy look: thy shapes in every part
So clean, as might instruct the sculptor's art,
As far as man extended: where began
The beast, the beast was equal to the man,
Add but a horse's head and neck, and he,
O Castor, was a courser worthy thee.
So was his back proportion'd for the seat;

All day they hunted; and when day expir'd,
Together to some shady cave retir'd.
Invited, to the nuptials both repair:
And, side by side, they both engage in war.

"Uncertain from what hand, a flying dart
At Cyllarus was sent, which piere'd his heart.
The javelin drawn from out the mortal wound,
He faints with staggering steps, and seeks the
ground:

The fair within her arms receiv'd his fall,
And strove his wandering spirits to recall :
And, while her hand the streaming blood oppos'd,
Join'd face to face, his lips with hers she clos'd.
Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies;
She fills the fields with undistinguish'd cries:
At least her words were in her clamour drown'd;
For my stunn'd ears receiv'd no vocal sound.
In madness of her grief she seiz'd the dart
New drawn, and reeking from her lover's heart;
To her bare bosom the sharp point apply'd,
And wounded fell, and falling by his side, [dy'd.
Embrac'd him in her arms, and thus embracing
"Ev'n still, methinks, I see Phæocomes;
Strange was his habit, and as odd his dress.
Six lions hides, with thongs together fast,
His upper part defended to his waist;
And where man ended, the continued vest
Spread on his back the houss and trappings of a
beast.

A stump too heavy for a team to draw
(It seems a fable, though the fact I saw)
He threw at Pholon; the descending blow
Divides the skull, and cleaves his head in two.
The brains, from nose and mouth, and either ear,
Came issuing out, as through a colendar
The curdled milk: or from the press the whey,
Driven down by weights above, is drain'd away.

"But him, while stooping down to spoil the slain, Pierc'd through the paunch, I tumbled on the plain. Then Chthonius and Teleboas I slew :

A fork the former arm'd; a dart his fellow threw.
The javelin wounded me (behold the scar).
Then was my time to seek the Trojan war;
Then I was Hector's match in open field;
But he was then unborn; at least a child;
Now, I am nothing. I forbear to tell
By Periphantes how Pyretus fell;
The Centaur by the knight: nor will I stay

So rose his brawny chest; so swiftly mov'd his On Amphix, or what deaths he dealt that day:

feet.

Coal-black his colour, but like jet it shone;
His legs and flowing tail were white alone,
Belov'd by many maidens of his kind,
But fair Hylonome possess'd his mind;
Hylonome, for features, and for face,
Excelling all the nymphs of double race:
Nor less her blandishments, than beauty, move;
At once both loving, and confessing love.
For him she dress'd; for him with female care
She comb'd, and set in curls her auburn hair.
Of roses, violets, and lilies mix'd,

And sprigs of flowing rosemary betwixt,
She form'd the chaplet, that adorn'd her front:
In waters of the Pegasæan fount,

And in the streams that from the fountain play,
She wash'd her face, and bath'd her twice a day.
The scarf of furs, that hung below her side,
Was ermin, or the panther's spotted pride:
Spoils of no common beast: with equal flame
They lov'd: their sylvan pleasures were the same:

1

What honour, with a pointless lance, he won,
Stuck in the front of a four-footed man.
What fame young Macareus obtain'd in fight:
Or dwell on Nessus, now return'd from flight,
How prophet Mopsus not alone divin'd,
Whose valour equal'd his foreseeing mind.
"Already Caneus, with his conquering hand,
Had slaughter'd five, the boldest of their band:
Pyrachmus, Helymus, Antimachus,

Bromus the brave, and stronger Stiphelus:
Their names 1 number'd, and remember well,
No trace remaining, by what wounds they fell.
"Latreus, the bulkiest of the double race,
Whom the spoil'd arms of slain Halesus grace,
In years retaining still his youthful might,
Though his black hairs were interspers'd with
white,

Betwixt th' embattled ranks began to prance,
Proud of his helm, and Macedonian lance;
And rode the ring around; that either host.
Might hear him, while he made this empty boast.

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And from a strumpet shall we suffer shame?
For Canis still, not Cæneus is thy name:
And still the native softness of thy kind
Prevails, and leaves the woman in thy mind.
Remember what thou wert: what price was paid
To change thy sex: to make thee not a maid;
And but a man in show: go, card and spin;
And leave the business of the war to men.'

"While thus the boaster exercis'd his pride,
The fatal spear of Cæneus reach'd his side:
Just in the mixture of the kinds it ran;
Betwixt the nether beast and upper man.
The monster, mad with rage, and stung with smart,
His lance directed at the hero's heart:

It strook; but bounded from his harden'd breast;
Like hail from tiles, which the safe house invest;
Nor seem'd the stroke with more effect to come,
Than a small pebble falling on a drum.

He next his fauchion try'd, in closer fight;
But the keen fauchion had no power to bite.
He thrust; the blunted point return'd again.
'Since downright blows,' he cry'd, ' and thrusts are
vain,

I'll prove his side:' in strong embraces held,
He prov'd his side; his side the sword repell'd:
His hollow belly echo'd to the stroke;
Untouch'd his body, as a solid rock; [broke.
Aim'd at his neck at last, the blade in shivers
"Th' impassive knight stood idle, to deride
His rage, and offer'd oft his naked side:

At length, Now, monster, in thy turn,' he cry'd,
Try thou the strength of Cæneus:' at the word
He thrust; and in his shoulder plung'd the sword.
Then writh'd his hand; and, as he drove it down,
Deep in his breast, made many wounds in one.

"The Centaurs saw, enrag'd, th' unhop'd success;
And rushing on, in crowds, together press;
At him, and him alone, their darts they threw :
Repuls'd they from his fated body flew.
Amaz'd they stood; till Monychus began,
'O shame! a nation conquer'd by a man!
A woman-man; yet more a man is he,
Than all our race; and what he was, are we.
Now, what avail our nerves? th' united force,
Of two the strongest creatures, man and horse:
Nor goddess-born, nor of Ixion's seed,
We seem, (a lover built for Juno's bed)
Master'd by this half man. Whole mountains
throw

With woods at once, and bury him below.
This only way remains. Nor need we doubt

To choak the soul within, though not to force it out.

Heap weights, instead of wounds:' he chanc'd to see Where southern storms had rooted up a tree; This, rais'd from earth, against the foe he threw; Th' example shown, his fellow brutes pursue. With forest-loads the warrior they invade ; Othrys and Pelion soon were void of shade; And spreading groves were naked mountains made. Press'd with the burthen, Caneus pants for breath; And on his shoulders bears the wooden death. To heave th' intolerable weight he tries; At length it rose above his mouth and eyes; Yet still he heaves, and, struggling with despair, Shakes all aside, and gains a gulp of air: A short relief, which but prolongs his pain; He faints by fits; and then respires again : At last, the burthen only nods above,

As when an earthquake stirs th' Idæan grove.

Doubtful his death: he suffocated seem'd
To most; but otherwise our Mopsus deem'd.
Who said, he saw a yellow bird arise
From out the pile, and cleave the liquid skies:
I saw it too: with golden feathers bright,
Nor e'er before beheld so strange a sight.
Whom Mopsus viewing, as it soar'd around
Our troop, and heard the pinions rattling sound,
'All hail,' he cry'd, thy country's grace and love;
Once first of men below, now first of birds above.'
Its author to the story gave belief;

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For us, our courage was increas'd by grief:
Asham'd to see a single man, pursu'd
With odds, to sink beneath a multitude,
We push'd the foe, and forc'd to shameful fight;
Part fell; and part escap'd by favour of the night.”
This tale, by Nestor told, did much displease
Tlepolemus, the seed of Hercules:
For, often he had heard his father say,
That he himself was present at the fray;
And more than shar'd the glories of the day.
"Old Chronicle," he said, " among the rest,
You might have nam'd Alcides at the least:
Is he not worth your praise?" The Pylian prince
Sigh'd ere he spoke; then made this proud defence.
My former woes, in long oblivion drown'd,

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I would have lost; but you renew the wound:
Better to pass him o'er, than to relate
The cause I have your mighty sire to hate.
His fame has fill'd the world, and reach'd the sky;
(Which, oh, I wish, with truth, I could deny)!
We praise not Hector; though his name, we know,
Is great in arms; 'tis hard to praise a foe.

"He, your great father, level'd to the ground Messenia's towers: nor better fortune found Elis, and Pylas; that a neighbouring state, And this my own: both guiltless of their fate. "To pass the rest, twelve, wanting one, he

slew;

My brethren, who their birth from Neleus drew.
All youths of early promise, had they liv'd;
By him they perish'd: I alone surviv'd.
The rest were easy conquest: but the fate
Of Periclymenos is wondrous to relate.
To him our common grandsire of the main
Had given to change his form, and, chang'd, re-
sume again.

Vary'd at pleasure, every shape he try'd;
And in all beasts Alcides still defy'd:
Vanquish'd on Earth, at length he soar'd above
Chang'd to the bird, that bears the bolt of Jove:
The new-dissembled eagle, now endu'd
With peak and pounces, Hercules pursu'd,
And cuff'd his manly cheeks, and tore his face;
Then, saf retir'd, and tour'd in empty space.
Alcides bore not long his flying foe,
But, bending his inevitable bow,
Reach'd him in air, suspended as he stood;
And in his pinion fix'd the feather'd wood.
Light was the wound; but in the sinew hung
The point; and his disabled wing unstrung.
He wheel'd in air, and stretch'd his vans in vain;
His vans no longer could his flight sustain:
For while one gather'd wind, one, unsupply'd,
Hung drooping down; nor pois'd his other side.
He feil: the shaft, that slightly was impress'd,
Now from his heavy fall with weight increas'd
Drove through his neck, aslant; he spurns the
ground,

And the soul issues through the weazon's wound.

"Now, brave commander of the Rhodian seas, What praise is due from me to Hercules? Silence is all the vengeance I decree

For my slain brothers; but 'tis peace with thee."
Thus with a flowing tongue old Nestor spoke:
Then, to full bowls each other they provoke:
At length, with weariness and wine oppress'd,
They rise from table, and withdraw to rest.

The sire of Cygnus, monarch of the main, Mean time, laments his son, in battle slain : And vows the victor's death, nor vows in vain. For nine long years the smother'd pain he bore (Achilles was not ripe for fate before):

Then when he saw the promis'd hour was near,
He thus bespoke the god that guides the year.
"Immortal offspring of my brother Jove;
My brightest nephew, and whom best I love,
Whose hands were join'd with mine to raise the
wall

Of tottering Troy, now nodding to her fall;
Dost thou not mourn our power employ'd in vain,
And the defenders of our city slain?
To pass the rest, could nobie Hector lie
Unpity'd, dragg'd around his native Troy?
And yet the murderer lives: himself by far
A greater plague, than all the wasteful war:
He lives; the proud Pelides lives, to boast
Our town destroy'd, our common labour lost!
O, could I meet him! But I wish too late;
To prove my trident, is not in his fate.
But let him try (for that's allow'd) thy dart,
And pierce his only penetrable part."

Apollo bows to the superior throne;
And to his uncle's anger adds his own.
Then, in a cloud involv'd, he takes his flight,
Where Greeks and Trojans mix'd in mortal fight;
And found out Paris lurking where he stood,
And stain'd his arrows with plebeian blood:
Phoebus to him alone the god confess'd,
Then to the recreant knight he thus address'd:
"Dost thou not blush, to spend thy shafts in vain
On a degenerate and ignoble train?

If fame, or better vengeance, be thy care,
There aim, and, with one arrow, end the war."
He said; and show'd from far the blazing shield
And sword, which but Achilles none could wield;
And how he mov'd a god and mow'd the standing
The deity himself directs aright
[field.

Th' envenon'd shaft; and wings the fatal flight.
Thus fell the foremost of the Grecian name;
And he, the base adulterer, boasts the fame.
A spectacle to glad the Trojan train;
And please old Priam, after Hector slain.

If by a female hand he had foreseen

He was to die, his wish had rather been

Nor Menelaus presum'd these arms to claim,
Nor he the king of inen, a greater name.
Two rivals only rose: Laertes' son,
And the vast bulk of Ajax Telamon.
The king, who cherish'd each with equal love,
And from himself all envy would remove,
Left both to be determin'd by the laws;
Aud to the Grecian chiefs transferr'd the cause.

THE SPEECHES OF AJAX AND ULYSSES.
FROM THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF
OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.
THE chiefs were set, the soldiers crown'd the field;
To these the master of the sevenfold shield
Upstarted fierce, and, kindled with disdain,
Eager to speak, unable to contain

His boiling rage, he roll'd his eyes around
The shore, and Grecian galleys haul'd a-ground.
Then stretching out his hands, "O Jove," he cry`d,
"Must then our cause before the fleet be try'd?
And dares Ulysses for the prize contend,

In sight of what he durst not once defend?
But basely fled that memorable day,

When I from Hector's hands redeem'd the flaming
So much 'tis safer at the noisy bar
[prey.
With words to flourish, than engage in war.
By different methods we maintain'd our right,
Nor am I made to talk, nor he to fight.
In bloody fields I labour to be great;
His arms are a smooth tongue, and soft deceit.
Nor need I speak my deeds, for those you see;
The Sun and day are witnesses for me.
Let him who fights unseen relate his own,
And vouch the silent stars and conscious Moon.
Great is the prize demanded, 1 confess,
But such an abject val makes it less.
That gift, those honours, he but hop'd to gain,
Can leave no room for Ajax to be vain:
Losing he wins, because his name will be
Ennobled by defeat, who durst contend with me.
Were mine own valour question'd, yet my blood
Without that plea would make my title good:
My sire was Telamon, whose arms, empioy'd
With Hercules, these Trojan walls destroy'd;
And who before, with Jason, sent from Greece,
In the first ship brought home the golden fleece;
Great Telamon from acus derives

His birth (th' inquisitor ofuilty lives

In shades below; where Sisyphus, whose son This thief is thought, rolls up the restless heavy stone).

Just Eacus the king of gods above

The lance and double ax of the fair warrior queen. Begot: thus Ajax is the third from Jove.

And now, the terrour of the Trojan field,
The Grecian honour, ornament, and shield,
High on a pile, th' unconquer'd chief is plac'd:
The god, that arm'd him first, consum'd at last,
Of all the mighty man, the small remains
A little urn, and scarcely fill'd, contains.
Yet great in Homer, still Achilles lives;
And, equal to himself, himself survives.

His buckler owns its former lord; and brings
New cause of strife betwixt contending kings;
Who worthiest, after him, his sword to wield,
Or wear his armour, or sustain his shield.
Ev'n Diomede sate mute, with down-cast eyes;
Conscious of wonted worth to win the prize:

Nor should I seek advantage from my line,
Unless, Achilles, it were mix'd with thine:
As next of kin Achilles' arms I claim;
This fellow would ingraft a foreign name
Upon our stock, and the Sisyphian seed
By fraud and theft asserts his father's breed.
Then must I lose these arms, because I came
To fight uncall'd, a voluntary name?
Nor shunn'd the cause, but offer'd you my aid,
While he, long lurking, was to war betray'd:
Forc'd to the field he came, but in the rear;
And feign'd distraction to conceal his fear:
Till one more cunning caught him in the snare,
(Ill for himself) and dragg'd him into war.

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