But then prepare, imperious Prince! prepare,
Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair:
Ev'n in thy tent I'll feize the blooming prize, 245
Thy lov'd Brifeïs with the radiant eyes.
Hence fhalt thou prove my might, and curse
the hour,

Thou stood'st a rival of imperial pow'r ;
And hence to all our hoft it fhall be known,

That kings are subject to the Gods alone.

250

Achilles heard, with grief and rage oppreft, His heart fwell'd high, and labour'd in his breaft.

Ver. 249.] This couplet is an injudicious expanfion of the original, and in fome measure an inconfiftency; as Achilles was a king like himself. Ogilby is undignified, but reprefents his author very faithfully. I fhall give his couplet with a trivial correction: That all from this example may beware Thus to difpute, and haughtily compare.

Ver. 251.] In this description the contrast between rage and reafon is engrafted on the original from Dryden.

Moreover, Homer fays fimply:

He fpake, and grief arose to Peleus fon :

but Dacier has :

"Achille, pénétré de douleur et de rage."

Befides, our poet has borrowed his rhymes from Ogilby:
Achilles then with extream grief oppreft,

Felt mighty ftrugglings in his manly breaft:

and the reader, after seeing a plain representation of Homer, will, perhaps, be gratified by obferving how clofely our poet keeps by the fide of Dryden:

He faid:

Distracting thoughts by turns his bofom rul'd, Now fir'd by wrath, and now by reafon cool'd: That prompts his hand to draw the deadly fword,

255

Force thro' the Greeks, and pierce their haughty Lord;

This whispers foft, his vengeance to controul,
And calm the rifing tempeft of his foul.

Just as in anguish of fufpence he stay'd,
While half unsheath'd appear'd the glitt'ring

blade,

Pelides deep vexation felt :

His heart deliberates in his favage breast:

and thus Dryden amplifies:

At this th' impatient hero fourly fmil'd;
His heart impetuous in his bofom boil'd,
And justled by two tides of equal fway,
Stood for a while fufpended in his way;
Betwixt his reafon and his rage untam'd;
One whisper'd foft, and one aloud reclaim'd.
That only counsell'd to the safer fide;
This to the fword his ready hand apply'd.
Ver. 253.] Thus, with better rhymes:

Diftracting thoughts by turns his mind engage,
Now cool'd by reafon, and now fir'd by rage.

Ver. 260.] Homer says: "He was drawing his sword :"

but Dryden :

Half fhone his falchion, and half-fheathed it flood:

But our poet was thinking of Dryden's Cecilia:

And half-unfbeath'd the shining blade.

260

Minerva fwift defcended from above,

265

Sent by the fifter and the wife of Jove;
(For both the princes claim'd her equal care)
Behind the stood, and by the golden hair
Achilles feiz'd; to him alone cónfeft;
A fable cloud conceal'd her from the rest.
He fees, and fudden to the Goddess cries,
Known by the flames that sparkle from her eyes.

Ver. 261. Minerva fwift defcended from above.] Homer having by degrees raised Achilles to fuch a pitch of fury, as to make him capable of attempting Agamemnon's life in the council, Pallas the Goddess of wifdom defcends, and being feen only by him, pulls him back in the very instant of execution. He parleys with her awhile, as imagining she would advife him to proceed; but upon the promife of fuch a time wherein there fhould be full reparation of his honour, he sheaths his sword in obedience to her. She afcends to Heaven, and he being left to himself, falls again upon his general with bitter expreffions. The allegory here may be allowed by every reader to be unforced: the prudence of Achilles checks him in the rafhet moment of his anger, it works upon him unfeen to others, but does not entirely prevail upon him to defift till he remembers his own importance, and depends upon it that there will be a neceffity of their courting him at any expence into the alliance again. Having perfuaded himself by fuch reflections, he forbears to attack his general; but thinking that he facrifices enough to prudence by this forbearance, lets the thoughts of it vanish from him; and no fooner is wisdom gone, but he falls into more violent reproaches for the gratification of his paffion. All this is a most beautiful paffage, whofe moral is evident, and generally agreed on by the commentators. P.'

Ver. 266.] This is an addition to his author from Dryden :

Juft as in act he stood, in clouds intwin’d

Ver. 268. Known by the flames that Sparkle from her eyes.] They who carry on this allegory after the most minute manner, refer this

* Juno.

270

Defcends Minerva in her guardian care, A heav'nly witnefs of the wrongs I bear From Atreus fon? Then let those eyes that view The daring crime, behold the

vengeance too.`

to the eyes of Achilles, as indeed we muft, if we entirely destroy the bodily appearance of Minerva. But what poet defigning to have his moral fo open, would take pains to form it into a fable? In the proper mythological fenfe, this paffage fhould be referred to Minerva; according to an opinion of the ancients, who fuppofed that the Gods had a peculiar light in their eyes. That Homer was not ignorant of this opinion, appears from his ufe of it in other places, as when in the third Iliad Helena by this means discovers Venus and that he meant it here, is particularly afferted by Heliodorus, in the third book of his Æthiopick hiftory. "The Gods, "fays he, are known in their apparitions to men by the fixed glare “of their eyes, or their gliding passage through air without mov"ing their feet; thefe marks Homer has used from his knowledge "of the Ægyptian learning, applying one to Pallas, and the "other to Neptune." Madam Dacier has gone into the contrary opinion, and blames Euftathius and others, without overthrowing thefe authorities, or affigning any other reason, but that it was not proper for Minerva's eyes to Sparkle, when her speech was

mild.

P.

He follows here the generality of editors and translators. Thus Maynwaring, for example:

He knew the goddess by her sparkling eyes:

but I prefer Tickell's acceptation, which is mentioned also by feveral of the old interpreters :

Sudden he turn'd, and started with surprise;
Rage and revenge flash'd dreadful in his eyes.

Ver. 272.] This is not formed from Homer, but from Dryden:
Cam'ft thou, celeftial, to behold my wrongs?

To view the vengeance, which to crimes belongs? who followed Chapman, not himself unobserved by our poet: Then witneffe, with it, my revenge..

Forbear! (the progeny of Jove replies)

To calm thy fury I forfake the skies:

Let great Achilles, to the Gods refign'd, 275
To reason yield the empire o'er his mind.
By awful Juno this command is giv'n;

280

The king and you are both the care of Heav'n.
The force of keen reproaches let him feel,
But sheath, obedient, thy revenging steel.
For I pronounce (and trust a heav'nly pow'r)
Thy injur'd honour has its fated hour,

When the proud monarch fhall thy arms implore,

And bribe thy friendship with a boundless store.
Then let revenge no longer bear the sway, 285
Command thy paffions, and the Gods obey.
To her Pelides. With regardful ear
'Tis juft, O Goddess! I thy dictates hear.
Hard as it is, my vengeance I suppress:
Those who revere the Gods, the Gods will

blefs.

Ver. 273. For thefe four verfes, Homer has only,

I came to quell thy rage, wouldft thou obey,
From Heaven:

fo that our tranflator adjusted his movements by Dryden :

I come to calm thy turbulence of mind,

If reafon will refume her sov'reign fway :

who confulted Chapman :

290