He said, obfervant of the blue-ey'd maid; Then in the sheath return'd the shining blade. I come from heaven to fee Ver. 292.] Tickell and Travers are more accurate. Thus the latter: Thus spoke the chief, obfequious to her word: Then grafp'd the hilt, and fheath'd the mighty fword. Ogilby's couplet, with little correction, is good and faithful: Then on the filver hilt he laid his hand, And sheath'd his dreadful fword at her command. Ver. 294.] So Dryden : Ver. 295.] The rhyme will be rectified by altering the tense, in writing forfakes and breaks. This speech our tranflator has executed with incomparable spirit. But Homer fays only: "He did not fupprefs his rage:" fo that our poet follows Dryden : The fire the fann'd with greater fury burn'd. Ver. 298. Thou dog in forehead.] It has been one of the ob jections against the manners of Homer's heroes, that they are abu-five. Monf. de la Motte affirms in his difcourfe upon the Iliad, that great men differ from the vulgar in their manner of expreffing their paffion; but certainly in violent paffions (fuch as those of Achilles and Agamemnon) the great are as fubject as any others to these fallies; of which we have frequent examples both from hif tory and experience. Plutarch, taking notice of this line, gives When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare, Or nobly face the horrid front of war? 300 'Tis ours, the chance of fighting fields to try, 66 305 it as a particular commendation of Homer, that, "he constantly "affords us a fine lecture of morality in his reprehenfions and praifes, by referring them not to the goods of fortune or the body.. "but those of the mind, which are in our power, and for which "we are blameable or praife-worthy. Thus, fays he, Agamem"non is reproached for impudence and fear, Ajax for vain bragging, Idomeneus for the love of contention, and Ulyffes does "not reprove even Therfites but as a babbler, though he had so many perfonal deformities to object to him. In like manner "alfo the appellations and epithets with which they accost one ano"ther, are generally founded on fome diftinguishing qualification "of merit, as wife Ulyffes, Hector equal to Jove in wisdom, Achilles "chief glory of the Greeks," and the like. Plutarch of reading 66 Poets. Ver. 299. In ambush'd fights to dare.] ambush as the boldeft manner of fight. P. Homer has magnified the where they were there parties with a few men only, and generally the moft daring of the army, on occafions of the greateft hazard, fore more expofed than in a regular battle. Thus Idomeneus in the thirteenth book, exprefsly tells Meriones, that the greatest courage appears in this way of fervice, each man being in a manner fingled out to the proof of it. Euftathius. P. Ver. 300.] This noble verse excites a regret for the imperfection of the rhymes, and their too great resemblance to thofe of the preceding couplet. Who lost to sense of gen'rous freedom past, Are tam'd to wrongs, or this had been thy last. Now by this facred fceptre, hear me swear, Which never more fhall leaves or bloffoms bear, 310 Ver. 309. Now by this facred fceptre.] Spondanus in this place blames Euftathius, for faying that Homer makes Achilles in his paffion fwear by the first thing he meets with: and then affigns (as from himself) two caufes, which the other had mentioned fo plainly before, that it is a wonder they could be overlooked. The fubftance of the whole paffage in Euftathius, is, that if we confider. the fceptre fimply as wood, Achilles after the manner of the ancients takes in his tranfport the first thing to fwear by; but that Homer himself has in the procefs of the defcription affigned reafons why it is proper for the occafion, which may be seen by confidering it fymbolically. Firft, That as the wood being cut from the tree will never reunite and flourish, fo neither should their amity ever flourish again, after they were divided by this contention.Secondly, That a fceptre being the mark of power, and symbol of juftice, to fwear by it might in effect be conftrued fwearing by the God of power, and by justice itself; and accordingly it is spoken of by Ariftotle, 3. 1. Polit. as a usual folemn oath of kings. I cannot leave this paffage without fhewing, in oppofition to fome moderns who have criticifed upon it as tedious, that it has been esteemed a beauty by the ancients, and engaged them in its imitation. Virgil has almost transcribed it in his 12 Æn. for the fceptre of Latinus, . "Ut fceptrum hoc (fceptrum dextrâ nam fortè gerebat) Nunquam fronde levi fundet virgulta nec umbras; "Cùm femel in fylvis imo de ftirpe recifum, "Matre caret, pofuitque comas & brachia ferro: "Olim arbos, nunc artificis manus ære decoro "Inclufit, patribufque dedit gestare Latinis.” But I cannot think this comes up to the spirit or propriety of Homer, notwithstanding the judgment of Scaliger, who decides for Virgil, Which fever'd from the trunk (as I from thee) On the bare mountains left its parent tree; This fceptre, form'd by temper'd steel to prove An enfign of the delegates of Jove, From whom the pow'r of laws and justice fprings : (Tremendous oath! inviolate to kings) 315 By this I fwear, when bleeding Greece again Shall call Achilles, the fhall call in vain. upon a trivial comparison of the wording in each, 1. 5. cap. 3. Poet. It fails in a greater point than any he has mentioned, which is, that being there used on occafion of a peace, it has no emblematical reference to divifion, and yet defcribes the cutting of the wood and its incapacity to bloom and branch again, in as many words as Homer. It is borrowed by Valerius Flaccus in his third book, where he makes Jafon fwear as a warriour by his spear, "Hanc ego magnanimi fpolium Didymaonis haftam, "Ut femel eft avulfa jugis à matre perempta, " Quæ neque jam frondes virides neque proferet umbras, "Fida minifteria & duras obit horrida pugnas, "Teftor." And indeed, however he may here borrow fome expreffions from Virgil, or fall below him in others, he has nevertheless kept to Homer in the emblem, by introducing the oath upon Jason's grief for failing to Colchis without Hercules, when he had separated him from the body of the Argonauts to fearch after Hylas. To render the beauty of this paffage more manifeft, the allufion is inferted (but with the feweft words poffible) in this translation. P. These are the rhymes of Chapman, Ogilby, Dryden, and Maynwaring. Ver. 311. As I from thee.] An addition to the original, alluded to in the tranflator's note. When flush'd with flaughter, Hector comes to spread The purpled shore with mountains of the dead, Then shalt thou mourn th' affront thy madness gave, 321 Forc'd to deplore, when impotent to fave: ground His fceptre ftarr'd with golden ftuds around. Ver. 319.] For this lofty couplet, Homer has merely, but our poet kept to Dryden : When Hector comes, the homicide, to wield His conqu❜ring arms, with corps to firew the field. The original only fays: Then fhalt thou fret thine inmoft foul, Griev'd that thou honourd'ft not the beft of Greeks. 325 Ver. 324. Thy rashness made the braveft Greek thy foe.] If felfpraise had not been agreeable to the haughty nature of Achilles, yet Plutarch has mentioned a cafe, and with respect to him, wherein it is allowable. He fays that Achilles has at other times afcribed his fuccefs to Jupiter, but it is permitted to a man of merit and figure who is injuriously dealt with, to speak frankly of himself to those who are forgetful and unthankful. VOL. I, E P. |