"My conscious foe my fun'ral fire shall view "From fea, and may that omen him purfue!" Her fainting hand let fall the sword befmear'd With blood, and then the mortal wound appear'd. Through all the court the fright and clamours rife, Which the whole city fills with fears and cries As loud as if her Carthage or old Tyre The foe had enter'd, and had set on fire. Amazed Anne with speed afcends the stairs, And in her arms her dying fifter rears: "Did you for this yourself and me beguile? "For fuch an end did I erect this pile? "Did you so much despise me, in this fate "Myfelf with you not to affociate? "Yourself and me, alas! this fatal wound "The fenate and the people doth confound.

"I'll wash her wound with tears, and at her death
My lips from her's fhall draw her parting breath.'
Then with her veft the wound fhe wipes and dries;
Then with her arm the Queen attempts to rife,
But her ftrength failing, falls into a swoon,
Life's laft efforts yet striving with her wound:
Thrice on her bed fhe turns, with wand'ring fight
Seeking, the groans when the beholds the light.
Then Juno, pitying her difaftrous fate,
Sends Iris down her pangs to mitigate.
(Since if we fall before th' appointed day
Nature and death continue long their fray.)
Iris defcends; "This fatal lock (fays fhe)
"To Pluto I bequeath, and set thee free;"
Then clips her hair: cold numbness straight bereaves
Her corpfe of fenfe, and th' air her foul receives.

THUS to Glancus spake

Divine Sarpedon, fince he did not find
Others as great in place as great in mind.
Above the reft why is our pomp, our pow'r,
Our flocks, our herds, and our poffeffions more?
Why all the tributes land and fea affords,
Heap'd in great chargers,load our sumptuous boards?
Our cheerful guests carouse the sparkling tears
Of the rich grape, whilst music charms their cars.
Why, as we pafs, do those on Xanthus' shore
As gods behold us, and as gods adore?
But that, as well in danger as degree,

We ftand the first; that when our Licians fee
Our brave examples, they admiring fay,
Behold our gallant leaders! thefe are they

Deferve the greatnefs, and unenvy'd stand,
Since what they act tranfcends what they command.
Could the declining of this fate (oh, friend!)
Our date to immortality extend?

Or if death fought not them who feek not death
Would I advance? or fhould my vainer breath
With fuch a glorious folly thee inspire ?
But fince with Fortune Nature doth conspire,
Since age, difeafe, or fome lefs noble end,
Though not lefs certain, doth our days attend;
Since 'tis decreed, and to this period lead
A thousand ways, the nobleft path we'll tread,
And bravely on till they, or we, or all,
A common facrifice to honour fall.

Age's chief arts and arms are to grow wife,
Virtue to know, and known to exercise :
All just returns to Age then virtue makes,
Nor her in her extremity forfakes.
The sweetest cordial we receive at laft,
Is confcience of our virtuous actions paft.
(I when a youth) with reverence did look
On Quintus Fabius, who Tarentum took;
Yet in his Age fuch cheerfulness was seen,
As if his years and mine had equal been:
His gravity was mix'd with gentleness,
Nor had his age made his good humour lefs :
Then was he well in years, (the fame that he
Was conful that of my nativity)

(A ftripling then) in his fourth confulate
On him at Capua I in arms did wait.
!five years after at Tarentum wan
The Qualtorship, and then our love began ;
And four years after, when I Prætor was,
He pleaded, and the Cincian law § did pafs
With ufeful diligence he us'd t' engage,
Yet with the temp'rate arts of patient Age
He breaks fierce Hannibal's infulting hears;
Of which exploit thus our friend Ennius treats:
He by delay reftor'd the commonwealth,
Nor preferr'd rumour before public health.
Against bribes.

THE old from fuch affairs is only freed
Which vig'rous youth and strength of body need;
But to more high affairs our Age is lent,
Moft properly when heats of youth are spent.
Did Fabius and your father Scipio
(Whose daughter my fon married) nothing do?
Fabricii, Coruncani, Curii,

Whose courage, counfel, and authority,

The Roman commonwealth restor'd, did boast,
Nor Appius, with whose strength his fight was loft,
Who, when the Senate was to peace inclin'd
With Pyrrhus, fhew'd his reason was not blind.
Whither's our courage and our wisdom come,
When Rome itself confpires the fate of Rome?
The rest with ancient gravity and skill
He fpake; (for his oration's extant ftill)
'Tis feventeen years fince he had Conful been
The fecond time, and there were ten between ;
Therefore their argument's of little force,
Who Age from great employments would divorce.

As in a fhip fome climb the fhrouds, t' unfold
The fail, fome sweep the deck, fome pump the hold,
Whilft he that guides the helm employs his fkill,
And gives the law to them by fitting still;
Great actions lefs from courage, strength, and speed,
Than from wife counfels and commands proceed.
Thofe arts Age wants not which to Age belong
Not heat but cold experience makes us ftrong.
A Conful, Tribune General, I have been,
All forts of war I have pafs'd through and feen;
And now grown old, I feem t' abandon it,
Yet to the fenate I prefcribe what's fit.

I ev'ry day 'gainst Carthage war proclaim,
(For Rome's deftrution hath been long her aim),
Nor fhall I ceafe till I her ruin fee,
Which triumph may the gods defign for thee;
That Scipio may revenge his grandfire's ghoft,
Whofe life at Canne with great honour loft
Is on record; nor had he weary'd been
With Age, if he an hundred years had seen :

He had not us'd excurfions, fpears, or darts,
But counfel, order, and fuch aged arts;
Which if our ancestors had not retain'd,
The Senate's name our council had not gain'd.
The Spartans to their highest magiftrate
The name of Elder did appropriate :
Therefore his fame for ever fhall remain,
How gallantly Tarentum he did gain,
With vigilant conduct: when that sharp reply
He gave to Salinator I stood by,

Who to the castle fled, the town being loft,
Yet he to Maximus did vainly boast

'Twas by my means Taren'um you obtain'd;
'Tis true, had you not loft I had not gain'd.
And as much honour on his gown did wait
As on his arms in his fifth confulate.
When his colleague Carvilius ftept afide,
The Tribune of the people would divide
To them the Gallic and the Picene field;
Against the Senate's will he will not yield;
When, being angry, boldly he declares
'Those things were acted under happy stars,
From which the commonwealth found good effects,
But otherwise they came from bad aspects.
Many great things of Fabius I could tell,
But his fon's death did all the reft excel;

Nature to youth hot rashness doth dispense
But with cold prudence Age doth recompenfe.
But age, 'tis faid, will memory decay:
So (if it be not exercis'd) it may;

Or if by Nature it be dull and flow.
Themiftocles (when ag'd) the names did know
Of all the Athenians; and none grow fo old
Not to remember where they hid their gold.
From age fuch art of memory we learn,
To forget nothing which is our concern:
Their intereft no prieft nor forcerer
Forgets, nor lawyer nor philofopher :
No understanding memory can want
Where wildom ftudious industry doth plant.
Nor does it only in the active live,
But in the quiet and contemplative.
When Sophocles (who plays when aged wrote)
Was by his fons before the judges brought,
Because he paid the Muses such respect.
His fortune, wife, and children to neglect;
Almoft condemn'd, he mov'd the judges thus,
"Hear, but instead of me my Oedipus."
The judges hearing with applaufe, at th' end
Freed him, and faid, "No fool fuch lines had
penn'd."

What poets and what orators can I

His funeral oration I have seen

Often; and when on that I turn my eyes,
I all the old philofophers defpife.

Though he in all the people's eyes feem'd great,
Yet greater he appear'd in his retreat;
When feafting with his private friends at home,
Such counfel, fuch difcourfe, from him did come,
Such science in his art of augury,

No Roman ever was more learn'd than he;
Knowledge of all things present and to come,
Rememb'ring all the wars of ancient Rome,
Nor only there, but all the world's befide:
Dying in extreme Age I prophefy'd
That which is come to pafs, and did difcern
From his furvivors I could nothing learn.
This long difcourfe was but to let you fee
That his long life could not uneasy be.
Few like the Fabii or the Scipios are
Takers of cities, conquerors in war:
Yet others to like happy Age arrive,
Who modeft, quiet, and with virtue live.
Thus Plato writing his philofophy,
With honour after ninety years did die.
Th' Athenian ftory writ at ninety-four

By Ifocrates, who yet liv'd five years more;
His mafter Gorgias at the hundredth year
And feventh, not his ftudies did forbear;
And ask'd why he no fooner left the stage?
Said he faw nothing to accufe Old Age.
None But the foolish, who their lives abuse,
Age of their own mistakes and crimes accufe.
All commonwealths (as by records is seen)
As by Age preferv'd, by youth deftroy'd, have been.
When the tragedian Nævius did demand,
Why did your commonwealth no longer stand?
"Twas anfwer'd, that their fenators were new,
Foolish and young, and such as nothing knew.

Whofe conftant ftudies with their age did ftrive?
Nor did they those, though thofe did them furvive.
Old husbandmen I at Sabinum know.
Who for another year dig, plough, and sow;
For never any man was yet so old

But hop'd his life one winter more might hold.
Cæcilius vainly faid, "Each day we spend
"Discovers fomething which muft needs offend."
But fometimes Age may pleasant things behold,
And nothing that offends. He fhould have told
This not to Age, but youth, who oft'ner fee
What not alone offends, but hurts, than we.
That I in him which he in Age condemn'd,
That as it renders odious and contemn'd
He knew not virtue if he thought this truth;
For youth delights in Age, and Age in youth.
What to the old can greater pleasure be
Than hopeful and ingenuous youth to fee,
When they with rev'rence follow where we lead
And in ftraight paths by our directions tread!
And ev'n my converfation here I fee
As well receiv'd by you as your's by me.
'Tis difingenuous to accuse our Age
Of idleness, who all our pow'rs engage
In the fame ftudies, the fame course to hold,
Nor think our reason for new arts too old.
Solon, the fage, his progrefs never ceas'd,
But still his learning with his days increas'd;
And I with the fame greediness did seek,
As water when I thirst, to swallow Greek;
Which I did only learn that I might know
Thofe great examples which I follow now :
And I have heard that Socrates the Wife
Learn'd on the lute for his last exercise.
Though many of the Ancients did the fame,
To improve knowledge was my only aim.