Rear but, the maft, the fpacious fail difplay, '600
The northern winds fhall wing thee on thy way.
Soon fhalt thou reach old Ocean's utmost ends,
Where to the main the shelving fhore defcends;
The barren trees of Proferpine's black woods,
Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods: 605
There fix thy veffel in the lonely bay,
540 And enter there the kingdoms void of day:
Where Phlegethon's loud torrents, rufhing down,
Hifs in the flaming gulf of Acheron;

The bath, the feast, their fainting foul renews;
Rich in refulgent robes, and dropping balmy dews:
Brightening with joy their eager cyt's behold 535
Each other's face, and each his story told;
Then gufhing tears the narrative confound,
And with their fobs the vaulted roofs refound.
When hufh'd their paffion, thus the Goddess
Ulyffes, taught by labours to be wife, feries:
Let this fhort memory of grief fuffice.
To me are known the various woes ye bore,
Inftorms by fea, in perils on the fhore;
Forget whatever was in Fortune's power.
And fhare the pleasures of this genial hour.
Such be your minds as cre ye left your coaft,
Or learn'd to forrow for a country loft.
Eriles and wanderers now, where-c'er ye go
Too faithful memory renews your woe;
The caufe remov'd, habitual griefs remain,
And the foul faddens by the ufe of pain.

545

550

555

Her kind entreaty mov'd the general breast;
Tir'd with long toil, we willing funk to rest.
We ply'd the banquet, and the bowl we crown'd,
Till the full circle of the year came round.
But when the feafons, following in their train,
Brought back the months, the days, and hours
As from a lethargy at once they rife, [again;
And urge their chief with animating cries:
Isthis, Ulyffes, our inglorious lot?
And is the name of Ithaca forgot?
Shall never the dear laud in profpect rife,
Or the lov'd palace glitter in our eyes?
Melting I heard; yet till the fun's decline
Prolong'd the feaft, and quaff'd the rofy wine: 565
Bat when the fhades came en at evening hour,
And all lay flumbering in the dufky bower;
I came a fuppliant to fair Circe's bed,
The tender moment feiz'd, and thus I faid:
Be mindful, Goddess, of thy promise made;
Muft fad Ulyffes ever be delay'd?

And where, flow-rolling from the Stygian bed, 610
Cocytus' lamentable waters spread:

Where the dark rocks o'erhang th' infernal lake,
And mingling ftreams eternal murmurs make.
First draw thy fauichion, and on every fide
Trench the black earth a cubit long and wide: 615
To all the fhades around libations pour,
And o'er th' ingredients ftrew the hallow'd

flour:

625

New wine and milk, with honey temper'd, bring;
And living waters from the crystal spring.
Then the wan fhades and fecble ghofts implore, 620
With promis'd offerings on thy native fhore;
A barren cow, the statelieft of the ifle,
And, heap'd with various wealth, a blazing pile :
Thefe to the reft; but to the feer muft bleed
A fable ram, the pride of all thy breed.
Thefe folemn vows and holy offerings paid
To all the phantom-nations of the dead;
Be next thy care the fable sheep to place
Full o'er the pit, and hell-ward turn their face:
But from th' infernal rite thine eye withdraw, 630
And back to Ocean glance with reverend awe.
Sudden fhall fkim along the dufky glades
Thin airy fhoals, and vifionary fhide,
Then give command the facrifice to hafle,
Let the flay'd victims in the flame be caft,
570 And facres vows and mystic song apply'd
To grily Pluto and his gloomy bride.
Wide o'er the pool, thy faulchion wav'd around
Shall drive the spectres from forbidden ground:
The facred draught fhall all the dead forbear, 640
Till aw ul from the fhades arife the feer.
Let him, oraculous, the end, the way,
The turns of all thy future fate, display,
Thy pilgrimage to come, and remnant of thy
day.

580

Around their lord my fad companions mourn,
Each breaft beats homeward, anxious to return:
lf but a moment parted from thy eyes,
Their tears flow round me, and my heart complies.
Go then, (fhe cry'd) ah, go! yer think, not I,
Not Circe, but the Fates, your with deny.
Ah, hope not yet to breathe thy native air!
Ear other journey firit demands thy care;
To tread th' uncomfortable paths beneath,
And view the realms of darkness and of death.
There feck the Theban bard, depriv'd of fight:
Within, irradiate with prophetic light;
To whom Perfephone, entire and whole,
Gave to retain th' unfeparated foul :
The rest are forms, of empty æther made;
Impaffive femblance, and a flitting fhade.
Struck at the word, my very heart was dead :
Penfive I fate; my tears bedew'd the bed;
To hate the light and life my foul begun,
And faw that all was grief beneath the fun.
Compos'd at length, the gufhing tears fuppreft,
And my toft limbs now weary'd intereft:
How fhall I tread (I ery'd) ah, Circe! fay,
The dark defcent, and who fhall guide the way
Can living eyes behold the realms below?
What bark to waft me, and what wind to blow ?
Thy fated road (the magic power reply'd)
Divine Ulyffes! afks no mortal guide,

635

645

650

So fpeaking, from the ruddy orient fhone
The morn, corfpicuous on her golden throne.
The Goddess with a radiant tunic drefs'd
My limbs, and o'er me caft a filken veit.
Long flowing robes of pureft white array
585 The nymph, that added luftre to the day:
A tiar wreath'd her head with many a fold;
Her wait was circled with a zone of gold.
Forth iffuing then, from place to place I flew;
Rouze man by man, and animate my crew.
Rife, rife. my mates! 'tis Circegives command: 655
Our journey calls us; hafte, and quit the land.
All rife and follow, yet depart not all,

590

?

596

For Fate decreed one wretched man to fall.

A youth there was, Elperor was he nam'd,
Not much forfenfe,normuch for courage fam'd: 660
The youngest of our band, a vulgar foul,
Born but to banguct, and to' drain the bowl.
He, hot and carciefs, on a turret's height
With fleep repair'd the long debauch of night;

G@ 2.

The fudden tumult ftirr'd him where he lay,
And down he haften'd, but forgot the way;
Full endlong from the roof the fleeper fell,
And fnapp'd the fpinal joint, and wak'd in hell.
The reft crowd round me with an eager look;
I met them with a figh, and thus bespoke :
Already, friends! ye think your toils are o'er,
Your hopes already touch your native shore :
Alas! far otherwise the nymph declares,
Far other journey firft demands our cares;
To tread th' uncomfortable paths beneath,
The dreary realms of darkness and of death:
To feek Tirefias' awful fhade below,
And thence our fortunes and our fates to know.

665

670

My fad companions heard in deep defpair;
Frantic they tore their manly growth of hair; 680
To earth they felt; the tears began to rain;
But tears in mortal miseries are vain.
Sadly they far'd along the fea-beat shore ;
Still heav'd their hearts, and still their eyes ran
o'er.
685

The ready victims at our bark we found,
The fable ewe and ram, together bound,
For fwift as thought the Goddess had been there,
675 And thence had glided viewlefs as the air:
The paths of Gods what mortal can furvey?
Who eyes their motion? who fhall trace their
way?
690

Ulyffes continues his narration, How he arrived at the land of the Cimmerians, and what ceremonies be performed to invoke the dead. The manner of his defcent, and the apparition of the fades: bis converfation with Elpener, and with Tirefias, who informs him in a propbetic manner of his fortunes to come. He meets his mother Anticlea, from whom be learns the flate of his family. He fees the feades of the ancient heroines, ofterwards of the heroes, and converses in particular with Agamemnon and Achilles. Ajax keeps at a fullen diftance, and difdains to answer him. He then beholds Tityus, Tantalus, Sifyphus, Hercules; till he is deterred from further curiofity by the apparition of horrid spectres, and the cries of the wicked in torments.

OW to the fhores we bend, a mournful train, And, trenching the black earth on every fide,

Now to when launch into the main: A cavern form, d, a cubit long and wide.

At once the maft we rear, at once unbind
The fpacious fheet, and itretch it to the wind:
Then pale and pensive stand, with cares oppreft,
And folemn horror faddens every breast.

A freshening breeze the Magic Power fupplied,
While the wing'd veffel flew along the tide;
Our oars we fhipp'd: ali day the fwelling fails
Full from the guiding pilot catch'd the gales.

10

Now funk the fun from his aerial height,
And o'er the fhaded billows rush'd the night:
When lo! we reach'd old Ocean's utmost bounds,
Where rocks controul his waves with ever-during
mounds.

There in a lonely land, and gloomy cells,
The dufky nation of Cimmeria dwells;
The fun ne'er views th' unconfortable feats,
When radiant he advances, or retreats :
Unhappy race! whoin endless night invades,
Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round
fhades.

The fhip we moor on thefe obfcure abodes;
Difbark the fheep, an offering to the Gods;
And, hell-ward bending, o'er the beach defcry
The dolefome paffage to th' infernal sky.
The victims, vow'd to each Tartarean Power,
Eurylochus and Perimedes bore.

Here open'd hell, all hell I here implor'd,
And from the fcabbard drew the fhining sword;

Circe.

15

in

20

New wine, with honey-temper'd milk, we bring,

Then living waters from the crystal spring;
O'er thefe was ftrew'd the confecrated flour,
And on the furface fhone the holy store.

Now the wan fhades we hail, th' infernal Gods,
To fpeed our course, and waft us o'er the floods:
So fhall a barren heifer from the ftall
Beneath the knife upon your altars fall';

So in our palace, at our fafe return,

Rich with unnumber'd gifts the pile fhall burn; 40
So fhall a ram the largest of the breed,
Black as thefe regions, to Tirefias bleed.

Thus folemn rites and holy vows we paid
To all the phantom-nations of the dead,
Then dy'd the fheep; a purple torrent flow'd,
And all the caverns (mok'd with streaming blood.
When, lo! appear'd along the dusky coafts,
Thin, airy fhoals of vifionary ghofts;
Fair, penfive youths, and foft enamour'd maids,

45

And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades; Jo
Ghaftly with wounds the forms of warriors flain
Stalk'd with majeftic port, a martial train :
These, and a thousand more fwarm'd o'er the
ground,

blood;

25 And all their dire assembly shriek'd around.
Aftonish'd at the fight, aghast I stood,
And a cold fear ran fhivering through my
Straight I command the facrifice to hafte,
Straight the flay'd victims to the flames are caft,

55

Now fwift I wave my faulchion o'er the blood; Back started the pale throngs, and trembling flood. Round the black trench the gore untaited flows, Till awful from the fhades Tirefias rose.

There wandering through the gloom I firft fur-
vey'd,

New to the realms of death, Elpenor's fhade :
His cold remains all naked to the sky,
On diftant fhores unwept, unburied lie.
Sad at the fight I ftand, deep fix'd in woe,
And ere I fpoke the tears began to flow;

65

O fay what angry power Elpenor led
To glide in fhades, and wander with the dead?
How could thy foul, by realms and feas disjoin'd,
Out-fly the nimble fail, and leave the lagging
wind?

The ghost replied: To hell my doom I owe,
Dæmons accurit, dire minifters of woe!

While yet he spoke, the Prophet I obey'd,
And in the fcabbard plung'd the glittering blade:
Eager he quaff'd the gore, and then exprest
Dark things to come, the counfels of his breaft: 125-
Weary of light, Ulyffes here explores

A profperous voyage to his native fhores;
But know-by me unerring Fates difclofe
New trains of dangers, and new fcenes of wees;
I fee! I fee thy bark by Neptune toft,

For injur'd Cyclop, and his eye-ball loft !
Yet to thy woes the Gods decree an end,

If Heaven thou pleafe, and how to please attend!

76 Where on Trinacrian rocks the ocean roars,
Graze numerous herds along the verdant fhores; 135
Though hunger prefs, yet fly the dangerous prey,
The herds are facred to the God of Day,
Who all furveys with his extenfive eye
Above, below, on earth, and in the sky!
Rob not the God; and fo propitious gales
Attend thy voyage, and impel thy fails:
But, if his herds ye feize, beneath the waves
I fee thy friends o'erwhelm'd in liquid graves!
The direful wreck Ulyffes fcarce furvives!

73

My feet, through wine unfaithful to their weight,
Betray'd me tumbling from a towery height,
Staggering 1 reel'd, and as I reel'd I fell,

Lux'd the neck-joint-my foul defcends to hell. 80 Ulyffes at his country fcarce arrives!

But lend me aid, I now conjure thee lend
By the foft tie and facred name of friend!
By thy fond confort! by thy father's cares!
By lov'd Telemachus's blooming years!

140

145

155

Strangers thy guides! nor there thy labours god,
New foes arife, domeftic ends attend!
l'here foul adulterers to thy bride refort,
And lordly gluttons riot in thy court!
But vengeance haftes amain! These eyes behold
The deathful fcene, princes on princes roll'd!
That done, a people far from fea explere,
Who ne'er knew falt, or heard the billows roar,
Or faw gay veffel ftem the watery plain,
90 A painted wonder flying on the main !
Bear on thy back an oar: with ftrange amaze
A fhepherd meeting thee, the oar furveys,
And names a van: there fix it on the plain,
To calm the God that holds the watery reign;
A three-fold offering to his altar bring,
A bull, a ram, a boar; and hail the Ocean-King.
But, home return'd, to each æthereal power
Slay the due victim in the genial hour:
So peaceful fhalt thou end thy blissful days,
And ftealthyfelf from life by flow decays:
Unknown to pain, in age refign thy breath,
When late ftern Neptune points the fhaft with
death:

For well I know that foon the heavenly Powers 85
Will give thee back to day, and Circe's fhores :
There pidus on my cold remains attend,
There call to mind thy poor departed friend.
The tribute of a tear is all I crave,
And the poffeffion of a peaceful grave.
But if, unheard, in vain compaflion plead,
Revere the Gods, the Gods avenge the dead!
A tomb along the watery margin raise,
The tomb with manly arms and trophies grace,
To fhew pofterity Elpenor was.
There high in air, memorial of my name,
Fix the fmooth oar, and bid me live to fame.
To whore with tears: Thefe rites, O mournful
fhade,

Due to thy ghoft, fhall to thy ghost be paid.

95

}

Still as I fpoke, the phantom feem'd to moan, 100
Tear follow'd tear, and groan fucceeded groan.
But, as my waving fword the blood furrounds,
The fhade withdrew, and mutter'd empty founds.
There as the wondrous vifions I furvey'd,
All pale afcends my royal mother's fhade:
A queen, to Troy he faw our legions pafs ;
Now a thin form is all Anticlea was!
Struck at the fight, I melt with filial woe,
And down my cheek the pious forrows flow,
Yet as I fhook my faulchion o'er the blood,
Regardless of her fon the parent ftood.

;

s

To the dark grave retiring as to rest,
Thy people bleffing, by thy people blest!
Unerring truths, Oman, my lips relate;
This is thy life to come, and this is fate.

169

165

170

To whom unmov'd: If this the Gods prepare ;
What Heaven ordains, the wife with courage bear.
But fay, why yonder on the lonely strands,
110 Unmindful of her fon, Anticlea flands?
Why to the ground fhe bends her downcaft eye?
Why is the filent, while her fon is nigh?
The latent caufe, O facred feer, reveal!

When lo! the mighty Theban I behold
To guide his fteps he bore a staff of gold;
Awful he trod! majestic was his look!
And from his holy lips thefe accents broke :
Why, mortal, wandereft thou from cheerful
day,

To tread the downward, melancholy way?
What angry Gods to the fe dark regions led
Thee yet alive, companion of the dead?

But fheathe thy poignard, while my tongue relates
Heaven's fedfant purpof, and thy future fates.

175

Straight all the mother in her foul awakes,
And, owning her Ulyffes, thus fhe fpeaks:
Com't thou, my fon, alive, to realms beneath, 190
The dolefome realms of darknefs and of death;
Com't thou alive from pure, æthereal day?
Dire is the region, difmal is the way!
Here lakes profound, there floods oppofe their

wives,

There the wide fea with all his billows raves!
Or (fince to duft proud Troy fubmiss her towers)
Com't thou a wanderer from the Phrygian fhores?
Or fay, fince honour call'd thee to the field,
Haft thou thy Ithaca, thy bride beheld?

Source of my life, I cry'd, from earth I fly, 200
To feek Tirefias in the nether sky,
To learn my doom; for, tolt from woe to woe,
In every land Ulyffes finds a foe;

Nor have thefe eyes beheld my native fhores,
Since in the duft proud Troy fubmits her towers,
But, when thy foul from her fweet manfion fled,
Say what diftemper gave thee to the dead?
Has life's fair lamp declin'd by flow decays,
Or fwift expir'd it in a fudden blaze?
Say if my fire, good old Laertes, lives?
If yet Telemachus, my fon, furvives?
Say, by his rule is my dominion aw'd,
Or crufh'd by traitors with an iron rod?
Say if my fpoufe maintains her royal truft;
Though tempted, chafte, and obftinately just!
Or if no more her abfent lord fhe wails,
But the falfe woman o'er the wife prevails?

Thus I, and thus the parent-fhade returns:
Thee, ever thee, thy faithful confort mourns :
Whether the night defcends, or day prevails,
Thee the by night, and thee by day bewails,
Thee in Telemachus thy realm obeys;
In facred groves celestial rites he pays;
And shares the banquet in fuperior state,
Grac'd with fuch honours as become the great.
Thy fire in folitude foments his care :
The court is joylefs, for thou art not there!
No coftly carpets raise his hoary head,

Fly't thou, lov'd flade, while 1 thus fondly

mcurn?

200

Turn to my arms, to my embraces turn!
Is it, ye powers that fmile at human harms! 255
Too great a blifs to weep within her arms?
Or has hell's Queen an empty image fent,
That wretched I might ev'n my joys lament?
O fon of woe, the penfive fhade rejoin'd,
Oh moft inur'd to grief of all mankind!
'Tis not the Queen of hell who thee deceives:
All, all are fuch, when life the body leaves;
No more the fubilance of the man remains,
Nor bounds the blood along the purple veins:
Thefe the funereal flames in atoms bear,
To wander with the wind in empty air;
While the impaffive foul reluctant flies,
Like a vain dream to these infernal skies.
But from the dark dominions speed thy way,
And climb the steep afcent to upper day;
To thy chafte bride the wondrous story tell,
The woes, the horrors, and the laws of hell.
Thus while fhe fpoke, in fwarms hell's Empres
brings

265

270

210 Daughters and wives of heroes and of kings;
Thick and more thick they gather round the blood,
Ghoft throng'd on ghoft (a dire affembly) ftood!
Dauntless my fword I feize; the airy crew,
Swift as it flafh'd along the gloom, withdrew:
215 Then fhade to fhade in mutual forms fucceeds,
Her race recounts, and their illuftrious deeds. 280
Tyro began, whom great Salmoneus bred;
The royal partner of fam'd Cretheus' bed.
For fair Enipeus, as from fruitful uros
He pours his watery ftore, the virgin burns;
Smooth flows the gentle ftream with wanton pride,
And in foft mazes rolls a filver tide.

220

290

As on his banks the maid enamour'd roves,
The monarch of the deep beholds and loves!
225 In her Enipeus' form and borrow'd charms,
The amorous God defcends into her arms:
Around, a fpacious arch of waves he throws,
And high in air the liquid mountain rofe:
Thus in furrounding floods conceal'd he proves
The pleafing transport, and completes his loves.
295
Then, foftly fighing, he the fair addrefs'd,
And as he fpoke, her tender hand he preff'd :
Hail, happy nymph! no vulgar births are ow'd
To the prolifie raptures of a God:
Lo! when nine times the moon renews her horn,
Two brother heroes shall from thee be-born:
Thy early care the future worthies claim,
To point them to the arduous paths of fame;
But in thy breast th' important truth conceal,
Nor dare the fecret of a God reveal :
For know, thou Neptune view'ft! and at my nod 305
Earth trembles, and the waves confefs their God.
He added not, but mounting fpurn'd the plain,
Then plung'd into the chambers of the main.

No rich embroidery shines to grace his bed:
Ev'n when keen winter freezes in the skies,
Rank'd with his flaves, on earth the monarch lies:
Deep are his fighs, his vifage pale, his drefs
The garb of woe, and habit of diftrefs.
And when the autumn takes his annual round,
The leafy honours fcattering on the ground;
Regardless of his years, abroad he lies,
His bed the leaves, his canopy the skics.
Thus cares on cares his painful days confume,
And bow his age with forrow to the tomb!

230

235

240

For thee, my fon, I wept my life away;
For thee through hell's eternal dungeons stray:
Nor came my fate by lingering pains and flow,
Nor bent the filver-fhafted Queen her bow;
No dire disease bereav'd me of my breath;
Thou, thou, my fon, wert my difeafe and death; 245
Unkindly with my love my fon confpir'd, ́ ́
For thee I liv'd, for abfent thee expir'd.

Thrice in my arms I ftrove her fhade to bind, Thrice through my arms fhe flipp'd like empty wind,

Or dreams, the vain illufions of the mind.
Wild with defpair, I shed a copious tide
Of flowing tears, and thus with fighs reply'd;

Now in the time's full procefs forth fhe brings
Jove's dread vicegerents, in two future kings; 310
O'er proud Icolos Pelias fretch'd his reign,
And godlike Neleus rul'd the Pylian plain;
Then, fruitful, to her Cretheus' royal bed
She gallant Phercs and fam'd Æfon bred:
From the fame fountain Amythaon rofe,
Pleas'd with the din of war, and noble fhout of

* foes.

Sullen and four with difcontented mien
Jocasta frown'd, th' incestuous Theban queen: 330
With her own fon fhe join'd in nuptial bands,
Though father's blood imbrued his murderous
hands:

335

345

350

355

The Gods and men the dire offence deteft,
The Gods with all their furies rend his breaft:
la lofty Thebes he wore th' imperial crown,
A pompous wretch! accurs'd upon a throne.
The wife felf-murder'd from a beam depends;
And her foul foul to blackeft hell defcends;
Thence to her fon the choiceft plagues fhe brings,
And his fiends haunt him with a thousand ftings. 340
And now the beauteous Chloris I defcry,
A lovely fhade, Amphion's youngest joy!
With gifts unnumber'd Neleus fought her arms,
Nor paid too dearly for unequal'd charms;
Great in Orchomenos, in Pylos great,
He fway'd the fceptre with imperial state.
Three gallant fons the joyful monarch told,
Sage Nettor, Periclimenus the bold,
And Chromius la; but of the fofter race,
One nymph,alone, a miracle of grace.
Kings on their thrones for lovely Pero burn;
The fire denies, and kings rejected mourn.
To him alone the beauteous prize he yields,
Whofe arm should ravifh from Phylacian fields
The herds of Iphiclus, detain'd in wrong;
Wild, furious herbs, unconquerably strong!
This dares a feer, but nought a feer prevails,
In beauty's caufe illuftrioufly he fails;
Twelve moons the foe the captive youth detains
la painful dungeons, and coercive chains;
The foe at last, from curance where he lay,
His art revering, gave him back to day;
Won by prophetic knowledge, to fulfil
The ftedfaft purpose of th' Almighty will.
With grateful port advancing now I fpy'd
Leda the fair, the godlike Tyndar's bride:
Hence Pollux fprung, who wields with furious
The deathful gauntlet matchlefs in the fray;
And Caftor glorious on th' embattled plain
Curbs the proud fteed, reluctant to the rein:
By turns they vifit this æthereal fky,
And live alternate, and alternate die :
In hell beneath, on earth, in heaven above,
Rign the twin gods, the favourite fons of Jove.
There Ephimedia trod the gloomy plain, 375
Who charm'd the Monarch of the boundless main;
Hence Ephialtes, hence ftern Otus fprung,
More fierce than giants, more than giants ftrong;
The earth o'erburthen'd groan'd beneath their
weight,

None but Orion c'er furpafs'd their height:

The wonderous youths had fcarce nine winters told,
When high in air, tremendous to behold,
Nine ells aloft they rear'd their towering head,
And full nine cubits broad their shoulders spread.
Proud of their strength and more than mortal size,
The Gods they challenge, and affect the skies:
Heav'd on Olympus tottering Offa stood;
On Offa, Pelion nods with all his wood:
Such were they youths! had they to manhood
grown,

Almighty Jove had trembled on his throne. 390
But, ere the harvest of the beard began
To briftle on the chin, and promife man,
His fhafts Apollo aim'd; at once they found,
And ftretch the giant-monfters o'er the ground.
There mournful Phædra with fad

moves,

Procris

395

Both beauteous fhades, both hapless in their loves;
And near them walk'd, with folemn pace and flow,
Sad Ariadne, partner of their woe;

The royal Minos Ariadne bred,

She Thefeus lov'd; from Crete with Thefeusfied; 400
Swift to the Dian ifle the hero flies,

405

And tow'rds his Athens bears the lovely prize;
There Bacchus with fierce rage Diana fires,
The Goddess aims her shaft, the nymph expires.
There Clymenè and Mera 1 behold:
There Eriphylè weeps, who loufely fold
Her lord, her honour, for the lult of gold.
But thould I all recount, the night would fail,
Unequal to the melancholy tale:

And all-compofing reft my nature craves,
Here in the court, or yonder on the waves;

In you I trust, and in the heavenly powers,
To land Ulyffes on his native shores.

410

He ceas'd but left fo charming on their ear
His voice, that listening still they feem'd to hear. 415
Till, rifing up, Aretè filence broke,

Stretch'd out her fnowy hand, and thus fhe spoke :
What wonderous man Heaven fends us in our

360

365

fway

You fhare the pleature, then in bounty fhare;
To worth in mifery a reverence pay,

420

425

And with a generous hand reward his stay;
For, fince kind Heaven with wealth our realm has
blett,

Give it to Heaven, by aiding the diftreft.

Then fage Echoneus, whole grave reverend brow
The hand of time had filver'd o'er with fuow,
Mature in wildom rofe: Your words, he cries, 430
Demand obedience, for your words are wife.
370 But let our king direct the glorious way
To generous act; our part is to obey.
While life informs thefe limbs, (the king reply'd)
Well to deferve be all my cares employ'd :
But here this night the royal gueft detain,
Till the fun flames along th' æthereal plain :
Be it my talk to fend with ample ftores
The stranger from our hofpitable shores :
Tread you my steps! 'Tis mine to lead the race, 440
The firft in glory as the first in placa.