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There groan'd the chief in agonizing pain, 880 Whom Greece at length fhall with, nor wish in vain.

His forces Medon led from Lemnos' fhore, 825 Oileus' fon, whom beauteous Rhena bore. Th' Oechalian race, in those high towers contain'd,

Next thirty galleys cleave the liquid plain, Of thofe Calydna's fea- girt ifles contain ; With them the youth of Nyfyrus repair, Cafus the ftrong, and Crapathus the fair; Ces, where Eurypylus poffeft the fway, Till great Alcides made the realms obey: Thefe Antiphus and bold Phidippus bring, Sprung from the God by Theffalus the king. Now, Mufe, recount Pelafgic Argos' powers, From Alos, Alopè, and Trechin's towers; From Phthia's fpacious vales; and Hella, bleft With female beauty far beyond the rest. Full fifty fhips beneath Achilles' care, Th' Achaians, Myrmidons, Hellenians bear ; Theffalians all, though various in their name ;

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And dy'd a Phrygian lance with Grecian gore;
There lies, far diftant from his native plain;
Unfinished, his proud palaces remain,
And his fad confort beats her breaft in vain.
His troops in forty fhips Podarces led,
Iphiclus' fon, and brother to the dead;
Nor he unworthy to command the hoft;
Yet ftill they mourn'd their ancient leader loft.
The men who Glaphyra's fair foil partake,
Where hills encircle Babe's lowly lake.
Where Phare hears the neighbouring waters
fall,

Or proud fölcus lifts her airy wall,

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In ten black fhips embark'd for Ilion's fhore :
With bo'd Eumylus, whom Alcefte bore:
All Pelias' race Alceflè far outthin'd,
The grace and glory of t e beauteous kind.

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The troops Methone, or Thaumachia yields,
Olizon's rocks, or Meliboca's fields,
With Philoctetes fail'd, whofe matchlefs art
From the tough bow directs the feather'd dart.
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Seven were his fhips; each veffel fifty row,
Skill'd in his fcience of the dart and bow.
But he lay raging on the Lemnian ground,
A poifonous Hydra gave the burning wound;

Where once Eurytus in proud triumph reign'd, 885

Or where her humbler turrets Tricca rears,
Or where Ithomè, rough with rocks, appears ;
In thirty fail the sparkling waves divide,
Which Podalirius and Machaon guide.

To thefe his fkill their Parent-God imparts,

Divine profeffors of the healing arts.

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The bold Ormenian and Afterian bands
In forty barks Eurypylus commands,
Where Titan hides his hoary head in fnow,
And where Hyperia's filver fountains flow. 895
Thy troop. Argiffa, Polypoetes leads,
And Eleon, fhelter'd by Olympus' shades,
Gyrtone's warriours; and where Orthè lies,
And Olecffon's chalky cliffs arise.
Sprung from Pirithous of immortal race,
The fruit of fair Hippodamè's embrace,
(That day when, hurl'd from Pelion's cloudy
head,

To diftant dens the fhaggy Centaurs fled)
With Polypates join'd in equal fway
Leontes leads, and forty fhips obey.

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In twenty fail the bold Perrhabians came From Cyphus, Guneus was their leader's name. With thefe the Enians join'd, and those who freeze

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Where cold Dodona lifts her holy trees;
Or where the pleafing Titarefius glides
And into Peneus rolis his eafy tides;
Yet o'er the filver furface pure they flow,
The facred stream unmix'd with ftreams below,
Sacred and awful! From the dark abodes
Styx pours them forth, the dreadful oath of
Gods!

Laft under Prothous the Magneftans stood, Prothous the swift, of old Tenthredron's blood; Who dwell where Pelion, crown'd with piny boughs,

Obfcures the glade, and nods his fhaggy brows; Or where through flowery Tempè Peneus stray'd, 920

(The region ftretch'd beneath his mighty fhade) In forty fab'e barks they stemm'd the main; Such were the chiefs, and fuch the Grecian train. Say next, O Mufe! of all Achaia breeds, Who bravest fought, or rein'd the nobleft steeds? 925

Eumelus' mares are foremost in the chace,
As eagles fleet, and of Pheretian race :
Bred where Pieria's faithful fountains flow,
And train'd by him who bears the filver bow.
Fierce in the fight their noftrils breath'd a flame,
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Their height, their colour, and their age the
fame;

*Efculapius.

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In throngs around his native bands repair,
And groves of lances glitter in the air.
Divine Eneas brings the Dardan race,
Anchifes' fon by Venus' ftol'n embrace,
Born in the fhades of Ida's fecret grove,
(A mortal mixing with the Queen of Love) 995
Archilochus and Acamas divide

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The warriour's toils, and combat by his fide.
Who fair Zeleia's wealthy vallies till,
Faft by the foot of Ida's facred hill;
Or drink, Efepus, of thy fable flood:
Were led by Pandarus, of royal blood.
To whom his art Apollo deign'd to show,
Grac'd with the prefent of his fhafts and bow.
From rich Apæfus' and Adreftia's towers,
High Teree's fummits, and Pityea's bowers;
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From these the congregated troops obey
Young Amphius' and Adraftus' equal fway:
Old Merops' fons; whom, skill'd in fates to come,
The fire forewarn'd, and prophefy'd their doom;
Fate urg'd them on! the fire forewarn'd in vain,

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They rufh'd to war, and perish'd on the plain.
From Practius' ftream, Percote's pafture lands,
And Seftos and Abydos' nei hbouring strands,
From great Arifba's walls and Selle's coaft,
Afius Hyrtacides conducts his hoft:

| High on his car he thakes the flowing reins,
His fiery courfers thunder o'er the plains.

The fierce Pelafgi next, in war renown'd, March from Larifia's ever-fertile ground: In equal arms their brother leaders thine Hippothous bold, and Pyleus the divine.

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Next Acamus and Pyrous lead their hofts,
In dread array, from Thracia's wintry coafts;
Round the bleak realms where Hellefpontes

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THE Armies being ready to engage, a fingle combat is agreed upon between Menelaus and Paris (by the intervention of Hector) for the determination of the war. Iris is fent to call Helena to behold the fight. She leads her to the walls of Troy, where Priam fat with his counsellors, observing the Grecian leaders on the plain below, to whom Helen gives an account of the chief of them. The kings on either part take the folemn oath for the conditions of the combat. The duel enfues; wherein Paris being overcome, he is fnatched away in a cloud by Venus, and tranfported to his apartment. She then calls Helen from the walls, and brings the lovers together. Agamemnon, on the part of the Grecians, demands the restoration of Helen, and the performance of the articles.

The three and twentieth day ftill continues throughout this book. The feene is fometimes in the Fields before Troy, and fometimes in Troy itself.

HUS by their leader's care each martial band

TH

Moves into ranks, and stretches o'er the land.
With fhouts the Trojans rufhing from afar,
Proclaim'd their motions, and provok'd the war;

| So when inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick-defcending rain,
To warmer feas, the Cranes embody'd fly,
With noife, and order, through the mid-way
sky;

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When Greece beheld thy painted canvass flow, And crowds ftood wondering at the paffing show;

Say, was it thus, with fuch a baffled mien,
You met th' approaches of the Spartan queen, 70
Thus from her realm convey'd the beauteous
prize,

And both her warlike lords outfhind in Helen's eres?

This deed, thy foes de'ight, thy own difgrace,
Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race;
This deed recalls thee to the proffer'd fight; 73
Or haft thou injur'd whom thon dar'st not right?
Soon to thy coft the field would make thee know
Thou keep'ft the confort of a braver foe.
Thy graceful form inftilling foft defire,
Thy curling trefles, and thy filver lyre,
Beauty and youth; in vain to thefe you trust,
When youth and beauty fhall be laid in duft:
Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow
Cruth the dire author of his country's woe.

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The Greeks and Trojans feat on either hand;
Then let a midway space our hofts divide,
And on that stage of war the caufe be tri'd: 100
By Paris there the Spartan king he fought,
For beauteous Helen and the wealth the brought:
And who his rival can in arms fubdue,
His be the fair, and his the treasure too.
Thus with a lafting league your toils may ceafe,
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And Troy poffefs her fertile fields in peace;
Thus may the Greeks review their native fhore,
Much fam'd for generous fteeds, for beauty more.
He faid. The challenge Hector heard with
joy,

Then with his fpear restrain'd the youth of Troy,

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Or died at least before the nuptial rite!
A better fate than vainly thus to boast,
And fly, the fcandal of the Trojan host.
Gods! how the fcornful Greeks exult to fee
Their fears of danger undeceiv'd in thee!

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Their ftones and arrows in a mingled fhower. Then thus the monarch great Atrides cri'd;

Thy figure promis'd with a martial air,

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But ill thy foul fupplies a form fo fair.

In former days, in all thy gallant pride

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When thy tall fhips triumphant ftemm'd the tide, VOL. VI.

Forbear, ye warriours! lay the darts afide;
A parley Hector afks, a meffage bears;
We know him by the various plume he wears.

*Thefeus and Menelaus. E

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A world engages in the toils of fight.
To me the labour of the field design ;
Me Paris injur'd; all the war be mine.
Fall he that muft, beneath his rival's arms;
And live the reft, fecure of future harms.
Two lambs, devoted by your country's rite,
To Earth a fable, to the Sun a white,
Prepare, ye Trojans! while a third we bring
Select to Jove, th' inviolable king.
Let reverend Priam in the truce engage,
And add the fanction of confiderate age;
His fons are faithlefs, headlong in debate,
And youth itself an empty wavering state:
Cool age advances venerably wife,
Turns on all hands its deep-difcerning eyes; 150
Sees what befel, and what may yet befall,
Concludes from both, and beft provides for all.
The nations hear, with rifing hopes poffeft,
And peaceful profpects dawn in every breast.
Within the lines they drew their fteeds around,

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And from their chariots iffued on the ground :
Next all, unbuckling the rich mail they wore,
Lay'd their bright arms along the fable fhore,
On either fide the meeting hosts are seen,
With lances fix'd, and clofe the space between.
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Two heralds now, difpatch'd to Troy, invite
The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite;
Talthybius haftens to the fleet, to bring
The lamb for Jove, th' inviolable king.
Meantime, to beauteous Helen, from the skies

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The various Goddess of the rain-bow flies
(Like fair Laodicè in form and face,
The lovelieft nymph of Priam's royal race).
Her in the palace, at her loom the found;
The golden web her own fad ftory crown'd.
The Trojan wars the weav'd (her felf the prize)
And the dire triumph of her fatal eves.
To whom the Goddess of the painted bow;
Approach and view the wondrous fcenes below!
Each hardy Greek, and valiant Trojan knight,

So dreadful late, and furious for the fight,

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In fummer-days like grafhoppers rejoice,
A bloodlefs race, that fend a feeble voice.
Thefe, when the Spartan queen approach'd the
tower,

In fecret own'd refiftless beauty's power:
They cried, No wonder fuch celestial charms 205
For nine long years have fet the world in arms;
What winning graces! what majeftic mien !
She moves a Goddefs, and the looks a Queen!
Yetence, oh Heaven! convey that fatal face,
And from deftruction fave the Trojan race.

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The good old Priam welcom'd her, and cried,
Approach, my child, and grace thy father's fide.
See on the plain thy Grecian spouse appears,
The friends and kindred of thy former years.
No crime of thine our prefent fufferings draws,
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Not thou, but Heaven's difpofing will, the caufe;
The Gods thefe armics and this force employ,
The hoftile Gods confpire the fate of Troy.
But lift thy eyes, and fay, what Greek is he
(Far as from hence thefe aged orbs can fee) 220
Around whofe brow fuch martial graces thine,
So tall, fo awful, and almost divine!
Though fome of larger ftature tread the green,
None match his grandeur and exalted mien:
He feems a monarch, and his country's pride,

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Thus ceas'd the king; and thus the fair replied:
Before thy prefence, father, I appear
With confcious fhame and reverential fear.
Ah! had I died, ere to thefe walls I fled,
Falfe to my country and my nuptial bed;
My brothers, friends, and daughter left behind,
Falfe to them all, to Paris only kind?
For this I mourn, till grief or dire difeafe
Shall waits the form, whofe crime it was to please,
The king of kings, Atrides, you furvey,
Great in the war, and great in arts of fway :

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