Nor deign'd to let them sip, before I saw

Th' oraculous seer. Foremost of all the crowd Elpener came, whose unregarded corse

We left behind in Circe's sumptuous dome,
Unwept, unbury'd, eager to pursue

Our voyage: straight to tender pity mov'd,
With words dissolv'd in tears, I cry'd, "Relate,
Elpenor, how these rueful shades you reach'd
Sooner than I full-sail'd." He thus reply'd,
In accents of much dolour: "Me, O king!
The minister of adverse Fate malign'd,
Unweeting of mishap; and wrought my doom,
Drench'd with excess of wine: prone from the top
Of Circe's tower I fell, and, the neck-bones
Disjointing, dy'd. But to your pious care
Suppliant, I beg by those endearing names
Of parent, wife, and son, (though distant, dear
To your remembrance) when you re-ascend
To Circe's blissful isle, to my remains
Discharge funereal rites; nor let me lie
Unwept, unbury'd there, lest Heaven avenge
The dire neglect. While the devouring flames
Consume my earthy, on the flagrant pile
My armour cast complete; then raise a tomb
For my memorial on the foamy strand;
And on it place that oar which erst I ply'd
With my associates." Pensive I rejoin,
"Poor shade! I'll pay the decent rites you crave."
While with the friendly phantom 1 maintain'd
Such melancholy parley, with brandish'd steel
Guarding the gory pool, I through th' obscure
My mother view'd': her lineage she deriv'd
From Maia's wingy son, and ceas'd to breathe
This vital air, since I my legion led
To war on Ilium. From my pitying eyes
Abundant sorrow stream'd; but though regret
Wither'd my resolution, from the pool
I made the dear maternal form recede,

Till I should learn from the grave Theban seer
The sum of fate. The sage at length advanc'd,
Bearing a golden sceptre, and began:

"Son of Laertes, what misfortunes dire
Compel your progress from th' all-cheering Sun,
And heavenly azure, in this seat of woe
To roam among the dead? But from the pool
Withdraw, and sheath your falchion, while I taste
That bloody beverage, then the Fates' decree
Instant I'll utter." Sudden I withdrew,
Sheathing my falchion, whilst he drank the gore;
Then thus the seer pronounc'd the Fates' decree.
"What means may best befit your wish'd return,
Illustrious Greek! you'd know. The sovereign

power,

Whose strong earth-shaking mace the floods revere,
Insidious waits a time to wreak revenge
For Polypheme, his son; whose visual orb
You late eclips'd with ever-during shade.
Howe'er you safe may voyage, and avoid
Disasters various, in your mates refrain
From sacrilegious spoil, when safe they tread
Trinacria's herby soil: for there the flocks
And herds of Phoebus o'er the verdurous lawn
Browze fattening pasture (he, the world's great eye,
Views all below his orient beam, nor aught
Can shun his wakeful car) with evil hand
If them they seize, unerring retel
Ap hideous wreck. Unequal to the storm,

Antic a

Shall perish with her crew: you shall regain
The dry, without surviving friend to cheer
Your pilgrim-steps: however, late and hard,
You shall revisit your lov'd natal shore,
Transported in a vessel not your own.
Much of domestic damage, and misrule, -
Will sadden your return; for in your court
Suitors voluptuous swarm; with amorous wiles
Studious to win your consort, and seduce
Her from chaste fealty to joys impure,
In bridal pomp; vain efforts! but they soon
By stratagem, or our puissant arm,
To ruin are fore-doom'd. Then to a race
Remote from ocean, who with savoury salt
Ne'er season their repast, nor vessel view'd
Furrowing the foamy flood with painted prow,
And all her tackle trim, with speed repair,
Carrying a taper oar; way-faring thus,
One journeying obvious will misname that oar
A corn van; fix it there, and victims slay
To Neptune reverent; from the fleecy fold
A ram select; and from the beeves and swine,
The choicest male entire, of either herd.
Thence homeward haste, and hecatombs prepare
For the bright order of the gods, who reign
Spher'd in empyreal splendours. White with years,
The balm of life evaporating slow,

At length, when Neptune points the dart of death',
Without a pang you'll die, and leave your land
With fair abundance bless'd. In these fix'd laws
Of Fate repose affiance, and beware."

I thus reply'd: "In this authentic will
Of Fate, O seer! I acquiesce; but lo!
Pensive and silent, by the gory pool,
Abides my mother's shade; nor me vouchsafes
Language or look benign: Oh! tell me how
She here may recognize me." He rejoin'd:
"Whatever ghost, by your permission, sips
That sacred purple, will to all your quest
Without deceit reply: the rest withdraw
At your stern interdict." This said, the seer
To the high capital of Dis retir'd.

Meantime I firm abode, till the dear shade
Had sip'd the sacred purple; then her son
Instant she knew, and, wailing, thus began:
"My son how reach'd you these Tartarean
bounds,

Corporeal? Many a river interfus'd,
And gulphs unvoyageable, from access
Debar each living wight, besides th' expanse
Of ocean wide to sail. Are you from Troy,
With your associate peers, but now return'd,
Erroneous, from your wife and kingdom still?”
I thus:" By strong necessity constrain'd,
Down to these nether real as I have presum'd
An earthly guest, to hear my doom disclos'd
By sage Tiresias; for since I led

Auxiliar bands, with Agamemnon leagu'd
To war on lium, traversing the main
Through various perils, I have voyag'd far
Istrang'd from Greece. But say by what disease,
By slow consumption, through the gates of Death
Prone did you pass; or, by Diana's dart
frinsfix'd, a sudden fate? My hoary sire!
Survives he? Is my bloomy son possess'd
Of my domain, or groans it now beneath
surping powers, who lord it uncontroll'd,

1 He was killed with the bone of a sea-turtle,

Thoughtless of my return? My consort dear!
Abides she with my son, of all his rights
A guardian regent; or, no longer mine,
Hath she been won to plight connubial vows?"
The venerable shade thus answer'd mild:
"Still in your regal dome your spouse abides
Disconsolate, with ever-flowing eyes
Wailing your absence; and your son possess'd
Of principality, with his compeers,
Bountcous of soul, free intercourse maintains
Of social love. Beneath a sylvan lodge,
Far from the cheerful steps of men, your sire
Lives inconsolable; on gorgeous beds,
With rich embroidery spread, and purple palls,
No more indulging sweet repose; but clad
In coarse attire, couch'd with his village hinds,
On the warm hearth he sleeps, when Winter reigns
Inclement, till the circling Months return
New-rob'd in flowering verdure: then, the vines
High interwove a green pavilion form,
Where, pillow'd on the leaves, he mourns for you
Nocturnal; to th' unfriendly damp of age
Adding corrosive anguish and despair..
So perish'd I with slow consuming pile!
Me nor the silver-shafted goddess slew,
Nor racking malady, but anxious love
Of my Ulysses on my vitals prey'd,
And sunk my age with sorrow to the grave."

[fly

She ceas'd: I thrice, with filial fondness, strove T' embrace the much-lov'd form, and thrice it fled, Delusive as a dream. Anew with grief Heart-chill'd, I spake: "Why, mother, will you Your son's encircling arms? O bere permit My duteous love, and let our sorrows flow Mingling in one full stream! Or has the queen, Whose frown the shades revere, to work me woe, A guileful image form'd?" She thus replies:

"Of all mankind, O most to grief inur'd!
Deem not that aught of guile by phantoms vain
Is here intended, but the essence pure
Of separate souls is of all living touch
Impassive: here no gross material frame

We wear, with flesh encumber'd, nerves, and bone;
They're calcin'd on the pile: but when we cease
To draw the breath of life, the soul on wing
Fleets like a dream, from elemental dross
Disparted and refin'd. Now to the realms
Illumin'd with the Sun's enlivening beam
Hence journeying upward, to your consort dear
Disclose the secrets of our state below."

Thus we alternate, till a beauteous train
Of nobless near advance their steps, enlarg'd
By radiant Proserpine, daughters and wives
To kings and heroes old: the gory pool
The fair assembly thick surround, to sip
The tasteful liquid: I the fates of cach
Desirous to hear storied, wave my sword
In airy circles, while they singly sate
Their appetites; then curious ask of each
Her ancestry, which all in order told.

Tyro first audience claim'd, the daughter fair
Of great Salmoneus; she with Cretheus shar'd
Connubial love, but long in virgin bloom
Enamour'd of Enipeus, inly pin'd:
Enipeus, swift from whose reclining urn
Rolls a delicious flood. His lovely form
Neptune assum'd, and the bright nymph beguil'd,
Wandering, love-pensive, near his amber stream:
Then, plunging in the slopy flood, receiv'd
Redounding; and, to screen his amorous theft,

On either side the parted waves up-reat'd
A crystal mound. Potent of rapturous joy,
And sated, thus he spake: "Hail, royal fair!
Thy womb shall teem with twins, (a god's embrace
Is ever fruitful) and those pledges dear
Of our sweet casual bliss nurture and tend
With a fond mother's care: hence homeward speed,
And from all human ken our amorous act
Conceal: so Neptune bids thee now farewell."
He ceas'd, and, diving sudden, was ingulph'd
Deep in the gurgling eddy. Two fair sons
Th' appointed months discharg'd, by supreme Jove
Both sceptr'd. Peleus first; his empire wide
Stretch'd o'er Jölcos, whose irriguous vales
His grazing folds o'erfleec'd: her younger birth,
Neleus, was honour'd through the sandy realm
Of Pylus. She by Cretheus then espous'd,
A fair increase, Ason and Pheres, bore;
And great Amythaon, who with fiery steeds
Oft disarray'd the foes in battle rang'd.

The daughter of Asopus next I view'd,
Antiope, boastful that she, by Jove
Impregnate, had the fam'd Amphion borne,
And Zethus, founder of imperial Thebes,
Stately with seven large gates, and bulwark'd strong
Against invading powers. Alcmena fair,
Amphitryon's consort, then advanc'd to view ;
To Heaven's supreme who bore Alcides, bold
And lion-hearted. Next that lovely shade
Stood Megara, of Creon's royal race,
By great Alcides spous'd. To her succeeds
The sheeny form of Epicaste, woo'd
By Oedipus her son, to whom she deign'd
Spousal embraces, thoughtless of misdeed,
He having too (ill-starr'd!) destroy'd his sire,
His lineage with incestuous mixture soil'd,
Blinded by Destiny; but the just gods
Disclos'd th' unnatural scene. In Thebes he
sway'd,

With various ills by Heaven's afflictive rod
Discomfited; but she, through fell despair,
Self-strangled, from the stings of mortal life
Fled to the shades, and her surviving son
With delegated furies fierce pursued.

An amiable image next appear'd;
Bright Chloris, of Amphion's lofty stem
The youngest bud: in sweet attractive pomp,
On her the Graces ever waiting smit
The heart of Neleus, whom the Pylian tribes
Homag'd with fealty: from their wedded love
Sprung Nestor, Chromius, and the boastful powe
Of Periclymenus; besides a nymph,
Pero, of form divine: her virgin vows

By many a prince were sought, but Neleus deign't
To none her bed, but him whose prowess'd arm
Should force from Phylace a furious herd
Of wild Thessalian becves, t' avenge the dower
Which Iphiclus detain'd. This bold emprise
A scer accepted; but, in combat foil'd,
In thrall for twelve revolving moons he lay,
Deep in a dungeon close immur'd, till found
Divine of fate, by solving problems quaint
Which Iphiclus propos'd, who straight dismiss'd
The captive; so was Jove's high will complete.
Then Leda, spous'd by Tyndarus, I saw,
Mother of the fam'd twins, Castor expert
To tame the steed, and Pollux far renown'd
On listed fields for conflict; who from Jove
Receiv'd a grateful boon like gods to live,
Mounting alternate to this upper ork.

Next Iphimedia glides in view, the wife
Of great Aloeus, who, in love compress'd
By Neptune, bore (so she the fact avow'd)
Otus and Ephialtes, whom the Fates
Cut short in early prime: their infant years,
Nurtur'd by Farth, enormous both attain'd
Gigantic stature, and for manly grace
Were next Orion rank'd; for in the course
Of nine swift circling years, nine cubits broad
Their shoulders measur'd, and nine ells their height.
Improvident of soul, they vainly dar'd
The gods to war, and on Olympus hoar
Rear'd Ossa, and on Ossa Pelion pil'd,
Torn from the base with all its woods; by scale
T'assault Heaven's battlements; and had their
date

To manhood been prolong'd, had sure achiev'd
Their ruinous aim: but by the silver dart
Of Phoebus sheer transfix'd, ere springing down
Shaded their rosy youth, they both expir'd.

Ill-fated Phædra then with Procris came,
And Ariadne, who them both surpass'd
In goddess-like demeanour; from her sire
Minos, the rigid arbiter of right,
Theseus of old convey'd her, with intent
At Athens, link'd in love, with her to reign:
But stern Diana, by the guileful plea
Of Bacchus won, dissever'd soon their joys,
And caus'd the lovely nymph to fall forlorn
In Dia, with circumfluous seas in-girt,
Of nuptial rights defrauded. Next advance
Mæra and Clymenė, a beauteous pair;
And Eriphyle, whose once radiant charms
A cloud of sorrow dinin'd; for she, devoid
Of duteous love, for gold betray'd her lord.-
Here let me cease narration, nor relate
What other objects fair, daughters and wives
Of heroes old, I saw; for now the night
In clouded majesty has journey'd far,
Admonishing to rest, which with my mates,
Or here with you, my wearied nature craves;
Meantime affiane'd in the gods and you,
To speed my voyage to my native realm.

He ceas'd: a while th' attentive audience sate
In silent rapture; his persuasive tongue,
Mellifluous, so with eloquence had charm'd
Their still insatiate cars; at length thus spake
The
queen Arete, graceful and humane.
"Think ye, Phæacians, that the godlike form,
The port, the wisdom, of this wanderer, claim
Aught of regard? Peculiar him my guest
I style; but since the honour he vouchsafes,
Delighted ye partake, give not too soon
Him signal of departure, but prepare,
With no penurious hand, proportion'd gifts,
Vyeing in bounteous deeds, since Heaven hath
shower'd

Your peerage with abundant favours boon."

Up rose Echeneus then, whose wavy locks,
Silver'd with age, adorn'd his reverend brow,
Fraught with maturest counsel, and began
Addressing his compeers:
Rightful and wise
The queen's proposal is, let none demur
Obedience to her will: Alcinous best,
By fair ensample, may prescribe the rule."
Alcinous from his bed of state reply'd,

With aspect bland: "While here I live enthron'd,
Jove's delegate of empire, and this hand
Sways the Phæacian sceptre, will I cheer
Th' erroneous and afflicted, with meet acts

Of regal bounty; but our princely guest Must, though impatient, for a time defer His voyage, that with due munificence Our gifts may be prepar'd: let all accord, Fenevolent, and free to furnish stores, Worthy acceptance; me you shall confess The first in bounty, as the first in power."

He ended, and Ulysses answer'd blithe :
"O thou, by kingly virtues justly rais'd
To this imperial eminence! By thee
Were I detain'd, till the revolving Sun
Completes his annual circle, in thy will
I acquiesce obedient, till meet stores
For my return be rais'd: then at my realm,
With royal largesses arriving grac'd,
And gay retinue, straight the wondering Greeks
Will dear respect and prompter homage yield."

To whom Aleinous: "Your distinguish'd worth
Too plain is character'd in all your port,
To doubt you of those vagrant clans, who roam
Fallacious, and with copious legend take
The credulous ear; you, with severest truth,
Rob'd in rich eloquence, instruct and please,
When (like some bard, vers'd in heroic theme
Attemper'd to the lyre) you sweetly tell
Whate'er in Grecian story was of old
Recorded eminent, or when you speak
Your own disastrous fate. But now proceed,
Say, affable, if while you low sojourn'd
In gross Tartarean gloom, the mighty shades
Of those brave warring Greeks appear'd, who fell
By doom of battle; for the lingering night
Hath yet much space to measure, and the hour
Of sleep is far to come: I can attend,
With ravishment, to hear the pleasing tale.
Fruitful of wonders, till the roseate morn
Purples the east." Ulysses thus reply'd:
"Due time, O king, for converse and repose,
Is still remaining; nor will I refuse,
With coy denial, what the sacred car
Of majesty with audience deigns to grace.
Hear next how my associate warriors fell,
O'erwhelm'd with huge afflictions, and oppress'd,
In their own realms, by feminine deceit,
To them more fatal than the prowess'd foe,"

When, by imperious Proserpine recall'd,
The lady-train dispers'd, the pensive form
Of Agamemnon came, with those begirt,
Whom, in one common fate involv'd, of life
Egysthus had bereav'd. Sipping the gore,
Ile recogniz'd me instant, and outstretch'd
His unsubstantial arms, exhausted now
Of all their vital vigour; with shrill plaints,
Piercing the doleful region far: mine eyes,
Sore wounded with the pitcous object dear,
Effus'd a flood of tears, while thus I spake :

"O king of hosts! O ever-honour'd son
Of Atreus! say to what severe decree
Of Destiny you bow'd. By Neptune's wrath
Tempesting th' ocean, did you there expire,
Whelm'd in the watery abyss? Or fell you arm'd,
Making fierce inroad on some hostile coast,
To ravage herds and flocks; or in assault
Of some imperial fortress, thence to win
Rich spoils and beauteous captives, were you slain
Defeated of your seizure?" He replied:

"I perish'd not, my friend, by Neptune's wrath Whelm'd in the ocean wave; nor dy'd in arms, Heroic deeds attempting: but receiv'd From base Ægysthus, and my baser queen,

Irreparable doom, whilst I partook
Refreshment, and at supper jovial sate,
Slain like an ox that's butcher'd at the crib,
A death most lamentable! Round me lay
An hideous carnage of my breathless friends,
Like beasts new slaughter'd for the bridal board
Of some luxurious noble, or devote
To solemn festival. On well-fought fields
You various scenes of slaughter have survey'd,
And in fierce tournament: yet had it quell'd
Your best of man to view us on the floor
Rolling in death, with viands round us spread,
And ponderous vases bruis'd, while human gore
Flooded the pavement wide. With shrilling cries
Cassandra pierc'd any ear, whom at my side
False Clytemnestra slew: t' avenge her wrong,
I with a dying grasp my sabre seiz'd,
But the curs'd assassin withdrew, nor clos'd
My lips and eyes. O woman! woman! none
Of Nature's savage train have less remorse
In perpetrating crimes; to kill her mate,
What beast was e'er accomplice? I return'd,
Hopeful in affluence of domestic joy

To reign, encircled with my offspring dear,
And court-retinue; but my traitress wife
On female honour hath diffus'd a stain
Indelible; and her pernicious arts,
Recorded for reproach on all the sex,

?

Shall wound soft innocence with touch of blame."
I answer'd, "O ye powers! by women's viles
Jove works sure bane to all th' imperial race
Of Atreus still: for Helen's vagrant lust
Greece mourns her states dispeopled; and you fell
By your adultress!" Plaintive he reply'd:

By my disasters warn'd, to woman's faith Unbosom nought momentous; though she peal Your ear, (by nature importune to know) Unlock not all your secrets. But your wife, Of prudent meek deport, no train of ills Will meditate for you by force or guile: Her, when we led th' embattled Greeks to Troy, We left in blooming beauty fresh; your son Then hanging on her breast; who now to man Full grown, with men associates; your approach With rapture he will meet, and glad his sire With filial duty dear! a bliss to me Not deign'd! my son I saw not ere I fell A victim to my wife: then, timely warn'd, Trust not to woman's ken the time prefix'd For your return to Greece. But say sincere, Aught have you heard where my Orestes bides, In rich Orchomenus, or sandy Pyle; Or with my brother lives he more secure In spacious Sparta? for of this dark realm He's not inhabitant." I thus rejoin'd:

"Vain is your quest, Atrides: whether Fate Permits your son to draw the breath of Heaven, Friendly to life; or whether in these shades He roams a ghost, I know not; nor with speech, False or ambiguous, will beguile your ear."

While mournful thus we talk'd, suffus'd with tears Of tender sympathy, young Peleus came, With his associates most in life belov'd, Faithful Patroclus, and th' egregious 'son Of Nestor, great in arms; with them (conjoin'd In amicable converse, e'en by death Fucancer'd) walk'd the tall illustrious shade Of Ajax, with attractive grace adorn'd,

1 Antilochus.

And prowess; paragon'd for both to none
But great Achilles: me the goddess-born
Ey'd curious, and at length thus sad began :
"What cause, Ulysses, moves thy mind, expert
Of warlike machinations; what emprise
Hath aught of such importance, as to tempt
This dire descent, where we in dolorous night,
Frail incorporeal forms, are doom'd abode?"

"O peerless chief," I cried, " of all the Greeks The foremost name! I hither am constrain'd, From the wise Theban oracle, to hear

Best means reveal'd how to revisit safe
My native realm; by rigid Fate repell'd,
I'in exil'd yet, with troops of various ills
Surrounded. But the gods, to your high worth
Ever propitious, crown their favourite chief
With choicer blessings than the eye of Time
Yet saw conferr'd, or future shall behold;
On Earth you equal honours with the gods
From us receiv'd; nor by the stroke of Fate
Sink with diminish'd lustre, but supreme
Reign o'er the shades." He solemn sad replied:
"Reign here supreme! deem not thy eloquence
Can aught console my doom: rather on Earth
A village slave I'd be, than titled here
Imperial and august. But say me true,
Or did my son illustrate his descent
First in the files of war; or fled he pale
A recreant from the fight? Do all our tribes
In Phthia still revere my father's throne;
Or lives he now of regal power despoil'd,
A weak contemn'd old man, wanting my arm
To hold his sceptre firm? that arm! which erst,
Warring for Greece, bestrew'd the Phrygian plains
With many a prowess'd knight! Would Heaven
The same puissant form, I'd soon avenge [restore
His injur'd age, and re-assert his claim."

He ceasing, I reply'd: "Of Peleus' state
Fame hath to me been silent; but attend,
While I th' achievements of thy glorious son
Blazon, as truth shall dictate. Him to Troy,
From Scyros o'er th' Egean, safe I bore,
To join th' embattled Greeks: whene'er we sate
In council, to mature some high design,
First of the peerage with persuasive speech
His sentence he disclos'd, by all confess'd
The third from Nestor. But whene'er we mov'd
In battailous array, and the shrill clang
Of onset sounded, he, with haughty strides
Advancing in the van, the foremost chief,
Piere'd through the adverse legions, nor was deem'd
Not equal to the best. Each hardy deed,
Which in his country's cause the youth achiev'd,
Were long to tell; but by his javelin dy'd
Eurypylus, of all th' auxiliary bands
Fam'd after Memnon first; with many a peer
Of Pergamenian race, around him strown.

"When in the wooden horse, by Epeus form'd,
Selected heroes lay, aghast and pale
The rest, shuddering with fear, let round big drops
Roll from their drooping eyes, he sole abode
Undaunted, undismay'd; no chilling doubt
Frosted his damask cheek, nor silent tear.
Cours'd from its crystal sluice, but, grasping fierce
His spear and falchion, for the combat grew
Impatient, menacing decisive route

To Troy's opponent powers; and when the height
Of Ilion had receiv'd the final stroke
From Grecian valour, with barbaric spoil,
To his high fatne proportion'd, he return'd,

Unmark'd with hostile wound, though round him
Mars

With tenfold rage oft made the battle burn."
I ended: joy ineffable possess'd
The great paternal shade; his steps he rais'd
With more majestic portance o'er the mead,
Verdant with asphodel, elate to hear
His son's exploits emblazon'd fair by Fame.
The rest, a pensive circle, round await,
Reciting various dooms, to mortal ear
Calamitous and sad! From these apart
The Telamonian hero, whom I foil'd
In contest for Achilles' arms, abode
Sullen with treasur'd wrath; the fatal strife
By Thetis was propos'd, and every judge
Instinct by Pallas, to my claim declar'd
The prize of right. O! why was I constrain'd
By honour to prevail, and cause to die
Ajax, the chief with manly grace adorn'd,
And prowess; paragon'd for both to none
But the great son of Peleus! Him with speech,
Lenient of wrath, I thus accosted mild:

Ajax, let this oblivious gloom deface

The memory of those arms, which Heaven decreed
Pernicious to the Greeks, who lost in thee
Their power of strong defence: to mourn thy fall
The voice of Grief along the tented shore
Was heard, as loud as when the flower of war,
Divine Achilles, dy'd: nor deem that aught
Of human interpos'd to urge thy doom,
But ireful Jove, to punish all our host,
Cut off its darling hope. O royal shade!
Approach, and affable to me vouchsafe
Mild audience, calming thy tempestuous rage."
Vain was my suit! for with th' unbody'd troop
Of spectres, fleeting to th' interior shade
Of Erebus, be to my friendly speech
Disdain'd reply; yet to that dark recess
Had I pursu'd his flight, he must have borne
Unwilling correspondence, forc'd by Fate,
Impassion❜d as he was; but I refrain'd,
For other visions drew my curious eye.

Intent I saw, with golden sceptre grave,
Minos, the son of Jove, to the pale ghosts
Disp nsing equity; with faded looks

They through the wide Plutonian hall appear'd
Frequent and full, and argued each his cause
At that tribunal, trembling whilst he weigh'd
Their pleaded reason. Of portentous size
Orion next I view'd; a brazen mace
Invincible he bore, in fierce pursuit
Of those huge mountain savages he slew,
While habitant of Earth, whose grisly forms
He urg'd in chae the flowery mead along.

Nor unobserv'd lay stretch'd upon the marle
Tityus, Earth-born, whose body, long and large,
Cover'd nine acres: there two vultures sat,
Of appetite insatiate, and with beaks
For ravine bent, unintermitting goar'd
His liver, powerless he to put to flight

The fierce devourers! to this penance judg'd rape intended on Latona fair,

For

The paramour of Jove, as she sojourn'd
To Pytho o'er the Panopeian lawns;
Delicions landscape!-In a limpid lake
Next Tantalus a doleful lot abides:
Chin-deep he stands, yet with afflictive drought
Incessant pines, while ever as he bows

To sip r freshment, from his parching thirst
The guilcful water glides. Around the pool

Fruit-trees of various kinds umbrageous spread
Their pamper'd boughs: the racy olive green,
The ripe pomegranate, big with vinous pulp,
The luscious fig sky dy'd, the tasteful pear
Vermilion'd half, and apples mellowing sweet
In burnish'd goid, luxuriant o'er him wave,
Exciting hunger, and fallacious hope
Of food ambrosial:-when he tries to seize
The copious fruitage fair, a sudden gust
Whirls it aloof amid th' incumbent gloom.

Then Sisyphus, the nearest mate in woe,
Drew my regard; he, with distended nerves,
A ponderous stone rolls up a rugged rock;
Urg'd up the steep cliff, slow with hand and foot
It mounts, but bordering on the cloudy peak,
Precipitous adown the slopy side

The rapid orb devolving back, renews
Eternal toil, which he, with dust besmear'd,
And dew'd with smoaking sweat, incessant plies.
I last the visionary semblance view'd
Of Hercules, a shadowy form; for he,
The real son of Jove, in Heaven's high court
Abides, associate with the gods, and shares
Celestial banquets; where, with soft disport
Of love, bright Hebe in her radiant dome
Treats him nocturnal. With terrific clang
Surrounding ghosts, like fowl, the region wing
Vexatious, while the threatening image stands,
Gloomy as night, from his bent battle-bow
In act to let th' aerial arrow fly.
Athwart his breast a military zone

Dreadful he wore, where grinn'd in fretted gold
Grim woodland savages, with various scenes
Of war, fierce-jousting knights, and havoc dire,
With matchless art pourtray'd: me straight he

knew,

And, piteous of my state, address'd me thus: Ó exercis'd in grief, illustrious son

66

Of good Laertes, fam'd for warlike wiles!
Fated thou art (like me, what time I breath'd
Ethereal draught) beneath unnumber'd toils
To groan oppress'd: ev'n I, the seed of Jove,
Combated various ills, and was adjudg'd
By an inferior wretch (what could he more?)
To drag to light the triple-crested dog
That guards Hell's massy portal: I achiev'd
The task injoin'd, through the propitious aid
Of Mercury and Pallas, who vouchsaf'd
Their friendly guidance." Then, without reply,..
To Pluto's court majestic he retir'd.

Meantime for others of heroic note

I waited in the lists of ancient Fame
Enroll'd illustrious; and had haply seen
Great Theseus, and Pirithous his compeer,
The race of gods; but at the hideous scream
Of spectres issuing from the dark profound
I wax'd infirm of purpose, sore dismay'd,
Lest Proserpine should send Medusa, curl'd
With snaky locks, to fix me in her realm
Stiff with Gorgonian horrour: to the ship
Retreating speedy thence, I bade my mates
To shove from shore: joyous they straight began
To stem the tide, and brush'd the whitening seas,
Till the fresh gales reliev'd the labouring oar.

THE WIDOW'S WILE,

A TALE.

HAVE
AVE you not seen (to state the case)
Two wasps lie struggling in a glass?