Be foftly stay'd:

Let me be all, but my attention, dead.
Go, reft, unneceffary fprings of life,
Leave your officious toil and strife;
For I would hear her voice, and try
If it be poffible to die.

II.

Come, all ye love-fick maids and wounded fwains,
And liften to her healing strains.

A wondrous balm between her lips the wears,
Of fovereign force to foften cares;

And this through every ear she can impart,
(By tuneful breath diffus'd) to every heart.
Swiftly the gentle charmer flies,
And to the tender grief soft air applies,
Which, warbling myftic founds,
Cements the bleeding panter's wounds.
But ah! beware of clamorous moan:
Let no unpleafing murmur, or harsh groan,
Your flighted loves declare :

Your very tendereft moving fighs forbear,
For even they will be too boisterous here.
Hither let nought but facred Silence come,
And let all faucy praise be dumb.

111.

And lo! Silence himself is here;
Methinks I fee the midnight god appear,
In all his downy pomp array'd,
Behold the reverend fhade:

An ancient figh he fits upon,

Whofe

Whose memory of found is long fince gone,
And purposely annihilated for his throne:
Beneath, two foft tranfparent clouds do meet,
In which he feems to fink his fofter feet.
A melancholy thought, condens'd to air,
Stol'n from a lover in despair,

Like a thin mantle, ferves to wrap
In fluid folds his vifionary shape.

A wreath of darkness round his head he wears, Where curling mifts fupply the want of hairs: While the ftill vapours, which from poppies rife, Bedew his hoary face, and lull his eyes.

IV.

But hark! the heavenly fphere turns round,
And Silence now is drown'd

In ecftacy of found.

How on a fudden the still air is charm'd,
As if all harmony were just alarm'd !

And every foul with transport fill'd,
Alternately is thaw'd and chill'd.
See how the heavenly choir
Come flocking to admire,

And with what speed and care

Defcending angels cull the thinnest air!

Haste then, come all th' immortal throng,
And listen to her fong;

Leave your lov'd manfions in the sky,

And hither, quickly hither fly. Your loss of heaven nor shall you While the figs, 'tis heaven here.

need to fear;

V.

See how they crowd, fee how the little cherubs fkip! While others fit around her mouth, and fip

Sweet Hallelujahs from her lip,

Those lips, where in furprize of blifs they rove;
For ne'er before did angels tafte

So exquisite a feast,

Of mufic and of love.

Prepare then, ye immortal choir,
Each facred minstrel tune his lyre,

And with her voice in chorus join;

Her voice, which next to yours is most divine.
Blefs the glad earth with heavenly lays,
And to that pitch th' eternal accents raise,
Which only breath infpir'd can reach,

To notes, which only the can learn, and you can teach:
While we, charm'd with the lov'd excefs,

Are wrapt in fweet forgetfulness

Of all, of all, but of the prefent happiness :
Wishing for ever in that ftate to lie,

For ever to be dying fo, yet never die.

PRIAM'S

PRI A MS

LAMENTATION AND PETITION

то

ACHILLES,

FOR THE BODY OF HIS SON HECTOR.

Tranflated from the Greek of Homer, Iliad w.

Beginning at this Line,

Ως ἄρα φωνήσας ἀπέβη πρὸς μακρὸν Ὄλυμπον
Ερμείας.

Argument introductory to this Tranflation.

Hector's body (after he was flain) remained still in the poffeffion of Achilles; for which Priam made great lamentation. Jupiter had pity on him; and sent Iris to comfort him, and direct him after what manner he fhould go to Achilles' tent; and how he should there ranfom the body of his fon. Priam accordingly orders his chariot to be got ready, and, preparing rich prefents for Achilles, fets forward to the Grecian camp, accompanied by nobody but his herald Idæus. Mercury, at Jupiter's command, meets him by the way, in the figure of a young Grecian, and, after bemoaning his misfortunes, undertakes to drive his chariot unobferved through the guards, and to the door of Achilles'

D

S

Achilles' tent; which having performed, he difcovered himself a god, and giving him a fhort inftruction how to move Achilles to compaffion, flew up to heaven.

O fpake the god, and heavenward took his flight;
When Priam from his chariot did alight;

Leaving Idæus there, alone he went

With folemn pace into Achilles' tent.

Heedlefs he pafs'd through various rooms of state,
Until approaching where the hero fate;
There, at a feaft, the good old Priam found
Jove's beft-belov'd, with all his chiefs around
Two only were t' attend his person plac'd,
Automedon and Alcymus; the rest

At greater distance, greater ftate exprefs'd.
Priam, unseen by these, his way pursued,
And first of all was by Achilles view’d.
About his knees his trembling arms he caft,
And agonizing grafp'd and held them fast;

Then caught his hands, and kiss'd and press'd them close,
Thofe hands, th' inhuman authors of his woes;
Thofe hands, whose unrelenting force had cost

Much of his blood (for many fons he loft).

But, as a wretch who has a murder done,

And, feeking refuge, does from justice run,
Entering fome house, in haste, where he 's unknown,
Creates amazement in the lookers-on :

So did Achilles gaze, furpriz'd to fee
The godlike Priam's royal mifery;