The chief-invited guests were set around,
And hunger first assuag'd, the bowls were crown'd,
Which in deep draughts their cares and labours
drown'd.

The mellow harp did not their ears employ;
And mute was all the warlike symphony:
Discourse, the food of souls, was their delight,
And pleasing chat prolong'd the summer's night.
The subjects, deeds of arms; and valour shown,
Or on the Trojan side, or on their own.
Of dangers uudertaken, fame achiev'd,
They talk'd by turns; the talk by turns reliev'd.
What things but these could fierce Achilles tell,
Or what could fierce Achilles hear so well?
The last great act perform'd, of Cygnus slain,
Did most the martial audience entertain:
Wond'ring to find a body free by fate

From steel; and which could even that steel re-
Amaz'd, their admiration they renew; [bate:
And scarce Pelides could believe it true.

THE STORY OF CÆNEUS.

THEN Nestor thus: "What once this age has In fated Cygnus, and in him alone, [known, These eyes have seen in Cæneus long before; Whose body not a thousand swords could bore. Cæneus, in courage, and in strength, excell'd; And still his Othrys with his fame is fill'd: But what did most his martial deeds adorn, (Though since he chang'd bis sex) a woman born." A novelty so strange, and full of fate, His list'ning audience ask'd him to relate. Achilles thus commends their common suit: "Q father, first for prudence in repute, Tell, with that eloquence, so much thy own, What thou hast heard, or what of Cæneus known: What was he, whence his change of sex begun, What trophies, join'd in wars with thee, he won? Who conquer'd him, and in what fatal strife The youth, without a wound, could lose his life?"

Neleides then: "Though tardy age, and time, Have shrunk my sinews, and decay'd my prime; Though much I have forgotten of my store, Yet not exhausted, I remember more. Of all that arms achiev'd, or peace design'd, That action still is fresher in my mind Than aught beside. If reverend age can give To faith a sanction, in my third I live.

"'Twas in my second cent'ry, I survey'd Young Canis, then a fair Thessalian maid: Canis the bright was born to high command; ` A princess, and a native of thy land, Divine Achilles: every tongue proclaim'd Her beauty, and her eyes all hearts inflam'd. Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed, Among the rest; but he had either led Thy mother then, or was by promise ty'd; But she to him, and all, alike her love deny'd. "It was her fortune once to take her way Along the sandy margin of the sea: The pow'r of ocean view'd her as she pass'd, And, lov'd as soon as seen, by force embrac'd. So Fame reports. Her virgin-treasure sciz'd, And his new joys, the ravisher so pleas'd, That thus, transported, to the nymph he cry'd; Ask what thou wilt, no pray'r shall be deny'd.' This also Fame relates: the haughty fair, Who not the rape ev'n of a god could bear, This answer, proud, return'd; 'To mighty wrongs A mighty recompense, of right, belongs.

Give me no more to suffer such a shame;
But change the woman, for a better name;
One gift for all:' she said; and while she spoke,
A stern, majestic, mauly tone she took.
A man she was: and as the godhead swore,
To Cæneus turn'd, who Canis was before.

"To this the lover adds, without request,
No force of steel should violate his breast.
Glad of the gift, the new-made warrior goes;
And arms among the Greeks, and longs for equal

foes.

THE SKIRMISH BETWEEN THE CENTAURS AND LAPITHITES.

"Now brave Pirithous, bold Ixion's son, The love of fair Hippodamè had won. The cloud-begotten race, half men, half beast, Invited, came to grace the nuptial feast: In a cool cave's recess the treat was made, Whose entrance trees with spreading boughs o'ershade.

·

They sat: and summon'd by the bridegroom, came,
To mix with those, the Lapithæan name.
Nor wanted I: the roofs with joy resound:
And Hymen, lo Hymen,' rung around.
Rais'd altars shone with holy fires; the bride,
Lovely herself (and lovely by her side
A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace)
Came glitt'ring like a star, and took her place.
Her heav'nly form beheld, all wish'd her joy;
And little wanted, but in vain, their wishes all
employ.

"For one, most brutal of the bruta! brood,
Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood,
Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes
The bride; at once resolv'd to make his prize.
Down went the board; and fast'ning on her hair,
He seiz'd with sudden force the frighted fair.
'Twas Eurytus began: his bestial kind
His crime pursu'd; and each, as pleas'd his mind,
Or her, whom chance presented, took: the feast
An image of a taken town express'd.

"The cave resounds with female shrieks; we rise,
Mad with revenge to make a swift reprise:
And Theseus first, What phrenzy has possess',
O Eurytus,' he cry'd, thy brutal breast,
To wrong Pirithous, and not him alone,
But while I live, two friends conjoin'd in one?

"To justify his threat, he thrusts aside
The crowd of Centaurs; and redeems the bride.
The monster nought reply'd: for words were vain
And deeds could only deeds unjust maintain;
But answers with his band, and forward press'd,
With blows redoubled, on his face and breast.
An ample goblet stood, of antick mold,
And rough with figures of the rising gold;
The hero snatch'd it up, and toss'd in air
Full at the front of the foul ravisher.
He falls; and falling vomits forth a flood
Of wine, and foam, and brains, and mingled blood.
Half roaring, and half neighing through the hall
'Arms, arms,' the double-form'd with fury call;
To wreak their brother's death: a medley flight
Of bowls, and jars, at first supply the fight,
Once instruments of feasts, but now of fate;
Wine animates their rage, and arms their bate.
"Bold Amycus from the robb'd vestry brings
The chalices of Heav'n, and holy things
Of precious weight: a sconce that hung on high,
With tapers fill'd, to light the sacristy,

Torn from the cord, with his unhallow'd hand

He threw amid the Lapithaan band.

On Celadon the ruin fell; and left

His face of feature and of form bereft:

So, when some brawny sacrificer knocks,
Before an altar led, an offer'd ox,

His eye-balls rooted out, are thrown to ground;
His nose, dismantled, in his mouth is found;
His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguish'd
wound.

"This, Belates, th' avenger, could not brook ; But, by the foot, a marble board he took, And hurl'd at Amycus; his chin it bent Against his chest, and down the Centaur sent: Whom sputt'ring bloody teeth, the second blow Of his drawn sword dispatch'd to shades below. "Grineus was near; and cast a furious look On the side-altar, cens'd with sacred smoke, And bright with flaming fires; The gods,' he cry'd,

Have with their holy trade our hands supply'd:
Why use we not their gitts? Then from the floor
An altar stone he heav'd, with all the load it bore.
Altar, and altar's freight together flew,
Where thickest throng'd the Lapithæan crew:
And, at once, Broteas and Oryus slew.
Oryus' mother, Mycalè, was known
Down from her sphere to draw the lab'ring Moon
"Exadius cry'd,' Unpunish'd shall not go
This fact, if arms are found against the foe.'
He look'd about, where on a pine were spread
The votive horns of a stag's branching head:
At Grineus these he throws; so just they fly,
That the sharp antlers stuck in either eye:
Breathless, and blind he fell; with blood be-
smear'd;
[beard.
His eye-balls beaten out, hung dangling on his
Fierce Rhætus from the hearth a burning brand
Selects, and whirling waves; till, from his hand
The fire took flame; then dash'd it from the right,
On fair Charaxus' temples, near the sight:
The whistling pest came on, and pierc'd the bone,
And caught the yellow hair, that shrivel'd while it
shone :

Caught like dry stubble fir'd; or like sear wood;
Yet from the wound ensu'd no purple flood;
But look'd a bubbling mass of frying blood.

His blazing locks sent forth a crackling sound; And hiss'd, like red-hot ir'n within the smithy drown'd.

The wounded warrior shook his flaming hair,
Then (what a team of horse could hardly rear)
He heaves the threshold-stone, but could not
throw;

The weight itself forbad the threaten'd blow;
Which dropping from his lifted arms, came down
Full on Cometes' head; and crush'd his crown.
Nor Rhætus then retain'd his joy; but said,
'So by their fellows may our foes be sped;'
Then with redoubled strokes he plies his head.
The burning lever not dcludes his pains,
But drives the batter'd skull within the brains.
"Thus flush'd, the conqueror, with force re-
new'd,

Evagrus, Dryas, Corythus, pursu'd:
First, Corythus, with downy cheeks, he slew;
Whose fall when fierce Evagrus had in view,
He cry'd, What palm is from a beardless prey?'
Rhætus prevents what more he had to say;
And drove within his mouth the fiery death,
Which enter'd hissing in, and chok'd his breath.

At Dryas next he flew but weary chance
No longer wou'd the same success advance :
For while he whirl'd in fiery circles round
The brand, a sharpen'd stake strong Dryas found,
And in the shoulder's joint inflicts the wound.
The weapon stuck; which roaring out with pain,
He drew; nor longer durst the fight maintain,
But turn'd his back, for fear; and fled amain.
With him fled Orneus, with like dread possess'd;
Thaumas, and Medon wounded in the breast;
And Mermeros, in the late race renown'd,
Now limping ran, and tardy with his wound.
Pholus and Melaneus from fight withdrew,
And Abas maim'd, who boars encountering slew:
And augur Astylos, whose art in vain
From fight dissuaded the four-footed train,
Now beat the hoof with Nessus on the plain;
But to his fellow cry'd,' Be safely slow,
Thy death deferr'd is due to great Alcides' bow.'
"Mean time strong Dryas urg'd his chance so
That Lycidas, Areos, Imbreus fell;
All, one by one, and fighting face to face.
Crenæus fled, to fall with more disgrace:
For, fearful, while he look'd behind, he bore,
Betwixt his nose and front, the blow before.
Amid the noise, and tumult of the fray,
Snoring, and drunk with wine, Aphidas lay.
Ev'n then the bowl within his hand he kept,
And on a bear's rough hide securely slept.
Him Phorbas with his flying dart transfix'd;
Take thy next draught with Stygian waters
mix'd,

[well,

And sleep thy fill,' th' insulting victor cry'd;
Surpris'd with death unfelt, the Centaur dy'd;
The ruddy vomit, as he breath'd his soul,
Repass'd his throat, and fill'd his empty bowl.
"I saw Petræus' arms employ'd around
A well-grown oak, to root it from the ground.
This way, and that, he wrench'd the fibrous bands;
The trunk was like a sapling, in his hands,
And still obey'd the bent: while thus he stood,
Pirithous' dart drove on, and nail'd him to the
wood;

Lycus and Chromis fell, by him oppress'd;
Helops and Dictys added to the rest

A nobler palm: Helops, through either ear
Transfix'd, receiv'd the penetrating spear.
This Dictys saw; and, seiz'd with sudden fright,
Leapt headlong from the hill of steepy height;
And crush'd an ash beneath, that could not bear
his weight.

The shatter'd tree receives his fall; and strikes, Within his full-blown paunch, the sharpen'd spikes.

Strong Aphareus had heav'd a mighty stone,
The fragment of a rock; and would have thrown;
But Theseus, with a club of harden'd oak,
The cubit-bone of the bold Centaur broke,
And left him maim'd; nor seconded the stroke.
Then leapt on tall Bianor's back; (who bore
No mortal burden but his own, before)
Press'd with his knees his sides; the double man,
His speed with spurs increas'd, unwilling ran.
One hand the hero fasten'd on his locks;
His other ply'd him with repeated strokes.
The club rung round his ears, and batter'd brows;
He falls; and lashing up his heels, his rider throws.
"The same Herculean arms Nedymnus wound;
And lay by him Lycotas on the ground.
And Hippasus, whose beard his breast invades ;
And Ripheus, hunter of the woodland shades:

And Tereus, us'd with mountain bears to strive, And from their dens to draw th' indignant beasts alive.

"Demoleon could not bear this hateful sight, Or the long fortune of th' Athenian knight: But pull'd with all his force, to disengage From earth a pine, the product of an age: The root stuck fast: the broken trunk he sent At Theseus; Theseus frustrates his intent, And leaps aside; by Pallas warn'd, the blow To shun: (for so he said; and we believ'd it so.) Yet not in vain th' enormous weight was cast: Which Crantor's body sunder'd at the waist: Thy father's squire, Achilles, and his care; Whom conquer'd in the Pelopeian war, Their king, his present ruin to prevent, A pledge of peace implor'd, to Peleus sent. Thy sire, with grieving eyes, beheld his fate; And cry'd, Not long, lov'd Crantor, shalt thou wait

Thy vow'd revenge.' At once he said, and threw His ashen spear; which quiver'd as it flew, With all his force, and all his soul apply'd; The sharp point euter'd in the Centaur's side: Both hands, to wrench it out, the monster join'd; And wrench'd it out; but left the steel behind; Stuck in his lungs it stood: eurag'd he rears His hoofs, and down to ground thy father bears. Thus trampled under foot, his shield defends His head; his other hand the lance protends. Ev'n while he lay extended on the dust, He sped the Centaur, with one single thrust. Two more his lance before transfix'd from far; And two, his sword had slain, in closer war. To these was added Dorylas, who spread A bull's two goring horns around his head. With these he push'd, in blood already dy'd; Him fearless I approach'd; and thus defy'd: Now, monster, now, by proof it shall appear, Whether thy horns are sharper, or my spear.' At this, I threw for want of other ward, He lifted up his hand, his front to guard. His hand it pass'd; and fix'd it to his brow: Loud shouts of ours attend the lucky blow. Him Peleus finish'd, with a second wound, Which through the navel pierc'd: he recl'd around; And dragg'd his dangling bowels on the ground: Trod what he dragg'd; and what he trod, he

crush'd:

Sprightly thy look; thy shapes in ev'ry part
So clean, as might instruct the sculptor's art,
As far as man extended: where began
The beast, the beast was equal to the man.
Add but a horse's head and neck; and he,
O Castor, was a courser worthy thee.
So was his back proportion'd for the seat:
So rose his brawny chest; so swiftly mov'd his
feet.

Coal-black his colour, but like jet it shone:
His legs and flowing tail were white alone.
Belov'd by many maidens of his kind;
But fair Hylonomè possess'd his mind;

Hylonomè, for features, and for face,
Excelling all the nymphs of double race:
Nor less her blandishinents, than beauty, move;
At once both loving, and confessing love.
For him she dress'd: for him, with female care
She comb'd, and set in curl, her auburn hair.
Of roses, violets, and lilies mix'd,

And sprigs of flowing rosemary betwixt,
She form'd the chapiet, and adorn'd her front:
In waters of the Pegasaan fount,
And in the streams that from the fountain play,
She wash'd her face; and bath'd her twice a day.
The scarf of furs, that hung below her side,
Was ermin, or the panther's spotted pride;
Spoils of no common beast: with equal tame
They lov'd: their sylvan pleasures were the same:
All day they hunted: and when day expir'd,
Together to some shady cave retir'd:
Invited to the nuptials, both repair;
And side by side, they both engage in war.

"Uncertain from what hand, a fiving dart At Cyllarus was sent; which pierc'd his heart. The jav'lin drawn from out the mortal wound, He faints with stagg'ring steps, and seeks the ground:

The fair within her arms receiv'd his fall,
And strove his wand'ring spirits to recall:
And while her hand the streaming blood oppos'd,
Join'd face to face, his lips with hers she clos'd.
Stifled with kisses, a sweet death be dies;
She fills the fields with undistinguish'd cries;
At least her words were in her clamour drown'd;
For my stunn'd ears receive no vocal sound.
In madness of her grief, she sciz'd the dart
New-drawn and reeking from her lover's heart;
To her bare bosom the sharp point apply'd;
And wounded fell; and falling by his side,
Embrac'd him in her arms; and thus embracing
dy'd.

"Ev'n still methinks I see Phæocomes;
Strange was his habit, and as odd his dress.
Six lions' hides, with thongs together fast,
His upper part defended to his waist:
And where man ended, the continued vest
Spread on his back the houss and trappings of

a beast.

A stump too heavy for a team to draw,
(It seems a fable, though the fact I saw,)
He threw at Pholon; the descending blow
Divides the scull, and cleaves his head in two.
The brains, from nose, and mouth, and either ear,
Came issuing out, as through a colander
The curdled milk; or from the press the wher,
Driv'n down by weights above, is drain'd away.

"But him, while stooping down to spoil the slain,
Pierc'd through the paunch, I tumbled on the
Then Chthonius and Teleboas I slew: Пplain.
A fork the former arm'd; a dart bis fellow thics.
The jav'lin wounded me; (behold the scar.)
Then was my time to seek the Trojan war;
Then I was Hector's match in open field;
But he was then unborn; at least a child:
Now, I am nothing. I forbear to tell
By Periphantas how Pyretus fell;
The Centaur by the knight: nor will I stay
On Amphyx, or what deaths he dealt that day:
What honour, with a pointless lance, he won,
Stuck in the front of a four-footed man:
What fame young Macareus obtain'd in fight:
Or dwell on Nessus, now return'd from flight.

How prophet Mopsus not alone divin'd,
Whose valour equall'd his foreseeing mind.

CÆNEUS TRANSFORMED TO AN EAGLE.
"ALREADY Cæneus, with his conquering hand,
Had slaughter'd five the boldest of their band,
Pyrachmus, Helymus, Antimachus,
Bromus the brave, and stronger Stiphelus.
Their names I number'd, and remember well,
To trace remaining, by what wounds they fell.
"Latreus, the bulkiest of the double race,
Whom the spoil'd arms of slain Halesus grace;
In years retaining still his youthful might,
Though his black hairs were interspers'd with
white,

Betwixt th' imbattled ranks began to prance,
Proud of his helm, and Macedonian lance;
And rode the ring around; that either host
Might hear him, while he made this empty boast.
And from a strumpet shall we suffer shame ?
For Canis still, not Cæneus, is thy name:
And still the native softness of thy kind
Prevails, and leaves the woman in thy mind;
Remember what thou wert; what price was paid
To change thy sex; to make thee not a maid,
And but a man in show: go, card and spin;
And leave the business of the war to men.'

"While thus the boaster exercis'd Lis pride,
The fatal spear of Cæneus reach'd his side:
Just in the mixture of the kinds it ran;
Betwixt the nether beast, and upper man >
The monster mad with rage, and stung with smart,
His lance directed at the hero's heart:

It struck; but bounded from his harden'd breast,
Like hail from tiles, which the safe house invest.
Nor seem'd the stroke with more effect to come,
Than a small pebble falling on a druni.
He next his falchion try'd, in closer fight;
But the keen falchion had no power to bite.
He thrust; the blunted point return'd again:
Since downright blows,' he cry'd, and thrusts
are vain,

I'll prove his side;' in strong embraces held
He prov'd his side; his side the sword repell'd:
His hollow belly echo'd to the stroke,
Untouch'd his body, as a solid rock;

Aim'd at his neck at last, the blade in shivers broke.

"Th' impassive knight stood idle to deride His rage, and offer'd oft his naked side; At length, 'Now, monster, in thy turn,' he cry'd, Try thou the strength of Cæneus:' at the word He thrust; and in his shoulder plung'd the sword. Then writh'd his hand; and as he drove it down, Deep in his breast, made many wounds in one. "The Centaurs saw, enrag'd, th' unhop'd success; And rushing on in crowds, together press; At him, and him alone, their darts they threw : Repuls'd they from his fated body flew. Amaz'd they stood; till Monychus began, O shame, a nation conquer'd by a man! A woman-man! yet more a man is he, Than all our race; and what he was, are we. Now, what avail our nerves? th' united force Of two the strongest creatures, man and horse? Nor goddess-born, nor of Ixion's seed We seem; (a lover built for Juno's bed;) Master'd by this half man. Whole mountains

throw

With woods at once, and bury him below. VOL. XX.

This only way remains. Nor need we doubt
To choke the soul within; though not to force it
out;
[see
Heap weights, instead of wounds.' He chanc'd to
Where southern storms had rooted up a tree;
This, rais'd from earth, against the foe he threw;
Th' example shown, his fellow-brutes pursue.
With forest-loads the warrior they invade;
Othry and Pelion soon were void of shade;
And spreading groves were naked mountains

made.

Press'd with the burden, Cæneus pants for breath;
And on his shoulders bears the wooden death.
To heave th' intolerable weight he tries;
At length it rose above his mouth and eyes:
Yet still he heaves; and struggling with despair,
Shakes a'l aside, and gains a gulp of air:
A short relief, which but prolongs his pain;
He faints by fits; and then respires again:
At last, the burden only nods above,
As when an earthquake stirs th' Idæan grove.
Doubtful his death: he suffocated seem'd,
To most; but otherwise our Mopsus deem'd;
Who said he saw a yellow bird arise
From out the piles, and cleave the liquid skies:
I saw it too, with golden feathers bright;
Nor ere before beheld so strange a sight.
Whom Mopsus viewing, as it soar'd around
Our troop, and heard the pinions' rattling sound,
All hail,' he cry'd, thy country's grace and

love!

Once first of men below, now first of birds above.'
Its author to the story gave belief;

For us, our courage was increas'd by grief:
Asham'd to see a single man, pursu'd

With odds, to sink beneath a multitude,
We push'd the foe: and forc'd to shameful flight,
Part fell, and part escap'd by favour of the night."

THE FATE OF PERICLYMENOS.

THIS tale, by Nestor told, did much displease Tlepolemus, the seed of Hercules: For often he had heard his father say, That he himself was present at the fray; And more than shar'd the glories of the day.

"Old Chronicie," he said, " among the rest, "You might have nam'd Alcides at the least: Is he not worth your praise?" The Pylian prince Sigh'd ere he spoke; then made this proud de

fence.

To him, our common grandsire of the main
Had giv'n to change his form, and chang'd, re-
sume again.

Vary'd at pleasure, every shape he try'd;
And in all beasts Alcides still defy'd:

Vanquish'd on Earth, at length he soar'd above;
Chang'd to the bird, that bears the bolt of Jove:
The new-dissembled eagle, now endu'd
With beak and pounces, Hercules pursu'd,
And cuff'd his manly checks, and tore his face;
Then, safe retir'd, and tow'r'd in empty space.
Alcides bore not long his flying foe;
But bending his inevitable bow,

Reach'd him in air; suspended as he stood:
And in his pinion fix'd the feather'd wood.
Light was the wound; but in the sinew hung
The point, and his disabled wing unstrung.
He wheel'd in air, and stretch'd his vans in vain :
His vans no longer could his flight sustain:
For while one gather'd wind, one unsupply'd
Hung drooping down, nor pois'd his other side.
He fel the shaft that slightly was impress'd,
Now from his heavy fall with weight increas'd,
Drove thro' his neck, aslant; he spurns the ground,
And the soul issues through the weazon's wound.
"Now, brave commander of the Rhodian seas,
What praise is due from me to Hercules?
Silence is all the vengeance I decree
For my slain brothers; but 'tis peace with thee."
Thus with a flowing tongue oli Nestor spoke :
Then, to full bowls each other they provoke:
At length, with weariness, and wine oppress'd,
They rise from table; and withdraw to rest.

THE DEATH OF ACHILLES.

THE sire of Cygnus, monarch of the main, Meantime, laments his son, in battle slain, And vows the victor's death; nor vows in vain. For nine long years the smother'd pain he bore; (Achilles was not ripe for fate before :) Then when he saw the promis'd hour was near, He thus bespoke the god, that guides the year. "Immortal offspring of my brother Jove; My brightest nephew, and whom best I love, Whose hands were join'd with mine, to raise the Of tott'ring Troy, now nodding to her fall, [wall Dost thou not mourn our pow'r employ'd in vain; And the defenders of our city slain? To pass the rest, could noble Hector lie Unpity'd, dragg'd around his native Troy? And yet the murd'rer lives: himself by far A greater plague, than all the wasteful war: He lives; the proud Pelides lives, to boast Our town destroy'd, our common labour lost. O, could I meet him! But I wish too late : To prove my trident is not in his fate! But let him try (for that's allow'd) thy dart, And pierce his only penetrable part."

Apollo bows to the superior throne; And to his uncle's anger, adds his own. Then in a cloud involv'd, he takes his flight, Where Greeks and Trojans mix'd in mortal fight; And found out Paris, lurking where be stood, And stain'd his arrows with plebeian blood: Phoebus to him alone the god confess'd, Then to the recreant knight he thus address'd. "Dost thou not blush, to spend thy shafts in vain On a degenerate, and ignoble train? If fame, or better vengeance be thy care, There aim: and, with one arrow, end the war."

He said; and show'd from far the blazing shield And sword, which, but Achilles, none could wield; And how he mov'd a god, and mow'd the standing field.

The deity himself directs aright

Th' invenom'd shaft; and wings the fatal flight.
Thus fell the foremost of the Grecian name;
And be, the base adult'rer, boasts the fame.
A spectacle to glad the Trojan train;
And please old Priam, after Hector slain.
If by a female hand he had foreseen
He was to die, his wish bad rather been
The lance, and double axe of the fair warrior
queen.

And now the terrour of the Trojan field,
The Grecian honour, ornament, and shield,
High on a pile th' unconquer'd chief is plac'd,
The god that arm'd him first, consum'd at last,
Of all the mighty man, the small remains
A little urn, and scarcely fi'l'd, contains.
Yet great in Homer, still Achilles lives;
And equal to himself, himself survives.

His buckler owns its former lord; and bring New cause of strife, betwixt contending kings; Who worthiest after him, his sword to wield, Or wear his armour, or sustain his shield.

Ev'n Diomede sat mute, with down-cast eyes;
Conscious of wanted worth to win the prize:
Nor Menelaus presun'd these arms to claim,
Nor he the king of men, a greater name.
Two rivals only rose: Laertes' son,
And the vast bulk of Ajax Telamon:
The king, who cherish'd each with equal love,
And from himself all envy would remove,
Left both to be determin'd by the laws;
And to the Græcian chiefs transferr'd the cause.

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.
BOOK XIII.

THE SPEECHES OF AJAX AND ULYSSES.
By Mr. Dryden.

THE chiefs were set; the soldiers crown'd the field:

To these the master of the seven-fold shield
Upstarted fierce: and kindled with disdain,
Eager to speak, unable to contain

His boiling rage, he roli'd his eyes around
The shore, and Græcian gallies haul'd aground.
Then stretching out his hands, "O Jove," he

cry'd,

[pres

"Must then our cause before the fleet be try!
And dares Ulysses for the prize contend,
In sight of what he durst not once defend?
But basely fled that memorable day,
When I from Hector's hands redeem'd the flamin
So much 'tis safer at the noisy bar
With words to flourish, than engage in war.
By diff'rent methods we maintain our right,
Nor am I made to talk, nor he to fight.
In bloody fields I labour to be great,
His arms are a smooth tongue, and soft deceit:
Nor need I speak my deeds, for those you see,
The Sun, and day, are witnesses for me.
Let him who fights unseen, relate his own,
And vouch the silent stars, and conscious Moon,