Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;

Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.
Heaven her Eridanus no more shall boast;
Whose fame in thine,like lesser current, 's lost
Thy nobler streams shall visit Jove's abodes,
To shine among the stars 5, and bathe the gods.
Here Nature, whether more intent to please
Us for herself, with strange varieties,
(For things of wonder give no less delight,
To the wise maker's, than beholder's sight.
Though these delights from several causes move;
For so our children, thus our friends we love)
Wisely she knew, the harmony of things,

As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.
Such was the discord, which did first disperse
Form, order, beauty, through the universe;
While dryness moisture, coldness heat resists,
All that we have, and that we are, subsists.
While the steep horrid roughness of the wood
Strives with the gentle calmness of the flood.
Such huge extremes when Nature doth unite,
Wonder from thence results, from thence de-
light.

The stream is so transparent, pure and clear,
That had the self enamour'd youth gaz'd here,
So fatally deceiv'd he had not been,
While he the bottom, not his face had seen.
But his proud head the airy mountain hides
Among the clouds; his shoulders and his sides
A shady mantle clothes; his curled brows
Frown on the gentle stream, which calmly
flows;

While winds and storms his lofty forehead beat:
The common fate of all that's high or great.
Low at his foot a spacious plain is plac'd,
Between the mountain and the stream em-
brac'd,

Which shade and shelter from the hill derives,
While the kind river wealth and beauty gives;
And in the mixture of all these appears
Variety, which all the rest endears.

This scene had some bold Greek, or British bard
Beheld of old, what stories had we heard
Of Fairies, Satyrs, and the Nymphs, their dames,
Their feasts, their revels, and their amorous
flames ?

'Tis still the same, although their airy shape
All but a quick poetic sight escape.
There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts,
And thither all the horned host resorts
To graze the ranker mead, that noble herd,
On whose sublime and shady fronts is rear'd
Nature's great master-piece; to show how soon
Great things are made, but sooner are undone,
Here have I seen the king, when great affairs
Gave leave to slacken and unbend his cares,
Attended to the chase by all the flower
Of youth, whose hopes a nobler prey devour:
Pleasure with praise, and danger they would
buy,

And wish a foe that would not only fly.
The stag, now conscious of his fatal growth,
At once indulgent to his fear and sloth,
To some dark covert his retreat had made,

His soft repose, when the unexpected sound
Of dogs, and men, his wakeful ear does wound:
Rouz'd with the noise, he scarce believes his

ear,

Willing to think th' illusions of his fear

Had given this false alarm, but straight his view
Confirms, that more than all he fears is true.
Betray'd in all his strengths, the wood beset,
All instruments, all arts of ruin met,

He calls to mind his strength, and then his speed,

His winged heels, and then his armed head;
With these t' avoid, with that his fate to meet;
But fear prevails, and bids him trust his feet.
So fast he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has lost the chasers, and his ear the cry;
Exulting, till he finds their nobler sense
Their disproportion'd speed doth recompense;
Then curses his conspiring feet, whose scent
Betrays that safety which their swiftness lent.
Then tries his friends: among the baser herd,
Where he so lately was obey'd and fear'd,
His safety seeks: the herd, unkindly wise,
Or chases him from thence, or from him flies,
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn
To his friends' pity, and pursuers' scorn,
With shame remembers, while himself was one
Of the same herd, himself the same had done.
Thence to the coverts and the conscious groves,
The scenes of his past triumphs, and his loves;
Sadly surveying where he rang'd alone
Prince of the soil, and all the herd his own;
And like a bold knight-errant did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the dame;
And taught the woods to echo to the stream
His dreadful challenge, and his clashing beam;
Yet faintly now declines the fatal strife,
So much his love was dearer than his life.
Now every leaf, and every moving breath
Presents a foe, and every foe a death.
Weary'd, forsaken, and pursued, at last
All safety in despair of safety plac'd,
Courage he thence resumes, resolv'd to bear
All their assaults, since 'tis in vain to fear.
And now, too late, he wishes for the fight
That strength he wasted in ignoble flight:
But when he sees the eager chase renew'd,
Himself by dogs, the dogs by men pursued,
He straight revckes his bold resolve, and more
Repents his courag›, than his fear before;
Finds that uncertain ways unsafest are,
And doubt a greater mischief than despair.
Then to the stream, when neither friends, nor
force,

Nor speed, nor art avail, he shapes his course;
Thinks not their rage so desperate to essay
An element more merciless than they.
But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood
Quench their dire thirst! alas, they thirst for
blood.

So towards a ship the oar-finn'd gallies ply,
Which wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly,
Stands but to fall reveng'd on those that dare
Tempt the last fury of extreme despair :
So fares the stag, among th' enraged hounds,

Though prodigal of life, disdains to die
By common hands; but if he can descry
Some nobler foe approach, to him he calls,
And begs his fate, and then contented falls.
So when the king a mortal shaft lets fly,
From his unerring hand, then, glad to die,
Proud of the wound, to it resigns his blood,
And stains the crystal with a purple flood.
This a more innocent and happy chase,
Than when of old, but in the self-same place,
Fair Liberty pursued, and meant a prey

To lawless Power, here turn'd, and stood at bay;

When in that remedy all hope was plac'd,
Which was, or should have been at least the last.
Here was that charter seal'd, wherein the

crown

All marks of arbitrary power lays down:
Tyrant and slave, those names of hate and fear,
The happier stile of king and subject bear:
Happy, when both to the same center move,
When kings give liberty, and subjects love.
Therefore not long in force this charter stood;
Wanting that seal, it must be seal'd in blood,
The subjects arm'd, the more their prin gave,
Th' advantage only took, the more to crave:
Till kings, by giving give themselves away,
And even that power, that should deny, be-
tray,
[viles,
"Who gives constrain'd, but his own fear re-
Not thank'd, but scorn'd; nor are they gifts, but
spoils."

Thus kings, by grasping more than they could hold,

First made their subjects, by oppression bold;
And popular sway, by forcing kings to give
More than was fit for subjects to receive,
Ran to the same extremes; and one excess
Made both, by striving to be greater, less.
When a calm river, rais'd with sudden rains,
Or snows dissolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains,
The husbandmen with high-rais'd banks secure
Their greedy hopes; and this he can endure.
But if with bays and dams they strive to force
His channel to a new, or narrow course;
No longer then within his banks he dwells,
First to a torrent, then a deluge swells:
Stronger and fiercer by restraint he roars,

more:

Not the most cruel of our conquering foes
So unconcern'dly can relate our woes,
As not to lend a tear, then how can I
Repress the horrour of my thoughts, which
fly

The said remembrance? Now th' expiring night

And the declining stars to rest invite;
Yet since 'tis your command, what you so well
Are pleas'd to hear, I cannot grieve to tell.
By Fate repell'd, and with repulses tir'd,
The Greeks, so many lives and years expir'd,
A fabric like a moving mountain frame,
Pretending vows for their return; this Fame
Divulges; then within the beast's vast womb
The choice and flower of all their troops en-
tomb.

In view the isle of Tenedos, once high

In fame and wealth, while Troy remain'd, doth lie,

(Now but an unsecure and open bay) Thither by stealth the Greeks their fleet con

vey.

We gave them gone, and to Mycena sail'd,
And Troy reviv'd, her mourning face unvail'd;
All through th' unguarded gates with joy re-

sort

To see the slighted camp, the vacant port.
Here lay Ulysses, there Achilles; here
The battle join'd, the Grecian fleet rode there;
But the vast pile th' amazed vulgar views,
Till they their reason in their wonder lose.
And

first Thy mates moves (urg'd by the
power

shores.

THE

DESTRUCTION OF TROY.

AN ESSAY ON THE

SECOND BOOK OF VIRGIL'S ENEIS

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1636.

THE ARGUMENT.

The first book speaks of Æneas's voyage by sea, and how, being cast by tempest upon the Runny Mead.

But Capys and the graver sort thought fit
The Greeks suspected present to commit
To seas or flames, at least to search and bore
The sides, and what that space contains t' ex-
plore.

Th' uncertain multitude with both engag'd,
Divided stands, till from the tower, enrag'd
Laocoon ran, whom all the crowd attends.
Crying, "What desperate frenzy's this, (oh

friends)

To think them gone? Judge rather their retreat

But a design, their gifts but a deceit ;
For our destruction 'twas contriv'd, no doubt,
Or from within by fraud, or from without
By force; yet know ye not Ulysses' shifts?
Their swords less danger carry than their
gifts."

(This said) against the horse's side his spear
He throws, which trembles with enclosed fear,

Whilst from the hollows of his womb proceed Groans, not his own; and had not Fate decreed Our ruin, we had fill'd with Grecian blood

Chiefly when this stupendous pile was ras'd, Strange noises fill'd the air; we, all amaz'd, Dispatch Eurypylus t' inquire our fates,

Now hear the Grecian fraud, and from this one Conjecture all the rest.

Disarm'd, disorder'd, casting round his eyes
On all the troops that guarded him, he cries,
"What land, what sea, for me what fate at-
tends?

Caught by my foes, condemned by my friends,
Incensed Troy a wretched captive seeks
To sacrifice; a fugitive, the Greeks."
To pity this complaint our former rage
Converts, we now inquire his parentage,
What of their counsels or affairs he knew:
Then fearless he replies, Great king, to you
All truth I shall relate: nor first can I
Myself to be of Grecian birth deny ;
And though my outward state misfortune hath
Deprest thus low, it cannot reach my faith.
You may by chance have heard the famous

name

date:

'A virgin's slaughter did the storm appease, When first towards Troy the Grecians took the

seas;

Their safe retreat another Grecian's blood
Must purchase.' All at this confounded stood;
Each thinks himself the man, the fear on all
Of what, the mischief but on one can fall.
Then Calchas (by Ulysses first inspir'd)
Was urg'd to name whom th' angry gods re-
quir'd;

Yet was I warn'd (for many were as well
Inspir'd as he, and did my fate foretel)
Ten days the prophet in suspence remain❜d,
Would no man's fate pronounce; at last, con-
strain'd

By Ithacus, he solemnly design'd

Me for the sacrifice; the people join'd
In glad consent, and all their common fear
Determine in my fate. The day drew near,
The sacred rites prepar'd, my temples crown'd
With holy wreaths; then I confess I found
The means to my escape, my bonds I brake,
Fled from my guards, and in a muddy lake
Amongst the sedges all the night lay hid,
Till they their sails had hoist (if so they did).
And now, alas! no hope remains for me
My home, my father, and my sons to see,
Whom they, enrag'd, will kill for my offence,
And punish, for my guilt, their innocence,
Those gods who know the truths I now relate,
That faith which yet remains inviolate
By mortal men; by these I beg, redress
My causeless wrongs, and pity such distress."
And now true pity in exchange he finds
For his false tears, his tongue his hands un-
binds.

"Then spake the king, Be ours, whoe'er thou art,

Forget the Greeks. But first the truth impart,
Why did they raise, or to what use intend
This pile? to a war-like, or religious end?"
Skilful in fraud (his native art), his hands
Toward Heaven he rais'd, deliver'd now from
bands.

"Ye pure æthereal flames, ye powers ador'd
By mortal men, ye altars, and the sword
I scap'd, ye sacred fillets that involv’d
My destin'd head, grant I may stand absolv'd
From all their laws and rights, renounce ail

name

Of faith or love, their secret thoughts proclaim;
Only, O Troy, preserve thy faith to me,
If what I shall relate preserveth thee.
From Pallas' favour, all our hopes, and all
Counsels and actions, took original,

Till Diomed (for such attempts made fit
By dire conjunction with Ulysses' wit)
Assails the sacred tower, the guards they slay,
Defile with bloody hands, and thence convey
The fatal image; straight with our success
Our hopes fell back, whilst prodigies express
Her just disdain, her flaming eyes did throw
Flashes of lightning, from each part did flow
A briny sweat, thrice brandishing her spear,
Her statue from the ground itself did rear;

Then, that we should our sacrilege restore,
And re-convey their gods from Argos' shore,
Calchas persuades, till then we urge in vain
The fate of Troy. To measure back the main
They all consent, but to return again,
When reinforc'd with aids of gods and men.
Thus Calchas; then, instead of that, this pile
To Pallas was design'd; to reconcile
Th' offended power, and expiate our guilt;
To this vast height and monstrous stature built,
Lest, through your gates receiv'd, it might re-

new

Your vows to her, and her defence to you.
But if this sacred gift you disesteem,

The cruel plagues (which Heaven divert on them!)

Shall fall on Priam's state: but ifthe horse
Your walls ascend, assisted by your force,
A league 'gainst Greece all Asia shall contract:
Our sons then suffering what their sires would
act."

Thus by his fraud and our own faith o'er-
A feigned tear destroys us, against whom [come,
Tydides nor Achilles could prevail,
Nor ten years conflict, nor a thousand sail.
This seconded by a most sad portent,
Which credit to the first imposture lent;
Laocoon, Neptune's priest, upon the day
Devoted to that god, a bull did slay.
When two prodigious serpents were descry'd,
Whose circling strokes the sea's smooth face
divide;

Above the deep they raise their scaly crests, And stem the flood with their erected breasts, Their winding tails advance and steer their

course,

And 'gainst the shore the breaking billows force. Now landing, from their brandish'd tongues there came,

A dreadful hiss, and from their eyes a flame.
Amaz'd we fly, directly in a line
Laocoon they pursue, and first entwine
(Each preying upon one) his tender sons;
Then him, who armed to their rescue runs,
They seiz'd, and with entangling foes embrac'd,
His neck twice compassing, and twice his waist :
Their poisonous knots he strives to break and
tear,

While slime and blood his sacred wreaths besmear;

[fly

Then loudly roars, as when th' enraged bull
From th' altar flies, and from his wounded skull
Shakes the huge axe; the conquering serpents
To cruel Pallas' altar, and their lie
Under her feet, within her shield's extent.
We, in our fears, conclude this fate was sent
Justly on him, who struck the sacred oak
With his accursed lance. Then to invoke
The goddess, and let in the fatal horse,
We all consent.

A spacious breach we make, and Troy's proud wall.

Built by the gods, by her own hands doth fall;
Thus all their help to their own ruin give,
Some draw with cords and some the monster

drive

With rolls and levers: thus our works it climbs, Big with our fate; the youth with songs and himes,

Some dance, some haul the rope; at last let down

It enters with a thundering noise the town,
Oh Troy, the seat of gods, in war renown'd!
Three times it struck, as oft the clashing sound
Of arms was heard, yet blinded by the power
Of Fate, we place it in the sacred tower.
Cassandra then foretels th' event, but she
Finds no belief (such was the gods' decree.)
.The altars with fresh flowers we crown, and

waste

In feasts that day, which was (alas !) our last.
Now by the revolution of the skies,
Night's sable shadows from the ocean rise,
Which heaven and earth, and the Greek frauds
involv'd.

The city in secure repose dissolv'd,
When from the admiral's high poop appears
A light, by which the Argive squadron steers
Their silent course to Ilium's well-known shore,
When Sinon (sav'd by the gods' partial power)
Opens the horse, and through the unlockt doors
To the free air the armed freight restores :
Ulysses, Stheneleus, Tisander, slide
Down by a rope, Machaon was their guide;
Atrides, Pyrrhus, Thoas, Athamas,
And Epeus, who the fraud's contriver was:
The gates they seize; the guards, with sleep
and wine

Opprest, surprise, and then their forces join.
'Twas then, when the first sweets of sleep re-
pair

Our bodies spent with toil, our minds with care, (The gods' best gift) when, bath'd in tears and blood,

Before my face lamenting Hector stood,
His aspect such when, soil'd with bloody dust,
Dragg'd by the cords which through his feet
were thrust:

By his insulting foe, O how transform'd
How much unlike that Hector, who return'd
Clad in Achilles' spoils: when he among
A thousand ships, (like Jove) his lightning flung!
His horrid beard and knotted tresses stood
Stiff with his gore, and all his wounds ran blood:
Intranc'd I lay, then (weeping) said, "The joy,
The hope and stay of thy declining Troy !
What region held thee, whence so much desir'd,
Art thou restor❜d to us consum'd and tir'd
With toils and deaths; but what sad cause con-
founds

Thy once fair looks, or why appearthose wounds?”
Regardless of my words, he no reply
Returns, but with a dreadful groan doth cry,
"Fly from the flame, O goddess-born, our walls
The Greeks possess, and Troy confounded falls
From all her glories; if it might have stood
By any power, by this right hand it should.
What man could do, by me for Troy was done,
Take here her reliques and her gods, to run
With them thy fate, with them new walls ex-
pect,

Which, tost on seas, thou shall at last erect:"
Then brings old Vesta from her sacred quire,
Her holy wreaths, and her eternal fire.
Meanwhile the walls with doubtful cries resound
From far (for-shady coverts did surround
My father's house); approaching still more near
The clash of arms, and voice of men we hear:

Rouz'd from my bed, I speedily ascend
The houses' tops, and listening there attend.
As flames roll'd by the winds' conspiring force,
O'er full-ear'd corn, or torrents' raging course
Bears down th' opposing oaks, the fields destroys,
And mocks the plough-man's toil, th' unlook'd-
for noise

From neighbouring hills th' amazed shepherd hears;

Such my surprise, and such their rage appears. First fell thy house, Ucalegon, then thine Deiphobus, Sigæan seas did shine

Bright with Troy's flames; the trumpets dreadful sound.

The louder groans of dying men confound;
"Give me my arms," I cry'd, resolv'd to throw
Myself'mong any that oppos'd the foe:
Rage, anger, and despair at once suggest,
That of all deaths to die in arms was best.
The first I met was Pantheus, Phoebus' priest,
Who, 'scaping with his gods and reliques, fled,
And towards the shore his little grandchild led.
"Pantheus, what hope remains? what force,
what place

Made good?" but sighing, he replies, "Alas!
Trojans we were, and mighty Ilium was;
But the last period, and the fatal hour
Of Troy is come: our glory and our power
Incensed Jove's transfers to Grecian hands;
The foe within the burning town commands;
And (like a smother'd fire) an unseen force
Breaks from the bowels of the fatal horse:
Insulting Sinon flings about the flame,

And thousands more than e'er from Argos came
Possess the gates, the passes, and the streets,
And these the sword o'ertakes, and those it meets.
The guard nor fights, nor flies; their fate so

near

At once suspends their courage and their fear."
Thus by the gods, and by Atrides' words
Inspir'd, I make my way through fire, through
swords,

Where noises, tumults, outcries, and alarms,
I heard. First Iphitus, renown'd for arms,
We meet, who knew us (for the Moon did shine);
Then Ripheus, Hypanis, and Dymas join
Their force, and young Chorcebus, Mygdon's
Who, by the love of fair Cassandra, won, [son,
Arriv'd but lately in her father's aid;
Unhappy, whom the threats could not dissuade
Of his prophetic spouse;

Whom when I saw yet daring to maintain
The fight, I said, "Brave spirits (but in vain)
Are you resolv'd to follow one who dares
Tempt all extremes; the state of our affairs
You see the gods have left us, by whose aid
Our empire stood; nor can the flame be staid :
Then let us fall amidst our foes; this one
Relief the vanquish'd have, to hope for none."
Then reinforc'd, as in a stormy night
Wolves urged by their raging appetite
Forage for prey, which their neglected young
With greedy jaws expect, ev'n so among
Foes, fire, and swords, t' assured death we pass,
Darkness our guide, Despair our leader was.
Who can relate that evening's woes and spoils,
Or can his tears proportion to our toils?
The city, which so long had flourish'd, falls;
Death triumphs o'er the houses, temples, walls.

VOL. VII.

Nor only on the Trojans fell this doom,
Their hearts at last the vanquish'd re-assume;
And now the victors fall: on all sides fears,
Groans and pale Death in all her shapes appears:
Androgeus first with his whole troop was cast
Upon us, with civility misplac'd ;
Thus greeting us, "You lose by your delay,
Your share both of the honour and the prey;
Others the spoils of burning Troy convey
Back to those ships which you but now forsake."
We making no return, his sad mistake
Too late he finds: as when an unseen snake
A traveller's unwary foot hath prest,
Who trembling starts when the snake's azure
Swoln with his rising anger, he espies,

[crest, [feet.

So from our view surpriz'd Androgeus flies.
But here an easy victory we meet :
Fear binds their hands, and ignorance their
Whilst fortune our first enterprize did aid,
Encourag'd with success, Chorobus said,
"O friends we now by better Fates are led,
And the fair path they lead us, let us tread.
First change your arms, and their distinctions
The same, in foes, deceit and virtue are."[bear;'
Then of his arms Androgeus he divests,
His sword, his shield he takes, and plumed crests,
Then Ripheus, Dymas, and the rest, all glad
Of the occasion, in fresh spoils are clad.
Thus mixt with Greeks, as if their fortune still
Follow'd their swords, we fight, pursue, and kill.
Some re-ascend the horse, and he whose sides
Let forth the valiant, now the coward hides.
Some to their safer guard, their ships, retire;
But vain's that hope, 'gainst which the gods con-
Behold the royal virgin, the divine [spire:
Cassandra, from Minerva's fatal shrine [vain,
Dragg'd by the hair, casting towards heaven, in
Her eyes; for cords her tender hands did strain;
Chorobus, at the spectacle enrag'd
Flies in amidst the foes: we thus engag'd,
To second him, among the thickest ran;
Here first our ruin from our friends began,
Who from the temple's battlements a shower
Of darts and arrows on our heads did pour;
They us for Greeks, and now the Greeks (who
Cassandra's rescue) us for Trojans slew.
Then from all parts Ulysses, Ajax then,
And then th' Atridæ, rally all their men;
As winds, that meet from several coasts, contest,
Their prisons being broke, the south and west,
And Eurus on his winged coursers borne,
Triumphing in their speed, the woods are torn,
And chasing Nereus with his trident throws
The billows from the bottom; then all those
Who in the dark our fury did escape,
Returning, know our borrow'd arms, and shape,
And different dialect: then their numbers swell
And grow upon us. First Chorœbus fell
Before Minerva's altar, next did bleed
Just Ripheus, whom no Trojan did exceed
In virtue, yet the gods his fate decreed.
Then Hypanis and Dymas, wounded by
Their friends; nor thee, Pantheus, thy piety,
Nor consecrated mitre, from the same
Ill fate could save; my country's funeral flame
And Troy's cold ashes I attest, and call
To witness for myself, that in their fall
No foes, no death, nor danger, I declin'd,
Did, and deserv'd no less, my fate to find.

R

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