I ask no cure; let but the virgin pine
With dying pangs, or agonies, like mine.
No longer Circe could her flame disguise,
But to the fuppliant God Marine, replies :
When maids are coy, have manlier aims in view
Leave thofe that fly; but thofe that like, purfue.
If love can be by kind compliance won ;
See, at your feet, the Daughter of the Sun.
Sooner, faid Glaucus, fhall the ash remove
From mountains, and the swelling furges love;
Or humble fea-weed to the hills repair;
E'er I think any but my Scylla fair.
Straight Circe reddens with a guilty shame,
And vows revenge for her rejected flame.
Fierce liking oft' a fpite as fierce creates ;
For love refus'd, without averfion, hates.
To hurt her hapless rival, fhe proceeds;
And, by the fall of Scylla, Glaucus bleeds.
Some fafcinating beverage now the brews,
Compos'd of deadly drugs and baneful juice.
At Rhegium fhe arrives; the ocean braves,
And treads with unwet feet the boiling waves..
Upon the beach a winding bay there lies,
Shelter'd from feas, and fhaded from the fkies ::
This ftation Scylla chofe; a foft retreat
From chilling winds, and raging Cancer's heat..
The vengeful Sorcerefs vifits this recefs;
Her charm infufes, and infects the place.
Soon as the nymph wades in, her nether parts
Turn into dogs; then at herfelf fhe starts.
A ghaftly horror in her eyes appears;
But yet fhe knows not who it is the fears;
In vain the offers from herself to run,
And drags about her what she strives to shun.
Opprefs'd with grief the pitying God appears,
And fwells the rifing furges with his tears;
From the diftreffed Sorceress he flies ;
Her art reviles, and her address denies :
Whilft hapless Scylla, chang'd to rocks, decrees
Destruction to those barks, that beat the feas.
VOYAGE OF ENE AS continued.
Here bulg'd the pride of fam'd Ulyffes' fleet;
But good Æneas 'fcap'd the fate he met.
As to the Latian fhore the Trojan ftood,
And cut with well-tim'd oars the foaming flood:
He weather'd fell Charybdis: but ere-long
The skies were darken'd, and the tempest strong.
Then to the Libyan coaft he stretches o'er;
And makes at length the Carthaginian shore.
Here Dido, with an hofpitable care,
Into her heart receives the wanderer.
From her kind arms th' ungrateful hero flies;
The injur'd queen looks on with dying eyes,
Then to her folly falls a facrifice.
Eneas now fets fail, and, plying, gains
Fair Eryx, where his friend Aceftes reigns ::
First to his fire does funeral rites decree,
Then gives the signal next, and stands to fea;
Out-runs the islands where volcano's roar;
Gets clear of Syrens, and their faithless shore:
But lofes Palinurus in the way;
Then makes Inarime, and Prochyta.
TRANSFORMATION OF CERCOPIANS
INTO APES.
The gallies now by Pythecufa pass;
The name is from the natives of the place.
The Father of the Gods, detefting lies,
Oft', with abhorrence, heard their perjuries.
Th' abandon'd race, transform'd to beasts, began
To mimic the impertinence of man.
Flat-nos'd, and furrow'd; with grimace they grin;
And look, to what they were, too near akin:
Merry in make, and busy to no end;
This moment they divert, the next offend:
So much this fpecies of their past retains ;
Though loft the language, yet the noise remains.
ENEAS DESCENDS TO HELL,
Now, on his right, he leaves Parthenope:
His left, Mifenus jutting in the fea :
Arrives at Cuma, and with awe furvey'd
The grotto of the venerable maid;
Begs leave through black Avernus to retire;
And view the much-lov'd manes of his fire.
Straight the divining virgin rais'd her eyes;
And, foaming with a holy rage, replies:
O thou, whofe worth thy wondrous works proclaim
The flames, thy piety; the world, thy fame;
Though great be thy request, yet fhalt thou fee
Th' Elyfian fields, th' infernal monarchy';
Thy parent's fhade; this arm thy fteps fhall guide:
To fuppliant virtue nothing is deny'd.
She fpoke, and pointing to the golden bough,
Which in th' Avernian grove refulgent grew,
Seize that, the bids: he liftens to the maid;
Then views the mournful manfions of the dead.
The fhade of great Anchifes, and the place
By Fates determin'd to the Trojan race.
As back to upper light the hero came,
He thus falutes the vifionary dame :
O, whether fome propitious deity,
Or lov'd by those bright rulers of the fky!
With grateful incenfe I fhall ftile you one,
And deem no godhead greater than your own.
'Twas you reftor'd me from the realms of night,
And gave me to behold the fields of light:
To feel the breezes of congenial air;
And nature's bleft benevolence to share.
THE STORY OF THE SIBYL.
I am no deity, reply'd the Dame,
But mortal; and religious rites difclain.
Yet had avoided Death's tyrannic sway,
Had I confented to the God of Day.
With promises he fought my love, and said,
Have all you wish, my fair Cumaan maid.
I paus'd; then, pointing to a heap of fand,
For every grain, to live a year, demand.
But ah! unmindful of th' effect of time,
Forgot to covenant for youth, and prime.
The fmiling bloom, I boasted once, is gone,
And feeble age with lagging limbs creeps on.
Seven centuries have I liv'd; three more fulfil
The period of the years to finish still.
Who 'll think, that Phoebus, dreft in youth divine,
Had once believ'd his luftre lefs than mine?
This wither'd frame (fo Fates have will'd) fhall waste To nothing, but prophetic words, at laft.
The Sibyl mounting now from nether fkies,
And the fam'd Ilian prince, at Cuma rife. He fail'd, and near the place to anchor came, Since call'd Cajeta, from his nurfe's name. Here did the lucklefs Macareus, a friend To wife Ulyfles, his long labours end. Here, wandering, Achæmenides he meets, And fudden thus his late affociate greets. Whence came you here,Ofriend, and whither bound? All gave you loft on far Cyclopean ground;
A Greek 's at laft aboard a Trojan found,
|