Here did the tender tale of Picus cease,
Above belief the wonder, I confefs.
Again we fail, but more difafters meet,
Foretold by Circe, to our fuffering fleet.
Myfelf, unable further woes to bear,
Declin'd the voyage, and am refug'd here.
ENEAS ARRIVES IN ITALY.
Thus Macareus-Now with a pious aim
Had good Æneas rais'd a funeral flame,
In honour of his hoary nurfe's name.
Her epitaph he fix'd; and fetting fail,
Cajeta left, and catch'd at every gale.
He fteer'd at diftance from the faithlefs fhore
Where the falfe Goddefs reigns with fatal
power; And fought thofe grateful groves, that shade the plain, Where Tiber rolls majestic to the main,
And fattens, as he runs, the fair campain.
His kindred Gods the Hero's wishes crown
With fair Lavinia, and Latinus' throne:
But not without a war the prize he won.
Drawn up in bright array the battle ftands:
Turnus with arms his promis'd wife demands.
Hetrurians, Latians, equal fortune share ;
And doubtful long appears the face of war.
Both powers from neighbouring princes feek fupplies,
And emballies appoint for new allies.
Eneas, for relief, Evander moves;
His quarrel he afferts, his caufe approves.
The bold Rutilians, with an equal speed,
Sage Venelus difpatch to Diomede.
The king, late griefs revolving in his mind,
Thefe reafons for neutrality affign'd:
Shall I, of one poor dotal town poffeft,
My people thin, my wretched country waste;
An exil'd prince, and on a shaking throne;
Or risk my patron's fubjects, or my own?
You'll grieve the harshness of our hap to hear;
Nor can I tell the tale without a tear.
After fam'd Ilium was by Argives won,
And flames had finish'd, what the fword begun;
Pallas, incens'd, purfued us to the main,
In vengeance of her violated fane.
Alone Oileus forc'd the Trojan maid,
Yet all were punish'd for the brutal deed.
A ftorm begins, the raging waves run high,
The clouds look heavy, and benight the sky;
Red fheets of lightning o'er the feas are spread,.
Our tackling yields, and wrecks at laft fucceed..
'Tis tedious our difaftrous ftate to tell;
Even Priam would have pitied what befel.
Yet Pallas fav'd me from the fwallowing main;
At home new wrongs to meet, as Fates ordain.
Chac'd from my country, I once more repeat
All fufferings feas could give, or war compleat;
For Venus, mindful of her wound, decreed
Still new calamities should paft fucceed.
Agmon, impatient through fucceffive ills,
With fury, Love's bright Goddess thus reviles :
These plagues in fpite to Diomede are fent;
The crime is his, but ours the punishment.
Let each, my friends, her puny fpleen despise,
And dare that haughty harlot of the fkies.
The rest of Agmon's infolence complain,
And of irreverence the wretch arraign.
About to anfwer, his blafpheming throat
Contracts, and fhrieks in fome disdainful note.
To his new skin a fleece of feather clings,
Hides his late arms, and lengthens into wings.
The lower features of his face extend,
Warp into horn, and in a beak defcend.
Some more experience Agmon's destiny;
And, wheeling in the air, like fwans they fly.
Thefe thin remains to Daunus' realms I bring,
And here I reign, a poor precarious king.
TRANSFORMATION OF APPULUS.
Thus Diomedes. Venulus withdraws; Unfped the fervice of the common cause. Puteoli he paffes, and furvey'd
A cave long honour'd for its awful shade.
Here trembling reeds exclude the piercing ray,
Here ftreams in gentle falls through windings ftray,
And with a paffing breath cool Zephyrs play.
The goat-herd God frequents the filent place,
As once the wood-nymphs of the fylvan race,
Till Appulus, with a difhoneft air,
And grofs behaviour, banish'd thence the fair.
The bold buffoon, whene'er they tread the green,
Their motion mimicks, but with geft obfcene.
Loofe language oft' he utters; but ere long
A bark in filmy net-work binds his tongue.
Thus chang'd, a base wild olive he remains;
The fhrub the coarseness of the clown retains.
THE TROJAN SHIPS
TRANSFORMED TO SEA-NYMPHS.
Meanwhile the Latians all their power prepare,
'Gainft fortune and the foe to push the war.
With Phrygian blood the floating fieids they flain;
But, fhort of fuccours, ftill contend in vain.
Turnus remarks the Trojan fleet ill-mann'd,
Unguarded, and at anchor near the strand;
He thought; and straight a lighted brand he bore,
And fire invades what 'fcap'd the waves before.
The billows from the kindling prow retire;
Pitch, tofin, fearwood, on red wings afpire,
And Vulcan on the feas exerts his attribute of fire.
This when the mother of the Gods beheld,
Her towery crown fhe fhook, and flood reveal'd;
Her brindled lions rein'd, unveil'd her head,
And, hovering o'er her favour'd fleet, fhe faid;
Cease Turnus, and the heavenly powers refpect,
Nor dare to violate what I protect.
Thefe gallies, once fair trees, on Ida ftood,
their fhade to each defcending God;
Nor fhall confume; irrevocable Fate
Allots their being no determin'd date.
Straight peals of thunder Heaven's high arches rend,
The hail-ftones leap, the showers in fpouts defcend.
The winds with widen'd throats the signal give;
The cables break, the smoaking vessels drive.
Now, wondrous, as they beat the foaming flood,
The timber foftens into flesh and blood;
The yards and oars new arms and legs defign;
A trunk the hull; the flender keel, a spine;
The prow a female face; and by degrees
The gallies rife green daughters of the feas.
Sometimes on coral beds they fit in ftate,
Or wanton on the waves they fear'd of late.
The barks, that beat the feas, are ftill their care,
Themselves remembering what of late they were;
To fave a Trojan fail, in throngs they prefs,
But fmile to fee Alcinous in diftrefs.
Unable were thofe wonders to deter
The Latians from their unfuccefsful war.
Both fides for doubtful victory contend;
And on their courage, and their Gods, depend.
Nor bright Lavinia, nor Latinus' crown,
Warm their great foul to war, like fair renown.
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