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Above the portal, carv'd in cedar wood,
Plac'd in their ranks, their godlike grandsires stoodi Old Saturn, with his crooked scythe, on high;
And Italus, that led the colony;
And ancient Janus, with his double face,
And bunch of keys, the porter of the place.
There good Sabmus, planter of the vines,
On a short pruning hook his head reclines,
And studiously surveys his gen'rous wines;
Then warhke kings, who for their country fought, And honorable wounds from battle brought.
Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears,
And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars,
And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars. Above the rest, as chief of all the band,
Was Pieus plat'd, a buckler in his hand;
His other wa_,'d a long divining wand.
Girt in his Gabin gown the hero sate,
Yet could not with his art avoid his fate:
For Circe long had lov'd the youth in vain,
Till love, refus'd, converted to disdain:
Then, mixing pow'rful herbs, with magic art,
She chang'd his form, who could not change his heart;
? Z_rj0 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATIOIq OF VIRGIL
Constrain'd him in a bird, and made him fly, With party-color'd plumes, a chatt'ring pie.
In this high temple, on a chair of state,
The seat of audience, old Latinus sate;
Then gave admission to the Trojan train;
And thus with pleasing accents he began:
"Tell me, ye Trojans, for that name you own, Nor is your course upon our coasts unknown--
Say what you seek, and whither were you bound: Were you by stress of weather cast aground ? (S_uch dangers as on seas are often seen,
And oft befall to miserable men,)
Or come, your shipping in our ports to lay, Spent and disabled in so long a way?
Say what you want: the Latlans you shall find Not forc'd to goodness, but by w_ll inclin'd;
For, since the time of Saturn's holy reign,
His ho. %Ditable customs we retain.
I call to mind (but time the tale has worn)
Th' Aranci told, that Dardanus, tho' born
On Latian plains, yet sought the Phrygian shore, And Samothracia, Samos call'd before.
From Tuscan Coritum he claim'd his birth;
But after, when _. xempt from mortal earth,
From thence ascended to hts kindred skies,
A god, and, as a god, augments thetr sacrifice. "
He said. Ilioneus made this reply:
"O king, of Faunus' royal family l
Nor wintry winds to Latium forc'd our way,
Nor did the stars our wand'ring course betray. Willing we sought your shores; and, hither bound, The port, so long deslr'd, at length we found;
From our sweet homes and ancient realms expell'd; Great as the greatest that the sun beheld.
The god began our line, who rules above;
And, as our race, our king descends from Jove:
And hither are we come, by his command,
To crave admission in your happy land.
How dire a tempest, from Mycenm pour'd,
O_ plains, our temples, and our town devour'd;
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE . JENEIS 251
What was the waste of war, what fierce alarms Shook Asia's crown with European arms;
Ev'n such have heard, if any such there be, Whose earth is bounded by the frozen sea;
And such as, born beneath the burning sky And sultry sun, betwixt the tropics lie.
From that dire deluge, thro' the wat'ry waste, Such length of years, smch various perils past, At last escap'd, to Latium we repair,
To beg what you without your want may spare: The common water, and the common air;
Sheds which ourselves will build, and mean abodes, Fit to receive and serve our banish'd gods.
Nor our admission shall your realm d,sgrace, Nor length of time our gratitude efface.
Besides, what endless honor you shall gain, To save and shelter Troy's unhappy tram!
Now, by my soy'reign, and his fate, I swear, Renown'd for faith in peace, for force in war;
Oft o_r alhance other lands desir'd,
And, what we seek of you, of us requir'd Despite not then, that in our hands we bear These holy boughs, and sue with words of pray'r. Fate and the gods, by their supreme command, Have doom'd our ships to seek the Latian land. To these abodes our fleet Apollo sends;
Here Dardanus was born, and hither tends; Where Tuscan Tiber rolls with rapid force, And where Numicus opes his holy source.
Besides, our prince presents, with his request, Some small remains of what his sire possess'd
This golden charger, snatch'd from burning Troy, Anchises did in sacrifice employ;
This royal robe and this tiara wore
Old Priam, and this golden scepter bore
In full assemblies, and in solemn games;
These purple vests were weav'd by Dardan dames. "
Thus while he spoke, Latinus roll'd around
His eyes, and fix'd a while upon the ground. Intent he seem'd, and anxious in his breast;
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DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
Not by the scepter mov'd, or kingly vest,
But pond'ring future things of wondrous weight; Succession, empire, and his daughter's fate.
On these he mus'd within his thoughtful mind, And then revolv'd what Faunus had dlvin'd.
This was the foreign prince, by fate decreed
To share his scepter, and Lavinia's bed;
This was the race that sure portents foreshew
To sway the world, and land and sea subdue.
At length he rais'd his cheerful head, and spoke: "The pow'rs," said he, "the pow'rs we both invoke, To you, and yours, and mine, propitious be,
And firm our purpose with their auguD'_
Have what you ask; your presents I receive;
Land, where and when you please, with ample leave_ Partake and use my kingdom as your own.
All shall be yours, while I command the crown:
And, if my wish'd alliance please your king,
Tell him he should not send the peace, but bring. Then let him not a friend's embraces fear,
The peace is made when I behold him here.
Besides this answer, tell my royal guest,
I add to his commands my own request:
One only daughter heirs my crown and state,
Whom not our oracles, nor Heav'n, nor fate,
Nor frequent prodigies, permit to join
With any native of th' _,usonian line
A foreign son-in-law shall come from far
(Such Is our doom), a chief renown'd in war, Whose race shall bear aloft the Latian name,
And thro' the eonquer'd world diffuse our fame. Himself to be the man the fates require,
I firmly judge, and, what I judge, desire. "
He said, and then on each bestow'd a steed Three hundred horses, in h_gh stables fed,
Stood ready, shining all, and smootlfly dress'd: Of these he chose the fairest and the best,
To mount the Trojan troop. At his command The steeds caparison'd wtTh pttrple stand,
With golden trappings, glorious to behold,
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE _ENEIS 253
_md champ betwixt their teeth the foaming gold. Then to his absent guest the king decreed
A pair of coursers born of heav'nly breed,
Who from their nostrils breath'd ethereal fire; Whom Circe stole from her celestial sire,
By substituting mares produc'd on earth,
Whose wombs concelv'd a more than mortal birth.
These draw the chariot which Latinus sends, And the rich present to the prince commends.
Subhme on stately steeds the Trojans borne, To their expecting lord with peace return.
But jealous Juno, from Pachynus' height, As she from Argos took her airy flight,
Beheld with envious eyes this hateful sight.
She saw the Trojan and his joyful train
Descend upon the shore, desert the main,
Design a town, and, with unhop'd success,
Th' embassadors return with promis'd peace.
Then, pierc'd wlth pain, she shook her haughty head, Sigh'd from her inward soul, and thus she said:
"0 hated offspring of my Phrygian foes!
O fates of Troy, which Juno's fates oppose!
Could they not fall unpitied on the plain,
But slain revive, and, taken, scape again?
When execrable Troy in ashes lay,
Thro' fires and swords and seas they forc'd their way. Then vanqmsh'd Juno must in vain contend,
Her rage disarm'd, her empire at an end.
Breathless and fir'd, is all my fury spent?
Or does my glutted spleen at length relent?
As if 't were little from their town to chase,
I thro' the seas pursued their exil'd race;
Ingag'd the heav'ns, oppos'd the stormy main;
But billows roar'd, and tempests rag'd in yam.
What have my Scyllas and my Syrtes done,
When these they overpass, and those they shun?
On Tiber's shores they land, secure of fate, Triumphant o'er the storms and Juno's hate.
Mars could in mutual Mood the Centaurs bathe,
And Jove himself gave way to Cynthia's wrath,
? DRYDEN'S TItAN_B_ATION' OF VIRGIL
Who sent the tusk), boar to Calydon;
(What great offense had either people done? )
But I, the consort of the Thunderer,
Have wag'd a long and unsuccessful war,
With various arts and arms in vain have toil'd, And by a mortal man at length am foll'd.
If native pow'r prevail not, shall I doubt
To seek for needful succor from without?
If love and Heav'n my just desires deny,
Hell shall the pow'r of Heav'n and Jove supply. Grant that the Fates have firm'd, by their dect_ The Trojan race to reign in Italy;
At least I can defer the nuptial day,
And with protracted wars the peace delay:
Wlth blood the dear alhanee shall be bought, And both the people near destruction brought;
So shall the son-in-law and father join,
With ruin, war, and waste of either line. O fatal maid, thy marriage is endow'd
With Phrygaan, Latian, and Rutulian blood | Bellona leads thee to thy lover's hand;
Another queen brings forth another brand, To burn with foreign fires another land l A second Paris, diff'ring but in name, Shall fire his country with a second flame. "
Thus having said, she sinks beneath the ground, With furious haste, and shoots the Stygian sound, To rouse Alecto from th' infernal seat
Of her dire sisters, and their dark retreat. This Fury, fit for her intent, she chose;
One who delights in wars and human woes. Ev'n Pluto hates his own misshapen race;
Her sister Furies fly her hideous face;
So frightful axe the forms the monster takes, So fierce the hissings of her speckled snakes. Her Jimo finds, and thus inflames her spite" "0 virgin daughter of eternal Night,
Give me this once thy labor, to sustain
1VIy right, and execute my just disdain.
Let not the Trojans, with a ieign'd pretense
? T_ SEVEMT H _OOlg _OF . THE _U_IS
Of proffer'd peace, d_v4de the Lati_n prince.
Expel from Italy that odious name,
And let not Juno suffer m her far0e.
'T is thine to _ttin rea_m_ o'erturn a state,
Betwixt the dearest frieqds to raise debBte,
And kindle kiBdred blood to mutual hate.
Thy hand o'er towns the fun'ral torch displays,
And forms a thol_sand ills ten thousand ways
Now shake, from out thy fruitfl_l breast, the seeds Of envy, discord, _nd of cruel deeds:
Confound the peace estabhsll'd, _pd prepare
Their souls to hatred, and their hoods to war. "
Smear'd as she was with black Gorgoman blaod_ The Fury sprang above the Stygian flood;
And on her wicker wings, sublime thro' mght,
She to the Latian palace took her flight:
There sought the queen's apartment,, stood before The peaceful threshold, and besieg d the door.
Restless Amata lay, her swelling breast
Fir'd with disdain for Turnu_ dispossess'd,
And the new nuptials of the Trojan guest.
From her black bloody locks the Fury shakes
Her darling plague, the fay'rite of her snakes;
With her full force she threw the pois'nous dart, And fix'd it deep within Amata's heart,
That, thus envenom'd, she might kindle rage,
And sacrifice to strife her house and husband's age, Unseen, unfelt, the fiery serpent skims
Betwixt her linen and her naked limbs;
His baleful brea_ inspiring, as he glides,
Now like a chain around her neck he rides,
Now like a fillet to her head repairs,
And with his circling volumes folds her ha. its.
At first the silent venom slid with ease,
And seiz'd her cooler senses by degrees;
Then, ere th' infected ITmss was fir'd too far,
In plaintive accelats she began the war,
And thus bespoke her husband: "Shall," she said_ "A wand'ring prince enjoy L_vinia. 's bed?
If nature plead _. 0t in a paroat's heart?
? 256 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
Pity my tears, and pity her desert
I know, my dearest lord, the time w111come,
You would, in vain, reverse your cruel doom;
The faithless pirate soon will set to sea,
And bear the royal virgin far away!
A guest hke him, a Trojan guest before,
In she_ of friendship sought the Spartan shore_ And ravlsh'd Helen from her husband bore.
Think on a king's inviolable word;
And think on Turnus, her once phghted lord:
To tlns false foreigner you g_ve your throne,
And wrong a friend, a kinsman, and a son Resume your ancient care; and, _f the god
Your sire, and you, resolve on foreign blood,
Know all are foreign, in a larger sense,
Not born )our subjects, or deriv'd from hence. Then, if the line of Turnu_ you retrace,
He springs from Inachus of Argive race. "
But when she saw her reasons idly spent, And could not move him from his fix'd intent,
She flew to rage; for now the snake possess'd
Her vital parts, and poison'd all her breast;
She raves, she runs with a distracted pace,
And fills with horrid howls the pubhc place
And, as young striplings whip the top for sport, On the smooth pavement of an empty court,
The wooden engine flies and whirls about,
Admit'd, w_th clamors, of the beardless rout;
They lash aloud; each other the) provoke,
And lend their little souls at ev'ry stroke:
Thus fares the queen; and thus her fury blows
Amidst the crox_d, and kindles as she goes.
Nor yet content, she strains her malice more, And adds new ills to those contriv'd before:
She flies the town, and, mixing with a throng
Of madding matrons, bears the bride along,
Wand'rmg thro' woods and wilds, and devious ways, And with these arts the Trojan match delays.
She feign'd the rites of Bacchus; cried aloud,
And to the buxom god the virgin vow'd.
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE A_NEIS 257
"Evoe vO Bacchus! " thus began the song;
And "Evoe! " answer'd all the female throng.
"'0 virgin l worthy thee aloneV' she cried;
"O worthy thee alone ! " the crew replied.
"For thee she feeds her hair, she leads thy dance, And with thy winding ivy wreathes her lance. " Like fury seiz'd the rest. the progress known, All seek the mountains, and forsake the town: All, clad in skins of beasts, the jav'lin bear,
Give to the wanton winds their flowing hair, And shrieks and shoutmgs rend the suff'rmg air. The queen herself, inspir'd with rage divine, Shook high above her head a flaming pine;
Then roll'd her haggard e)es around the throng, And sung, in Turnus' name, the nuptial song: "Io, ye Latlan dames! if any here
Hold your unhappy queen, Amata, dear;
If there be here," she said, "who dare maintain _3" right, nor think the name of mother vain; Unbind )-our fillets, loose your flowing hair,
And orgies and nocturlaal rites prepare. "
Amata's breast the Fury thus rex'aries,
And fires with rage, amld the sylvan shades;
Then, when she found her venom spread so far,
The royal house embroll'd in civil war,
Rais'd on her dusky wings, she cleaves the skies,
And seeks the palace where young Turnus lies.
I-hs town, as fame reports, was bmlt of old
By Danae, pregnant with almighty gold,
\Vho fled her father's rage, and, w_th a train
Of following Arg_ves, thro' the stormy main,
Driv'n by the southern blasts, was fated here to reign. 'T was Ardua once; now Ardea's name it bears;
Once a fair c_ty, now consum'd wzth years.
Itere, in his lofty palace, Turnus lay,
Betwixt the confineq of the night and day,
Secure in sleep. The Fury laid aside
Her looks and limbs, and with new methods tlied
The foulness of th' infernal form to hldc
Propp'd on a staff, she takes a trembhng m_en: HC XIII'-'-"9
? 258 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
Her face is furrow'd, and her front obscene; Deep-dinted wrinkles on her cheek she draws; Sunk are her eyes, and toothless are her jaws; Her hoary hair with holy fillets bound,
Her temples with an ohve wreath are crown'd.
Old Chalybe, who kept the sacred fane
Of Juno, now she seem'd, and thus began,
Appearing m a dream, to rouse the careless man: "Shall Turnus then such endless toil sustain
In fighting fields, and conquer towns in vain? Win, for a Trojan head to wear the prize,
Usurp thy crown, enjoy thy victories
The bride and scepter which thy blood has bought, The king transfers; and foreign heirs are sought. Go now, deluded man, and seek again
New tolls, new dangers, on the dusty plain.
Repel the Tuscan foes; their city seize;
Protec_ the Latians in luxurious ease.
This dream all-pow'rful Juno sends, I bear
Her m_ghty mandates, and her words you hear.
Haste; arm your Ardeans, issue to the plain;
With fate to friend, assault the Trojan train.
Their thoughtless chiefs, their painted ships, that lie In Tiber's mouth, with fire and sword destroy.
The LatJan king, unless he shall submit,
Own his old promise, and his new forget--
Let him, in arms, the pow'r of Turnus prove,
And learn to fear whom he disdains to love
For such is Heav'n's command. " The youthful prince With scorn rephed, and made this bold defense:
"You tell me, mother, what I knew before:
The Phrygian fleet is landed on the shore.
I neither fear nor will provoke the war;
My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.
But time has made you dote, and vainly tell
Of arms imagin'd in your lonely cell.
Go; be the temple and the gods your care,
Permit to men the thought of peace and war. " These haughty words Alecto's rage provoke,
And frighted Turnus trembled as she spoke,
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE _NEIS 2_ Her eyes grow stiffen'd, and with sulphur burn;
Her hideous looks and hellish form return;
Her curhng snakes with hlssings fill the place, And open all the furies of her face:
Then, darting fire from her malignant eyes,
She cast him backward as he strove to rise,
And, ling'ring, sought to frame some new replies. High on her head she rears two twisted snakes, Her chains she rattles, and her whip she shakes; And, churning bloody foam, thus loudly speaks "Behold whom time has made to dote, and tell Of arms imagin'd in her lonely cell!
Behold the Fates' infernal mmlster !
War, death, destruction, in my hand I bear"
Thus having said, her smold'rmg torch, impress'd
With her full force, she plung'd into his breast.
Aghast he wak'd; and, starting from his bed,
Cold sweat, in clammy drops, his limbs o'erspread.
"Arms l arms I" he cries: "my sword and shield prepare l'_ He breathes defiance, blood, and mortal war.
So, when with crackhng flames a caldron fries, The bubbling waters from the bottom rise"
Above the brims they force their fiery way; Black vapors chmb aloft, and cloud the day.
The peace polluted thus, a chosen band
He first commissions to the Latian land,
In threat'ning embassy; then rais'd the rest, To meet in arms th' intruding Trojan guest, To force the foes from the Lavmian shore, And Italy's indanger'd peace restore.
Himself alone an equal match he boasts,
To fight the Phrygian and Ausonian hosts. The gods invok'd, the Rutuli prepare
Their arms, and warn each other to the war His beauty these, and those his blooming age, The rest his house and his own fame ingage.
While Turnus urges thus his enterprise,
The Stygian Fury to the Trojans flies;
New frauds invents, and takes a steepy stand, Which overlooks the vale with wide command;
? _0
DR. YDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
Where fair Ascanius and his youthful train, With horns and hounds, a hunting match ordain, And pitch their tods around the shady plato.
The Fury fires the pack; they snuff, they xent, And feed their hungry nostrds with tb. e scent. 'Twas of a well-grown stag, whose antlers rise High o'er his front; his beams invade the skles. From this hght cause th' infernal mald prepares The country churls to mischief, hate, and warq.
The stately beast the two Tyrrhid_e bred,
Snatch'd from his dams, and the tame youngling fed_ Their father Tyrrheus did his fodder bring,
Tyrrheus, chief ranger to the Latian king:
Thczr sister Silvia cherlsh'd with her care
The httle wanton, and did wreaths prepare
To hang his budding horus, with ribbons tied
His tender neck, and comb'd his sdken hide,
And bath'd his body Patient of command
In time he grew, and, grox_ing us'd to hand,
He waited at his master's board for food,
Then sought his salvage kindred in the wood,
_'here grazing all the da_, at night he came To his known lodgings, and his country dame
This household beast, that us'd the woodland grounds, Was view'd at first hy the young hero's hounds,
As down the stream he swam, to seek retreat In the cool waters, and to quench his heat
Ascamus young, and eager of his game,
Soon bent his bow, uncertain in his aim;
But the dire fiend the fatal arrow guides,
Which plerc'd his b6-_'els thro' his pantmg sides. The bleeding creature issues from the floods, Possess'd with fear, and seeks his known abodes, His old familiar hearth and household gods.
He falls; he fills the house with heavy groans, Implores their pity, and his pain bemoans
Young Sdvia beats her breast, and cries aloud For succor from the clownish neighborhood:
The churls assemble; for the fiend, who lay In the close woody covert, urg'd their way.
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE . _NEIS 261
One with a brand yet burning from the flame, Arm'd with a knotty club another came:
Whate'er they catch or find, without their care, Thelr fury makes an instrument of war. Tyrrheus, the foster father of the beast,
Then clench'd a hatchet in his horny fist,
But held his hand from the descending stroke,
And left his wedge within the cloven oak,
To whet their courage and their rage provoke.
And now the goddess, exercls'd in 111,
Who watch'd an hour to work her maplous will, Ascends the roof, and to her crooked horn,
Such as was then by Latlan shepherds borne, Adds all her breath the rocks and wood_ around, And mountai,_s, tremble at th' infernal sound.
The sacred lake of Trivia from afar,
The Vehne fountains, and sulphureous Nar,
Shake at the baleful blast, the signal of the war. Young mothers wddly stare, with fear possess'd, And strata their helpless infants to their breast.
The clowns, a boisfrous, rude, ungovern'd mew,
With
furious haste to the loud summons flew pow'rs of Troy, then issuing on the plato,
The
With
Not
But
At first, while fortune favor'd nelther s_de,
The fight with clubs and burning brands was tried; But now, both parties reinforc'd, the fields
Are bright with flaming swords and brazen shields. A shining harvest either host displays,
And shoots against the sun with equal rays.
Thus, when a black-brow'd gust begins to rise, White foam at first on the curl'd ocean fries,
Then roars the main, the billows mount the skies; TIll, by the fury of the storm full blown,
The muddy bottom o'er the clouds is thrown.
First Almon falls, old Tyrrheus' eldest care,
Pierc'd with an arrow from the distant war: Flx'd in h_s throat the flying weapon stood,
fresh recruits their youthful chief sustain: theirs a raw and unexpenenc'd tram,
a firm body of embattled men.
? 262 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
And stopp'd his breath, and drank his vital blood Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.
Among the rest, the rich Galesus lies;
A good old man, while peace he preaeh'd m vain, Amidst the madness of th' unruly train:
F_ve herds, five bleating flocks, his pastures fill'd, His lands a hundred yoke of oxen tfil'd
Thus, while m equal scales their fortune stood The Fury bath'd them m each other's blood,
Then, hawng fix'd the fight, exulting fl_es,
And bears fulfill'd her pronnse to the skies.
To Juno thus she speaks" "Behold T 't is done,
The blood already drawn, the war begun;
The discord _s complete; nor can they cease
The &re debate, nor you command the peace.
Now, since the Latian and the Trojan brood
Have tasted vengeance and the sweets of blood;
Speak, _nd my pow'r shall add tlus office more:
The nelghb'rmg nations of th' Ausonian shore
Shall hear the dreadful rumor, from afar,
Of arm'd invasion, and embrace the war. "
Then Juno thus. "The grateful work is done,
The seeds of discord sow'd, the war begun;
Frauds, fears, and fury have possess'd the state,
And fix'd the causes of a lasting hate
A bloody Hymen shall th' alliance join
Betwixt the Trojan and Ausonian hne:
But thou with speed to night and hell repair;
For not the gods, nor angry Jove, will bear
Thy lawless wand'rlng walks in upper air. Leave what remains to me" Saturnia said"
The sullen fiend her sounding wings dlsplay'd,
Unwflhng left the light, and sought the nether shade,
In midst of Italy, well known to fame, There lies a lake (Amsanctus is the name)
Below the lofty mounts: on either side
Thick forests the forbidden entrance hide.
Full m the center of the sacred wood
An arm arises of the Stygian flood,
Which t breaking from beneath with bellowing sountl,
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE . _NEIS 263
Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around. Here Pluto pants for breath from out his cell,
And opens wide the grinning jaws of hell.
To this infernal lake the Fury files;
Here hides her hated head, and frees the lab'ring skietk Saturnian Juno now, with double care,
Attends the fatal process of the war.
The clowns, return'd, from battle bear the slain,
Implore the gods, and to their king complain. The corps of Almon and the rest are shown;
Shrieks, clamors,
Ambmous Turnus
And, aggravating
Proclaims his private injuries aloud,
A solemn promise made, and disavow'd;
A foreign son is sought, and a mix'd mungril brood. Then they, whose mothers, frantic _lth their fear, In woods and wilds the flags of Bacchus bear, And lead his dances with dlshevel'd hair,
Increase the clamor, and the war demand, (Such was Amata's interest in the land,) Against the pubhc sanctions of the peace,
Against all omens of their ill success.
W_th fates averse, the rout m arms resort,
To force their monarch, and msult the court. But, hke a rock unmov'd, a rock that braves
The raging tempest and the rising waves I Propp'd on himself he stands; his solid sldes Wash off the seaweeds, and the sounding tldes_ So stood the pious prince, unmov'd, and long
Sustain'd the madness of the noisy throng.
But, when he found that Juno's pow'r prevail'd, And all the methods of cool counsel fail'd,
He calls the gods to witness their offense, Disclaims the war, asserts his innocence.
"Hurried by fate," he cries, "and borne before
A furious wind, we leave the faithful shore
0 _ore than madmen l you yourselves shall bear The guilt of blood and sacrilegious war:
Thou, Turnus, shalt atone it by thy fate,
murmurs, in the
fill the frighted town. press appears,
augments their fears;
crimes,
? 264 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
And pray to Heav'n for peace, but pray too late For me, my stormy voyage at an end,
I to the port of death securely tend.
The fun'ral pomp which to your kings you pay,
Is all I want, and all you take away"
He said no more, but, m his walls confin'd, Shut out the woes which he too well diwn'd; Nor _th the nsmg storm would vainly strive, But left the helm, and let the _essel drive
A solemn custom was observ'd of old,
Which Latmm held, and now the Romans hold,
Their standard x_hen in fighting fields they rear Against the fierce Hyrcamans, or declare
Tile Scythlan, Or from the
Indian, or Arabian war, boasting Parthians _ould regain
Their eagles, lost m Carrh,'c's bloody plain Two gates of steel (the name of Mars they bear,
And still are worshlp'd _lth rehgmus fear)
Before his temple stand, the d_re abode,
And the lear'd issues of the furious god.
Are fenc'd w_th brazen bolts; without the gates, The _ary guardmn Janus doubly _mts
Then, when the sacred senate votes the wars, The Roman consul their decree declares,
And in his robes the sounding gates unbars
The youth in mihtary shouts arise,
And the loud trumpets break the yielding skies. These rites, of old by soy'reign princes us'd,
Were the king's office, but the king refus'd,
Deaf to their cries, nor would the gates unbar
Of sacred peace, or loose th' ,mprison'd war;
But hid his head, and, safe from loud alarms, Abhorr'd the wicked mimstry of arms
Then heav'n's imperious queen shot down from high: At her approach the brazen hinges fly;
The gates are fore'd, and ev'ry falhng bar;
And, like a tempest, issues out the war.
The peaceful cities of th' Ausonian shore, Lull'd in thmr ease, and undisturb'd before, Are all on fire ; and some, w_th studmus care,
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE _E_ET6 266
Their restiff steeds in sandy plains prepare;
Some their soft limbs in painful marches try,
And war is all their wish, and arms the gen'ral cry. Part scour the rusty shields with seam; and part New grind the blunted ax, and point the dart:
With joy they view the waving ensigns fly,
And hear the trumpet's clangor pierce the sky. Five cities forge their arms: th' Atinian pow'rs, Antemn_, Tlbur with her lofty tow'rs,
Ardea the proud, the Crustumerian town:
All these of old were places of renown.
Some hammer helmets for the fighting field;
Some Wine young sallows to support the shield; The croslet some, and some the cuishes mold,
With silver plated, and with ductile gold.
The rustic honors of the scythe and share
Give place to swords and plumes, the pride of war. Old fauchlons are new temper'd m the fires;
The sounding trumpet ev'ry soul inspires.
The word is giv'n; with eager speed they lace
The shining headpiece, and the shield embrace.
The nelghmg steeds are to the chariot t_ed;
The trusty weapon sits on ev'ry side.
And now the mighty labor is begun--
5re Muses, open all your Helicon
Sing you the chiefs that sway'd th' Ausonian land, Their arms, and armies under their command;
What warriors in our ancient clime were bred;
What soldiers follow'd, and what heroes led.
For well you know, and can record alone,
What fame to future times conveys but darkly down,
Mezentius first appear'd upon thc plato: Scorn sate upon his brows, and sour dtsdam,
Defying earth and heav'n. Etruria lost, He brings to Turnus' aid his baffled host. The charming Lausus, full of youthful fire, Rode in the rank, and next his sullen sire; To Turnus only second in the grace
Of manly mien, and features of the face
A skilful horseman, and a huntsman bred,
? Z66
DRYDEN'S TRAI_SLATIOI_ OF VIRGIL With fates averse a thousand men he led:
His sire unworthy of so brave a son; Himself well worthy of a happier throne.
Next Aventinus drives his chariot round
The Latian plains, with palms and laurels crown'6
Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field; His father's hydra fills his ample shield:
A hundred serpents hiss about the brims;
The son of Hercules he justly seems
By his broad shoulders and gigantic limbs; Of heav'nly part, and part of earthty blood, A mortal woman mixing with a god.
For strong Alcides, after he had slain
The triple Geryon, drove from conquer'd Spain His captive herds; and, thence in triumph led, On Tuscan Tiber's flow'ry banks they fed.
Then on Mount Aventine the son of Jove
The priestess Rhea found, and forc'd to love.
For arms, his men long piles and jav'lins bore ;
And poles with pointed steel their foes in battle gore. Like Hercules himself his son appears,
In salvage pomp: a lion's hide he wears;
About his shoulders hangs the shaggy skin;
The teeth and gaping jaws severely grin.
Thus, like the god his father, homely dress'd,
He strides into the hail, a horrid guest.
Then two twin brothers from fair Tlbur came, (Which from their brother Tiburs took the name,)
Fierce Coras and Catitlus, void of fear.
Arm'd Argive horse they led, and in the front appear Like cloud-born Centaurs, from the mountain's heigh: ,With rapid course descending to the fight;
They rush along; the rattling woods give way;
The branches bend before their sweepy sway.
Nor was Pr_eneste's founder wanting there, Whom fame reports the son of Mulciber:
Found in the fire, and foster'd in the plains, A shepherd and a king at once he reigns, And leads to Turnus' aid his country swaJna His o_ n Pr_eneste sem_ a chosen band,
? S_,_rE_I'H BOOK OF TI-I_ . _1_J_I_ 251
With those who plow Saturnia's Gabme land; Besides the succor which cold Anien ylelds,
The rocks of Hernicus, and dewy fields, Anagnia fat, and Father Amasene--
A num'rous rout, but all of naked men:
Nor arms they wear, nor swords and bucklers wield
Nor drive the chariot thro' the dusty field,
But whirl from leathern slings huge balls of lead,
And spoils of yellow wolves adorn their head; The left foot naked, when they march to fight, But in a bull's raw hide they sheathe the right.
Messapus next, (great Neptune was his sire,) Secure of steel, and fated from the fire,
In pomp appears, and with his ardor warms A heartless train, unexercis'd in arms:
The just Faliscans he to battle brings,
And those who live where Lake Ciminia springs; And where Feronia's grove and temple stands,
Who till Fescennian or Flavinian lands,
All these in order march, and marching sing
The warhke actions of their sea-born king;
Like a long team of snowy swans on high,
Which clap their wings, and cleave the liquid sky, When, homeward from their wat'ry pastures borne_ They sing, and Asia's lakes their notes return.
Not one who heard their music from afar,
Would think these troops an army tram'd to war, But flocks of fowl, that, when file tempests ro
With their hoarse gabbhng seek the silent sho_e.
Then Clausus came, who led a num'rous band Of troops embodied from the Sabine land,
And, in himself alone, an army brought.
. 'T was he, the noble Claudian race begot,
The Claud_an race, ordain'd, in times to come, To share the greatness of imperial Rome.
He led the Cures forth, of old renown, Mutuscans from their olive-bearing town,
And all th' Eretian pow'rs; besides a band
That follow'd from Velinum's dewy land,
And Amiternian troops_ of mlghty fame,
? 268 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRG/_
_nd mountaineers, that from Severus came, And from the craggy chffs of Tetrica,
_nd those where yellow Tiber takes hls way, And where Himella's wanton waters play. Casperia sends her arms, with those that lie By Fabans, and frmtful Foruli:
The warhke alds of Horta next appear,
And the cold Nurslans come to close the rear,
_,_ix'd wRh the natlves born of Latme blood,
Whom Alha washes with her fatal flood
Not thicker bdlows beat the Libyan main,
When pale Orion sets in wintry rain;
Nor thicker harvests on rich Hermus rise,
Or Lycian fields, when Phoebus burn_ the skies,
Than stand these troops: their bucklers ring around:
Their trampling turns the turf, and shakes the sohd ground,
H_gh in his chariot then Halesus came, A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name: From Agamenmon born--to Turnus' aid
A thousand men the youthful hero led,
Who till the Massic soil, for wine renown'd, And fierce Auruneans from thew hilly ground, And those who live by Sidicinian shores,
And where with shoaly fords Vulturnus roars, Cales' and Osca's old inhabitants,
And rough Saticulans, inur'd to wants:
Light derek-lances from afar they throw, Fasten'd with leathern thongs, to gall the foe. Short crooked swords in closer fight they wear; And on their warding arm light bucklers bear.
Nor (Ebalus, shalt thou be /eft unsung,
From nymph Semethis and old Telon sprung, Who then in Teleboan Capri reign'd;
But that short isle th' ambitious youth disdain'd, And o'er Campania stretch'd his ample sway, Where swelling Sarnus seeks the Tyrrhenc sea; O'er Batu|um, and where Abella sees,
From her high tow'rs, the harvest of her trees.
And these (as was the Teuton use of old) Wield brazen swordsj and brazen bucklers hold;
? THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE _57EIS 2_
Sling weighty stones, when from afar they fight; Their casques are cork, a covering thick and light.
Next these in rank, the warlike Ufens went,
And led the mountain troops that Nursia sent.
The rude Equlcol_e his rule obey'd;
Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their trade, In arms they plow'd, to battle still prepar'd:
Their soil was barren, and their hearts were hard.
Umbro the priest the proud Marrubians led,
By Kmg Archippus sent to Turnus' aid,
And peaceful ohves crown'd his hoary head.
His wand and holy words, the viper's rage,
And venom'd wounds of serpents could assuage. He, when he pleas'd with powerful juice to steep Their temples, shut their eyes in pleasing sleep. But vain were Marsian herbs, and magic art,
To cure the wound giv'n by the Dardan dart: Yet his untimely fate th' Angitian woods
In sighs remurmur'd to the Fucine floods.
The son of fam'd Hippolytus was there, Fam'd as his sire, and, as his mother, fair;
Whom in Egerian groves Aricia bore,
And nurs'd his youth along the marshy shore, Where great Diana's peaceful altars flame,
In fruitful fields; and Virbius was his name. Hippolytus, as old records have said,
Was by his stepdam sought to share her bed;
But, when no female arts his mind could move, She turn'd to furious hate her impious love.
Torn by wild horses on the sandy shore,
Another's crimes th' unhappy hunter bore, Glutting his father's eyes with guiltless gore. But chaste Diana, who his death deplor'd,
With ZEsculapian herbs his life restor'd
Then Jove, who saw from high, with just disdain, The dead inspir'd with vital breath again,
Struck to the center, with his flaming dart,
Th' unhappy founder of the godhke art.
But Trivia kept in secret shades alone
Her care, H_ppolytus, to fate unknown;
? _RIq_}Z_PSTRANSLATION OF V_R_[_
And call'hdim Virblusinth"Egeriangrove, Where thenhe liv'dobscureb,ut safefrom Jove.
For this,from Trivia'tsempleand herwood
Are coursersdriv'nw,ho shedtheirmaster'bsloo_, Affrightebdy themonstersof theflood.
His son,thesecondVirbiusy,etrctam'd
His father'asrt,and warrlorstecdshe rein'd.
Amid thetroopsa,nd hke theleadingod,
High o'ertherestin arms thegraccfulTurnusrodet
A triplpe11eofplumeshiscrestadorn'd,
On whichwithbelchingflamesChimaeraburn'd:
The more thekindledcombatriseshlgh'r,
The morewithfuryburnstheblazingfire.
FairIo grac'dhisshield;butIo now
With hornsexaltedstandsa,nd seemstoIow-
A noblecharge! Herkeeperbyhersldc,
To watchherwalks,hishundrcdeyesapphed;
_md on thebrimsher siret,hewat'rygod,
Roll'dfrom a silveurrn hiscrystafllood.
A cloud o? foot succeeds, and fills the fields
With swords, and pointed spears, and clatt'ring shields;
Of Argives, and of old Sicanian bands,
And those who plow the rich Rutuhan lands;
Auruncan youth, and those Saerana yields,
And the proud Labicans, with painted shields, And those who near Numician streams reside.
And those whom Tlber's holy forests hide, Or Ciree's hills from the main land divide; Where Ufens glides along the lowly lands, Or the black water of Pomptina stands.
Last, from the Volseians fair Camilla came, And led her warlike troops, a warrior dame;
Unbred to spinning, in the loom unskill'd, She chose the nobler Pallas of the field.
Mix'd with the first, the fierce virago fought, Sustain'd the tolls of arms, the danger sought, Outstripp'd the winds in speed upon the plain, Flew o'er the fields, nor hurt the bearded grain: She swept the seas, and, as she skimm'd along, Her flying feet unbath'd on billows hung.
? TH_ SEVE_4 BOOK OF THE _EIS ZTi
Men, boys, and women, stupid with surprise, Where'er she passes, fix thmr wond'ring eyes: Longing they look, and, gaping at the sight, Devour her o'er and o'er w_th vast delight;
Her purple habit sits with such a grace
On her smooth shoulders, and so suits her fac_; Her head with ringlets of her hair is crown'd, And in a golden caul the curls are hound.
She shakes her myrtle jav'lin; and. behind,
Her Lycian quiver dances in the wind.
? THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE /ENEIS
Trrz ARGU_ENT. --The war being now begun, both the generals make all possible preparations. Turnus seads to Diomedes A_neas goes m person to beg succors from Evander and the Tuscans. Evander receives him kindly, furmshes him with men, and sends his son Pallas with him. Vulcan, at the request of Venus, makes
' arms for her son . ,E_neas,and draws on his shield the most memora- . P
ble actions of his posterlty.
HEN Turnus had assembled all his pow'rs.
His standard planted on Laurentum's toxCrs;
When now the sprightly trumpet, from afar, Had giv'n the signal of approaching war,
Had rous'd the neighing steeds to scour the fields, While the fierce riders clatter'd on their shields;
Trembling with rage, the Latian youth prepare To join th' allies, and headlong rush to war.
Fierce Ufens, and Messapus, led the crowd,
With bold Mez, ,. tius, who blasphcm'd aloud.
These thro' the country took their wasteful course, The fields to forage, and to gather force.
Then VenuTus to Diomede they send,
To beg his aid Ausonia to defend,
Declare the common danger, and inform
The Grecian leader of the growing storm:
. _neas, landed on the Latlan coast,
With banish'd gods, and with a baffled host,
Yet now asplr'd to conquest of the statc,
And claim'd a title from the gods and fate;
What num'rous nations in his quarrel came,
And how they spread his formidable name.
272
? THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE _N'EIS 273
What he design'd, what mischief might arise, If fortune favor'd his first enterprise,
Was left for him to weigh, whose equal fears, And common interest, was involv'd an theirs
While Turnus and th' allies thus urge the war, The Trojan, floating in a flood of care,
Beholds the tempest wluch h_s foes prepare. Th_s way and that he turns his anxious mind;
Thinks, and rejects the counsels he design'd; Explores tumself in yam, in ev'ry part,
And gives no rest to his distracted heart.
So, when the sun by day, or moon by night,
Strike on the pohsh'd brass their trembling hght, The glitt'ring species here and there dwxde,
And cast their dubmus beams from s_de to side; Now on the balls, now on the pavement play,
And to the ceiling flash the glaring day.
'T was night; and weary nature lull'd asleep
The birds of air, and fishes of the deep,
And beasts, and mortal men. The Trojan chief
Was laid on Tfl_er'_ banks, oppres_'d with grief, And found m silent slumber late rehcf
Then, thro' the shadows of the poplar _xood, Arose the father of the Roman flood;
An azure robe was o'er his body spread,
A wreath of shady reeds adorn'd his head:
Thus, mamfest to sight, the god appear'd,
And with these pleasing words his sorrow cheer'd: "Undoubted offspring of ethereal race,
O long expected in this pronfis'd place!
Who thro' the foes hast borne thy banish'd gods, Restor'd them to thelr hearths, and old abodes;
This is thy happy home, the clime where fate Ordains thee to restore the Trojan state.
Fear not! The war shall end in lasting peace, And all the rage of haughty Juno cease.
And that this nightly vision may not seem
Th' effect of fancy, or an idle dream,
A sow beneath an oak shall he along,
All white herself, and white her thirty young.
? f? 4 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OP VIRGIT_
When thirty rolling years have run their race, Thy son Ascanius, on this empty space,
Shall build a royal town, of lasting fame, Which from this omen shall receive the name.
Time shall approve the truth. For what remains,
And how with sure success to crown thy pains,
With patience next attend. A hanish'd band,
Driv'n with Evander from th' Arcadian land,
Have planted here, and plac'd on high their walls; Their town the founder Pallanteum calls,
Deriv'd from Pallas, his great-grandstre's namer But the fierce Latmns old possession clazm,
With war infesting the new colony.
These make thy friend_, and on their aid rely.
To thy free passage I submit my streams. Wake, son of Venus, from thy pleasing dreams:
And, when the setting stars are lost m day, To Juno's pow'r thy just devotion pay;
With sacrifice the wrathful queen appease: Her pride at length shall fat1, her fury cease. When thou return'st victorious from the war, Perform thy vows to me _ith grateful care. The god am I, whose yellow water flows Around these fields, and fattens as it goes: Tiber my name; among the rolhng floods Renown'd on earth, esteem'd among the gods. This is my certain seat. In times to come,
_y waves shall wash the walls of mighty Rome"
He said, and plung'd below. While yet he spoke,
His dream _neas and his sleep forsook. He rose, and looking up, beheld the skies
With purple blushing, and the day arise.
Then water in his hollow palm he took
From Tibet's flood, and thus the pow'rs bespoke: "Laurentian nymphs, by whom the streams are fed, And Father Tiber, in thy sacred bed
Receive . _neas, and from danger keep.
Whatever fount, whatever holy deep,
Conceals thy wat'ry stores; where'er they rise,
And, bubbling from below, salute the skies ;
? :I"H]_ WI,GHTH BOOK OF THE . _NEIB 27_
Thou, king of homed floods, whose plenteous urn Suffices fatness to the fruitful corn,
For this thy kind compassion of our woes,
Shalt share my morning song and ev'ning vows. But, 0 be present to thy people's aid,
And firm the gracious promise thou hast made l" Thus having said, two galleys from his stores, With care he chooses, roans, and fits with oars. Now on the shore the fatal swine is found. _,Vondrous to tell v--She lay along the ground: Her well-fed offspring at her udders hung;
She white herself, and white her thirty young. YEneas takes the mother and her brood,
And all on Juno's altar are bestow'd.
The loll'wing night, and the succeeding day, Propitious Tiber smooth'd his wat'ry way:
I-Ie roll'd his Hver back, and pois'd he stood,
A gentle swelling, and a peaceful flood.
The Trojans mount their ships; they put from shore_ Borne on the waves, and scarcely dip an oar.
Shouts from the land give omen to their course,
And the pitch'd vessels glide with easy force.
The woods and waters wonder at the gleam
Of shields, and painted ships that stem the stream.
One summer's mght and one whole day they pass Betwixt the greenwood shades, and cut the liquid glau? The fiery sun had finish'd half his race,
Look'd back, and doubted in the middle space,
When they from far beheld the rising tow'rs,
The tops of sheds, and shepherds' lowly bow'rs,
Thin as they stood, which, then of homely clay,
Now rise in marble, from the Roman sway.
These cots (Evander's kingdom, mean and poor)i
The Trojan saw, and turn'd his ships to shore.
'T was on a solemn day: th' Arcadian states,
The king and prince, without the city gates,
Then paid their off'rings in a sacred grove
To Hercules, the warrior son of Jove. Thickcloudsof rollinsgmoke involvetheskies.
A_I fatofentrailosn hisaltarfries.
? T/6 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIl':
Rut, when they saw the ships that stemm'd the flood, Anct giltter'd thro' the covert of the wood,
They rose with fear, and left th' unfinish'd feast_ Till dauntless Pallas reassur'd the rest
To pay the rites, l_imself without delay A jav'lin seiz'd, and singly took his way;
Then gain'd a rlsing ground, and call'd from far: "Resolve me, strangers, whence, and what you are; Your bus'hess here; and bring you peace or bar? " High on the stern -_neas took his stand,
And held a branch of olive in his hand,
While thus he spoke: "The Phrygians' arms you see,
Expell'd from Troy, provok'd in Italy
By Latian foes, with war unjustly made;
At first affianc'd, and at last betray'd.
This message bear: 'The Trojans and their chief Bring holy peace, and beg the king's relief. '" Struck with so great a name, and all on fire,
The youth replies: "Whatever you require,
Your fame exacts. Upon our shores descend,
A welcome guest, and, what you wish, a friend. " He 5aid, and, downward hasting to the strand, Embrae'd the stranger prince, and join'd his hand.
Conducted to the grove, . ? Eneas broke
The s,lence first, and thus the king bespoke:
"Best of the Greeks, to whom, by fate's command, I bear these peaceful branches in my hand, Undaunted I approach you, tho' I know
Your birth is Grecian, and your land my foe; From Atreus tho' your ancient lineage came,
And both the brother kings your kindred claim; Yet, my self-conscious worth, your high renown, Your virtue, thro' the neighb'ring nations blown, Our fathers' mingled blood, Apollo's voice,
Have led me hither, less by need than choice.
Our founder Dardanus, as fame has sung,
And Greeks acknowledge, from Electra sprung: Electra from the loirm of Atlas came;
Atlas, whose head sustains the starry frame.
Your sire is Mercury, whom long before
? THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE ,_ENEIS 277
On cold Cyllene's top fair l%iaia bore. Maia the fair, on fame If we rely,
Was Atlas' daughter, who sustains the sky
Thus from one common source our streams divide; Ours is the Trojan, yours th' Arcadian side.
Rais'd by these hopes. I sent no news before,
Nor ask'd your leave, nor did your falth implore;
But come, without a pledge, my own ambassador.
The same Rutuhans. who with arms pursue
The Trojan race. are equal foes to you.
Our host expell'd, what farther force can stay
The victor troops from universal sway?
Then will they stretch their pow'r athwart the land, And either sea from side to side command.
Receive our offer'd faith, and give us thine;
Ours is a gen'rous anc] experienc'd line:
We want not hearts nor bodies for the war;
In council cautious, and in fields we dare. "
He said; and while he spoke, with piercing eyes Evander vlew'd the man with vzz-. surprise,
Pleas'd with his action, ravish'd with his face: Then aswer'd briefly, with a royal grace:
"O vahant leader of the Trojan hne,
In whom the features of thy father shine,
How I recall Anchises! how I see
His motions, mien, and all my friend, in thee!
Long tho' it be, 't is fresh w_thin my mind, When Priam to his slster's court design'd
A welcome visit, with a friendly stay,
And thro' th' Arcadian kingdom took his way. Then, past a boy, the callow down began
To shade my chin, and call me first a man.
I saw the shining train with vast delight,
And Priam's goodly person pleas'd my sight:
But great Anchises, far above the rest,
With awful wonder fir'd my youthful breast.
I long'd to join in friendship's holy bands
Our mutual hearts, and plight our mutual hands, I first accosted him" I sued, I sought,
Atad, with a loving force, to Pheneus brought.
? ? /8
DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIl,
He gave me, when at length constrain'd to go, A Lyeian quiver and a Gnossian bow,
A vest embroider'd, glorious to behold,
And two rich bridles, with their blts of gold, Which my son's coursers in obedience hold. The Ica_e you ask, I offer, as your right ; And, when to-morrow's sun reveals the light, With swift supphcs you shall be sent away. Now celebrate with us thls solemn day,
Whose holy rites admit no long delay.
ltmor our annual feast; and take your seat,
V(ith friendly welcome, at a homely treat"
Thus having said, the bowls (remov'd for fear)
The youths replae'd, and soon restor'd the cheer. On sods of turf he set the soldiers round:
A maple throne, rais'd higher from the ground, Receiv'd the Trojan ctnef; and, o'er the bed,
A lion's shaggy hide for ornament they spread. The loaves were serv'd in camsters; the wine
In bowls; the priest renew'd the rites divine:
Broll'd entrails are their food, and beef's continued chine
But when the rage of hunger was repress'd, Thus spoke Evander to his royal guest-
"These rltes, these altars, and this feast, O king, From no vain fears or superstition spring,
Or blind devotion, or from blinder chance,
Or heady zeal, or brutal ignorance;
But, sav'd from danger, with a grateful sense,
The labors of a god we recompense.
Nee, trom afar, yon rock that mates the sky,
About whose feet such heaps of rubbish he;
Such indigested rum; bleak and bare,
How desart now it stands, expos'd in air!
'T was once a robber's den, inclos'd around
With living stone, and deep beneath the ground. The monster Cacus, more than half a beast,
This hold, impervious to the sun, possess'&
The pavement ever foul with human gore;
I-Ieads, and their mangled members, hung the door. Vulcan this plague begot; and, like Ins sire,
? _I_E ]_IGHTH BOOK OF THE _NEI8 _g
Black clouds he belch'd, and flakes of livid fire. Time, long expected, eas'd us of our load,
And brought the needful presence of a god.
Th' avenging force of Hercules, from Spain, Arrlv'd in triumph, from Geryon slam:
Thrice liv'd the grant, and thrice liv'd in vain. His prize, the lowing herds, Alcides drove Near Tlber's bank, to graze the shady grove. Allur'd with hope of plunder, and intent
By force to rob, by fraud to circumvent,
The brutal Cacus, as by chance they stray'd,
Four oxen thence, and four fair kine convey'd; And, lest the printed footsteps might be seen, He dragg'd 'em backwards to his rocky den. The tracks averse a lying notice gave,
And led the searcher backward from the cave. ". Meantime the herdsman hero shifts his place,
To find fresh pasture and untrodden grass.
The beasts, who miss'd their mates, fill'd all around
With bellowings, and the rocks restor'd the sound. One heifer, who had heard her loxe complain, Roar'd from the cave, and made the project vain. Alcldes found the fraud; x_lth rage he shook,
And toss'd about his head Ins knotted oak. Swlft as the winds, or Scytlnan arrows' flight,
He clomb, with eager haste, th' a_rial height.
Then first we saw the monster mend his pace;
Fear in his eyes, and paleness in his face,
Confess'd the god's approach. Trembhng he springs, As terror had increas'd his feet with wings;
Nor stay'd for stairs; but down the depth he threw His body, on his back the door he drew
(The door, a rib of living rock, with pains
His father hew'd it out, and bound wlth iron chains): IIe broke the heavy links, the mountain clos'd.
And bars and levers to h2s foe oppos'd.
The wretch had hardly made his dungeon fast;
The fierce avenger came with bounding haste;
Survey'd the mouth of the forbidden hold,
And here and there his raging eyes he roll'd.
? 280 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
He gnash'd his teeth, and thrice he compass'd round With winged speed the circuit of the ground. Thrice at the cavern's mouth he pull'd in vain,
And, pantmg, thrice desisted from his pain.
A pointed flinty rock, all bare and black,
Grew gibbous from behind the mountain's back;
Owls, ravens, all ill omens of the night,
Here bmlt their nests, and bather wmg'd their flight.
The leaning head hung threat'ning o'er the flood, And nodded to the left. The hero stood
Adverse, with planted feet, and, from the mght, Tugg'd at the sohd stone with all his might Thus hear'd, the fix'd foundations of the rock Gave way; heav'n echo'd at the rattling shock. Tumbling, it chok'd the flood: on either side
The banks leap back_xald, and the streams divide; The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread,
And trembling Tiber d_v'd beneath hls bed.
Tile court of Cacus stands re_eal'd to sight, The cavern glares with new-admitted light.
So the pent vapors, with a rumbling sound, Heave from below, and rend the hollow ground; A sounding flaw succeeds: and, from on h_gh, The gods w,th hate beheld the nether sky:
The ghosts repine at violated mght,
And curse th' invading sun, and sicken at the sight.
The graceless monster, caught in open day, Inclos'd, and in despair to fly away,
Howls horrible from underneath, and fills His hollow palace with unmanly yells.
The hero stances above, and from afar
Plies him with darts, and stones, and distant war-
He, from his nostrils and huge mouth, expires
Black clouds of smoke, amidst his father's fires, Gath'rlng, with each repeated blast, the night,
To make uncertain aim, and erring s_ght.
The wrathful god then plunges from above,
And, where in thickest waves the sparkles drove,
There lights; and wades thro' fumes, and gropes his wayp Half sing'd, hal/stifled, till he grasps h_s prey.
? THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE _NEIS 281
The monster, spewing frmtless flames, he found; He squeez'd his throat, he writh'd hls neck around, And in a knot his crippled members bound;
Then from their sockets tore his burning eyes: RolFd on a heap, the breathless robber lies.
The doors, unbarr'd, receive the rushing day, And thoro' lights disclose the ravish'd prey The bulls, redeem'd, breathe open air again Next, by the feet, they drag hnn from his den. The wend'ring neighborhood, with glad surpmse, /_ehold his shagged breast, his giant size,
His mouth that flames no more, and Ins extmguish'd eyes. From that auspicious day, with rites divine,
We worship at the hero's holy shrine. Potitius first ordam'd these annual vows:
As priests, were added the Pmarlan house,
Who rals'd this altar in the sacred shade,
Where honors, ever due, for ever shall be paid.
For these deserts, and this h_gh virtue sho_n.
Ye warlike youths, your heads with garlands crown: Fill high the goblets _lth a sparkling flood,
And with deep draughts invoke our common god. " This said, a double wreath Evander twin'd,
And poplars black and white his temples bind Then brims his ample bowl. With like design The rest invoke the gods, with sprinkled wine. Meantime the sun descended from the skies, And the bright evening star began to rise. And now the priests. Pot_t,. us at their head,
In skans of beasts involv'd, the long process,on led;
Held high the flaming tapers in their hands,
As custom had preserib'd their holy bands: Then with a second course the tables load,
And with full chargers offer to the god The Sahi sing, and cense his altars round
With Saban smoke, their heads with poplar bound-= One choir of old, another of the young,
To dance, and bear the burthen of the song.
The lay records the labors, and the praise, And all th' immortal acts of Hercules:
? 282 DRYDEN'S TRANSLATION OF VIRGIL
First, how the mighty babe, when swath'd in banfl6_
The serpents strangled with his infant hands; Then, as in years and matchless force he grew,
Th' (Echal/an wa/ls, and Trojan, overthrew. Besides, a thousand hazards they relate,
Procur'd by Juno's and Eurystheus' hate:
"Thy hands, unconquer'd hero, could subdue
The cloud-horn Centaurs, and the monster crew: Nor thy resistless arm the bull withstood,
Nor he, the roaring terror of the wood.
The triple porter of the Stygian seat,
With lolling tongue, lay fawning at thy feet, And, selz'd with fear, forgot his mangled meat. Th' infernal waters trembled at thy sight;
Thee, god, no face of danger could affright. Not huge Typhceus, nor th' unnumber'd snake, Increas'd with hissing heads, in Lerna's lake. Hall, Jove's undoubted son Wan added grace To heav'n and the great author of thy race l Receive the grateful off'rings which we pay, And smile propmous on thy solemn day ! "
In numbers thus they sung; above the rest, The den and death of Cacus crown the feast. The woods to hollow vales convey the sound, The vales to hills, and hills the notes rebound. The rxtes perform'd, the cheerful train retire.
Betwixt young Pallas and his aged sire,
The Trojan pass'd, the city to survey,
And pleasing talk beguil'd the tedious way.
The stranger cast around his curious eyes,
New objects viewing still, with new surprise;
With greedy joy enqmres of various things,
And acts and monuments of ancient kings.
Then thus the _ounder of the Roman tow'rs:
"These woods were first the seat of sylvan pow'rs, Of Nymphs and Fauns, and salvage men, who took Their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn oak. Nor laws they knew, nor manners, nor the care
Of hb'ring oxen, or the shining share,
Nor arts of gain, nor what they gain'd to spare.
? THE_IGHTH BOOK OF THE _NEIS 28_ Their exercise the chase; the running flood
Supphed their thirst, the trees supphed thelr food. Then Saturn came, who fled the pow'r of Jove, Robb'd of his realms, and bamsh'd from above
The men, dlspers'd on hills, to towns he brought, And laws ordain'd, and c:v_ customs taught,
And Latium call'd the land where safe he lay From his unduteous son, and his usurping sway. \Vlth his mild empire, peace and plenty came; And hence the golden times dem'd their name. A more degenerate and discolor'd age
Succeeded this, with avarice and rage
Th' Ausonians then, and bold Sicamans came;
And Saturn's empire often chang'd the name.
Then kings, gigantic Tybris, and the rest,
With arbitrary sway the land oppress'd"
For Tiber's flood was Albula before,
Till, from the tyrant's fate, hss name it bore
I last arriv'd, driv'n from my native home
By fortune's pow'r, and fate's resistless doom.
Long toss'd on seas, I sought tlns happy land,
Warn'd by my mother nymph, and call'd by Heav'n's
command "
Thus, walking on, he spoke, and shew'd the gate,
Since call'd Carmental by the Roman state; Where stood an altar, sacred to the name
Of old Carmenta, the prophetic dame,
Who to her son foretold th' ,,Enean race. Sublime in fame, and Rome's imperial place: Then shews the forest, which, in after t_mes, Fierce Romulus for perpetrated crimes
A sacred refuge made, with this, the shrine Where Pan below the rock had rites d_vine:
Then tells of Argus' death, his nmrderd' guest,
Whose grave and tomb his innocence attest.