Here did the tender rale of Picus cease,
Above belief the wonder, I confess.
Again we sail, but more disasters meet,
Foretold by Circe, to our suffering fleet.
Myself, unable further woes to bear,
Declin'd the voyage, and am refug'd here.
ÆNEAS ARRIVES IN ITALY.
Thus Macareus-Now with a pious aim
Had good Æneas rais'd a funeral flame,
In honour of his hoary nurse's name.
Her epitaph he fix'd; and setting fail,
Cajeta left, and catch'd at every gale.
He steer'd at distance from the faithlefs shore
Where the false Goddess reigns with fatal power ;
And fought those 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 stands : 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 seek supplies, And eniballies appoint for new allies. Æneas, for relief, Evander moves; His quarrel he allerts, his cause approves.
The
The bold Rutilians, with an equal speed,
Sage Venelus dispatch to Diomede.
The king, late griefs revolving in his mind,
These reasons for neutrality assign'd:
Shall l, of one poor dotal town pofseft,
My people thing. my wretched country waste;
An exil'd prince, and on a shaking throne ;
Or risk my patron's subjects, 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 Hium was by Argives won,
And flames had finish'd, what the sword begun;
Pallas, incers’d, pursued 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 storm begins, the raging waves run high,
The clouds look heavy, and benight the sky;
Red sheets of lightning o'er the seas are spread,
Our tackling yields, and wrecks at last succeed..
'Tis tedious our disastrous state to tell ;
Even Priam would have pitied what befel.
Yet Pallas say'd me from the swallowing main;
At home new wrongs to meet, as Fates ordain.
Chac'd
Chac'd from my country, I once more repeat
All sufferings seas could give, or war compleat ;
For Venus, mindful of her wound, decreed
Still new calamities should past succeed.
Agmon, impatient through successive ills,
With fury, Love's bright Goddess thus reviles :
These plagues in spite to Diomede are sent;
The crime is his, but ours the punishment.
Let each, my friends, her punv spleen despise,
And dare that haughty harlot of the skies.
The rest of Agmon's insolence complain,
And of irreverence the wretch arraign.
About to answer, his blasphcming throat
Contracts, and shrieks in some 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 descend.
Some more experience Agmon's destiny;
And, wheeling in the air, like swans they fly.
These thin remains to Daunus' realms I bring,
And here I reign, a poor precarious king.
TRANSFORMATION OF APPULUS.
Thus Diomedes. Venulus withdraws;
Unsped the service of the common cause.
Puteoli he pafies, and survey'd
A cave long honour'd for its awful shade.
Here
Here trembling reeds exclude the piercing ray,
Here streams in gentle falls through windings stray,
And with a passing breath cool Zephyrs play.
The goat-herd God frequents the filent place,
As once the wood-nymphs of the sylvan race,
Till Appalus, with a dishonest air,
And gross behaviour, banish'd thence the fair.
The bold buffoon, whene'er they tread the green,
Their motion mimicks, but with gest obscene.
Loose language oft' he utrers ; 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,
Gainst fortune and the foe to push the war.
With Phrygian blood the floating fields they stain;
But, fhort of succours, still contend in vain.
Turnus remarks the Trojan fleet ill-mannd,
Unguarded, and at anchor near the strand;
He thought ; and straight a lighted brand he bore,
And fire invades what 'scap'd the waves before.
The billows from the kindling prow retire;
Pitch, rosin, fearwood, on red wings aspire,
And Vulcan on the seas, exerts his attribute of fire.
This when the mother of the Gods beheld,
Her towery crown she shook, and stood reveal'd;
Her brindled lions rein'd, unveild her head,
And, hovering o'er her favour'd fleet, she said ;
Cease Turnus, and the heavenly powers respeet,
Nor dare to violate what I protect.
These gallies, once fair trees, on Ida stood,
And gave their shade to each defcending God;
Nor shall consume ; irrevocable Fate
Allots their being no determin’d date.
Straight peals of thunder Heaven's high arches rend,
The hail-stones leap, the showers in spouts descenda
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 softens into flesh and blood;
The yards and oars new arms and legs design ;
A trunk the hull; the flender keel, a spine ;
The prow a female face; and by degrees
The gallies rife green daughters of the seas.
Sometimes on coral beds they fit in state,
Or wanton on the waves they fear'd of late.
The barks, that beat the seas, are still their care,
Themselves remembering what of late they were ;
To save a Trojan fail, in throngs they press,
But smile to fee Alcinous in distress.
Unable were those wonders to deter
The Latians from their unsuccessful war.
Both sides 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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