THE

ADVENTURES OF ACHÆMENIDES.

Thus Achaemenides-With thanks I name
Eneas, and his piety proclaim.

I 'fcap'd the Cyclops through the Hero's aid,
Elfe in his maw my mangled limbs had laid.
When first your navy under fail he found,
He rav'd, till Ætna labour'd with the found.
Raging, he stalk'd along the mountain's fide,
And vented clouds of breath at every stride.
His ftaff a mountain ash; and in the clouds
Oft', as he walks, his grifly front he throwds.
Eyelefs he grop'd about with vengeful haste,
And juftled promontories, as he pafs'd.
Then heav'd a rock's high fummit to the main,
And bellow'd, like some bursting hurricane :
Oh! could I feize Ulyffes in his flight,
How unlamented were my lofs of fight!

Thefe jaws fhould piece-meal tear each panting vein,
Grind every crackling bone, and pound his brain.
As thus he rav'd, my joints with horror shook;
The tide of blood my chilling heart forfook.
I faw him once difgorge huge morsels, raw,
Of wretches undigested in his maw.

From the pale breathlefs trunks whole limbs he tore,
His beard all clotted with o'erflowing gore.

My anxious hours I pass'd in caves; my food

Was forest fruits, and wildings of the wood.

At

At length a fail I wafted, and aboard
My fortune found an hospitable lord.

Now, in return, your own adventures tell,
And what, fince first you put to fea, befel.

THE

ADVENTURES OF MACAREUS.

Then Macareus-There reign'd a prince of fame O'er Tuscan feas, and Æolus his name.

A largefs to Ulyffes he confign'd,

And in a steer's tough hide inclos'd a wind.
Nine days before the fwelling gale we ran ;

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The tenth, to make the meeting land, began:
When now the merry mariners, to find
Imagin❜d wealth within, the bag unbind.
Forthwith out-rush'd a gust, which backwards bore
Our gallies to the Læftrigonian fhore,
Whose crown Antiphates the tyrant wore.
Some few commiflion'd were with speed to treat;
We to his court repair, his guards we meet.
Two friendly flight preferv'd; the third was doom'd,
To be by thofe curs'd cannibals confum'd.
Inhumanly our hapless friends they treat;
Our men they murder, and destroy our fleet.
In time the wife Ulyffes bore away,
And dropp'd his anchor in yon faithless bay.
The thoughts of perils past we ftill retain,
And fear to land, till lots appoint the men.

Polites true, Elpenor given to wine,

Eurylochus, myself, the lots affign.

Defign'd for dangers, and resolv'd to dare,
To Circe's fatal palace we repair.

THE

ENCHANTMENTS OF CIRCE.

Before the fpacious front, a herd we find
Of beafts, the fierceft of the favage kind.
Our trembling fteps with blandifhments they meet,
And fawn, unlike their fpecies, at our feet.
Within upon a fumptuous throne of state,
On golden columns rais'd, th' Enchantress fate.
Rich was her robe, and amiable her mien,
Her afpect awful, and fhe look'd a queen.

Her maids not mind the loom, nor houfhold care,
Nor in needle-work a Scythian war;
wage

But cull in canisters difaftrous flowers,

And plants from haunted heaths, and fairy bowers,
With brazen fickles reap'd at planetary hours.
Each dofe the Goddess weighs with watchful eye;
So nice her art in impious pharmacy!

Entering the greets us with a gracious look,
And airs, that future amity bespoke.

Her ready Nymphs ferve up a rich repaft;
The bowl fhe dafhes firft, then gives to tafte.
Quick, to our own undoing, we comply;
Her power we prove, and fhew the forcery.

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Soon,

Soon, in a length of face, our head extends;
Our chin stiff briftles bears, and forward bends.
A breadth of brawn new burnishes our neck;

Anon we grunt, as we begin to speak.
Alone Eurylochus refus'd to taste,

Nor to a beast obscene the man debas'd.
Hither Ulyffes haftes (fo Fates command)
And bears the powerful Moly in his hand;
Unfheaths his feymitar, affaults the dame,
Preferves his fpecies, and remains the fame.
The nuptial right this outrage straight attends;
The dower defir'd is his transfigur'd friends.
The incantation backwards fhe repeats,
Inverts her rod, and what she did defeats,

And now our fkin grows fmooth, our shape upright;
Our arms ftretch up, our cloven feet unite.
With tears our weeping general we embrace;
Hang on his neck, and melt upon his face ;
Twelve filver moons in Circe's court we stay,
Whilft there they waste th' unwilling hours away.
'Twas here I fpy'd a youth in Parian stone;
His head a pecker bore; the cause unknown
To paffengers. A Nymph of Circe's train
The mystery thus attempted to explain.

THE STORY OF

PICUS AND CANENS.

Picus who once th' Aufonian fceptre held,
Could rein the fteed, and fit him for the field:
So like he was to what you fee, that still
We doubt if real, or the fculptor's skill.
The Graces in the finish`d piece, you find,
Are but the copy of his fairer mind.

Four luftres fcarce the royal youth could name,
Till every love-fick nymph confess'd a flame.
Oft' for his love the mountain Dryads fued,
And every filver fifter of the flood:
Thofe of Numicus, Albula, and thofe

Where Almo creeps, and hasty Nar o'erflows :
Where fedgy Anio glides through smiling meads,
Where fhady Farfar ruftles in the reeds:
And thofe that love the lakes, and homage owe
To the chafte Goddefs of the filver bow.

In vain each nymph her brightest charms put on,
His heart no fovereign would obey but one:
She whom Venilia, on Mount Palatine,
To Janus bore the fairest of her line.
Nor did her face alone her charms confefs,
Her voice was ravishing, and pleas'd no less.
Whene'er fhe fung, fo melting were her strains,
The flocks unfed feem'd listening on the plains;

The