Fraternal rage, the guilty Thebes' alarms,
Th'alternate reign deftroy'd by impious armis, Demand our fong; a facred fury fires
My ravifh'd breaft, and all the Muse infpires.
O Goddefs, fay, fhall I deduce my rhimes.
From the dire nation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's ftern decree,"
And Cadmus fearching round the spacious fea?
How with the serpent's teeth he fow'd the foil,
And reap'd an iron harvest of his toil?
Or how from joining ftones the city fprung,
While to his harp divine Amphion fung?
Or fhall I Juno's hate to Thebes refound,
Whose fatal rage th'unhappy Monarch found?
The fire against the fon his arrows drew,
O'er the wide fields the furious mother flew,
And while her arms fecond hope contain,
Sprung from the rocks and plung'd into the main
Atque adeo jam nunc gemitus, & profpera Cadmi Præteriiffe finam: limes mihi carminis efto
Oedipodae confufa domus: quando Itala nondum
Bifque jugo Rhenum, bis adactum legibus Iftrum? Et conjurato dejectos vertice Dacos:
Aut defenfa prius vix pubefcentibus annis
Bella Jovis. Tuque o Latiae decus addite famae, Quem nova maturi fubeuntem exorfa parentis Aeternum fibi Roma cupit: licet arctior omnes, Limes agat ftellas, et te plaga lucida cœli
Pleiadum, Eoreaeque, et hiulci fulminis expers 35 Sollicitet; licet ignipedum frenator equorum
Ipfe tuis alte radiantem crinibus arcum
Imprimat, aut magni cedat tibi Jupiter aequa
Parte poli; maneas hominum contentus habenis,
Undarum terraeque potens, et fidera dones.
Tempus erit, cum Pierio tua fortior oeftro
Facta canam nunc tendo chelyn, fatis arma referre
Aonia, et geminis fceptrum exitiale tyrannis,
But wave whate'er to Cadmus may belong,
And fix, O Mufe! the barrier of thy song
Ar Oedipus
from his difafters trace
The long confufions of his guilty race:
Nor yet attempt to ftretch thy bolder wing,
And mighty Cæfar's conqu'ring eagles fing;
How twice he tam'd proud I fter's rapid food,
While Dacian mountains ftream'd with barb'rous blood;
Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll,
And ftretch'd his empire to the frozen Pole,
Or long before, with early valour ftrove,
In youthful arms t'affert the cause of Jove.
And Thou, great Heir of all thy father's fame,
Encreafe of glory to the Latian name!
O blefs thy Rome with an eternal reign,
Nor let defiring worlds entreat in vain.
What tho' the stars contract their heav'nly space, 35
And croud their fhining ranks to yield thee place;
Tho' all the fkies, ambitious of thy fway,
Confpire to court thee from our world away;
Tho' Phoebus longs to mix his rays with thine
And in thy glories more ferenely fhine;
Tho' Jove himfelf no lefs content would be.
To part his throne and fhare his heav'n with thee;
Yet ftay, great Cæfar! and vouchfave to reign.
C'er the wide earth, and o'er the watry main;
Refign to Jove his empire of the fkies,
And people heav'n with Roman deities.
The time will come, when a diviner flaine Shall warm my breaft to fing of Cæfar's fame: Mean while permit, that my preluding Mufe In Theban wars an humbler theme may chufe: fo
Nec furiis poft fata modum, flammasque rebelles
Seditione rogi, tumulifque carentia regum
Funera, et egeftas alternis mortibus urbes;
Caerula cum rubuit Lernaeo fanguine Dirce,
Et Thetis arentes affuetum ftringere ripas,
Horruit ingenti venientem Ismenon acervo.
Quem prius heroum Clio dabis? inmmodicum irae Tydea? laurigeri fubitos an vatis hiatus?
Urget et hoftilem propellens caedibus amnein
Turbidus Hippomedon, plorandaque bella protervi
Arcados, atque alio Capaneus horrore canendus.
Impia jam merita fcrutatus lumina dextra
Merferat aeterna damnatum nocte pudorem
Oedipodes, longaque animam fub morte tenebat.
Illum indulgentem tenebris, imaeque receffu
Sedis, inaspectos coelo radiifque penates
Servantem, tamen affiduis circuinvolat alis
Saeva dies animi, fcelerumque in pectore Dirae. 75 Tunc vacuos orbes, crudum ac miferabile vitae Supplicium, oftentat cœlo manibusque cruentis
Pulfat inane folum, faevaque ita voce precatur : 80
Of furious hate furviving death, fhe fings,
A fatal throne to two contending Kings,
And fun'ral flames that parting wide in air
Express the difcord of the fouls they bear:
Of towns difpeopled, and the wand'ring ghosts $5
Of King unbury'd in the wafted coafts;
When Dirce's fountain blufh'd with Grecian blood,
And Thetis, near Ifmenos' fwelling flood,
With dread beheld the rolling furges sweep,
In heaps his flaughter'd fons into the deep.
What Hero, Clio, wilt thou first relate?
The rage of Tydeus, or the Prophet's fate?
Or how with hills of flain on ev'ry tide,
Hippomedon repell'd the hoftile tyde?
Or how the youth with ev'ry grace adorn'd,,
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verfe extend,
And fing with horror his prodigious end.
Now wretched Oedipus, depriv'd of fight,
Led a long death in everlasting night;
But while he dwells where not a cheerful ray
Can pierce the darkness, and abhors the day;
The clear reflecting mind presents his fin
In frightful views, and makes it day within;
Returning thoughts in endless circles roll,
And thousand furies haunt his guiltry foul,
The wretch then lifted to th'unpitying fkies
Those empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes,
Whose wounds, yet fresh, with bloody hands he ftrook,
While from his breast these dreadful accents broke. go
VER. 65. Or how the youth.) Parthenopeus.
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