Yet ftay, great Cæfar! and vouchsafe to reign 45 50 The time will come, when a diviner flame Shall warm my breaft to fing of Cæfar's fame: Mean while permit, that my preluding Muse In Theban wars an humbler theme may chufe: Of furious hate furviving death, fhe fings, A fatal throne to two contending Kings, And fun'ral flames, that parting wide in air Exprefs the difcord of the fouls they bear : Of towns difpeopled, and the wand'ring ghosts 55 Of Kings unbury'd in the wafted coafts; When Dirce's fountain blush'd with Grecian blood, And Thetis, near Ifmenos' fwelling flood, With dread beheld the rolling furges fweep, 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 side, 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. NOTES. VER. 65. Or bow the youth.] Parthenopeus. 60 65 Impia jam merita fcrutatus lumina dextra Merferat aeterna damnatum nocte pudorem Oedipodes, longaque animam fub morte tenebat. Illum indulgentem tenebris, imaeque receffu Sedis, inafpectos coelo radiifque penates Servantem, tamen affiduis circumvolat alis Saeva dies animi, fcelerumque in pectore Dirae. Tunc vacuos orbes, crudum ac miferabile vitae Supplicium, oftentat coelo manibufque cruentis Pulfat inane folum, faevaque ita voce precatur: Di fontes animas, anguftaque Tartara poenis Qui regitis, tuque umbrifero Styx livida fundo, Quam video, multumque mihi confueta vocari Annue Tifiphone, perverfaque vota fecunda, Si bene quid merui, fi me de matre cadentem Fovifti gremio, et trajectum vulnere plantas Firmâfti; fi ftagna petî Cyrrhaea bicorni Interfufa jugo, poffem cum degere falío Contentus Polybo, trifidaeque in Phocidos arce Longaevum implicui regem, fecuique trementis Ora fenis, dum quaero patrem; fi Sphingos ini Callidus ambages te praemonftrante refolvi; Si dulces furias, et lamentabile matris Now wretched Oedipus, depriv'd of fight, Led a long death in everlafting night; 70 75 But while he dwells where not a cheerful ray While from his breaft thefe dreadful accents broke. Thou, fable Styx! whofe livid ftreams are roll'd Affift, if Oedipus deferve thy care! If you receiv'd me from Jocafta's womb, 85 To Cyrrha's temple, on that fatal day, When by the fon the trembling father dy'd, Where the three roads the Fhocian fields divide: mother's bed, 90 95 100 Connubium gavifus inî; noctemque nefandam 110 ΙΟΣ For hell and thee begot an impious brood, Art thou a Father, unregarding Jove! 105 And fleeps thy thunder in the realms above? Soon fhalt thou find, if thou but arm their hands, They'd prove the father from whose loins they came. |