How Sampson fell; and he, whom Dejanire
Wrapp'd in th' envenom'd shirt, and set on fire;
How curs'd Eriphyle her lord betray'd,

And the dire ambush Clytemnestra laid;

But what most pleas'd him was the Cretan dame, 385
And husband-bull---Oh, monstrous! fy, for shame!
He had by heart the whole detail of woe
Xantippe made her good man undergo;
How oft she scolded in a day he knew;

How many piss-pots on the sage she threw;
Who took it patiently, and wip'd his head,
"Rain follows thunder," that was all he said.
He read how Arius to his friend complain'd,

A fatal tree was growing in his land,

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On which three wives successively had twin'd A sliding noose, and waver'd in the wind. "Where grows this plant (reply'd the friend) oh! where ?

"For better fruit did never orchard bear;

"Give me some slip of this most blissful tree,

"And in my garden planted shall it be."

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Then how two wives their lords' destruction prove, Thro' hatred one, and one thro' too much love; That, for her husband mix'd a pois'nous draught, And this, for lust, an am'rous philtre bought; The nimble juice soon seiz'd his giddy head, Frantic at night, and in the morning dead. How some with swords their sleeping lords have

slain;

And some have hammer'd nails into their brain;

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And some have drench'd them with a deadly potion: All this he read, and read with great devotion.

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Long time I heard, and swell'd, and blush'd, and frown'd;

But when no end of these vile tales I found,
When still he read, and laugh'd, and read again,
And half the night was thus consum'd in vain,
Provok'd to vengeance, three large leaves I tore,
And with one buffet fell'd him on the floor.
With that my husband in a fury rose,
And down he settled me with hearty blows.
I groan'd, and lay extended on my side:

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"Oh! thou hast slain me for my wealth," I cry'd, 420 Yet I forgive thee---take my last embrace--

He wept, kind soul! and stoop'd to kiss my face;
I took him such a box as turn'd him blue,
Then sigh'd and cry'd, Adieu, my dear, adieu !
But after many a hearty struggle past
I condescended to be pleas'd at last.
Soon as he said, "My mistress and my wife!
Do what you list the term of all your life,"
I took to heart the merits of the cause,
And stood content to rule by wholesome laws;
Receiv'd the reins of absolute command,

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With all the government of house and land,
And empire o'er his tongue and o'er his hand.
As for the volume that revil'd the dames,

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'Twas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to flames.

Now Heav'n on all my husbands gone, bestow Pleasures above, for tortures felt below;

That rest they wish'd for, grant them in the grave, And bless those souls my conduct help'd to save. 439

BOOK I.

[Translated in the year 1703.]

The Argument.

OEDIPUS king of Thebes having, by mistake, slain his father Lalus, and married his mother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resigned his realm to his sons Eteocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tisiphone, to sow debate betwixt the bro thers. They agree at last to reign singly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtained by Eteocles Jupiter, in a council of the gods, de clares his resolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives also, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices, and one of the daughters of Adrastus king of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is sent on a message to the shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement Polynices in the mean time, departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos, where he meets with Tydeus who had filed from Calydon, having killed his brother. Adrastus entertains them, having received an oracle from Apollo that his daughters should be mar. ried to a boar and a lion, which he understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the hides of those beasts were worn, and who arrived at the time when he kept an annual feast in honour of that God. The rise of this solemnity. He relates to his guests the loves of Phaebus and Psamathe, and the story of Choroebus: he enquires, and is made acquainted with their descent and quality; the sacrifice is renewed, and the Book concludes with a hymn to Apollo.

FRATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes' alarms,
Th' alternate reign, destroy'd by impious arms,
Demand our song; a sacred fury fires

My ravish'd breast, and all the Muse inspires.

FRATERNAS acies, alternaque regna profanis
Decertata odiis, sontesque evolvere Thebas,

O Goddess! say, shall I deduce my rhymes
From the dire nation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's stern decree,
And Cadmus searching round the spacious sea?
How with the serpent's teeth he sow'd the soil,
And reap'd an iron harvest of his toil?
Or how from joining stones the city sprung,
While to his harp divine Amphion sung?
Or shall I Juno's hate to Thebes resound,
Whose fatal rage th' unhappy monarch found?
The sire against the son his arrows drew;
O'er the wide fields the furious mother flew,
And while her arms a second hope contain,
Sprung from the rocks, and plung'd into the main.
But wave what'er to Cadmus may belong,
And fix, O Muse! the barrier of thy song

Pierius menti calor incidit. Unde jubetis
Ire, deæ gentisne canam primordia diræ ?
Sidonios raptus, et inexorabile pactum

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Legis Agenoreæ ? scrutantemque æquora Cadmum?
Longo retro series, trepidum si martis operti
Agricolam infandis condentem prælia sulcis
Expediam, penitusque sequar quo carmine muris
Jusserit Amphion Tyrios accedere montes:
Unde graves iræ cognata in moenia Baccho

Quod sævæ Junonis opus; cui sumpserit arcum
Infelix Athamas, cur non expaverit ingens
Ionium, socio casura Palæmone mater.

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