I, to confirm the mutual joys we shared,
For his abode a capital prepared:
Argos the seat of sovereign rule I chose ;
Fair in the plan the future palace rose,
Where my Ulysses and his race might reign,
And portion to his tribes the wide domain.
To them my vassals had resign'd a soil,
With teeming plenty to reward their toil.
There with commutual zeal we both had strove
In acts of dear benevolence and love:
Brothers in peace, not rivals in command,
And death alone dissolved the friendly band!
Some envious power the blissful scene destroys:
Vanish'd are all the visionary joys;
The soul of friendship to my hope is lost
Fated to wander from his natal coast!
He ceased; a gust of grief began to rise:
Then from the rites of purity repair,
And with keen gust the savoury viands share.
Meantime, with genial joy to warm the soul,
Bright Helen mix'd a mirth inspiring bowl:
Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage
The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage;
To clear the cloudy front of wrinkled Care,
240 And dry the tearful sluices of Despair:
Charm'd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind
All sense of woe delivers to the wind.
Though on the blazing pile his parent lay,
Or a loved brother groan'd his life away,
Or darling son, oppress'd by ruffian force,
Fell breathless at his feet, a mangled corse;
From morn to eve, impassive and serene,
The man entranced would view the deathful scene.
These drugs, so friendly to the joys of life,
Fast streams a tide from beauteous Helen's eyes: 250 Bright Helen learn'd from Thone's imperial wife;
Fast for the sire the filial sorrows flow;
The weeping monarch swells the mighty woe:
Thy cheeks, Pisistratus, the tears bedew
While pictured to thy mind appear'd in view
Thy martial brother:* on the Phrygian plain
Extended pale, by swarthy Memnon slain !
But silence soon the son of Nestor broke,
And melting with fraternal pity spoke:
Frequent, O king, was Nestor wont to raise
And charm attention with thy copious praise;
To crown thy various gifts, the sage assign'd
The glory of a firm capacious mind:
With that superior attribute, controul
This unavailing impotence of soul.
Let not your roof with echoing grief resound,
Now for the feast the friendly bowl is crown'd:
But when from dewy shade emerging bright
Aurora streaks the sky with orient light,
Let each deplore his dead: the rites of woe
Are all, alas! the living can bestow :
O'er the congenial dust enjoin'd to shear
The graceful curl, and drop the tender tear.
Then, mingling in the mournful pomp with you,
I'll pay my brother's ghost a warrior's due,
And mourn the brave Antilochus, a name
Not unrecorded in the rolls of fame :
With strength and speed superior form'd, in fight
To face the foe, or intercept his flight:
Too early snatch'd by fate ere known to me!
I boast a witness of his worth in thee.
Who sway'd the sceptre, where prolific Nile
With various simples clothes the fatten'd soil.
With wholesome herbage mix'd, the direful bane
Of vegetable venom taints the plain;
From Pæon sprung, their patron-god imparts
To all the Pharian race his healing arts.
The beverage now prepared to inspire the feast,
The circle thus the beauteous queen address'd :
Throned in omnipotence, supremest Jove
260 Tempers the fates of human race above;
By the firm sanction of his sovereign will,
Alternate are decreed our good and ill.
To feastful mirth be this white hour assign'd,
And sweet discourse, the banquet of the mind.
Myself, assisting in the social joy,
Will tell Ulysses' bold exploit in Troy:
Sole witness of the deed I now declare;
Speak you, (who saw) his wonders in the war.
Seam'd o'er with wounds, which his own sabre gave,
270 In the vile habit of a village-slave,
The foe deceived, he pass'd the tented plain,
In Troy to mingle with the hostile train.
In this attire, secure from searching eyes,
Till haply piercing through the dark disguise
The chief I challenged; he, whose practised wit
Knew all the serpent mazes of deceit,
Eludes my search: but when his form I view'd
Fresh from the bath with fragrant oils renew'd,
His limbs in military purple dress'd,
280 Each brightening grace the genuine Greek confess'd.
A previous pledge of sacred faith obtain'd,
Till he the lines and Argive fleet regain'd,
To keep his stay conceal'd; the chief declared
The plans of war against the town prepared.
Exploring then the secrets of the state,
Young and mature! the monarch thus rejoins,
In thee renew'd the soul of Nestor shines:
Form'd by the care of that consummate sage,
In early bloom an oracle of age.
Whene'er his influence Jove vouchsafes to shower,
To bless the natal, and the nuptial hour;
From the great sire transmissive to the race,
The boon devolving gives distinguish'd grace.
Such, happy Nestor! was thy glorious doom;
Around thee, full of years, thy offspring bloom,
Expert of arms, and prudent in debate;
The gifts of heaven to guard thy hoary state.
But now let each becalm his troubled breast,
Wash, and partake, serene, the friendly feast.
To move thy suit, Telemachus, delay,
Till heaven's revolving lamp restores the day.
He said, Asphalion swift the laver brings;
Alternate all partake the grateful springs;
He learn'd what best might urge the Dardan fate:
And, safe returning to the Grecian host,
Sent many a shade to Pluto's dreary coast.
Loud grief resounded through the towers of Troy,
290 But my pleased bosom glow'd with secret joy:
For then, with dire remorse and conscious shame,
I view'd the effects of that disastrous flame,
Which, kindled by the imperious queen of love,
Constrain'd me from my native realm to rove:
And oft in bitterness of soul deplored
My absent daughter, and my dearer lord,
Admired among the first of human race,
For every gift of mind and manly grace.
Right well, replied the king, your speech displays The matchless merit of the chief you praise:
Heroes in various climes myself have found,
For martial deeds and depth of thought renown'd;
But Ithacus, unrivall'd in his claim,
May boast a title to the loudest fame:
In battle calm, he guides the rapid storm,
Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.
What wondrous conduct in the chief appear'd,
When the vast fabric of the steed we rear'd!
Some dæmon, anxious for the Trojan doom,
Urged you with great Deïphobus to come,
To explore the fraud; with guile opposed to guile,
Slow-pacing thrice around the insidious pile;
Each noted leader's name you thrice invoke,
Your accent varying as their spouses spoke
The pleasing sounds each latent warrior warm'd,
But most Tydides, and my heart alarm'd:
To quit the steed we both impatient press,
Threatening to answer from the dark recess.
Unmoved the mind of Ithacus remain'd:
And the vain ardours of our love restrain'd:
But Anticlus, unable to controul,
Spoke loud the language of his yearning soul:
Ulysses straight, with indignation fired
(For so the common care of Greece required,)
Firm to his lips his forceful hands applied,
Till on his tongue the fluttering murmurs died.
Meantime Minerva, from the fraudful horse,
Back to the court of Priam bent your course.
Inclement fate! Telemachus replies;
Frail is the boasted attribute of wise:
The leader, mingling with the vulgar host,
Is in the common mass of matter lost :
But now let sleep the painful waste repair
Of sad reflection, and corroding care.
He ceased; the menial fair that round her wait, At Helen's beck prepare the room of state; Beneath an ample portico they spread
But prostrate I implore, oh king! relate
The mournful series of my father's fate:
Each known disaster of the man disclose
370 Born by his mother to a world of woes!
Recite them; nor in erring pity fear
To wound with storied grief the filial ear:
If e'er Ulysses, to reclaim your right,
Avow'd his zeal in council or in fight,
If Phrygian camps the friendly toils attest,
To the sire's merit give the son's request.
Deep from his inmost soul Atrides sigh'd,
And thus indignant to the prince replied:
Heavens! would a soft, inglorious, dastard train
An absent hero's nuptial joys profane!
So with her young, amid the woodland shades,
A timorous hind the lion's court invades,
Leaves in the fatal lair the tender fawns,
Climbs the green cliff or feeds the flowery lawns:
Meantime return'd, with dire remorseless sway
The monarch-savage rends the trembling prey.
With equal fury, and with equal fame,
Ulysses soon shall re-assert his claim.
O Jove, supreme, whom gods and men revere!
390 And thou to whom 'tis given to gild the sphere!
With power congenial join'd, propitious aid
The chief adopted by the martial maid!
Such to our wish the warrior soon restore,
As when contending on the Lesbian shore
His prowess Philomelides confess'd,
The downy fleece to form the slumberous bed;
And o'er soft palls of purple grain, unfold
Rich tapestry, stiff with inwoven gold:
Then through the illumined dome, to balmy rest
The obsequious herald guides each princely guest;
While to his regal bower the king ascends,
And beauteous Helen on her lord attends.
Soon as the morn, in orient purple dress'd,
Unbarr'd the portal of the roseate east,
The monarch rose; magnificent to view,
The imperial mantle o'er his vest he threw :
The glittering zone, athwart his shoulder cast,
A starry falchion low-depending graced ;
Clasp'd on his feet the embroider'd sandals shine;
And forth he moves, majestic and divine:
Instant to young Telemachus he press'd,
And thus benevolent his speech address'd:
Say, royal youth, sincere of soul, report
What cause hath led you to the Spartan court?
Do public or domestic cares constrain
This toilsome voyage o'er the surgy main?
O highly-favour'd delegate of Jove!
(Replies the prince ;) inflamed with filial love,
And anxious hope, to hear my parent's doom,
A suppliant to your royal court I come.
Our sovereign seat a lewd usurping race
With lawless riot and misrule disgrace;
To pamper'd insolence devoted fall
Prime of the flock, and choicest of the stall:
For wild ambition wings their bold desire,
And all to mount the imperial bed aspire.
And loud-acclaiming Greeks the victor bless'd:
Then soon the invaders of his bed and throne
Their love presumptuous shall with life atone.
With patient ear, O royal youth, attend
The storied labours of thy father's friend:
Fruitful of deeds, the copious tale is long,
But truth severe shall dictate to my tongue:
Learn what I heard the sea-born seer relate,
Whose eye can pierce the dark recess of fate.
Long on the Ægyptian coast by calms confined
Heaven to my fleet refused a prosperous wind:
No vows had we preferr'd, nor victim slain!
For this the gods each favouring gale restrain:
Jealous, to see their high behests obey'd:
410 Severe, if men the eternal rights evade
High o'er a gulfy sea, the Pharian isle
Fronts the deep roar of disemboguing Nile:
Her distance from the shore, the course begun
At dawn, and ending with the setting sun,
A galley measures: when the stiffer gales
Rise on the poop, and fully stretch the sails.
There, anchor'd vessels safe in harbour lie,
Whilst limpid springs the failing cask supply.
And now the twentieth sun, descending, laves
420 His glowing axle in the western waves;
Still with expanded sails we court in vain
Propitious winds to waft us o'er the main :
And the pale mariner at once deplores
His drooping vigour and exhausted stores.
When lo! a bright cœrulean form appears,
The fair Eidothea! to dispel my fears;
Proteus her sire divine. With pity press'd,
Me sole the daughter of the deep address'd;
What time, with hunger pined, my absent mates
430 Roam the wild isle in search of rural cates,
Bait the barb'd steel, and from the fishy flood
Appease the afflictive fierce desire of food.
Whoe'er thou art (the azure goddess cries)
Thy conduct ill deserves the praise of wise:
Is death thy choice, or misery thy boast,
That here inglorious on a barren coast
Thy brave associates droop, a meagre train
With famine pale, and ask thy care in vain?
Struck with the kind reproach, I straight reply;
Whate'er thy title in thy native sky,
A goddess sure! for more than mortal grace
Speaks thee descendant of ethereal race:
Yet still retentive, with redoubled might,
Through each vain passive form constrain his flight.
But when, his native shape resumed, he stands
Patient of conquest, and your cause demands,
The cause that urged the bold attempt declare,
And soothe the vanquish'd with a victor's prayer.
The bands relax'd implore the seer to say
What godhead interdicts the watery way?
Who, straight propitious, in prophetic strain
510 Will teach you to repass the unmeasured main.
She ceased, and bounding from the shelfy shore,
Round the descending nymph the waves redounding
High wrapt in wonder of the future deed,
With joy impetuous, to the port I speed:
The wants of nature with repast suffice,
Till night with grateful shade involved the skies,
And shed ambrosial dews. Fast by the deep,
Along the tented shore, in balmy sleep,
Deem not, that here of choice my fleet remains;
Some heavenly power averse my stay constrains:
O, piteous of my fate, vouchsafe to show
(For what's sequester'd from celestial view?)
What power becalms the innavigable seas?
What guilt provokes him, and what vows appease?
I ceased, when affable the goddess cried;
Observe, and in the truths I speak confide:
The oraculous seer frequents the Pharian coast,
From whose high bed my birth divine I boast;
Proteus, a name tremendous o'er the main,
The delegate of Neptune's watery reign.
Watch with insidious care his known abode;
There fast in chains constrain the various god;
Who bound, obedient to superior force,
Unerring will prescribe your destined course.
If, studious of your realms, you then demand
Their state, since last you left your natal land;
Instant the god obsequious will disclose
Bright tracts of glory, or a cloud of woes.
She ceased: and suppliant thus I made reply:
O goddess! on thy aid my hopes rely;
Dictate propitious to my duteous ear,
What arts can captivate the changeful seer;
For perilous the essay, unheard the toil,
To elude the prescience of a god by guile.
Thus to the goddess mild my suit I end.
Then she. Obedient to my rule, attend:
When through the zone of heaven the mounted sun
Hath journey'd half, and half remains to run;
The seer, while zephyrs curl the swelling deep,
Basks on the breezy shore, in grateful sleep,
His oozy limbs. Emerging from the wave,
The Phocæ swift surround his rocky cave,
Frequent and full; the consecrated train
Of her, whose azure trident awes the main:
There wallowing warm, the enormous herd exhales
An oily stream, and taints the noon-tide gales.
To that recess, commodious for surprise
When purple light shall next suffuse the skies,
With me repair; and from thy warrior-band
Three chosen chiefs of dauntless soul command:
Let their auxiliar force befriend the toil;
For strong the god, and perfected in guile.
Stretch'd on the shelly shore, he first surveys
The flouncing herd ascending from the seas;
Their number summ'd, reposed in sleep profound
The scaly charge their guardian god surround:
So with his battening flocks the careful swain
Abides pavilion'd on the grassy plain.
With powers united, obstinately bold
Invade him, couch'd amid the scaly fold:
Instant he wears, elusive of the rape,
The mimic force of every savage shape;
Or glides with liquid lapse a murmuring stream,
Or, wrapt in flame, he glows at every limb.
Our cares were lost. When o'er the eastern lawn,
In saffron robes, the daughter of the dawn
Advanced her rosy steps; before the bay,
Due ritual honours to the gods I pay;
Then seek the place the sea-born nymph assign'd,
With three associates of undaunted mind.
Arrived, to form along the appointed strand
For each a bed, she scoops the hilly sand;
Then, from her azure car the finny spoils
Of four vast Phocæ takes to veil her wiles;
Beneath the finny spoils extended prone,
Hard toil! the prophet's piercing eye to shun;
New from the corse, the scaly frauds diffuse
Unsavoury stench of oil, and brackish ooze :
But the bright sea-maid's gentle power implored,
With nectar'd drops the sickening sense restored.
Thus till the sun had travell'd half the skies, 601
Ambush'd we lie, and wait the bold emprise ;
When, thronging quick to bask in open air,
The flocks of Ocean to the strand repair:
Couch'd on the sunny sand, the monsters sleep:
Then Proteus, mounting from the hoary deep,
Surveys his charge, unknowing of deceit :
(In order told, we make the sum complete:)
Pleased with the false review, secure he lies
And leaden slumbers press his drooping eyes.
Rushing impetuous forth, we straight prepare
A furious onset with the sound of war,
And shouting seize the god : our force to evade
His various arts he soon resumes in aid:
A lion now, he curls a surgy mane;
550 Sudden our bands a spotted pard restrain;
Then, arm'd with tusks, and lightning in his eyes,
A boar's obscener shape the god belies:
On spiry volumes, there, a dragon rides:
Here, from our strict embrace a stream he glides;
And last, sublime, his stately growth he rears,
A tree, and well-dissembled foliage wears.
Vain efforts! with superior power compress'd,
Me with reluctance thus the seer address'd:
Say, son of Atreus, say what god inspired
560 This daring fraud, and what the boon desired?
I thus: O thou, whose certain eye foresees
The fix'd event of Fate's remote decrees;
After long woes, and various toil endured,
Still on this desert isle my fleet is moor'd;
Unfriended of the gales. All-knowing! say,
What godhead interdicts the watery way?
What vows repentant will the power appease,
To speed a prosperous voyage o'er the seas?
To Jove (with stern regard the god replies)
And all the offended synod of the skies,
Just hecatombs with due devotion slain,
Thy guilt absolved, a prosperous voyage gain.
To the firm sanction of thy fate attend!
An exile thou, nor cheering face of friend,
Nor sight of natal shore, nor regal dome,
Shalt yet enjoy, but still art doom'd to roam.
Once more the Nile, who from the secret source
Of Jove's high seat descends with sweepy force,
Must view his billows white beneath thy oar,
And altars blaze along his sanguine shore.
Then will the gods, with holy pomp adored,
To thy long vows a safe return accord.
He ceased; heart-wounded with afflictive pain
(Doom'd to repeat the perils of the main,
A shelfy track and long!) O seer! I cry,
To the stern sanction of the offended sky
My prompt obedience bows. But deign to say,
What fate propitious, or what dire dismay,
Sustain those peers, the reliques of our host,
Whom I with Nestor on the Phrygian coast
Embracing left? Must I the warriors weep,
Whelm'd in the bottom of the monstrous deep?
Or did the kind domestic friend deplore
The breathless heroes on their native shore?
There watch'd this guardian of his guilty fear,
Till the twelfth moon had wheel'd her pale career.
And now, admonish'd by his eye, to court
With terror wing'd conveys the dread report.
Of deathful arts expert, his lord employs
640 The ministers of blood in dark surprise;
And twenty youths in radiant mail incased,
Close ambush'd, nigh the spacious hall he placed. 710
Then bids prepare the hospitable treat:
Vain shows of love to veil his felon-hate!
To grace the victor's welcome from the wars
A train of coursers, and triumphal cars
Magnificent he leads: the royal guest,
Thoughtless of ill, accepts the fraudful feast.
The troop forth-issuing from the dark recess,
650 With homicidal rage the king oppress.
Press not too far, replied the god; but cease
To know, what known will violate thy peace:
Too curious of their doom! with friendly woe
Thy breast will heave, and tears eternal flow.
Part live, the rest, a lamentable train:
Range the dark bounds of Pluto's dreary reign.
Two, foremost in the roll of Mars renown'd,
Whose arms with conquest in thy cause were crown'd,
Fell by disastrous fate; by tempests toss'd,
A third lives wretched on a distant coast.
By Neptune rescued from Minerva's hate, On Gyræ, safe Oïlean Ajax sate,
So, whilst he feeds luxuriant in the stall,
The sovereign of the herd is doom'd to fall.
The partners of his fame and toils of Troy,
Around their lord, a mighty ruin! lie:
Mix'd with the brave, the base invaders bleed;
Egysthus sole survives to boast the deed.
He said; chill horrors shook my shivering soul,
Rack'd with convulsive pangs in dust I roll;
And hate, in madness of extreme despair,
660 To view the sun, or breathe the vital air.
But when, superior to the rage of woe,
I stood restored, and tears had ceased to flow,
Lenitent of grief, the pitying god began-
Forget the brother and resume the man :
To Fate's supreme dispose the dead resign,
That care be Fate's, a speedy passage thine.
Still lives the wretch who wrought the death deplored,
But lives a victim for thy vengeful sword;
Unless with filial rage Orestes glow
670 And swift prevent the meditated blow;
You timely will return a welcome guest,
With him to share the sad funereal feast.
He said: new thoughts my beating heart employ,
My gloomy soul receives a gleam of joy.
Fair hope revives; and eager I addrest
The prescient godhead to reveal the rest.
The doom decreed of those disasterous two
I've heard with pain, but, oh! the tale pursue;
What third brave son of Mars the Fates constrain
680 To roam the howling desert of the main ;
Or, in eternal shade if cold he lies,
His ship o'erwhelm'd: but, frowning on the floods,
Impious he roar'd defiance to the gods;
To his own prowess all the glory gave,
The power defrauding who vouchsafed to save.
This heard the raging ruler of the main;
His spear, indignant for such high disdain,
He launch'd: dividing with his forky mace
The aerial summit from the marble base:
The rock rush'd seaward with impetuous roar,
Ingulf'd, and to the abyss the boaster bore.
By Juno's guardian aid, the watery vast,
Secure of storms, your royal brother pass'd;
Till coasting nigh the cape, where Malea shrouds
Her spiry cliffs amid surrounding clouds;
A whirling gust tumultuous from the shore
Across the deep his labouring vessel bore.
In an ill-fated hour the coast he gain'd,
Where late in regal pomp Thyestes reign'd;
But when his hoary honours bow'd to fate,
Ægysthus govern'd in paternal state.
The surges now subside, the tempest ends;
From his tall ship the king of men descends;
There fondly thinks the gods conclude his toil!
Far from his own domain salutes the soil:
With rapture oft the verge of Greece reviews,
And the dear turf with tears of joy bedews.
Him thus exulting on the distant strand,
A spy distinguish'd from his airy stand;
To bribe whose vigilance, Ægysthus told
A mighty sum of ill-persuading gold:
Provoke new sorrows from these grateful eyes. 750
That chief (rejoin'd the god) his race derives
From Ithaca, and wondrous woes survives;
Laërtes son: girt with circumfluous tides,
He still calamitous constraint abides.
Him in Calypso's cave of late I view'd,
When streaming grief his faded cheek bedew'd.
But vain his prayer, his arts are vain, to move
690 The enamour'd goddess; or elude her love:
His vessel sunk, and dear companions lost,
He lives reluctant on a foreign coast.
But oh, beloved by heaven! reserved to thee
A happier lot the smiling fates decree:
Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway
Matter is changed, and varying forms decay;
Elysium shall be thine; the blissful plains
Of utmost earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns.
Joys ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear,
700 Fill the wide circle of the eternal year:
Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime:
The fields are florid with unfading prime :
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;
But from the breezy deep the blest inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.
This grace peculiar will the gods afford
To thee, the son of Jove, and beauteous Helen's lord.
He ceased, and plunging in the vast profound,
Beneath the god the whirling billows bound.
Then speeding back, involved in various thought,
My friends attending at the shore I sought.
Arrived, the rage of hunger we controul,
Till night with silent shade invests the pole;
Then lose the cares of life in pleasing rest.—
Soon as the morn reveals the roseate east,
With sails we wing the masts, our anchors weigh,
Unmoor the fleet and rush into the sea.
Ranged on the banks, beneath our equal oars
White curl the waves, and the vex'd ocean roars.
Then, steering backward from the Pharian isle,
We gain the stream of Jove-descended Nile;
There quit the ships, and on the destined shore
With ritual hecatombs the gods adore:
Their wrath atoned, to Agamemnon's name
A cenotaph I raise of deathless fame.
These rites to piety and grief discharged,
The friendly gods a springing gale enlarged :
The fleet swift tilting o'er the surges flew
Till Grecian cliffs appear'd a blissful view!
Thy patient ear hath heard me long relate
A story, fruitful of disastrous fate;
And now, young prince indulge my fond request.
Be Sparta honour'd with his royal guest,
Till, from his eastern goal, the joyous sun
His twelfth diurnal race begins to run.
Meantime my train the friendly gifts prepare,
Three sprightly coursers, and a polish'd car:
With these, a goblet of capacious mould,
Figured with art to dignify the gold,
(Form'd for libation to the gods,) shall prove
A pledge and monument of sacred love.
My quick return, young Ithacus rejoin'd,
Damps the warm wishes of my raptured mind:
Did not my fate my needful haste constrain,
Charmed by your speech, so graceful and humane,
Lost in delight the circling year would roll,
While deep attention fix'd my listening soul.
But now to Pyle permit my destined way,
My loved associates chide my long delay:
In dear remembrance of your royal grace,
I take the present of the promised vase;
The coursers, for the champaign sports, retain ;
That gift our barren rocks will render vain :
Horrid with cliffs, our meager land allows
Thin herbage for the mountain goat to browse,
But neither mead nor plain supplies, to feed
The sprightly courser, or indulge his speed:
To sea-surrounded realms the gods assign
Small tract of fertile lawn, the least to mine.
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780 Some whirl the disk, and some the javelin dart.
Aside, sequester'd from the vast resort,
Antinous sate spectator of the sport;
With great Eurymachus, of worth confess'd,
And high descent, superior to the rest;
Whom young Noëmon lowly thus address'd.
My ship, equipp'd within the neighbouring port,
The prince, departing for the Pylian court,
Requested for his speed; but, courteous, say
When steers he home, or why this long delay?
790 For Elis I should sail with utmost speed,
To import twelve mares which there luxurious feed,
And twelve young mules, a strong laborious race,
New to the plough, unpractised in the trace.
Unknowing of the course to Pyle design'd,
A sudden horror seized on either mind :
The prince in rural bower they fondly thought,
Numbering his flocks and herds, not far remote.
Relate, Antinous cries, devoid of guile,
When spread the prince his sail for distant Pyle?
Did chosen chiefs across the gulfy main
Attend his voyage, or domestic train?
Spontaneous did you speed his secret course,
Or was the vessel seized by fraud or force?
With willing duty, not reluctant mind
(Noëmon cried,) the vessel was resign'd.
Who, in the balance, with the great affairs
Of courts, presume to weigh their private cares?
With him, the peerage next in power to you:
And Mentor, captain of the lordly crew,
810 Or some celestial in his reverend form,
Safe from the secret rock and adverse storm,
Pilots the course for when the glimmering ray 880
Of yester dawn disclosed the tender day,
Mentor himself I saw, and much admired-
Then ceased the youth, and from the court retired.
Confounded and appall'd, the unfinish'd game
The suitors quit, and all to council came.
Antinous first the assembled peers address'd,
Rage sparkling in his eyes, and burning in his
breast.
O shame to manhood! shall one daring boy
The scheme of all our happiness destroy?
Fly unperceived, seducing half the flower
Of nobles, and invite a foreign power?
The pondrous engine raised to crush us all,
Recoiling, on his head is sure to fall.
Instant prepare me, on the neighbouring strand,
With twenty chosen mates a vessel mann'd ;
His hand the king with tender passion press'd, 830 For ambush'd close beneath the Samian shore
And, smiling, thus the royal youth address'd:
O early worth! a soul so wise, and young,
Proclaims you from the sage Ulysses sprung.
Selected from my stores, of matchless price,
An urn shall recompense your prudent choice
Not mean the massy mould of silver, graced
By Vulcan's art, the verge with gold enchased;
A pledge the scepter'd power of Sidon gave,
When to his realm I plough'd the orient wave.
His ship returning shall my spies explore:
He soon his rashness shall with life atone,
Seek for his father's fate, but find his own.
With vast applause the sentence all approve; 900
Then rise, and to the feastful hall remove:
Swift to the queen the herald Medon ran,
Who heard the consult of the dire divan:
Before her dome the royal matron stands,
And thus the message of his haste demands.
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