Wrapp'd in a new-flain ox's ample hide :
Swift at the word he caft his fcreen afide,
Sprung to the prince, embrac'd his knee with tears,
And thus with grateful voice addrefs'd his ears:
O prince! O friend! lo! here thy Medon
stands;

Ah! ftop the hero's unrefifted hands,
Incens'd too juftly by that impious brood
Whofe guilty glories now are fet in blood.
To whom Ulyffes with a pleafing eye:
Be bold, on friendship and my fon rely;
Live an example for the world to read,
How much more fafe the good than evil deed:
Thou, with the Heaven-taught Bard, in peace
refort

From blood and carnage to yon open court:

Me other work requires---With timorous awe From the dire scene th' exempted two withdraw, Scarce fure of life, look round, and trembling move To the bright altars of Protector Jove,

Mean while Ulyffes fearch'd the dome, to find
If yet there live of all th' offending kind.
Not one! complete the bloody tale he found,
All steep'd in blood, all gafping on the ground.
So when, by hollow fhores, the fisher train
Sweep with their arching nets the hoary main,
And Icarce the methy toils the copious draught
contain,

All naked of their element, and bare,
The fishes pant and gafp in thinner air;
Wide o'er the fands are spread the stiffening prey,
Till the warm fun exhales their foul away.

And now the king commands his fon to call
Old Euryclea to the deathful hall:
The fon obfervant not a moment stays:
The aged governess with speed obeys:
The founding portals inftant they display;
The matron moves, the prince directs the way.
On heaps of death the ftern Ulyffes stood,
All black with duft, and cover'd thick with blood.
So the grim lion from the flaughter comes,
Dreadful he glares, and terribly he foams,
His breaft with marks of carnage painted o'er,
His jaws all dropping with the buli's black

gore.

Soon as her eyes the welcome object met, The guilty fall'n, the mighty deed complete; A fcream of joy her feeble voice effay'd: The hero check'd her, and compos'dly faid--Woman, experienc'd as thou art, control Indecent joy, and feaft thy fecret foul. Tinfult the dead, is cruel and unjust; Fate and their crime have funk them to the duft. Nor heeded thefe the cenfure of mankind; The good and bad were equal in their mind. Juftly the price of worthleffnefs they paid, And each now wails an unlamented fhade. But thou, fincere, O Euryclea! fay What maids difhonour us, and what obey?

Then the: In these thy kingly walls remain (My fon) full fifty of the handmaid train, Taught by my care to cull the fleece, or weave, And fervitude with pleafing tasks deceive; Of these, twice fix purfue their wicked way, Nor me, nor chafte Penelope obey; Nor fits it that Telemachus command

(Young as he is) his mother's female band.

Hence to the upper chambers let me fly,
Where dumbers foft now close the royal eye;
There wake her with the news--the matron
cry'd.

Not fo, (Ulyffes more fedate reply'd)

Bring first the crew who wrought these guilty deeds:

In hafte the matron parts; the king proceeds:
Now to difpofe the dead, the care remains
To you, my fon, and you, my faithful fwains;
Th' offending females to that talk we doom,
To wash, to scent, and purify the room.
Thefe (every table cleans'd, and every throne,
And all the melancholy labour done)
Drive to yon court, without the palace wall,
There the revenging fword fhall imite them all;
So with the fuitors let them mix in duft,
Stretch'd in a long oblivion of their lust.

He faid: the lamentable train appear, Each vents a groan, and drops a tender tear; Each beav'd her mournful burthen, and beneath The porch, depos'd the ghaftly heaps of death. The chief fevere, compelling each to move, Urg'd the dire task imperious from above. With thirsty sponge they rub the tables o'er, (The wains unite their toil) the walls, the floor, [gore. Wafh'd with th' effufive wave, are purg'd of Once more the palace fet in fair array, To the bafe court the females take their way; There compafs'd close between the dome and wall, (Their life's laft fcene) they trembling wait their fall.

Then thus the prince: To these shall we afford A fate fo pure as by the martial sword! To thefe, the nightly proffitutes to shame, And bafe revilers of our house and name?

Thus fpeaking, on the circling wall he ftrung
A fhip's tough cable, from a column hung;
Near the high top he strain'd it strongly round,
Whence no contending foot could reach the
ground.

Their heads above connected in a row,
They beat the air with quivering feet below:
Thus, on fome tree hung ftruggling in the fnare,
The doves or thrushes flap their wings in air.
Soon fled the foul impure, and left behind
The empty corfe to waver with the wind.

Then forth they led Melanthius, and began Their bloody work: they lopp'd away the man, Morfel for dogs! then trimm'd with brazen fheers

The wretch, and fhorten'd of his nose and ears;
His hands and feet laft felt the cruel fteel:
He roar'd, and torments gave his foul to hell---
They wafb, and to Ulyffes take their way';
So ends the bloody business of the day.
To Euryclea then addrefs'd the king:
Bring hither fire, and hither fulphur bring,
To purge
the palace: then, the queen attend,
And let her with her matron-train defcend;
The matron-train, with all the virgin-band,
Affemble here to learn their lord's command.
Then Euryclea: Joyful I obey,

But caft thofe mean dishonest rags away;
Permit me first the royal robes to bring

fuits this garb the shoulders of a king,

"Bring fulphur straight, and fire,” (the monarch cries)

She hears, and at the word obedient flies.
With fire and fulphur, cure of noxious fumes,
He purg'd the walls, and blood-polluted rooms.
Again the matron fprings with eager pace,
And spreads her lord's return from place to place.

They hear, rufh forth, and inftant round him stand

A gazing throng, a torch in every hand.
They faw, they knew him, and with fond embrace
Each humbly kifs'd his knee, or hand, or face;
He knows them all; in all fuch truth appears,
Ev'n he indulges the fweet joy of tears.

THEN to the queen as in repofe the lay,
The nurse with eager rapture fpeeds her way;
The transports of her faithful heart supply
A fudden youth, and give her wings to fly.
And fleeps my child? the reverend matron cries:
Ulyffes lives! arife, my child, arife!
At length appears the long-expected hour!
Ulyffes comes! the fuitors are no more!
No more they view the golden light of day!
Arife, and bless thee with the glad furvey!
Touch'd at her words, the mournful queen re-
join'd,

Ah! whither wanders thy diftemper'd mind?
The righteous Powers, who tread the starry skies,
The weak enlighten, and confound the wife,
And human thought with unrefifted sway,
Deprefs or raife, enlarge or take away :
Truth, by their high decree, thy voice forfakes,
And Folly, with the tongue of Wisdom, speaks:
Unkind, the fond illufion to impofe !
Was it to flatter or deride my woes?
Never did I a sleep fo fweet enjoy,
Since my dear lord left Ithaca for Troy,
Why must I wake to grieve; and curfe thy fhore,
O Troy !may never tongue pronounce thee
more!

Be gone another might have felt our rage,
But age is facred, and we ipare thy age.

To whom with warmth: My foul a lie difdains;
Ulyffes lives, thy own Ulyffes reigns:
That ftranger, patient of the fuitors' wrongs,
And the rude licence of ungovern'd tongues,
He, he is thine. Thy fon his latent guest
Long knew, but lock'd the fecret in his breaft;
With well-concerted art to end his woes,
And burst at once in vengeance on the foes.
While yet the fpoke, the queen in tranfport
Sprung

Swift from the couch, and round the matron hung;
Faft from her eye defcends the rolling tear,
Say, once more fay, is my Ulyffes here?
VOL. XII.

How could that numerous and outrageous band By one be flain, though by an hero's hand?

I faw it not, the cries, but heard alone,
When death was bufy, a loud dying groan;
The damfel-train turn'd pale at every wound,
Immur'd we fate, and catch'd each paffing found
When death had feiz'd her prey, thy fon attends,
And at his nod the damfel-train defcends;
There terrible in arms Ulyffes stood,
And the dead fuitors almost swam in blood;
Thy heart had leap'd, the hero to survey,
Stern as the furly lion o'er his prey,

Glorious in gore now with fulphureous fires
The dome he purges, now the flame aípires:
Heap'd lie the dead without the palace walls,--
Hafte, daughter, hafte, thy own Ulyffes calls!
Thy every wish the bounteous Gods bestow,
Enjoy the prefent good, and former woe;
Ulyffes lives, his vanquifh'd foes to fee;
He lives to thy Telemachus and thee!

Ah! no; with fighs Penelope rejoin'd, Excels of joy disturbs thy wandering mind; How bless'd this happy hour, fhould he appear, Dear to us all, to me fupremely dear!

Ah! no; fome God the fuitors' deaths decreed,
Some God defcends, and by his hand they bleed;
Blind! to contemn the stranger's righteous cause,
And violate all hofpitable laws!

The good they hated, and the Powers defy'd;
But Heaven is juft, and by a God they dy'd.
For never muft Ulyffes view this shore;
Never the lov'd Ulyffes is no more!
What words (the matron cries) have reach'd
my ears?

Doubt we his prefence, when he now appears?
Then hear conviction: Ere the fatal day
That forc'd Ulyffes o'er the watery way,
A boar fierce-rufhing in the fylvan war
Plough'd half his thigh; I faw, I faw the scar,
And wild with transport had reveal'd the wound;
But ere I fpoke, he rofe, and check'd the found.
$

Then, daughter, hafte away! and if a lie
Flow from this tongue, then let thy fervant die!
To whom with dubious joy the queen replies:
Wife is thy foul, but errors feize the wife;
The works of Gods what mortal can furvey?
Who knows their motives? who fhall trace their
way?

But learn we inftant how the fuitors trod
The paths of death, by man, or by a God.

Thus fpeaks the queen, and no reply attends,
But with alternate joy and fear defcends;
At every step debates her lord to prove !
Or, rushing to his arms, confefs her love!
Then gliding through the marble valves, in state
Oppos'd, before the fhining fire the fate.
The monarch, by a column high enthron'd,
His eye withdrew, and fix'd it on the ground;
Curious to hear his queen the filence break:
Amaz'd the fate, and impotent to speak;
O'er all the man her eyes the rolls in vain,
Now hopes, now fears, now knows, then doubts
again.

At length Telemachus---Oh! who can find
A woman like Penelope unkind?

Why thus in filence? why with winning charms
Thus flow, to fly with rapture to his arms?
Stubborn the breast that with no transport glows,
When twice ten years are país'd of mighty woes :
To foftnefs loft, to ipoufal love unknown,
The Gods have form'd that rigid heart of stone!
O my Telemachus! the queen rejoin'd,
Distracting fears confound my labouring mind;
Powerless to speak, I fcarce uplift my eyes,
Nor dare to queftion; doubts on doubts arise.
Oh! deign he, if Ulyffes, to remove
Thefe boding thoughts, and what he is, to prove!
Pleas'd with her virtuous fears, the king replies,
Indulge, my fon, the cautions of the wife;
Time hall the truth to fure remembrance bring:
This garb of poverty belies the king;

No more.This day our deepest care requires,
Cautious to act what thought mature infpires.
If one man's blood, though mean, ditain our
hands,

The homicide retreats to foreign lands;
By us, in heaps th' illuftrious peerage falls,
Th' important deed our whole attention calls.
Be that thy care, Telemachus replies,
The world confpires to speak Ulyffes wife;
For wisdom all is thine! lo, I obey,
And dauntless follow where you lead the way;
Nor fhalt thou in the day of danger find
Thy coward fon degenerate lag behind.

Then inftant to the bath (the monarch cries)
Bid the gay youth and fprightly virgins rife,
Thence all defcend in pomp and proud array,
And bid the dome refound the mirthful lay;
While the fwift lyrift airs of rapture fings,
And forms the dance refponfive to the strings.
That hence th' eluded paffengers may fay,
Lo! the queen weds! we hear the spousal lay!
The fuitors' death unknown, till we remove
Far from the court, and act infpir'd by Jove.
Thus spoke the king: th' obfervant train obey,
At once they hathe, and drefs in proud array:
The lyrift ftrikes the ftring; gay youths advance,
And fair-zon'd damfels form the sprightly dance.

The voice attun'd to inftrumental founds,
Afcends the roof; the vaulted roof rebounds;
Not unobierv'd: the Greeks eluded fay

Lo! the queen weds! we hear the spousal lay!
Inconftant to admit the bridal hour.
Thus they---but nobly chafte fhe weds no more.
Mean while the weary'd king the bath afcends;
With faithful cares Eurynome attends,
O'er every limb a shower of fragrance sheds:
Then, drefs'd in pomp, magnificent he treads.
The Warrior-Goddels gives his frame to shine
With majefty enlarg'd, and grace divine.
Back from his brows in wavy ringlets fly
His thick large locks of hyacinthine dye.
As by fome artist, to whom Vulcan gives
His heavenly skill, a breathing image lives;
By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,
And the pale filver glows with fufile gold:
So Pallas his heroic form improves
With bloom divine, and like a God he moves;
More high he treads, and iffuing forth in state,
Radiant before his gazing confort fate.
And, O my queen! he cries, what power above
Has fteel'd that heart, averfe to fpoufal love
Canft thou, Penelope, when Heaven reftores
Thy loft Ulyffes to his native fhores,
Canft thou, oh cruel! unconcern'd furvey
Thy loft Ulyffes, on this fignal day?
Hafte, Euryclea, and dispatchful spread
For me, and me alone, th' imperial bed:
My weary nature craves the balm of reft:
But Heaven with adamant has arm'd her breaft.
Ah! no; the cries, a tender heart I bear,
A foe to pride; no adamant is there;
And now, ev'n now it melts! for fure I fee
Once more Ulyffes, my belov'd, in thee!
Fix'd in my foul as when he fail'd to Troy,
His image dwells: then hafte the bed of joy!
Hafte, from the bridal bower the bed tranflate,
Fram'd by his hand, and be it drefs'd in ftate!

Thus fpeaks the queen, ftill dubious, with dif
guife;

Touch'd at her words, the king with warmth replies:

Alas, for this! what mortal strength can move
The enormous burthen, who but Heaven above?
It mocks the weak attempts of human hands;
But the whole earth must move, if Heaven com.
mands.

Then hear fure evidence, while we difplay
Words feal'd with facred truth, and truth obey:
This hand the wonder-fram'd; an olive spread
Full in the court its ever verdant head.
Vaft as fome mighty column's bulk, on high
The huge trunk rofe, and heav'd into the sky;
Around the tree I rais'd a muptial bower,
And roof'd defenfive of the ftorm and fhower;
The spacious valve, with art inwrought, conjoins;
And the fair dome with polifh'd marble fhines.
I lopp'd the branchy head; aloft in twain
Sever'd the bole, and smooth'd the shining grain;
Then pofts, capacious of the frame, I raife,
And bore it, regular, from fpace to space :
Athwart the frame, at equal distance, lie
Thongs of tough hides, that boast a purple dye;
Then, polishing the whole, the finish'd mould
With filver fhone, with elephant, and gold.

But if o'erturn'd by rude, ungovern'd hands,
Or ftill inviolate the olive stands,

'Tis thine, O queen, to say: and now impart,
If fears remain, or doubts diftract thy heart?

While yet he speaks, her powers of life decay,
She fickens, trembles, falls, and faints away:
At length recovering, to his arms she flew,
And strain'd him close, as to his breast she grew:
The tears pour'd down amain: and, Oh the
cries,

Let not against thy spouse thine anger rise!
Oh! vers'd in every turn of human art,
Forgive the weakness of a woman's heart!
The righteous Powers, that mortal lots dispose,
Decree us to fuftain a length of woes,
And from the flower of life, the bliss deny
To bloom together, fade away, and die.
Oh let me, let me not thine anger move,
That I forbore, thus, thus to speak my love;
Thus in fond kiffes, while the transport warms,
Pour out my foul, and die within thy arms!
I dreaded fraud ! Men, faithless men, betray
Our eafy faith, and make the sex their prey:
Against the fondness of my heart I ftrove,
'Twas caution, O my lord! not want of love:
Like me had Helen fear'd, with wanton charms
Ere the fair mifchief fet two worlds in arms;
Ere Greece rofe dreadful in th' avenging day;
Thus had the fear'd, fhe had not gone astray.
But Heaven, averfe to Greece, in wrath decreed
That the should wander, and that Greece should
bleed:

Blind to the ills that from injuftice flow,

She colour'd all our wretched lives with woe.
But why these forrows when my lord arrives?
1 yield! I yield! my own Ulyffes lives!
The fecrets of the bridal bed are known
To thee, to me, to Actoris alone,

(My father's present in the spousal hour,
The fole attendant on our genial bower).
Since what no eye has feen thy tougue reveal'd,
Hard and diftruftful as I am, I yield.

Touch'd to the foul, the king with rapture
hears,
[tears.
Hangs round her neck, and speaks his joy in
As to the shipwreck'd mariner, the shores
Delightful rife, when angry Neptune roars;
Then, when the furge in thunder mounts the sky,
And gulf'd in crowds at once the failors die;
If one more happy, while the tempest raves,
Out-lives the tumult of conflicting waves,
All pale, with ooze deform'd, he views the strand,
And plunging forth with transport grafps the land:
The ravish'd queen with equal rapture glows,
Clafps her lov'd lord, and to his bofom grows.
Nor had they ended till the morning ray:
But Pallas backward held the rifing day,
The wheels of night retarding, to detain
The
gay Aurora in the wavy main:

Whole flaming steeds, emerging through the night,
Beam o'er the eastern hills with ftreaming light.
At length Ulyffes with a figh replies :
Yet Fate, yet cruel Fate, repofe denies;
A labour long, and hard, remains behind;
By Heaven above, by Hell beneath enjoin'd:
For, to Tirefias through th' eternal gates
Of hell I trode, to learn my future fates

But end we here-the night demands repofe,
Be deck'd the couch! and peace a while, my woes
To whom the queen: Thy word we shall obey,
And deck the couch; far hence be woes away;
Since the juft Gods, who tread the starry plains,
Reftore thee fafe, fince my Ulyffes reigns.
But what thofe perils Heaven decrees, impart;
Knowledge may grieve, but fear diftracts the heart;
To this the king: Ah! why must I disclose
A dreadful story of approaching woes ?
Why in this hour of transport wound thy ears,
When thou must learn what I must speak with

tears?

Heaven, by the Theban ghoft, thy fpoufe decreesÿ
Torn from thy arms, to fail a length of feas;
From realm to realm a nation to explore
Who ne'er knew falt, or heard the billows roar,
Nor faw gay veffel ftem the furgy plain,
A painted wonder, flying on the main;
An oar my hand muft bear; a fhepherd eyes
The unknown inftrument with ftrange furpeife,
And calls a corn-van: this upon the plain
I fix, and hail the monarch of the main ;
Then bathe his altars with the mingled gore
Of victims vow'd, a ram, a bull, a boar:
Thence [wift re-failing to my native fhores,
Due victims flay to all the ethereal Powers.
Then Heaven decrees in peace to end my days.
And teal myself from life by flow decays;
Unknown to pain, in age refign my breath,
When late ftern Neptune points the shaft of death;
To the dark grave retiring as to reft;
My people bleffing, by my people blefs'd.

[play

Such future fcenes th' all-righteous Powers dilBy their dread feer, and fuch my future day. To whom thus firm of foul: If ripe for death, And full of days, thou gently yield thy breath: While Heaven a kind releafe from ills forefhows; Triumph, thou happy victor of thy woes!

But Euryclea with difpatchful care,
And fage Eurynome, the couch prepare:
Inftant they bid the blazing torch display
Around the dome an artificial day;
Then to repose her steps the matron bends,
And to the queen Eurynomè defcends;
A torch the bears, to light with guiding fires
The royal pair; the guides them, and retires.
Then inftant his fair fpoufe Ulyffes led
To the chafte love-rites of the nuptial bed.

And now the blooming youths and sprightly fair
Cease the gay dance, and to their reft repair;
But in difcourfe the king and confort lay,
While the foft hoats ftole nnperceiv'd away:
Intent he hears Penelope difclofe
A mournful story of domeftic woes,
His fervants infults, his invaded bed,

How his whole flocks and herds exhaufted bled,
His generous wines dishonour'd shed in vam,
And the wild riots of the suitor train.
The king alternate a dire tale relates,
Of wars, of triumphs, and disastrous fates;
All he unfolds; his liftening fpoufe turns pale
With pleafing horror at the dreadful tale!
Sleepless devours each word; and hears how

flain

Cicons on Cicons fwell th' enfanguin'd plain;

# Tirefias:

How to the land of Lote unblefs'd he fails:
And images the rills, and flowery vales!
How, dafh'd like dogs, his friends the Cyclops tore,
(Not unreveng'd) and quaff'd the spouting gore;
How, the loud ftorms in prifon bound, he fails
From friendly Eolus with profperous gales;
Yet Fate withstands! a fudden tempeft roars,
And whirls him groaning from his native fhores:
How, on the barbarous Læftrigonian coaft,
By favage hands his fleet and friends he loft;
How scarce himself furviv'd; he paints the bower,
The fpells of Circe, and her magic power;
His dreadful journey to the realms beneath,
To feek Tirefias in the vales of death;
How, in the doleful mansions he survey'd
His royal mother, pale Anticlea's shade;
And friends in battle flain, heroic ghosts!
Then how, unarm'd, he pafs'd the Syren-coafts,
The juftling rocks where fierce Charybdis raves,
And howling Scylla whirls her thunderous waves,
The cave of death! How his companions flay
The oxen facred to the God of Day,

Till Jove in wrath the rattling tempeft guides,
And whelms th' offenders in the roaring tides:
How, ftruggling through the furge, he reach'd the

fhores

Of fair Ogygia, and Calypfo's bowers;

Where the gay blooming nymph constrain'd his ftay,

With fweet reluctant amorous delay;
And promis'd, vainly promis'd, to bestow
Immortal life, exempt from age and woe:
How, fav'd from ftorms, Phæacia's coafts he trod,
By great Alcinous honour'd as a God,

Who gave him laft his country to behold,
With change of raiment, brafs, and heaps of gold.
He ended, finking into sleep, and shares
A fweet forgetfulness of all his cares.

Soon as foft flumber eas'd the toils of day,
Minerva rushes through the aërial way,
And bids Aurora, with her golden wheels,
Flame from the ocean o'er the eastern hills:
Uprofe Ulyffes from the genial bed,

And thus with thought mature the monarch faid:
My Queen! my Confort! through a length of

years,

We drank the cup of forrow mix'd with tears,
Thou, for thy lord: while me th' immortal Powers
Detain'd reluctant from my native fhores.
Now, bleft again by Heaven, the queen display,
And rule our palace with an equal fway:
Be it my care, by loans, or martial toils,
To throng my empty folds with gifts or spoils.
But now I hafte to blefs Laertes' eyes
With fight of his Ulyffes ere he dies;
The good old man, to wafting woes a prey,
Weeps a fad life in folitude away.
But hear, though wife! This morning fhall un-
The deathful fcene; on heroes, heroes roll'd.
Thou with thy maids within the palace ftay,
From all the fcene of tumult far away!

[fold

He spoke, and fheath'd in arms inceffant flies To wake his fon, and bid his friends arife. To arms! aloud he cries; his friends obey, With glittering arms their manly limbs array, And pafs the city gate; Ulyffes leads the way.. Now flames the rofy dawn, but Pallas fhrouds The latent warriors in a veil of clouds.

CYLLENIUS now to Pluto's dreary reign
Conveys the dead, a lamentable train!
The golden wand, that caufes fleep to fly,
Or in foft flumber feals the wakeful eye,
That drives the ghosts to realms of night or day;
Points out the long uncomfortable way.
Trembling the fpectres glide, and plaintive vent
Thin, hollow fcreams, along the deep descent.
As in the cavern of fome rifted den,
Where flock nocturnal bats, and birds obfcene;
Clufter'd they hang, till at fome fudden fhock,
They move, and murmurs run through all the rock;
So cowering fled the fable heaps of ghosts,
And fuch a fcream fill'd all the difmal coafts.
And now they reach'd the earth's remoteft ends.
And now the gates where evening Sol defcends,

And Leucas' rock, and Ocean's utmost streams,
And now pervade the dusky land of Dreams,
And reft at laft, where fouls unbodied dwell
In ever-flowering meads of afphodel.
The empty forms of men inhabit there,
Impaffive femblance, images of air!
Nought elfe are all that shin'd on earth before
Ajax and great Achilles are no more!
Yet, fill a mafter ghoft, the rest he aw'd,
The reft ador'd him, towering as he trod ;
Still at his fide in Neftor's fon furvey'd,
And lov'd Patroclus ftill attends his hade.

New as they were to that infernal shore,
The fuitors ftopp'd, and gaz'd the hero o'er,
When, moving flow, the regal form they view'd
Of great Atrides; him in pomp purfaed