Seek one, who may with Heav'n itself engage,
And with his Shield repell the Thund'rer's Rage. 110,
Why should they rather dare thro' Hell to rove,
Than with heap'd Mountains scale the Walls of Jove?
This faid, he ceas'd.His dreary Palace takes
The Signal dire, and to the Centre shakes.
His Earth and that which overhangs him, nod
Beneath his Voice, and own the speaking God.
Great was the Shock, as when his Brother rolls
His Eyes around, and bends the starry Poles.
He then rejoins.
For thee, who durft explore
The facred Void inviolate before,
What Pains can I devise?-half fhrunk with Fear,
His Arms and Chariot gone, proceeds the Seer,
Yet ftill the Badges of his Order grace
The Chief extinct, and fhade his clay-cold Face;
Tho' black, a Fillet decks his awful Brow,
And his Hand grafps a wither'd Olive-Bough.
If in this holy Synod I may speak,
And in my own Defence my Silence break,
Grand End of all Things, but to me who knew
Each mystic Cause, that mortal Eye can view)
Source of Existence, thy ftern Threats refign
And to my Pray'r thy willing Ears incline;
Nor deign to punish one who strictly fears
To disobey, and all thy Laws reveres.
No Rape Herculean drew me to thy Coast,
Nor was illicit Venery my Boast;
135 No Rape Herculean] The Reader muft obferve, that Hercules himself did not defign a Rape upon Proferpine, but only went down to Hell with a View of rescuing Thefeus and Pirithous, who had attempted it, from the Punishment that Pluto had intended for them.
On these Infignia for the Truth rely,
Alas! my coward Heart ne'er foar'd fo high.
Let not our Chariot pale thy Confort's Cheek,
Nor Cerberus with Grief his Cavern seek.
An Augur once by Phabus much carefs'd,
The gloomy Void of Chaos I attest,
(For why by Sol should Pluto's Subject fwear)
That for no Crime this Punishment I bear.
This facred Truth the Cretan's Urn must know,
This facred Truth impartial Minos show.
Bought of
my. treach'rous Wife for curfed Gold, And in the Lift of Argive Chiefs enroll'd, Refign'd to Fate, I fought the Theban Plain, Whence flock the Shades that fcarce thy Realms
When (how my Soul yet dreads!) an Earthquake came
Big with Destruction, and my trembling Frame,
Rapt from the Midst of gaping Thousands, hurl'd
To Night eternal in thy nether World.
What were my Thoughts, while thro' Earth's hollow
Womb
I roll'd upheld in Air, and loft in Gloom?
Nought to my Comrades or my Country left,
Nor of my captive Life by Thebes bereft.
Doom'd never more to breathe Lernaan Air,
Or to my wond'ring Friends, inurn'd, repair.
No fculptur'd Tomb to lengthen out my Fame,
No weeping Parents, nor odorous Flame :
To thee the whole of fun'ral Pomp I bear,
Nor fhall I ought with thefe fleet Courfers dare,
Or murmur to become a fubject Shade:
I wave the Honours that were whilom paid:
No Prefcience of the future doft thou want,
Secure of all the Deftinies can grant.
But check thy Rage, the Deities regard,
And for my Spouse reserve the dire Reward:
If, in the Procefs of advancing Age,
She fall, a Victim worthier of thy Rage.
The Monarch heard, nor hearing disapprov❜d,
Tho' loth to fpare, and fcorning to be mov'd.
The Lion thus, when menac'd with the Light
Of obvious Weapons, calls forth all his Might;
But, if his proftrate Foe declines the Strife,
Stalks o'er him, and difdains fo cheap a Life.
Mean while they seek the late-redoubted Car,
Adorn'd with Fillets, and the Wreaths of War,
Astonish'd, as by none it was furvey'd,
Or crush'd in Conflict, or a Capture made.
The Troops, fufpicious now, recoiling yield,
Walk round the Traces of the treach'rous Field,
And all prefer the Sweets of vital Breath
To Stygian Pomp, and an inglorious Death.
While at a Distance in the Road to Fame
Adraftus guides his Troops, Palamon came,
The Meffenger of Woe, and trembling cries,
(For scarce he trusted to his conscious Eyes,
v. 175. This Allufion to the Generofity of the Lion has the Sanction of all the Naturalifts that ever treated on this Animal to conClaudian in his Eulogy on Stilicon, Lib. 4. fays,
Obvia profternas, proftrataque more Leonum
Defpicias alacres ardent quum fternere Tauros,
Tranfiliunt prædas humiles. Hac ipfe magiftrâ
Dat veniam victis, hac exhortante calores
Horrificos, & quæ nunquam nocitura timentur
Jurgia, contentus folo terrore coercet.
Tho ftation'd near the Chief ingulph'd, he faw,
All pale and fad, the discontinuous Flaw.)
O Monarch, turn thy Steps, and feek with Speed
The Doric Turrets, and our native Mead;
If haply, where we left them, they remain.
No Arms we need; the Battle bleeds in vain.
Our unavailing Swords why wield we more?
When Earth (a Prodigy unfeen of Yore)
Absorbs our Warriors. From beneath our Feet
The Ground we press seems striving to retreat.
I view'd myself the Path to Night profound,
Oeclides rufhing thro' the sudden Wound,
Than whom of mortal Race was none more dear,
To the bright Lamps that gild yon azure Sphere.
Long did I ftretch my fault'ring Hands, and strain 205
My Voice; at length convinc'd, that Help was vain,
I ply'd the founding Lafh, and quickly left
The steaming Champaign, in huge Furrows cleft.
Nor common is the Ill; the Mother knows
Her Sons, and Favour to the Thebans shows.
Thus he. The Monarch doubts, till Mopfus came,
And trembling Attor, who report the fame.
But Fame, who loves each Terror to enhance,
Relates, that more had fhar'd the fame Mifchance.
Spontaneous then the Soldiers quit their Ground, 215
Nor wait, as Custom was, the Trumpet's Sound.
v. 216. Nor wait as Cuftom was] Lactantius in his Note on this Paffage furnishes us with a Piece of Antiquity, that, I believe, few of our Readers are acquainted with: viz. that among the Ancients every Soldier, previously to his being enlifted, took an Oath, that he would never leave the Battle, before the Sounding of a Retreat.
Yet was their Progrefs flow. They scarcely trail
Their Legs along, fo much did Fear prevail.
Their very Steeds, as fenfible, oppose
Their Flight, regardless of repeated Blows;
Nor, won by Blandishments, increase their Speed,
Or lift their Eyes from the terrific Mead.
The Thebans pufh'd the Charge, till Vefper led
Bright Cynthia's Steeds, with dusky Shades o'erspread :
Now Night, that foon their Terrors must increase, 225
Imposes a fhort Interval of Peace.
What were their Aspects, when they took their Fill
Of Sorrow's Draught? full many a pearly Rill
Stole from their Helms unlac'd. Nought then could
Their jaded Spirits that was wont to please.
They throw afide their Bucklers wetted o'er,
Such as they were. Nor cleans'd their Darts of Gore,
Nor prais'd their Horses, nor for Battle dreft
The high-rais'd Honours of the shining Crest.
Such was their Grief they scarcely care to close
Their Wounds, and staunch the Blood that freely flows,
Or with the due Resource of Food and Reft
Renew their Strength, by Toils of War oppreft:
All dwell with Tears on the late Augur's Praise,
His Love of Truth, and Merit of the Bays.
v. 225. Now Night] Milton has fome beautiful Lines on the fame Subject.
Now Night her Course began, and over Heav'n
Inducing Darknefs, grateful Truce impos'd,
And Silence on the odious Din of War.
v. 239. All dwell] The Reader cannot but fympathize with the Grecians on the Lofs of their Patriot and Prophet Amphiaraus, whose
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