Then bear him to the Margin of the Field,

His Sides fupported in a double Shield;
And promise, he shall quickly reingage,
When Strength shall second his undaunted Rage.
But he himself perceives his failing Breath,
And shudd'ring at the chilling Hand of Death,
Reclines on Earth, and cries-I die in Peace;
But pity me, O Sons of fertile Greece!

I ask you not these Relics to convey
To Argos, or the Seat of regal Sway,
Regardless of my Body's future Doom,

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1070

Nor anxious for the Honours of the Tomb.
Curft are the brittle Limbs, which thus defert

1075

The Soul, when most their Strength they should exert.

All I folicit farther, is the Head

Of Menalippus; for my Jav'lin fped,

And stretch'd, I trust, the Daftard on the Plains :
Then hafte, Hippomedon, if ought remains

1080

v. 1964. His Sides] The Ancients were wont to carry their Generals who fell in Battle on a Shield; as we learn from Virgil, Book 10.

-At focii multo gemitu, lacrymisque,

Impofitum fcuto referunt Pallanta frequentes.

Again, Book 10.

At Laufum fociii exanimum, fuper arma ferebant.

The lofing a Shield in Combat was looked upon as the greates Difgrace that could befall a Man :

Tecum Philippos & celerem fugam

Senfi, relictâ non bene parmulâ,

fays Horace: hence the famous Saying of the Spartan Lady, when fhe her Son a Shield; Aut cum illo, aut in illo;' ¿. e. ' Eigave ther return with it, or upon it,'-Part of this Note belongs Bernartius.

Of

Of Argive Blood; and thou, Arcadian Youth,

In Praise of whom Fame e'en detracts from Truth:
Go, valiant Capaneus, thy Country's Boaft,

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And now the greatest of th' Argolic Hoft.
All mov'd: but Capaneus arrives the first,
Where breathing yet he lay, deform'd with Duft,
And took him on his Shoulders. Down his Back
Flows the warm Blood, and leaves a Crimson Track.
Such look'd Alcides, when in Times of Yore
He enter'd Argos with the captive Boar.
O'ercome with Joy and Anger, Tydeus tries
To raise himself, and meets with eager Eyes
The deathful Object, pleas'd as he survey'd
His own Condition in his Foe's pourtray'd.
The fever'd Head impatient he demands,
And grafps with Fervour in his trembling Hands,

1090

1095

v. 1095. The fever'd Head] We are now come to that remarkable Action of Tydeus which fo much offended Mr. Pope, that, in vindicating a Paffage of Homer, where Achilles wishes, he could eat the Flesh of Hector, he fays, However, this is much more tolerable 'than a Passage in the Thebaid of Statius, where Tydeus in the very Pangs of Death, is represented as gnawing the Head of his Enemy.'-But with Deference to the Memory of that great Man, I muft beg Leave to offer fomething in my Author's Defenee, which I fhall leave the Reader to confider.

First, with Respect to the Fact taken abfolutely, and in itself, the Poet does not recite it as worthy of Imitation, or praise his Hero for the Perpetration of it; but expreffes his Abhorrence of it, and informs us, that Tifiphone fuggefted it to Tydeus, and that Pailas herself, his ftaunch Patronefs, was fo difgufted as utterly to defert him these are Circumftances that fufficiently abfolve the Poet from the Cenfure of making his favourite Character so monfirously brutish and inhuman.

:

Secondly, if we confider it comparatively, we must obferve, that the Will and Intention, which only render moral Actions culpable were the fame both in Achilles and Tydeus. The former wishes he could eat his Enemy's Flesh, the latter does it; fo that the only С с

Diffe

While he remarks the restless Balls of Sight,
That fought and shun'd alternately the Light.
Contented now, his Wrath began to cease,
And the fierce Warrior had expir❜d in Peace;

But the fell Fiend a Thought of Vengeance bred,

Unworthy of himfelf, and of the dead.

Mean while, her Sire unmov'd, Tritonia came,

To crown her Hero with immortal Fame :
But, when she faw his Jaws befprinkled o'er

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With spatterd Brains, and ting'd with living Gore;
Whilft his imploring Friends attempt in vain
To calm his Fury, and his Rage restrain:
Again, recoiling from the loathfome View,

The sculptur'd Target o'er her Face fhe threw; 1110
And, her Affection chang'd to fudden Hate,

Refign'd Oenides to the Will of Fate:

But, ere fhe join'd the Senate of the Skies,
Purg'd in Ilyfos her unhallow'd Eyes.

Difference is, that Tydeus had a better Appetite, and lefs Averfion to human Flesh than Achilles.

Laftly, if it is really a Fault, the Commiflion of it was owing to the extravagant Veneration that Statius had for Homer, as it is evidently imitated from the abovementioned Paffage in the Iliad: fo that the original Thought will still be chargeable on that great Author.

v. 114. Ilyfos] Is a River of Elifium, which the Poet terms guiltless, because it makes guiltless, i. e. purifies. It is opposed to Styx, a Stream of Hell; and called in Greek Havors, from Avors, that is to fay, Solution because Souls after the Solution of their corporeal Bonds defcend to those Fields.

THE

THE ARGUMENT.

HE Thebans, fpirited up by Eteocles, to revenge

THE

the Infult offered to Menalippus's Body, renew the Fight with great Ardour. Polynices, almoft overcome with Grief for the Death of Tydeus, laments very pathetically over him. Hippomedon opposes the Enemy's Onfet with unparalleled Fortitude. Lycus wounds him. He is affifted by Alcon, and kills Mopfus, Polites, and many others of Note. The Fury Tifiphone draws him off from attacking the Thebans by a false Infinuation of Adraftus's being taken Prijoner. In the mean Time the Grecians are worsted, and the Body of Tydeus is wrefted from them : Hippomedon returns to the Combat, pursues them into the River; and after a great Slaughter of them, is oppofed by the God of the Stream himself, and being caft on Shore, is overpowered by their Numbers, and flain, notwithstanding Juno's Interpofition with Jupiter in his Behalf. Parthenopæus then signalizes himself by his Feats of Archery, and is prefented by Diana with a Set of poisoned Arrows. She follicits Apollo in his Favour, but to no Purpose. He is near being flain by Amphion, but the Goddess and Dorceus rescue him. At length Dryas, at the Inftigation of Mars, flays him, and is killed himself by an invifible Agent, Supposed to be Diana herself. The young Arcadian just at the Point of Death gives his laft Commands to Dorceus, with which the Book concludes.