In praise of such deliv'rance, and hold forth
The brimming cup: your deities and ours
Are now the same; then drink, and freely too.
So saying, he twisted round his rev'rend locks
A variegated poplar wreath, and fill'd
His right hand with a consecrated bowl.
At once all pour libations on the board.
All offer pray'r. And now the radiant sphere
Of day descending, eventide drew near.
When first Potitius with the priests advanc'd,
Begirt with skins, and torches in their hands.
High piled with meats of sav'ry taste, they ranged
The chargers, and renewed the grateful feast.
Then came the Salii, crown'd with poplar too
Circling the blazing altars; here the youth
Advanced, a choir harmonious; there were heard
The rev'rend seers responsive; praise they sung,
Much praise in honour of Alcides' deeds;
How first, with infant gripe, two serpents huge
He strangled, sent from Juno; next they sung,
How Troja and the Oechalia he destroyed,
Fair cities both, and many a toilsome task
Beneath Eurystheus, (so his step-dame will'd)
Achiev'd victorious. Thou, the cloud-born pair,
Hylæus fierce and Pholos, monstrous twins,
Thou slew'st the Minotaur, the plague of Crete,
And the vast lion of the Nemean rock.
Thee Hell, and Cerberus, Hell's porter, fear'd,
Stretch'd in his den upon his half-gnaw'd bones.
Thee no abhorred form, not e'en the vast
Typhoeus could appal, though clad in arms.
Hail, true born son of Jove, among the Gods
At length enroll'd, nor least illustrious thou,
Haste thee propitious, and approve our songs;"
Thus hymn'd the chorus; above all they sing
The cave of Cacus, and the flames he breath'd.
The whole grove echoes, and the hills rebound.
The rites perform'd all hasten to the town. The king, bending with age, held as he went Eneas and his Pallas by the hand,
Vith much variety of pleasing talk
Short'ning the way. Eneas, with a smile,
Looks round him, charm'd with the delightful scene
And many a question asks, and much he learns
Of heroes far renown'd in ancient times.
Then spake Evander. These extensive groves
Were once inhabited by fawns and nymphs
Produced beneath their shades, and a rude race
of men, the progeny uncouth of elms
And knotted oaks. They no refinement knew
Of laws or manners civilized, to yoke
The steer, with forecast provident to store
The hoarded grain, or manage what they had,
But browsed like beasts upon the leafy boughs,
Or fed voracious on their hunted prey.
An exile from Olympus, and expell'd
His native realm by thunder-bearing Jove,
First Saturn came. He from the mountains drew
This herd of men untractable and fierce,
nd gave them laws; and call'd his hiding-place,
nis growth of forests, Latium. Such the peace
His land possess'd, the golden age was then,
So fam'd in story; till by slow degrees
Far other times, and of far diff'rent hue,
Succeeded thirst of gold and thirst of blood.
Then came Ausonian bands, and armed hosts
From Sicily, and Latium often changed
Her master and her name. At length arose
Kings, of whom Tibris of gigantick form
Was chief, and we Italians since have call'd
The river by his name; thus Albula
(Sɔ was the country call'd in ancient days)
Was quite forgot. Me from my native land
An exile, thro' the dang`rous ocean driv'n,
Resistless fortune and relentless fate
Placed where thou see'st me. Phœbus, and
The nymph Carmentis, with maternal care,
Attendant on my wand'rings, fix'd me here.
He said, and show'd him the Tarpeian rock,
And the rude spot, where now the capitol
Stands all magnificent and bright with gold,
Then overgrown with thorns. And yet e'en then
The swains beheld that sacred scene with awe;
The grove, the rock, inspired religious fear.
This grove, he said, that crowns the lofty top
Of this fair hill, some deity, we know,
Inhabits, but what deity we doubt.
Th' Arcadians speak of Jupiter himself,
That they have often seen him, shaking here
His gloomy Egis, while the thunder-storms
Came rolling all around him. Turn thy eyes,
Behold that ruin; those dismantled walls,
Where once two towns, Ianiculum—
By Janus this, and that by Saturn built,
Saturnia. Such discourse brought them beneath
The roof of poor Evander, thence they saw,
Where now the proud and stately forum stands,
The grazing herds wide scatter'd o'er the field.
Soon as he enter'd-Hercules, he said,
Victorious Hercules, on this threshold trod,
These walls contain'd him, humble as they are
Dare to despise magnificence, my friend,
Prove thy divine descent by worth divine,
Nor view with haughty scorn this mean abode.
So saying, he led Eneas by the hand,
And plac'd him on a cushion stuff'd with leaves,
Spread with the skin of a Libistian bear.
[The Episode of Venus and Vulcan omitted]
While thus in Lemnos Vulcan was employed
Awaken'd by the gentle dawn of day,
And the shrill song of birds beneath the eave!
Of his low mansion, old Evander rose.
His tunick, and the sandals on his feet,
And his good sword well-girded to his side,
A panther's skin dependent from his left,
And over his right shoulder thrown aslant,
Thus was he clad. Two mastiffs followed him,
His whole retinue and his nightly guard.
OVID. TRIST. LIB. V. ELEG. XII
You bid me write t'amuse the tedious hours,
And save from with'ring my poetick pow'rs.
Hard is the task, my friend, for verse should flo
From the free mind, not fetter'd down by wo;
Restless amidst unceasing tempests tost,
Whoe'er has cause for sorrow, I have most.
Would you bid Priam laugh, his sons all slain,
Or childless Niobe from tears refrain,
Join the gay dance, and lead the festive train?
Does grief or study most befit the mind,
To this remote, this barb'rous nook confin'd?
Could you impart to my unshaken breast,
The fortitude by Socrates possess'd,
Soon would it sink beneath such woes as mine,
For what is human strength to wrath divine?
Wise as he was, and Heav'n pronounc'd him so,
My sufferings would have laid that wisdom low.
Could I forget my country, thee and all,
And e'en th' offence to which I owe my fall,
Yet fear alone would freeze the poet's vein, While hostile troops swarm o'er the dreary plain Add that the fatal rust of long disuse
Unfits me for the service of the muse.
Thistles and weeds are all we can expect
From the best soil impov'rish'd by neglect ;
Unexercis'd, and to his stall confin'd,
The fleetest racer would be left behind;
The best built bark that cleaves the wat'ry way,
Laid useless by, would moulder and decay-
No hope remains that time shall me restore,
Mean as I was, to what I was before.
Think how a series of desponding cares
Benumbs the genius, and its force impairs.
How oft, as now on this devoted sheet,
My verse constrain'd to move with measur'd feet,
Reluctant and laborious limps along,
And proves itself a wretched exile's song.
What is it tunes the most melodious lays?
"Tis emulation and the thirst of praise,
A noble thirst, and not unknown to me,
While smoothly wafted on a calmer sea.
But can a wretch like Ovid pant for fame :
No, rather let the world forget my name.
Is it because that world approv'd my strain,
You prompt me to the same pursuit again?
No, let the Nine th' ungrateful truth excuse,
charge my hopeless ruin on the Muse,
And, like Perillus, meet my just desert,
The victim of my own pernicious art.
Fool that I was, to be so warn'd in vain,
And shipwreck'd once to tempt the deep again
Ill fares the bard in this unletter'd land,
Nono to consult, and none to understand.
The purest verse has no admirers here,
Their own rude language only suits their ear.
Rude as it is, at length familiar grown,
I learn it, and almost unlearn my own-
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