The chargers, and renew'd 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 reverend feers refponfive; praise they sung,
Much praise in honour of Alcides' deeds;
How first with infant gripe two ferpents huge
He ftrangled, fent from Juno; next they fung,
How Troja and Oechalia he deftroy'd,
Fair cities both, and many a toilsome task
Beneath Eurystheus (so his stepdame will'd)
Achieved victorious. Thou, the cloud-born pair,
Hylæus fierce and Pholus, monftrous twins,
Thou flew'ft 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 fon of Jove, among the gods
At length enroll'd, nor least illuftrious thou,
Haste thee propitious, and approve our fongs!—
Thus hymn'd the chorus; above all they fing
The cave of Cacus, and the flames he breathed.
The whole grove echoes, and the hills refound.
The rites perform'd, all haften to the town.
The king, bending with age, held as he went
Æneas, and his Pallas by the hand,
With much variety of pleafing talk
Shortening the way. Eneas, with a smile,
Looks round him, charm'd with the delightful
fcene,
And many a question asks, and much he learns Of heroes far renown'd in ancient times.
Then spake Evander : "These extenfive groves Were once inhabited by fawns and nymphs Produced beneath their fhades, and a rude race 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 beafts 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,
And gave them laws and call'd his hiding place
This growth of forefts, Latium. Such the peace
His land poffeff'd, the golden age was then,
So famed in story; till by flow degrees
Far other times, and of far different hue,
Succeeded, thirst of gold and thirst of blood.
Then came Aufonian bands, and armed hofts
From Sicily, and Latium often changed
Her master and her name.
Kings, of whom Tybris of gigantic form
Was chief; and we Italians fince have call'd
The river by his name; thus Albula
(So was the country call'd in ancient days)
Was quite forgot. Me from my native land
An exile, through the dangerous ocean driven,
Refiftless fortune and relentless fate,
Placed where thou feeft me.
The nymph Carmentis, with maternal care
Attendant on my wanderings, 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 fwains beheld that facred fcene with awe;
The grove, the rock, infpired religious fear.
This grove, he faid, that crowns the lofty top
Of this fair hill, fome deity, we know,
Inhabits, but what deity we doubt.
The Arcadians speak of Jupiter himself,
That they have often seen him, shaking here
His gloomy Ægis, while the thunder-ftorms
Came rolling all around him. Turn thine
Behold that ruin; thofe difmantled 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 ftands,
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 defcent by worth divine,
Nor view with haughty scorn this mean abode.
So faying, he led Æneas by the hand,
And placed him on a cushion stuff'd with leaves, Spread with the skin of a Lybistian bear.
[The Episode of Venus and Vulcan omitted.] While thus in Lemnos Vulcan was employ'd, Awaken'd by the gentle dawn of day, And the fhrill fong of birds beneath the eaves Of his low manfion, old Evander rofe. His tunic, and the fandals 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 follow'd him, His whole retinue and his nightly guard.
OVID. TRIST. LIB. V. ELEG. XII.
OU bid me write to amuse the tedious hours,
And fave from withering my poetic
Hard is the task, my friend, for verse should flow
From the free mind, not fetter'd down by woe;
Restless amidst unceasing tempefts toff'd,
Whoe'er has caufe for forrow, I have most.
Would you bid Priam laugh, his fons all flain;
Or childless Niobe from tears refrain,
Join the gay dance, and lead the festive train?
Does grief or study moft befit the mind
To this remote, this barbarous nook confined?
Could
you impart to my unfhaken breast
The fortitude by Socrates poffeff'd,
Soon would it fink beneath fuch woes as mine,
For what is human ftrength to wrath divine?
Wife as he was, and Heaven pronounced him fo,
My fufferings would have laid that wifdom low.
Could I forget my country, thee and all,
And e'en the offence to which I owe my fall,
Yet fear alone would freeze the poet's vein,
While hoftile troops fwarm o'er the dreary plain.
Add that the fatal ruft of long disuse
Unfits me for the fervice of the Mufe.
Thiftles and weeds are all we can expect
From the best foil impoverish'd by neglect;
Unexercised, and to his stall confined,
The fleetest racer would be left behind;
The best built bark that cleaves the watery 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 defponding cares
Benumbs the genius, and its force impairs.
How oft, as now, on this devoted fheet,
My verfe constrain'd to move with measured feet,
Reluctant and laborious limps along,
And proves itself a wretched exile's fong.
What is it tunes the most melodious lays?
'Tis emulation and the thirst of praise,
A noble thirst, and not unknown to me,
While fmoothly wafted on a calmer fea.
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