For fo it pleas'd the fates, whom left you blame, I'll tell a true tale to confirm the fame.
When in my mother's womb full ripe I lay,
Ready the first hour to behold the day,
And the at point to be deliver'd ftrait,
And to unlade her of her royal freight,
My birth-hour was delay'd, and that fad night
A fearful vifion did the queen affright.
In a fon's ftead, to please the aged fire,
She dreamt she had brought forth a brand of fire.
Frighted, the rifes, and to Priam goes;
To the old king this ominous dream fhe fhows;
He to the priest; the priest doth this return,
That the child born fhall ftately Ilium burn.
Better than he was 'ware, the prophet guefs'd,
For lo! a kindled brand flames in my breast.
To prevent fate, a peasant I was held,
Till my fair fhape all other fwains excell'd;
And gave the doubtful world affurance good,
Your Paris was deriv❜d from royal blood.
Amid the Idean fields, there is a place Remote, full of high trees,
Of the green mantled earth,
where in thick rows, The oak, the elm, the pine, the pitch-tree grows, Here never yet did browze the wanton ewe, Nor from his plot the flow ox lick the dew. The favage goat, that feeds among the rocks, Hath not graz'd here, nor any of their flocks. Hence the Dardanian walls I might efpy, The lofty towers of Ilium reared high. Hence I the feas might from the firm land fee, Which to behold, I lean'd me on a tree.
Believe me, for I speak but what is true,
Down from the sky, with feather'd pinions, flew
The nephew to great Atlas, and doth ftand,
With golden Caduceus in his hand.
This, as the gods to me thought good to fhow,
I hold it good, that you the fame should know.
Three goddeffes behind young Hermes move;
Great Juno, Pallas, and the Queen of Love;
Who as in pomp and pride of gait they pass,
Scarce with their weight they bend the tops of grass.
Amaz'd I start, and endlong ftands my hair,
When Maia's fon thus fays; Abandon fear,
Thou courteous fwain, that to these groves repairest,
And freely judge, which of these three is fairest.
And left I should this curious fentence fhun,
He tells me by Jove's fentence all is done.
And to be judge, I no way can efchew.
This having faid, up thro' the air he flew.
I ftrait took heart-a-grace, and grew more bold;
And there their beauties one by one behold.
Why am I made the judge to give this doom?
Methinks all three are worthy to o'ercome.
To injure two fuch beauties what tongue dare?
Or to prefer one, where they be all so fair?
Now this feems faireft, now again that other;
Now would I speak, and now my thoughts I fmother:
And yet at length the praise of one most sounded,
And from that one my prefent love is grounded.
The goddeffes out of their earnest care,
And pride of beauty to be held most fair,
Seek, with large alms, and gifts of wond'rous price,
To their own thoughts my cenfure to entice.
Juno the wife of Jove doth first inchant me;
To judge her fair eft, fhe a crown will grant me.
Pallas her daughter, next doth undertake me;
Give her the prize, and valiant the will make me.
I ftrait devife which can moft pleasure bring,
To be a valiant foldier, or a king.
Laft Venus fmiling, came with such a grace,
As if the fway'd an empire in her face :
Let not (faid the) these gifts the conqueft bear,
Combats and kingdoms are both fraught with fear.
I'll give thee what thou lov'ft beft (lovely (wain)
The fairest faint that doth on earth remain,
Shall be thine own: make thou the conqueft mine,
Fair Iæda's fairest daughter shall be thine.
This faid, when with myself I had devised,
And her rich gift and beauty jointly prized;
Venus the victor o'er the rest is plac'd,
Juno and Pallas leave the mount difgrac'd.
Mean time my fate a profperous courfe had run,
And by known figns King Priam call'd me fon.
The day of my reftoring is kept holy
Among the faints days, confecrated folely
To my remembrance, being a day of joy
For ever in the calendars of Troy.
As I wish you, I have been wifh'd by others; The fairest maids by me would have been mothers: Of all my favours, I bestow'd not any,
You only may enjoy the loves of many.
Nor by the daughters of great dukes and kings,
Have I alone been fought, whofe marriage rings
I have turn'd back; but by a ftrain more high,
By nymphs and fairies, fuch as never die.
No fooner were you promis'd as my due,
But I all hated, to remember you;
Waking, I faw your image; if I dreamt,
Your beauteous figure ftill appear'd to tempt,
And urge this voyage; till your face excelling,
Thefe eyes beheld my dreams were all of Helen.
Image how your face fhould now incite me,
Being feen, that unfeen did so much delight me.
If I was fcorch'd fo far off from the fire,
How am I burnt to cinders thus much nigher!
Nor could I longer owe myself this treasure,
But thro' the ocean I must search my pleasure.
The Phrygian hatchets to the roots are put
Of the Idean pines; afunder cut,
The wood-land mountain yielded me large fees,
Being defpoil'd of all her talleft trees.
From whence we have fquar'd out unnumber'd beams,
That must be wafh'd within the marine streams.
The grounded oaks are bow'd, tho' ftiff as fteel,
And to the tough ribs is the bending keel
Woven by fhipwrights craft; then the main mast,
Across whofe middle is the fail-yard plac❜d,
Tackles and fails; and next you may difcern
Our painted gods upon the hooked stern :
The god that bears me on my happy way,
And is my guide, is Cupid.
In which the laft ftroke of the hammer's heard
Within our navy, in the eaft appear'd :
And I muft now launch forth (fo the fates please)
To feek adventures in the Agean feas.
My father and my mother move delay,
And by intreaties would inforce my stay:
They hang about my neck, and with their tears
Woo me, defer my journey; but their fears
Can have no power to keep me from thy fight:
And now Cafiandra, full of fad affright,
With loofe difhevel'd trammels, madly fkips,
Just in the way betwixt me and my ships:
O whither wilt thou headlong run? the cries;
Thou beareft fire with thee, whofe fmoke up flies
Unto the heavens (O Jove!) thou little feareft
What quenchlefs flames thou thro' the water beareft.
Caffandra was too true a prophetefs;
Her quenchlefs flame the spake of (I confess)
My hot defires burn in my breast so fast,
That no red furnace hotter flames can caft.
I pass the city-gates, my bark I board,
The favourable winds calm gales afford,
And fill my fails; unto your land I fteer,
For whither elfe his courfe fhould Faris bear?
Your husband entertains me as his gueft,
And all this happ'neth by the gods behest.
He fhews me all his paftures, parks, and fields,
And every rare thing Lacedæmon yields.
He holds himself much pleafed with my being,
And nothing hides that he esteems worth feeing.
I am on fire, till I behold your face,
Of all Achaia's kingdom the fole grace.
All other curious objects I defy,
Nothing but Helen can content mine eye:
Whom when I faw, I ftood transform'd with wonder,
Senfelefs, as one ftruck dead by Jove's fharp thunder,
As I revive, my eyes I roll and turn,
Whilst my flam'd thoughts with hotter fancies burn:
Even fo, as I remember, look'd love's queen,
When he was last in Phrygian Ida feen;
Unto which place by fortune I was train'd,
Where, by my cenfure, the the conqueft gain'd.
But had
you made a fourth in that contention,
Of Venus' beauty there had been no mention :
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