Such were the godlike arts that led And gain'd a place among the gods; Wild from the defert and unbroke, In vain they foam'd, in vain they star'd, He tam'd them to the lash, and bent them to the yoke. He shook off dull mortality, And loft the monarch in the god. Bright Juno then her awful filence broke, And thus th' affembled deities bespoke. Troy, fays the goddess, perjur'd Troy has felt Lay heavy on her head, and funk her to the dust. That durft defraud th' immortals of their pay, H 3 } Her Her guardian gods renounc'd their patronage, No more does Hector's force the Trojans shield, My vengeance fated, I at length refign To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line: And take his ftation in the skies; The thin remains of Troy's afflicted host, But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd, Remov'd by feas, from the difaftrous shore, May endless billows rife between, and storms unnumber'd roar. Still let the curft detested place Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithlefs race, } May tigers there, and all the favage kind, Sad folitary haunts and filent deserts find; In gloomy vaults, and nooks of palaces, May th' unmolested lioness Her brinded whelps fecurely lay, Or, coucht, in dreadful flumbers waste the day. Th' illuftrious exiles unconfin'd Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind. In vain the fea's intruding tide Europe from Afric shall divide, And part the fever'd world in two : Through Afric's fands their triumphs they fhall fpread, And the long train of victories pursue Riches the hardy foldiers fhall defpife, In fearch of the forbidden ore; Those glittering ills, conceal'd within the mine, The piercing colds and fultry heats, Till ftorms and tempefts their pursuits confine; This only law the victor fhall restrain, If none his guilty hand employ To build again a second Troy, If none the rash design pursue, Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew. Thrice fhould Apollo's felf the city raise Thrice fhould my favourite Greeks his works confound, Thrice fhould her captive dames to Greece return, The mighty ftrains, in lyric numbers bound, THE THE VESTAL FROM OVID DE FASTIS, LIB. III. EL. I. "Blanda quies victis furtim fubrepit ocellis, &c." A S the fair Vestal to the fountain came, (Let none be startled at a Veftal's name :) Tir'd with the walk, she laid her down to rest, And to the winds expos'd her glowing breast, To take the freshness of the morning-air, And gather'd in a knot her flowing hair; While thus the refted, on her arm reclin'd, The hoary willows waving with the wind, And feather'd choirs that warbled in the shade, And purling ftreams that through the meadow stray'd, In drowsy murmurs lull'd the gentle maid. The God of War beheld the virgin lie, The God beheld her with a lover's eye; And, by fo tempting an occasion press'd, The beauteous maid, whom he beheld, poffefs'd: Conceiving as the flept, her fruitful womb Swell'd with the Founder of immortal Rome.. |