He was the firft to fee, and first to show
His friends the marks of the fuccefsful blow.
Nor fhall thy valour want the praises due,
He faid; a virtuous envy feiz'd the crew.
They fhout; the fhouting animates their hearts,
And all at once employ their thronging darts;
But, out of order thrown, in air they join;
And multitude makes fruftrate the defign.
With both his hands the proud Ancæus takes,
And flourishes his double-biting ax :

Then, forward to his fate, he took a ftride
Before the rest, and to his fellows cry'd,
Give place, and mark the difference, if you can,
Between a woman-warrior and a man;
The boar is doom'd; nor, though Diana lend
Her aid, Diana can her beast defend.

Thus boasted he; then ftretch'd, on tiptoe stood,
Secure to make his empty promise good.

But the more wary beast prevents the blow,
And upward rips the groin of his audacious foe.
Ancæus falls; his bowels from the wound
Rush out, and clotted blood distains the ground.
Pirithous, no small portion of the war,

Prefs'd on, and shook his lance: to whom from far,
Thus Thefeus cry'd: O stay, my better part,
My more than mistress; of my heart, the heart.
The ftrong may fight aloof: Ancæus try'd
His force too near, and by prefuming dy'd:
He faid, and while he fpake, his javelin threw;
Hiffing in air th' unerring weapon flew;
B 4

But

But on an arm of oak, that stood betwixt
The marks-man and the mark, his lance he fixt.

Once more bold Jason threw, but fail'd to wound
The boar, and flew an undeferving hound;
And through the dog the dart was nail'd to ground.
Two fpears from Meleager's hand were fent,
With equal force, but various in th' event:
The firft was fix'd in earth, the second stood

}

On the boar's bristled back, and deeply drank his blood.
Now while the tortur'd favage turns around,
And fings about his foam impatient of the wound,
The wound's great author close at hand provokes
His rage, and plies him with redoubled strokes;
Wheels as he wheels; and with his pointed dart
Explores the nearest paffage to his heart.
Quick and more quick he fpins in giddy gires,
Then falls, and in much foam his foul expires.
This act with shouts heaven-high the friendly band
Applaud, and ftrain in theirs the victor's hand.
Then all approach the flain with vast surprize,
Admire on what a breadth of earth he lies;
And, fcarce fecure, reach out their fpears afar,
And blood their points, to prove their partnership of war,
But he, the conquering chief, his foot impress'd

On the ftrong neck of that destructive beast ;
And, gazing on the nymph with ardent eyes,
Accept, faid he, fair Nonacrine, my prize,
And, though inferior, fuffer me to join
My labours, and my part of praife, with thine:

At

At this prefents her with the tufky head
And chine, with rifing briftles roughly spread.
Glad, fhe receiv'd the gift; and feem'd to take
With double pleafure, for the giver's fake.
The reft were feiz'd with fullen difcontent,
And a deaf murmur through the fquadron went :
All envy'd; but the Theftyan brethren show'd
The leaft refpect, and thus they vent their spleen aloud :
Lay down thofe honour'd fpoils, nor think to share,
Weak woman as thou art, the prize of war:
Ours is the title, thine a foreign claim,
Since Meleagrus from our lineage came.
Truft not thy beauty; but restore the prize,
Which he, befotted on that face and eyes,

Would rend from us. At this, inflam'd with fpite, From her they fnatch'd the gift, from him the giver's right.

But foon th' impatient prince his fauchion drew,

And cry'd, Ye robbers of another's due,

Now learn the difference, at your proper coft,
Betwixt true valour, and an empty boaft.
At this advanc'd, and fudden as the word,
In proud Plexippus' bofom plung'd the fword:
Toxeus amaz'd, and with amazement flow,
Or to revenge, or ward the coming blow,
Stood doubting; and, while doubting thus he stood,
Receiv'd the steel bath'd in his brother's blood.

Pleas'd with the first, unknown the fecond news,
Althea to the temples pays their dues

For

}

For her fon's conquest; when at length appear
Her grifly brethren stretch'd upon the bier :
Pale, at the sudden sight, she chang'd her cheer,
And with her cheer her robes; but hearing tell
The cause, the manner, and by whom they fell,
'Twas grief no more, or grief and rage were one
Within her foul; at laft 'twas rage alone;
Which burning upwards in fucceffion dries
The tears that stood confidering in her eyes.
There lay a log unlighted on the earth :
When the was labouring in the throes of birth:
For th' unborn chief the fatal fifters came,
And rais'd it up, and tofs'd it on the flame:
Then on the rock a fcanty measure place
Of vital flax, and turn'd the wheel apace;
And turning fung, To this red brand and thee,
O new-born babe, we give an equal destiny :
So vanish'd out of view. The frighted dame
Sprung hafty from her bed, and quench'd the flame :
The log in fecret lock'd, he kept with care,
And that, while thus preferv'd, preserv'd her heir.
This brand the now produc'd; and first she strows
The hearth with heaps of chips, and after blows;
Thrice heav'd her hand, and, heav'd, the thrice
reprefs'd:

The fifter and the mother long conteft,

Two doubtful titles in one tender breaft;

And now her eyes and cheeks with fury glow,
Now pale her cheeks, her eyes with pity flow;

Now

Now lowering looks prefage approaching storms,
And now prevailing love her face reforms :

Refolv'd, the doubts again; the tears, fhe dry'd
With blufhing rage, are by new tears supply'd :
And as a fhip, which winds and waves affail,
Now with the current drives, now with the gale,
Both oppofite, and neither long prevail.
She feels a double force, by turns obeys
Th' imperious tempeft, and th' impetuous feas:
So fares Althea's mind; firft the relents
With pity, of that pity then repents :
Sifter and mother long the fcales divide,
But the beam nodded on the fifter's fide.
Sometimes the foftly sigh'd, then roar'd aloud
But fighs were ftifled in the cries of blood.

The pious impious wretch at length decreed,
To please her brother's ghofts, her son should bleed;
And when the funeral flames began to rife,
Receive, fhe faid, a fifter's facrifice :

A mother's bowels burn: high in her hand,
Thus while she spoke, fhe held the fatal brand;
Then thrice before the kindled pile she bow'd,
And the three Furies thrice invok'd aloud :
Come, come, revenging fifters, come and view
A fifter paying a dead brother's due :

A crime I punish, and a crime commit;

But blood for blood, and death for death, is fit:
Great crimes must be with greater crimes repaid,
And fecond funerals on the former laid.

}

Let