TRANSFORMATION OF SCYLLA.
Now Glaucus, with a lover's hafte, bounds o'er
The fwelling waves, and feeks the Latian fhore.
Meffena, Rhegium, and the barren coaft
Of flaming Ætna, to his fight are loft:
At length he gains the Tyrrhene feas, and views
The hills where baneful philtres Circe brews;
Monsters in various forms around her prefs;
As thus the God falutes the Sorceress :
O Circe, be indulgent to my grief,
And give a love-fick deity relief.
Too well the mighty power of plants I know,
To those my figure and new fate I owe.
Against Meffena, on th' Aufonian coast,
I Scylla view'd, and from that hour was loft..
In tenderest founds I fued; but still the fair
Was deaf to vows, and pitilefs to prayer.
If numbers can avail, exert their power;
Or energy of plants, if plants have more.
I ask no cure; let but the virgin pine
With dying pangs, or agonies, like mine.
No longer Circe could her flame disguise,
But to the fuppliant God Marine, replies:
When maids are coy, have manlier aims in view;
Leave those that fly; but thofe that like, pursue.
If love can be by kind compliance won;
See, at your feet, the Daughter of the Sun.
Sooner, faid Glaucus, fhall the ash remove
From mountains, and the fwelling furges love;
Or humble fea-weed to the hills repair;
E'er I think any but my Scylla fair.
Straight Circe reddens with a guilty shame,
And vows revenge for her rejected flame.
Fierce liking oft' a spite as fierce creates ;
For love refus'd, without averfion, hates.
To hurt her hapless rival, fhe proceeds;
And, by the fall of Scylla, Glaucus bleeds.
Some fascinating beverage now she brews,
Compos'd of deadly drugs and baneful juice.
At Rhegium she arrives; the ocean braves,
And treads with unwet feet the boiling waves.
Upon the beach a winding bay there lies,
Shelter'd from feas, and fhaded from the skies:
This ftation Scylla chofe; a foft retreat
From chilling winds, and raging Cancer's heat.
The vengeful Sorcerefs vifits this recefs;
Her charm infuses, and infects the place.
Soon as the nymph wades in, her nether parts
Turn into dogs; then at herself she starts.
A ghaftly horror in her eyes appears;
But yet she knows not who it is fhe fears;
In vain fhe offers from herself to run,
And drags about her what she strives to shun.
Opprefs'd with grief the pitying God appears,
And fwells the rifing furges with his tears;
From the diftreffed Sorceress he flies;
Her art reviles, and her address denies :
Whilft hapless Scylla, chang'd to rocks, decrees
Destruction to thofe barks that beat the seas.
Here bulg'd the pride of fam'd Ulyffes' fleet;
But good Æneas 'fcap'd the fate he met.
As to the Latian fhore the Trojan ftood,
And cut with well-tim'd oars the foaming flood:
He weather'd fell Charybdis: but ere-long
The skies were darken'd, and the tempest strong.
Then to the Libyan coast he stretches o'er ;
And makes at length the Carthaginian fhore.
Here Dido, with an hofpitable care,
Into her heart receives the wanderer.
From her kind arms th' ungrateful hero flies;
The injur'd queen looks on with dying eyes,
Then to her folly falls a facrifice.
Æneas now fets fail, and, plying, gains
Fair Eryx, where his friend Aceftes reigns;
Begs leave through black Avernus to retire,
And view the much-lov'd manes of his fire.
Straight the divining virgin rais'd her eyes;
And, foaming with a holy rage, replies:
O thou, whofe worth thy wondrous works proclaim;
The flames, thy piety; the world, thy fame;
Though great be thy request, yet shalt thou fee
Th' Elyfian fields, th' infernal monarchy;
Thy parent's shade: this arm thy steps fhall guide:
To fuppliant virtue nothing is deny'd.
She spoke, and pointing to the golden bough,
Which in th' Avernian grove refulgent grew,
Seize that, the bids: he liftens to the maid;
Then views the mournful mansions of the dead;
The shade of great Anchises, and the place
By Fates determin'd to the Trojan race.
As back to upper light the hero came,
He thus falutes the vifionary dame:
O, whether fome propitious deity,
Or lov'd by thofe bright rulers of the sky!
With grateful incense I shall stile you one,
And deem no godhead greater than your own.
'Twas you reftor'd me from the realms of night,
And gave me to behold the fields of light;
To feel the breezes of congenial air,
And nature's bleft benevolence to fhare.
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