The bold Rutilians, with an equal fpeed,
Sage Venelus dispatch to Diomede.
The king, late griefs revolving in his mind,
These reasons for neutrality affign'd:
Shall I, of one poor dotal town poffeft,
My people thin, my wretched country waste;
An exil'd prince, and on a shaking throne;
Or risk my patron's fubjects, or my own?
You'll grieve the harshness of our hap to hear;
Nor can I tell the tale without a tear.
After fam'd Ilium was by Argives won,
And flames had finish'd what the sword begun;
Pallas, incens'd, pursued us to the main,
In vengeance of her violated fane.
Alone Oileus forc'd the Trojan maid,
Yet all were punish'd for the brutal deed.
A ftorm begins, the raging waves run high,
The clouds look heavy, and benight the sky;
Red sheets of lightning o'er the feas are spread,
Our tackling yields, and wrecks at last fucceed.
'Tis tedious our difaftrous ftate to tell;
Even Priam would have pitied what befel.
Yet Pallas fav'd me from the fwallowing main;
At home new wrongs to meet, as Fates ordain.
Chac'd from my country, I once more repeat
All fuffering feas could give, or war compleat;
For Venus, mindful of her wound, decreed
Still new calamities fhould past fucceed.
Agmon, impatient through fucceffive ills,
With fury, Love's bright Goddess thus reviles:
These plagues in fpite to Diomede are fent;
The crime is his, but ours the punishment.
Let each, my friends, her puny spleen despise,
And dare that haughty harlot of the skies.
The reft of Agmon's infolence complain,
And of irreverence the wretch arraign.
About to answer, his blafpheming throat
Contracts, and fhrieks in fome difdainful note.
To his new skin a fleece of feathers clings,
Hides his late arms, and lengthens into wings.
The lower features of his face extend,
Warp into horn, and in a beak descend.
Some more experience Agmon's destiny;
And, wheeling in the air, like fwans they fly.
These thin remains to Daunus' realms I bring,
And here I reign, a poor precarious king.
TRANSFORMATION OF APPULUS.
Thus Diomedes. Venulus withdraws; Unfped the fervice of the common cause. Puteoli he paffes, and survey'd
A cave long honour'd for its awful fhade.
Here trembling reeds exclude the piercing ray,
Here ftreams in gentle falls through windings stray,
And with a paffing breath cool Zephyrs play.
The goat-herd God frequents the filent place,
As once the wood-nymphs of the fylvan race,
Till Appulus, with a dishonest air,
And grofs behaviour, banish'd thence the fair.
The bold buffoon, whene'er they tread the green,
Their motion mimicks, but with geft obfcene.
Loofe language oft' he utters; but ere long
A bark in filmy net-work binds his tongue.
Thus chang'd, a base wild olive he remains;
The fhrub the coarseness of the clown retains.
TROJAN SHIPS TRANSFORMED TO
Meanwhile the Latians all their power prepare,
'Gainst fortune and the foe to push the war.
With Phrygian blood the floating fields they ftain;
But, fhort of fuccours, ftill contend in vain.
Turnus remarks the Trojan fleet ill-mann'd,
Unguarded, and at anchor near the strand;
He thought; and straight a lighted brand he bore,
And fire invades what 'scap'd the waves before.
The billows from the kindling prow retire;
Pitch, rofin, fearwood, on red wings afpire,
And Vulcan on the feas exerts his attribute of fire.
This when the mother of the Gods beheld,
Her towery crown fhe fhook, and ftood reveal'd;
Her brindled lions rein'd, unveil'd her head,
And, hovering o'er her favour'd fleet, she said;
Cease Turnus, and the heavenly powers respect,
Nor dare to violate what I protect.
Thefe gallies, once fair trees, on Idá stood,
And gave their fhade to each defcending God;
Nor fhall confume; irrevocable Fate
Allots their being no determin'd date.
Straight peals of thunder Heaven's high arches rend,
The hail-ftones leap, the fhowers in spouts defcend.
The winds with widen'd throats the fignal give;
The cables break, the fmoaking veffels drive.
Now, wondrous, as they beat the foaming flood,
The timber softens into flesh and blood;
The yards and oars new arms and legs defign;
A trunk the hull; the flender keel, a fpine;
The prow a female face; and by degrees
The gallies rife green daughters of the feas.
Sometimes on coral beds they fit in state,
Or wanton on the waves they fear'd of late.
The barks, that beat the feas, are still their care,
Themselves remembering what of late they were;
To fave a Trojan fail, in throngs they prefs,
But fmile to fee Alcinous in diftrefs.
Unable were thofe wonders to deter
The Latians from their unsuccessful war.
Both fides for doubtful victory contend;
And on
their courage, and their Gods, depend.
Nor bright Lavinia, nor Latinus' crown,
Warm their great foul to war,
Venus at laft beholds her godlike fon
Triumphant, and the field of battle won;
Brave Turnus flain; ftrong Ardea but a name,
And buried in fierce deluges of flame;
Her towers, that boafted once a fovereign fway,
The fate of fancy'd grandeur now betray.
A famish'd heron from the ashes springs,
And beats the ruin with difaftrous wings;
Calamities of towns diftreft fhe feigns,
And oft', with woeful fhrieks, of war complains.
DEIFICATION OF ENE AS.
Now had Æneas, as ordain'd by Fate,
Surviv'd the period of Saturnia's hate:
And, by a fure irrevocable doom,
Fix'd the immortal majefty of Rome.
Fit for the station of his kindred stars,
His mother Goddess thus her fuit prefers:
Almighty arbiter, whofe powerful nod
Shakes diftant earth, and bows our own abode;
To thy great progeny indulgent be,
And rank the Goddess-born a deity.
Already has he view'd, with mortal eyes,
Thy brother's kingdoms of the nether skies.
Forthwith a conclave of the Godhead meets,
Where Juno in the fhining fenate fits.
Remorse for past revenge the Goddess feels;
Then thundering Jove th' almighty mandate feals;
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