"Excess of joy disturbs thy wandering mind; How bless'd this happy hour, should he appear, Dear to us all, to me supremely dear!

60

Ah, no! some god the suitors' deaths decreed,
Some god descends, and by his hand they bleed;
Blind! to contemn the stranger's righteous cause, 65
And violate all hospitable laws!

The good they hated, and the powers defied;
But Heaven is just, and by a god they died.
For never must Ulysses view this shore;
Never! the loved Ulysses is no more!"

70

"What words," the matron cries, "have reach'd

my ears?

75

Doubt we his presence, when he now appears?
Then hear conviction: ere the fatal day
That forced Ulysses o'er the watery way,
A boar, fierce rushing in the sylvan war,
Plough'd half his thigh; I saw, I saw the scar,
And wild with transport had reveal'd the wound;
But ere I spoke, he rose, and check'd the sound.
Then, daughter, haste away! and if a lie
Flow from this tongue, then let thy servant die !" 80
To whom with dubious joy the queen replies:
"Wise is thy soul, but errors seize the wise;
The works of gods what mortal can survey!
Who knows their motives, who shall trace their

way?

But learn we instant how the suitors trod
The paths of death, by man, or by a god.”

85

Thus speaks the queen, and no reply attends,

But with alternate joy and fear descends;

At every step debates her lord to prove ;

Or, rushing to his arms, confess her love!
Then gliding through the marble valves, in state
Opposed, before the shining sire she sat.
The monarch, by a column high enthroned,
His eye withdrew, and fix'd it on the ground;
Curious to hear his queen the silence break;
Amazed she sat, and impotent to speak;

90

95

O'er all the man her eyes she rolls in vain,
Now hopes, now fears, now knows, then doubts

again.

At length Telemachus: "Oh, who can find
A woman like Penelope unkind?

100

105

Why thus in silence? why with winning charms
Thus slow to fly with rapture to his arms?
Stubborn the breast that with no transport glows,
When twice ten years are pass'd of mighty woes;
To softness lost, to spousal love unknown,
The gods have form'd that rigid heart of stone!"
"Oh my Telemachus!" the queen rejoin'd,
"Distracting fears confound my labouring mind;
Powerless to speak, I scarce uplift my eyes,
Nor dare to question; doubts on doubts arise.
Oh deign he, if Ulysses, to remove
These boding thoughts, and what he is, to prove !"
Pleased with her virtuous fears, the king replies,
"Indulge, my son, the cautions of the wise;
Time shall the truth to sure remembrance bring:
This garb of poverty belies the king;

110

114

No more. This day our deepest care requires,
Cautious to act what thought mature inspires.
If one man's blood, though mean, distain our hands,
The homicide retreats to foreign lands;

120

By us, in heaps the illustrious peerage falls,

The important deed our whole attention calls."
"Be that thy care," Telemachus replies;
"The world conspires to speak Ulysses wise;
For wisdom all is thine! lo, I obey,
And dauntless follow where you lead the way;
Nor shalt thou in the day of danger find
Thy coward son degenerate lag behind."

"Then instant to the bath," the monarch cries, "Bid the gay youth and sprightly virgins rise, Thence all descend in pomp and proud array, And bid the dome resound the mirthful lay; While the sweet lyrist airs of rapture sings, And forms the dance responsive to the strings.

125

130

That hence the eluded passengers may say,
Lo! the queen weds! we hear the spousal lay!
The suitors' death, unknown, till we remove
Far from the court, and act inspired by Jove."

135

140

145

Thus spoke the king; the observant train obey, At once they bathe, and dress in proud array: The lyrist strikes the string; gay youths advance, And fair-zoned damsels form the sprightly dance. The voice, attuned to instrumental sounds, Ascends the roof, the vaulted roof rebounds; Not unobserved: the Greeks eluded say, "Lo! the queen weds, we hear the spousal lay! Inconstant to admit the bridal hour." Thus they; but nobly chaste she weds no more. Meanwhile the wearied king the bath ascends! With faithful cares Eurynome attends, O'er every limb a shower of fragrance sheds; Then, dress'd in pomp, magnificent he treads. The warrior goddess gives his frame to shine With majesty enlarged, and grace divine. Back from his brows in wavy ringlets fly His thick large locks of hyacinthine die. As by some artist to whom Vulcan gives

150

155

His heavenly skill, a breathing image lives:

By Pallas taught, he frames the wondrous mould,

And the pale silver glows with fusile gold:

160

So Pallas his heroic form improves

With bloom divine, and like a god he moves!

More high he treads, and issuing forth in state,

Radiant before his gazing consort sat.

"And, oh my queen!" he cries, "what power above

Has steel'd that heart, averse to spousal love!

166

Canst thou, Penelope, when Heaven restores
Thy lost Ulysses to his native shores,
Canst thou, oh cruel! unconcern'd survey
Thy lost Ulysses, on this signal day?

170

Haste, Euryclea, and despatchful spread

For me, and me alone, the imperial bed;

My weary nature craves the balm of rest;
But Heaven with adamant has arm'd her breast."
"Ah no!" she cries, "a tender heart I bear,
A foe to pride; no adamant is there;
And now, ev'n now it melts! for sure I see
Once more Ulysses my beloved in thee!
Fix'd in my soul, as when he sail'd to Troy,
His image dwells: then haste the bed of joy!
Haste, from the bridal bower the bed translate,
Framed by his hand, and be it dress'd in state!"

175

180

195

Thus speaks the queen, still dubious with disguise: Touch'd at her words, the king with warmth replies : "Alas for this! what mortal strength can move 185 The enormous burden, who but Heaven above! It mocks the weak attempts of human hands; But the whole earth must move if Heaven commands. Then hear sure evidence, while we display Words seal'd with sacred truth, and truth obey: 190 This hand the wonder framed; an olive spread Full in the court its ever-verdant head. Vast as some mighty column's bulk, on high The huge trunk rose, and heaved into the sky; Around the tree I raised a nuptial bower, And roof'd defensive of the storm and shower; The spacious valve, with art inwrought, conjoins; And the fair dome with polish'd marble shines. I lopp'd the branchy head; aloft in twain Sever'd the bole, and smooth'd the shining grain; 200 Then posts, capacious of the frame, I raise, And bore it, regular, from space to space; Athwart the frame, at equal distance lie Thongs of tough hides that boast a purple die : Then polishing the whole, the finish'd mould With silver shone, with elephant and gold. But if o'erturn'd by rude, ungovern'd hands, Or still inviolate the olive stands,

205

"Tis thine, oh queen, to say, and now impart, If fears remain, or doubts distract thy heart?" 210

216

While yet he speaks, her powers of life decay, She sickens, trembles, falls, and faints away. At length recovering, to his arms she flew, And strain'd him close, as to his breast she grew : The tears pour'd down amain; and, "Oh," she cries, "Let not against thy spouse thine anger rise! Oh versed in every turn of human art, Forgive the weakness of a woman's heart! The righteous powers, that mortal lots dispose, Decree us to sustain a length of woes, And from the flower of life the bliss deny To bloom together, fade away, and die. Oh let me, let me not thine anger move, That I forbore, thus, thus to speak my love;

220

230

Thus in fond kisses, while the transport warms, 225
Pour out my soul, and die within thy arms!
I dreaded fraud! Men, faithless men, betray
Our easy faith, and make the sex their prey:
Against the fondness of my heart I strove :
'Twas caution, oh, my lord! not want of love.
Like me had Helen fear'd, with wanton charms
Ere the fair mischief set two worlds in arms;
Ere Greece rose dreadful in the avenging day:
Thus had she fear'd, she had not gone astray.
But Heaven, averse to Greece, in wrath decreed 235
That she should wander, and that Greece should
bleed:

Blind to the ills that from injustice flow,

She colour'd all our wretched lives with wo.

But why these sorrows when my lord arrives?

I yield, I yield, my own Ulysses lives!
The secrets of the bridal bed are known

240

To thee, to me, to Actoris alone:

(My father's present in the spousal hour, The sole attendant on our genial bower.)

Since what no eye hath seen thy tongue reveal'd, Hard and distrustful as I am, I yield."

246

Touch'd to the soul, the king with rapture hears, Hangs round her neck, and speaks his joy in tears.