ADVERTISEMENT. The following Translations were selected from many others done by the Author in his youth; for the most part, indeed, but a sort of exercises, while he was improving himself in the languages, and carried by his early bent to poetry to perform them rather in verse than prose. Mr. Dryden's "Fables" came out about that time, which occasioned the Translations from Chaucer. They were first separately printed in Miscellanies by J. Tonson and B. Lintot, and afterwards collected in the quarto edition of 1717. The "Imitations of English Authors," which are added to the end, were done as early, some of them at fourteen or fifteen years old; but having also got into Miscellanies,1 we have put them here together to complete this juvenile volume.2P.-("Works," vol. iii. ed. of 1736.) 1 Pope implies that they were printed without his consent, but this was not the case. He published them himself. 2 This volume contained the poems which follow, as far as page 136. Edipus, King of Thebes, having by mistake slain his father Laius, and married his mother Jocasta, put out his own eyes, and resigned his realm to his sons, Eteocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tisiphone, to sow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at last to reign singly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtained by Eteocles. Jupiter, in a council of the gods, declares his resolution of punishing the Thebans and Argives also, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adrastus, King of Argos. Juno opposes, but to no effect; and Mercury is sent on a message to the shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices, in the meantime, departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos, where he meets with Tydeus, who had fled from Calydon, having killed his brother. Adrastus entertains them, having received an oracle from Apollo that his daughters should be married to a boar and a lion, which he understands to be meant of these strangers, by whom the hides of those beasts were worn, and who arrived at the time when he kept an annual feast in honour of that god. The rise of this solemnity he relates to his guests, the loves of Phoebus and Psamathe, and the story of Chorobus. He inquires and is made acquainted with their descent and quality. The sacrifice is renewed, and the book concludes with a hymn to Apollo. The translator hopes he need not apologise for his choice of this piece, which was made almost in his childhood. But finding the version better than he expected from those years, he was easily prevailed on to give it some correction, the rather because no part of this author (at least that he knows of) has been tolerably turned into our language.—P. RATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes' alarms, The alternate reign destroyed by impious arms, 5 ΙΟ Demand our song; a sacred fury fires 15 20 But waive whate'er to Cadmus may belong, And fix, O Muse! the barrier of thy song At Edipus-from his disasters trace The long confusions of his guilty race: Nor yet attempt to stretch thy bolder wing, And mighty Cæsar's conquering eagles sing; 24 How twice he tamed proud Ister's rapid flood, While Dacian mountains streamed with barbarous blood; Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll, And stretched his empire to the frozen pole, What though the stars contract their heavenly space, 35 And crowd their shining ranks to yield thee place; Though all the skies, ambitious of thy sway, Conspire to court thee from our world away; Though Phoebus longs to mix his rays with thine, 40 And in thy glories more serenely shine; Though Jove himself no less content would be, To part his throne and share his heaven with thee: Yet stay, great Cæsar! and vouchsafe to reign 45 The time will come, when a diviner flame Shall warm my breast to sing of Cæsar's fame: Meanwhile permit, that my preluding Muse In Theban wars an humbler theme may choose: Of furious hate surviving death, she sings, 51 A fatal throne to two contending kings, And funeral flames that, parting wide in air, Express the discord of the souls they bear: Of towns dispeopled, and the wandering ghosts Of kings unburied in the wasted coasts; 56 When Dirce's fountain blushed with Grecian blood, 66 And Thetis, near Ismenos' swelling flood, 70 While from his breast these dreadful accents broke. 80 "Ye gods! that o'er the gloomy regions reign, Where guilty spirits feel eternal pain; Thou, sable Styx! whose livid streams are rolled Through dreary coasts, which I, though blind, behold; Tisiphone, that oft hast heard my prayer, 1 Parthenopaus.-P. 85 |