s: As ye have herde: suche life gan he to lede


s: As he that stode betwixin hope and drede:


s: Th' encheson of his wo as he best might,


s: And whan he was from every mann'is sight


s: That absent was, gan sing as ye may here:


s: This song, when he thus songin had, ful Bone


s: And every night, as was his wonte to done;


s: And all his sorowe to the moone he tolde,


s: And said: I wis, whan thou art hornid newe,


s: I shall be glad, if al the world be trewe!"


s: Leaving the path the greater part do go;


s: The other recalls a still odder passage in THE SYNAGOGUE: or THE


s: SHADOW OF THE TEMPLE, a connected series of poems in imitation of


s: Are my torn meditations ragged clothing,


s: Which, wound and woven, shape a suit for nothing:


s: One while I think, and then I am in pain


s: To think how to unthink that thought again.


s: Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,


s: Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round,


s: Parents first season us; then schoolmasters


s: Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin,


s: Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes,


s: Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in,


s: Bibles laid open, millions of surprises;


s: Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness,


s: Without, our shame; within, our consciences;


s: Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears.


s: Yet all these fences and their whole array


s: Dear friend, sit down, the tale is long and sad


s: And in my faintings, I presume, your love


s: Will more comply than help. A Lord I had,


s: And have, of whom some grounds, which may improve,


s: I hold for two lives, and both lives in me.


s: To him I brought a dish of fruit one day,


s: And in the middle placed my heart. But he


s: Look'd on a servant, who did know his eye,


s: Better than you know me, or (which is one)


s: Quitting the fruit, seiz'd on my heart alone,


s: And threw it in a font, wherein did fall


s: A stream of blood, which issued from the side


s: And have good cause: there it was dipt and dyed,


s: And wash'd, and wrung: the very wringing yet


s: Enforceth tears. "Your heart was foul, I fear."


s: Many a fault, more than my lease will bear;


s: Yet still ask'd pardon, and was not denied.


s: But you shall hear. After my heart was well,


s: And spacious furnace flaming, and thereon


s: A boiling caldron, round about whose verge


s: The greatness shew'd the owner. So I went


s: Thinking with that, which I did thus present,


s: To warm his love, which, I did fear, grew cold.


s: Who was to take it from me, slipt his hand,


s: And threw my heart into the scalding pan;


s: My heart that brought it (do you understand?)


s: The offerer's heart. "Your heart was hard, I fear."


s: Indeed 'tis true. I found a callous matter


s: But with a richer drug than scalding water


s: I bath'd it often, ev'n with holy blood,


s: Which at a board, while many drank bare wine,


s: A friend did steal into my cup for good,


s: Unto my house, where to repair the strength


s: But when I thought to sleep out all these faults,


s: I found that some had stuff'd the bed with thoughts,


s: I would say thorns. Dear, could my heart not break,


s: When with my pleasures ev'n my rest was gone?


s: Full well I understood who had been there:


s: For I had given the key to none but one:


s: It must be he. "Your heart was dull, I fear."


s: Did oft possess me; so that when I pray'd,


s: Though my lips went, my heart did stay behind.


s: Who took my guilt upon him. "Truly, Friend,


s: "For aught I hear, your Master shews to you


s: "More favour than you wot of. Mark the end.


s: "The caldron suppled what was grown too hard:


s: "The thorns did quicken what was grown too dull:


s: "All did but strive to mend what you had marr'd.


s: "Wherefore be cheer'd, and praise him to the full


s: "Each day, each hour, each moment of the week


s: "Who fain would have you be new, tender quick."


s: A person of any taste, who had but studied three or four of


s: "It seems, as I retrace the ballad line by line


s: That but half of it is theirs, and the better half is thine."


s: Wordsworthian the little poem on the rainbow?


s: That, rough or smooth, is full of change,


s: Through long, long windings of the hills,


s: This Stripling, sportive, gay, and bold,


s: And stately, needs must have their share


s: "Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls,


s: That they might answer him.--And they would shout


s: Across the watery vale, and shout again,


s: With long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud


s: Of mirth and jocund din! And when it chanced,


s: That pauses of deep silence mocked his skill,


s: Then sometimes in that silence, while he hung


s: Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise


s: Has carried far into his heart the voice


s: Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene


s: Its woods, and that uncertain heaven, received


s: The second shall be that noble imitation of Drayton  (if it was


s: not rather a coincidence) in the lines TO JOANNA.


s: --"When I had gazed perhaps two minutes' space,


s: That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud.


s: The Rock, like something starting from a sleep,


s: Took up the Lady's voice, and laughed again!


s: And the tall Steep of Silver-How sent forth


s: A noise of laughter; southern Lougbrigg heard,


s: And Fairfield answered with a mountain tone.


s: Carried the lady's voice!--old Skiddaw blew


s: His speaking trumpet!--back out of the clouds


s: From Glaramara southward came the voice:


s: And Kirkstone tossed it from its misty head!"


s: Mailed and horsed, with lance and sword,


s: That for a tranquil Soul the Lay was framed,


s: Who, long compelled in humble walks to go,


s: Was softened into feeling, soothed, and tamed.


s: Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;


s: His daily teachers had been woods and rills,


s: The sleep that is among the lonely hills."


s: The words themselves in the foregoing extracts, are, no doubt,


s: Wordsworth's poems being less derived either from excitement of


s: persons of no every-day powers and acquirements, who had read the


s: Remarks on the present mode of conducting critical journals.


s: recurrence of similar merits or defects, and as faithfully


s: meritorious, and far more faithfully and in general far more ably


s: "No private grudge they need, no personal spite


s: Cool, sober murderers of their neighbour's fame!"


s: Every censure, every sarcasm respecting a publication which the


s: betrays, that he knows more of his author, than the author's


s: creature can be degraded, that of a gossip, backbiter, and


s: pasquillant: but with this heavy aggravation, that he steals the


s: sanctuary, and secure place of refuge; offers abominations on the


s: previously lay aside their individuality, and pledge themselves


s: Putting aside the too manifest and too frequent interference of


s: national party, and even personal predilection or aversion; and


s: occasions which I find for blame and regret in the conduct of the


s: "O then what soul was his, when on the tops


s: Rise up, and bathe the world in light! He looked--


s: Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth,


s: And ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay


s: In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched,


s: The spectacle! sensation, soul, and form,


s: And by them did he live: they were his life."


s: reason!--as furnishing evidence that the writer was raving, or he


s: analysed and found consonant with all the best convictions of my


s: understanding; and the imagery and diction of which had collected


s: feelings; that I should admit such lines to be mere nonsense or


s: What then if this very critic should have cited a large number of


s: acknowledges to possess eminent and original beauty? What if he


s: Suppose too all this done without a single leading principle


s: established or even announced, and without any one attempt at


s: "The gayest, happiest attitude of things."


s: The reverse, for in all cases a reverse is possible, is the


s: advantages of education, both from books and from the more awful


s: "A vagrant Merchant bent beneath his load."


s: "Their manners, their enjoyments, and pursuits,


s: If Mr. Wordsworth have set forth principles of poetry which his


s: arguments are insufficient to support, let him and those who have


s: In a comparatively small number of poems he chose to try an


s: conceptions. The poem entitled FIDELITY is for the greater part


s: And mists that spread the flying shroud;


s: But that enormous barrier holds it fast."


s: Or compare the four last lines of the concluding stanza with the


s: "Yes, proof was plain that, since the day


s: How nourish'd here through such long time


s: And gave that strength of feeling, great


s: The first characteristic, though only occasional defect, which I


s: appear to myself to find in these poems is the inconstancy of the


s: transitions from lines or sentences of peculiar felicity--(at all


s: Cromwell, in which prose and verse are intermixed (not as in the


s: The house which held this prize; and, led


s: Smiles hast thou, sweet ones of thine own;


s: "Thou hast a nest, for thy love and thy rest


s: _With a soul as strong as a mountain river


s: Pouring out praise to th' Almighty giver,_


s: By myself cheerfully till the day is done."


s: "Close by a Pond, upon the further side,


s: He stood alone; a minute's space I guess,


s: To the Pool's further margin then I drew;


s: He being all the while before me full in view."


s: "And, still as I drew near with gentle pace,


s: Motionless as a Cloud the Old Man stood,


s: That heareth not the loud winds when they call;


s: And moveth altogether, if it move at all."


s: "My former thoughts returned; the fear that kills;


s: Cold, pain, and labour, and all fleshly ills;


s: But now, perplex'd by what the Old Man had said,


s: 'How is it that you live, and what is it you do?'


s: "He with a smile did then his words repeat;


s: And said, that gathering Leeches far and wide


s: He travell'd; stirring thus about his feet


s: The waters of the Ponds where they abide.


s: `Once I could meet with them on every side;


s: 'But they have dwindled long by slow decay;


s: 'Yet still I persevere, and find them where I may.'


s: While he was talking thus, the lonely place,


s: The Old Man's shape, and speech, all troubled me


s: In my mind's eye I seemed to see him pace


s: Indeed this fine poem is especially characteristic of the author.


s: "The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renown'd,


s: "But such as at this day, to Indians known,


s: "Branching so broad and long, that in the ground


s: "The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow


s: "About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade


s: "High over-arch'd and ECHOING WALKS BETWEEN;


s: "There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,


s: "Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds


s: "At hoop-holes cut through thickest shade."


s: magical penny duplex, the excitement of vision by sound and the


s: Wordsworth would have us entertain at all times, as men, and as


s: readers; and by the excitement of this lofty, yet prideless


s: impartiality in poetry, he might hope to have encouraged its


s: disturbed or offended by any thoughts or images, which the poet


s: By Nature; men endowed with highest gifts


s: Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse,


s: Nor having e'er, as life advanced, been led


s: The measure of themselves, these favoured Beings,


s: All but a scattered few, live out their time,


s: Husbanding that which they possess within,


s: And go to the grave, unthought of. Strongest minds


s: To use a colloquial phrase, such sentiments, in such language, do


s: But be this as it may, the feelings with which,


s: "I think of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,


s: The sleepless Soul, that perished in his pride;


s: Of Burns, who walk'd in glory and in joy


s: Behind his plough, upon the mountain-side"--


s: subject, had invented an account of his birth, parentage and


s: education, with all the strange and fortunate accidents which had


s: MESSIAH of Klopstock, or in CUMBERLAND'S CALVARY; and not merely


s: suggested by it as in the PARADISE LOST of Milton. That illusion,


s: characteristic of a Pedlar? One sentiment, that might not more


s: plausibly, even without the aid of any previous explanation, have


s: profession in which the language of learning and refinement are


s: natural and to be expected? Need the rank have been at all


s: While He, whose lowly fortune I retrace,


s: The youngest of three sons, was yet a babe,


s: A little One--unconscious of their loss.


s: Espoused the teacher of the Village School;


s: "From his sixth year, the Boy of whom I speak,


s: But, through the inclement and the perilous days


s: distinguished from verbal: for, as in the latter there is a


s: And dances with the daffodils."    Vol. I. p. 328.


s: "Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours are gone, while I


s: Whereat the poet, without seeming to reflect that the poor tawny


s: applied to the immense empire of China improgressive for thirty


s: "The weary Sun betook himself to rest:--


s: --Then issued Vesper from the fulgent west,


s: And now, ascending, after one dark hour,


s: And one night's diminution of her power,


s: Regard not her:--oh, better wrong and strife,


s: Better vain deeds or evil than such life!


s: The stars have tasks!--but these have none!"


s: The last instance of this defect,(for I know no other than these


s: "Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep


s: That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,


s: Which we are toiling all our lives to find!


s: Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave,


s: operations, are not accompanied with consciousness; who else is


s: constituted God. Yet not even these would confound the part, as a


s: circumstance, because they had meant to drink their wine in the


s: So with regard to this passage. In what sense can the magnificent


s: Is but a lonely bed without the sense or sight


s: A place of thought where we in waiting lie;"--


s: Surely, it cannot be that this wonder-rousing apostrophe is but a


s: Wordsworth, may be mimicked by copyists, he may be plundered by


s: imaginative power his sense would want its vital warmth and


s: To these defects which, as appears by the extracts, are only


s: occasional, I may oppose, with far less fear of encountering the


s: misappropriations, which promiscuous authorship, and reading not


s: advantages which language alone, at least which language with


s: constantly, so imperceptibly, and as it were by such elements and


s: positively unfit, we shall learn to value earnestly and with a


s: imitation are, which a contemporary writer, and especially a


s: invalidate the justice of this eulogy so applied.


s: Of truth profound a sweet continuous lay,


s: Not learnt, but native, her own natural notes!


s: Such stores as silent thought can bring,


s: "I've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds


s: Let loose their carols when they please,


s: or the sonnet on Buonaparte, page 202, vol. II. or finally (for a


s: "To be a Prodigal's Favorite--then, worse truth,


s: O Man! That from thy fair and shining youth


s: Age might but take the things Youth needed not."


s: Wordsworth is not equally with Daniel alike intelligible to all


s: necessarily obscure, because it does not aim to be popular. It is


s: "O lyric song, there will be few, I think,


s: Thou art for them so arduous and so high!"


s: perfectly transparent lake, the image is distinguished from the


s: "So through the darkness and the cold we flew,


s: Tinkled like iron; while the distant hills


s: Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars,


s: Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west


s: "Three years she grew in sun and shower"--


s: expressive of that deranged state, in which, from the increased


s: Imagination and Passion, the alien object to which it had been so


s: Last, and pre-eminently, I challenge for this poet the gift of


s: creature of predetermined research, rather than spontaneous


s: The light that never was, on sea or land,


s: The consecration, and the Poet's dream."


s: I shall select a few examples as most obviously manifesting this


s: faculty; but if I should ever be fortunate enough to render my


s: analysis of Imagination, its origin and characters, thoroughly


s: Joined in one solemn and capacious grove;


s: Huge trunks!--and each particular trunk a growth


s: That threaten the profane;--a pillared shade,


s: Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue,


s: By sheddings from the pinal umbrage tinged


s: Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked


s: With unrejoicing berries--ghostly shapes


s: May meet at noontide; FEAR and trembling HOPE,


s: And TIME, the Shadow; there to celebrate,


s: To lie, and listen to the mountain flood


s: Murmuring from Glazamara's inmost caves."


s: The effect of the old man's figure in the poem of RESOLUTION AND


s: "While he was talking thus, the lonely place,


s: The Old Man's shape, and speech, all troubled me


s: In my mind's eye I seemed to see him pace


s: Or the 8th, 9th, 19th, 26th, 31st, and 33rd, in the collection of


s: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:


s: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,


s: Shades of the prison-house begin to close


s: But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,


s: The Youth who daily further from the East


s: At length the Man perceives it die away,


s: The thought of our past years in me doth breed


s: For that which is most worthy to be blest;


s: With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:--


s: High instincts, before which our mortal Nature


s: Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised!


s: Are yet the fountain light of all our day,


s: Are yet a master light of all our seeing;


s: Uphold us--cherish--and have power to make


s: Our noisy years seem moments in the being


s: Of the eternal Silence; truths that wake


s: Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,


s: Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea


s: And see the children sport upon the shore,


s: And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore."


s: And since it would be unfair to conclude with an extract, which,


s: though highly characteristic, must yet, from the nature of the


s: The cluster round the porch, and the folk


s: Who sate in the shade of the Prior's Oak!


s: And down the path through the open green,


s: And through yon gateway, where is found,


s: Free entrance to the church-yard ground--


s: The following analogy will, I am apprehensive, appear dim and


s: fantastic, but in reading Bartram's Travels I could not help


s: Wordsworth will produce, it is not for me to prophesy but I could


s: So much for the detractors from Wordsworth's merits. On the other


s: flatter myself, that the freedom with which I have declared my


s: advocates. More indiscriminate than mine their admiration may be:


s: Wordsworth's reputation. His fame belongs to another age, and can


s: meaning, as displayed by some affected admirers, with whom he is,


s: Were the collection of poems, published with these biographical


s: For more than eighteen months have the volume of Poems, entitled


s: SIBYLLINE LEAVES, and the present volume, up to this page, been


s: When Hope grew round me, like the climbing vine,


s: And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seem'd mine!


s: appearance; and within an hour the number of those on deck was


s: countrymen, that now begins to form a distinction and a bond of


s: Harsh and of dissonant mood from their complaint.


s: The two Danes were brothers. The one was a man with a clear white


s: ANSWER.  You do me too much honour, Sir.


s: THE DANE.  O!--is, is, am, am, am. Yes, yes--I know, I know.


s: ANSWER.  I am, thou art, he is, we are, ye are, they are.


s: ANSWER.  Sir! a man like you cannot talk on any subject without


s: discovering the depth of his information.


s: ANSWER.  The grammar, Sir? The language, I presume--


s: THE DANE.  Vell, and I was only fourteen years--


s: THE DANE. No more. I vas fourteen years old--and he asked me all


s: ANSWER.  A prodigy! an absolute prodigy!


s: THE DANE.  No, no, no! he was a bishop, a great superintendent.


s: THE DANE.  A bishop--not a mere predicant, not a prediger.


s: THE DANE.  Often! Dhere is not von instance recorded in dhe whole


s: THE DANE.  I was sent ofer to dhe Vest Indies--to our Island, and


s: undertakings which he proposed to himself to commence, till, the


s: brandy aiding his vanity, and his vanity and garrulity aiding the


s: must place her last and boldest step on this side the altar. What


s: It was cold, the cabin was at open war with my olfactories, and I


s: Accordingly we hauled anchor, and passed gently up the river. At


s: Cuxhaven both sides of the river may be seen in clear weather; we


s: beautiful island, forty miles from Cuxhaven, the wind continuing


s: slack. This holm or island is about a mile and a half in length,


s: orchard, and each with its own separate path: a village with a


s: labyrinth of paths, or rather a neighbourhood of houses! It is


s: affectation of tastes and enjoyments for which men's habits have


s: disqualified them. Pass them by on Saturdays and Sundays with the


s: See how natural the German comes from me, though I have not yet


s: Englander! vhee goes it!"--which is certainly a proof of great


s: Amtsschreiberinn--the colonel's lady, die Frau Obristinn or


s: modified without being disturbed or superseded by them. This


s: remember, with the same feeling at the time I was reading a


s: "Their visnomies seem'd like a goodly banner


s: effort occasioned nor was there wanting beside it one of those


s: abominable custom. Our emigrant acquaintance was, we found, an


s: considerable sums, by a refusal to make further advances, and in


s: consequence of their intrigues had received an order to quit the


s: specimen), I heard a tolerable Italian pun, and an interesting


s: The house of Pindarus when temple and tower


s: and Shakespeare put it in my head to go to the French comedy.


s: distinctly that sense of individuality which belongs to real


s: existence. Paradoxical as it may sound, one of the essential


s: interpreted it as insulting irony, you appropriate with infinite


s: satisfaction, when you share the garbage with the whole stye, and


s: surprised by it, when we know how it will turn out?


s: preceding chapter, at least ten times for once that they find any


s: incidents are concerned, already stock plays. All the stories, at


s: P.  But how can you connect with such men and such actions that


s: P.  (aside.) That is, he gratifies your envy by libelling your


s: P.  Excellent! But you have forgotten those brilliant flashes of


s: And now--good night! Truly! I might have written this last sheet


s: apartments were taken off from one corner. Between these and the


s: houses among us, and, being painted red and green, it cuts and


s: tesselates the buildings very gaily. From within three miles of


s: arbours and trellis work, and thick vegetable walls, and trees in


s: pauses and cadences, and the sweep of whole paragraphs,


s: myself, and W---- interpreted Klopstock's French as I had already


s: understand me : and I, who wished to hear his opinions, not to


s: We now took our leave. At the beginning of the French Revolution


s: Klopstock wrote odes of congratulation. He received some honorary


s: detestation of the crimes and follies of the Revolutionists, he


s: blackened in the blaze. Over that part of the woods which lay


s: I will conclude this letter with the mere transcription of notes,


s: nomenclature. "Klopstock having wished to see the CALVARY of


s: unreasonable, but calumnious. Secondly, I attribute little other


s: Heaven preserve you, and                         S. T. COLERIDGE.


s: Quid quod praefatione praemunierim libellum, qua conor omnem


s: offendiculi ansam praecidere?  Neque quicquam addubito, quin ea


s: disquisition on the modern drama, a critique on the Tragedy of


s: taste.--The letter was written to a friend: and the apparent


s: abruptness with which it begins, is owing to the omission of the


s: You remember, my dear Sir, that Mr. Whitbread, shortly before his


s: British stage not only from horses, dogs, elephants, and the like


s: respecting the first production of the Tragic Muse which had been


s: But to understand the true character of the ROBBERS, and of the


s: The so-called German drama, therefore, is English in its origin,


s: throughout Europe. A popularity so extensive, and of a work so


s: accomplishments, with beauty of person, vigorous health, and


s: constitutional hardihood,--all these advantages, elevated by the


s: habits and sympathies of noble birth and national character, are


s: For, by the laws of spirit, in the right


s: That acts in strict consistence with itself."


s: responsibility, of a present Providence, and of both present and


s: future retribution) may influence the characters and actions of


s: character representative and symbolical, therefore instructive;


s: character, she yet died to save me!--this, sir, takes hold of two


s: womanhood: and, on the other hand, it is among the miseries, and


s: abides in the dark ground-work of our nature, to crave an outward


s: intellect; and this is the open attraction of his Richard, Iago,


s: Edmund, and others in particular. But again; of all intellectual


s: interest the wildest tales of ghosts, wizards, genii, and secret


s: talismans. On this propensity, so deeply rooted in our nature, a


s: "D. JOHN.--I do! They were well meant and well performed, I see.


s: "GHOST.------Repent, repent of all thy villanies.


s: My clamorous blood to heaven for vengeance cries,


s: Heaven will pour out his judgments on you all.


s: Hell gapes for you, for you each fiend doth call,


s: You with eternal horrors they'll torment,


s: Except of all your crimes you suddenly repent. (Ghost sinks.)


s: "D. JOHN.--Farewell, thou art a foolish ghost. Repent, quoth he!


s: what could this mean? Our senses are all in a mist sure.


s: "D. ANT.--And nature is unalterable in us too.


s: "STATUE-GHOST.--Will you not relent and feel remorse?


s: "D. JOHN.--Could'st thou bestow another heart on me I might. But


s: "D. LOPEZ.--These things are prodigious.


s: "D. LOP.--If we could, 'tis now too late. I will not.


s: (Thunder and lightning. D. Lop. and D. Ant. are swallowed up.)


s: "D. JOHN.--Think not to fright me, foolish ghost; I'll break your


s: (Thunder and lightning--chorus of devils, etc.)


s: "D. JOHN.--These things I see with wonder, but no fear.


s: And shuffled all into their former chaos;


s: Were seas of sulphur flaming round about me,


s: And all mankind roaring within those fires,


s: I could not fear, or feel the least remorse.


s: To the last instant I would dare thy power.


s: Here I stand firm, and all thy threats contemn.


s: Thy murderer (to the ghost of one whom he had murdered)


s: (He is swallowed up in a cloud of fire.)


s: "D. LOP.--The rascal is afraid of you after death.


s: "D. JOHN.--(to the servant)--Rise and do your duty.


s: "SERV.--Oh the devil, the devil!  (Marble ghost enters.)


s: "D. JOHN.--Ha! 'tis the ghost! Let's rise and receive him! Come,


s: Here, Governour, your health! Friends, put it about! Here's


s: excellent meat, taste of this ragout. Come, I'll help you, come


s: eat, and let old quarrels be forgotten.  (The ghost threatens him


s: not forgetting your sweet sister.                (devils enter.)


s: "D. JOHN.--Are these some of your retinue? Devils, say you? I'm


s: sorry I have no burnt brandy to treat 'em with, that's drink fit


s: Nor is the scene from which we quote interesting, in dramatic


s: world's distance from the spirit of modern jacobinism. The latter


s: But what is there to account for the prodigy of the tempest at


s: expectation, one man saves himself by his prodigious powers as a


s: swimmer, aided by the peculiarity of his destination--


s: FIRST MONK.--Change, change those drenched weeds--


s: PRIOR.--I wist not of them--every soul did perish--


s: "THIRD MONK.--No, there was one did battle with the storm


s: With careless desperate force; full many times


s: His life was won and lost, as tho' he recked not--


s: No hand did aid him, and he aided none--


s: "Off! ye are men--there's poison in your touch.


s: But I must yield, for this" (what?) "hath left me strengthless."


s: So end the three first scenes. In the next (the Castle of St.


s: "PIET.--Hugo, well met. Does e'en thy age bear


s: HUGO.--So it is said. But storms when I was young


s: Would still pass o'er like Nature's fitful fevers,


s: And rendered all more wholesome. Now their rage,


s: "Long ere the storm arose, her restless gestures


s: Forbade all hope to see her blest with sleep."


s: "The limner's art may trace the absent feature."


s: "Restore the scenes in which they met and parted?"


s: "The thoughts, the recollections, sweet and bitter,


s: Or the Elysian dreams of lovers when they loved."


s: overcomes the main difficulty of most first acts, to wit, that of


s: "That she who bore him had recoiled from him,


s: Nor known the alien visage of her child,


s: "But thou art Bertram's still, and Bertram's ever."


s: "How the lip works! How the bare teeth do grind!


s: And beaded drops course  down his writhen brow!"


s: The dramatic effect of which passage we not only concede to the


s: "PRIOR.--I will awake him from this horrid trance. This is no


s: natural sleep! Ho, wake thee, stranger!"


s: This is rather a whimsical application of the verb reflex we must


s: natural; for lethargy itself could not withstand the scolding


s: "When their drenched hold forsook both gold and gear,


s: They griped their daggers with a murderer's instinct;"


s: familiarity with atrocious events and characters appeared to have


s: appeals, and craving alone for the grossest and most outrageous


s: accustomed state of raving, blasphemy, and nonsense. Next follows


s: blasphemous execrations, his fixed and deliberate resolve to


s: "The rivulet, that bathed the convent walls,


s: The Lord and his small train do stand appalled.


s: With torch and bell from their high battlements


s: The monks do summon to the pass in vain;


s: Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.


s: chapel, with all the vessels and other preparations for the holy


s: Our whole information  is derived from the following words--


s: CLOTIL.--(Pointing to the cavern into which she has looked)


s: Why dost thou urge her with the horrid theme?


s: PRIOR.--(who will not, the reader may observe, be disappointed of


s: It was to make (query wake) one living cord o' th' heart,


s: And I will try, tho' my own breaks at it.


s: Now these two lines consist in a senseless plagiarism from the


s: A warriour's weapon freed a warriour's soul!"


s: majority of instances, leads, and almost compels the Afflicted to


s: continued reflection should strengthen my present belief, that my


s: Depraved or depraves? Who dies, that bears


s: Not one spurn to the grave of their friends' gift?


s: however various the sources of this panegyric may have been. And,


s: existence of which they had perhaps entertained no suspicion--for


s: "O we are querulous creatures! Little less


s: Than all things can suffice to make us happy:


s: Aye, here now! (exclaimed the critic) here come Coleridge's


s: of the two following passages. The first is spoken in answer to a


s: "What people? How convened? or, if convened,


s: Must not the magic power that charms together


s: Millions of men in council, needs have power


s: To win or wield them? Rather, O far rather


s: Shout forth thy titles to yon circling mountains,


s: Make the rocks flatter thee, and the volleying air,


s: Unbribed, shout back to thee, King Emerick!


s: By wholesome laws to embank the sovereign power,


s: To deepen by restraint, and by prevention


s: Of lawless will to amass and guide the flood


s: And the true patriot's glory! In all else


s: Men safelier trust to Heaven, than to themselves


s: When least themselves: even in those whirling crowds


s: Even wise men leave their better sense at home,


s: To chide and wonder at them, when returned."


s: "And yet Sarolta, simple, inexperienced,


s: Could see him as he was, and often warned me.


s: Whence learned she this?--O she was innocent!


s: The fledge-dove knows the prowlers of the air,


s: Feared soon as seen, and flutters back to shelter.


s: And the young steed recoils upon his haunches,


s: The never-yet-seen adder's hiss first heard.


s: Is that fine sense, which to the pure in heart,


s: By mere oppugnancy of their own goodness,


s: reasoning, before all others.--I remembered Catullus's lines.


s: Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri,


s: Omnia sunt ingrata: nihil fecisse benigne est:


s: Immo, etiam taedet, taedet obestque magis;


s: Ut mihi, quem nemo gravius nec acerbius urget,


s: Quam modo qui me unum atque unicum amicum habuit.


s: I refer to this review at present, in consequence of information


s: In the sermon and the notes both the historical truth and the


s: therefore, of defending myself, which I could easily effect by a


s: experience, that he needs something, joined with the strong


s: Christianity, a man must have been a Christian, and this is the


s: superseding but as involving a glad undoubting faith in the two


s: coercendos affectus in solo intellectu consistit; ergo nemo


s: beatitudine gaudet, quia affectus coercuit, sed contra potestas


s: libidines coercendi ex ipsa beatitudine oritur.


s: instance certain opinions, be they unbelief, or misbelief, are


s: theologically and impersonally, i.e. of Psilanthropism and


s: cheiros elkon opisso, thumos atolmos eon.


s: The authority of Milton and Shakespeare may be usefully pointed


s: already denizens of our language, such as blood-stained, terror-


s: stricken, self-applauding: or when a new epithet, or one found in


s: See the criticisms on the Ancient Mariner, in the Monthly and


s: Critical Reviews of the first volume of the Lyrical Ballads.


s: This is worthy of ranking as a maxim, (regula maxima,) of


s: "No more will I endure love's pleasing pain,


s: Or round my heart's leg tie his galling chain."


s: Cowper's Task was published some time before the Sonnets of Mr.


s: Pensive at eve, on the hard world I mused,


s: And m poor heart was sad; so at the Moon


s: I gazed and sighed, and sighed; for ah how soon


s: Eve saddens into night! mine eyes perused


s: And mused me on the wretched ones that pass


s: O'er the bleak heath of sorrow. But alas!


s: Most of myself I thought! when it befel,


s: That the soothe spirit of the breezy wood


s: Breath'd in mine ear: "All this is very well,


s: But much of one thing, is for no thing good."


s: Goes to my heart, and soothes each small distress,


s: Distress the small, yet haply great to me.


s: 'Tis true on Lady Fortune's gentlest pad


s: Frown, pout and part, then I am very sad.


s: Now of my false friend plaining plaintively,


s: But whether sad or fierce, 'tis simple all,


s: And this reft house is that, the which he built,


s: Lamented Jack! and here his malt he pil'd,


s: Cautious in vain! these rats, that squeak so wild,


s: Squeak not unconscious of their father's guilt.


s: Did he not see her gleaming thro' the glade!


s: Belike 'twas she, the maiden all forlorn.


s: What the she milk no cow with crumpled horn,


s: Yet, aye she haunts the dale where erst she stray'd:


s: And aye, beside her stalks her amorous knight


s: Still on his thighs their wonted brogues are worn,


s: And thro' those brogues, still tatter'd and betorn,


s: His hindward charms gleam an unearthly white.


s: Ah! thus thro' broken clouds at night's high noon


s: Peeps to fair fragments forth the full-orb'd harvest-moon!


s: Kingdoms shall shift about, like clouds,


s: Wordsworth's Rob Roy.--Poet. Works, vol. III. p. 127.


s: Pope was under the common error of his age, an error far from


s: Shakespeare, not only in the general construction, but in all the


s: occasionally varying the illustrations of the same thoughts, was


s: In the course of one of my Lectures, I had occasion to point out


s: As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night, etc.


s: enlightened and highly educated persons, who at different times


s: poetry, to receive pleasure from the separate images and phrases


s: Around her throne the vivid planets roll,


s: And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole,


s: the sense or the diction be the more absurd. My answer was; that,


s: perception of the faults in certain passages, has been more than


s: repaid to me by the additional delight with which I read the


s: More foul diseases than e'er yet the hot


s: Sun bred thro' his burnings, while the dog


s: Pursues the raging lion, throwing the fog


s: And deadly vapour from his angry breath,


s: Filling the lower world with plague and death,


s: Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death!


s: Especially in this age of personality, this age of literary and


s: If it were worth while to mix together, as ingredients, half the


s: This is one instance among many of deception, by the telling the


s: Great wit (meaning genius) to madness sure is near allied.


s: Now if the profound sensibility, which is doubtless one of the


s: projectile or to the attractive force exclusively.


s: For as to the devotees of the circulating libraries, I dare not


s: compliment their pass-time, or rather kill-time, with the name of


s: manufactured at the printing office, which pro tempore fixes,


s: characterized by the power of reconciling the two contrary yet


s: Ex. gr. Pediculos e capillis excerptos in arenam jacere


s: incontusos; eating of unripe fruit; gazing on the clouds, and (in


s: I have ventured to call it unique; not only because I know no


s: chiefly, because it is a compilation, which, in the various


s: It is not easy to estimate the effects which the example of a


s: previously informed the public that I had been dishonoured at


s: In opinions of long continuance, and in which we have never


s: Without however the apprehensions attributed to the Pagan


s: su d' ouk edeisas ton huophon ton rhaematon,


s: kai tas apeilas; XAN, ou ma Di', oud' ephrontisa.--Ranae, 492-3.


s: And here let me hint to the authors of the numerous parodies, and


s: conceal and convey wit and wisdom in the semblance of folly and


s: childish poem, by writing another still sillier and still more


s: childish, can only prove (if it prove any thing at all) that the


s: existing here merely in caricature, detracts from the libeller's


s: heart, without adding an iota to the credit of his understanding.


s: The soul's fair emblem, and its only name--


s: But of the soul, escaped the slavish trade


s: Of mortal life! For to this earthly frame


s: Ours is the reptile's lot, much toil, much blame,


s: And to deform and kill the things whereon we feed.


s: Mr. Wordsworth, even in his two earliest poems, The Evening Walk


s: Where ospreys, cormorants, and herons cry;


s: Where hardly given the hopeless waste to cheer,


s: Denied the bread of life the foodful ear,


s: Dwindles the pear on autumn's latest spray,


s: Ev'n here content has fixed her smiling reign


s: With independence, child of high disdain."


s: regretted that Mr. Wordsworth has not republished these two poems


s: This is effected either by giving to the one word a general, and


s: application, or excitement of the same sound, will call forth a


s: equivocation either by the substitution of a new word, or by the


s: genere, and where it is not used scholastically for the universal


s: I here use the word idea in Mr. Hume's sense on account of its


s: reader will not be displeased with the following interesting


s: virtue so metaphysically as to abstract her from all sensible


s: compositions, and love the purity of the idea." Des Cartes having


s: appropriated to another meaning, that I could not use it without


s: intensify: though, I confess, it sounds uncouth to my own ear.


s: And Coxcombs vanquish Berkeley by a grin.


s: An American Indian with little variety of images, and a still


s: The following burlesque on the Fichtean Egoisnsus may, perhaps,


s: Fichte's idealism as can be expected from an avowed caricature.


s: The form and the substance, the what and the why,


s: The when and the where, and the low and the high,


s: The inside and outside, the earth and the sky,


s: All souls and all bodies are I itself I!


s: He's a heretic dog who but adds Betty Martin!


s: Thus cried the God with high imperial tone;


s: In robe of stiffest state, that scoffed at beauty,


s: Then substantive and plural-singular grown


s: (For ethics boast a syntax of their own)


s: I of the world's whole Lexicon the root!


s: Of the whole universe of touch, sound, sight


s: The accusative of wrong, the nominative of right,


s: Self-construed, I all other moods decline:


s: It would be an act of high and almost criminal injustice to pass


s: physiological and physical Science." The latter work is not quite


s: comets, etc. which, whether just or erroneous, are by no means


s: posterity, consists in the masterly force of reasoning, and the


s: copiousness of induction, with which he has assailed, and (in my


s: necessity and efficiency to every system that merits the name of


s: author's views, as far as concerns himself, are unborrowed and


s: completely his own, as he neither possessed nor do his writings


s: superseded a considerable part of my labours.


s: But for sundry notes on Shakespeare, and other pieces which have


s: discoursing; but the discursion of the mind, the processes of


s: See Laing's History of Scotland.--Walter Scott's bards, ballads,


s: Thus organization, and motion are regarded as from God, not in


s: Wherever A=B, and A is not=B, are equally demonstrable, the


s: metabasis eis allo genos. Thus, the attributes of Space and time


s: To those, who design to acquire the language of a country in the


s: advantage which I derived from learning all the words, that could


s: This paraphrase, written about the time of Charlemagne, is by no


s: Who wrapp'd his limbs in swaddling clothes,


s: themselves were the chief agents in exciting, had ever lived in a


s: against which the existing laws had not provided both sufficient


s: I seldom think of the murder of this illustrious Prince without


s: recollecting the lines of Valerius Flaccus:


s: Instat fama viri, virtusque haud laeta tyranno;


s: Ergo anteire metus, juvenemque exstinguere pergit.


s: Theara de kai ton chaena kai taen dorkada,


s: Kai ton lagoon, kai to ton tauron genos.


s: Manuel Phile, De Animal. Proprietat. sect. I. i. 12.


s: This distinction between transcendental and transcendent is


s: April, 1825. If I did not see it with my own eyes, I should not


s: 'En kai Pan'ta--(taken by itself) is Spinozism.


s: 'En te pro panton--is mechanical Theism.


s: Pantheism is therefore not necessarily irreligious or heretical;


s: The impossibility of an absolute thing (substantia unica) as


s: It is most worthy of notice, that in the first revelation of


s: himself, not confined to individuals; indeed in the very first


s: cogitat, is illogical: for quod est in specie, non NBCESSARIO in


s: "Hence it is clear, from what cause many reject the notion of the


s: irrepresentable and impossible in one and the same meaning; and,


s: according to the forms of sensuous evidence, the notion of the


s: continuous and the infinite is doubtless impossible. I am not now


s: faculties for the limits of things, as they really exist."


s: consistently and rightly denies the possibility of intellectual


s: Franc. Baconis de Verulam, NOVUM ORGANUM.


s: This phrase, a priori, is in common, most grossly misunderstood,


s: knowledge a priori, we do not mean, that we can know anything


s: 'Anaer morionous, a phrase which I have borrowed from a Greek


s: These thoughts were suggested to me during the perusal of the


s: Aristotle, and the elegance of Quinctilian.


s: M'insegno Amor di state a mezzo'l giorno;


s: Ardean le solve, ardean le piagge, e i colli.


s: Ond' io, ch' al piu gran gielo ardo e sfavillo,


s: Sol mi specchiava, e'n dolce ombrosa sponda


s: Mi stava intento al mormorar dell' onda.


s: Deh voil ghiaccio, e le nubi, e'l tempo rio


s: A scherzare, a cantar per suoi boschetti,


s: Movete, Aure, pian pian; che tregua o posa,


s: Sguardo, oh labbra d'ambrosia, oh rider, lieto!


s: E'l mio cor teco, e la mia vita strugge!


s: Deh ch'io riposi una sol notte, un hora:


s: Han le fere, e git augelli, ognun talora


s: E non piango, e non grido? e qual pur forte?


s: Ma poiche, non sent' egli, odine, Morte.


s: Se non in fiamma, o'n onda, o'n vento scrissi


s: Crudel; sempre in me morto, in altri vissi:


s: Hor da' piu scuri Abissi al ciel m'aizai,


s: 'Tis three feet long, and two feet wide."


s: "Nay, rack your brain--'tis all in vain,


s: Last Christmas when they talked of this,


s: It is no less an error in teachers, than a torment to the poor


s: sufficiency, in repression and possible after-perversion of the


s: Altered from the description of Night-Mair in the REMORSE.


s: "Oh Heaven! 'twas frightful! Now ran down and stared at


s: By hideous shapes that cannot be remembered;


s: Now seeing nothing and imagining nothing;


s: But only being afraid--stifled with fear!


s: Had a strange power of spreading terror round me!"


s: But still more by the mechanical system of philosophy which has


s: needlessly infected our theological opinions, and teaching us to


s: To you a morning good, good Sir! I wish.


s: You, Sir! I thank: to you the same wish I.


s: In those parts of Mr. Wordsworth's works which I have thoroughly


s: apposition, or in the connection by the genitive pronoun. Men in


s: theory of the preface, justified only by the narrator's being the


s: I had in my mind the striking but untranslatable epithet, which


s: the celebrated Mendelssohn applied to the great founder of the


s: "Bless'd in the happy marriage of sweet words."


s: Sammlung einiger Abhandlungen von Christian Garve.


s: Mr. Wordsworth's having judiciously adopted "concourse wild" in


s: Shakespeare and Milton the word is never used without some clear


s: reference, proper or metaphorical, to the theatre. Thus Milton:


s: "Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm


s: A sylvan scene; and, as the ranks ascend


s: Which Copland scarce had spoke, but quickly every hill,


s: Upon her verge that stands, the neighbouring vallies fill;


s: Helvillon from his height, it through the mountains threw,


s: From whom as soon again, the sound Dunbalrase drew,


s: From whose stone-trophied head, it on the Windross went,


s: Which tow'rds the sea again, resounded it to Dent.


s: That Brodwater, therewith within her banks astound,


s: In sailing to the sea, told it to Egremound,


s: Whose buildings, walks, and streets, with echoes loud and long,


s: Did mightily commend old Copland for her song.


s: Translation. It behoves me to side with my friends, but only as


s: "Slender.  I bruised my shin with playing with sword and dagger


s: dinner: there's pippins and cheese to come."


s: This was accidentally confirmed to me by an old German gentleman


s: Klopstock's observation was partly true and partly erroneous. In


s: three English lines will express four lines German. The reason is


s: Cours'd one another down his innocent nose


s: "Yea, when the launched bolt did sear her sense,


s: Her soul's deep orisons were breathed for him;"


s: "Was not this love? Yea, thus doth woman love!"


s: The child is an important personage, for I see not by what


s: Classically too, as far as consists with the allegorizing fancy


s: of the modern, that still striving to project the inward,


s: Johnson should have passed a contrary judgment, and have even


s: Poor unlucky Metaphysicks! and what are they? A single sentence


s: Tuque Deum, quantum licet, inque Deo omnia noscas.


s: Scepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as knowledge is of


s: "examining all the curiosities of the countries they visited, and


s: Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit,


s: How parts relate to parts, or they to whole


s: Are things which Kuster, Burmann, Wasse, shall see,


s: When man’s whole frame is obvious to a flea.’"(19)


s: transmitted with assurance to posterity. The absence of easy and


s: compilation, at least over the theory, that the Iliad was cast


s: into its present stately and harmonious form by the directions of


s: bright period of Grecian song, of which, alas! we have inherited


s: little more than the fame, and the faint echo, if Stesichorus,


s: Anacreon, and Simonides were employed in the noble task of


s: compiling the Iliad and Odyssey, so much must have been done to


s: arrange, to connect, to harmonize, that it is almost incredible,


s: that stronger marks of Athenian manufacture should not remain.


s: Whatever occasional anomalies may be detected, anomalies which no


s: Homeric age, however the irregular use of the digamma may have


s: perplexed our Bentleys, to whom the name of Helen is said to have


s: reducing the Homeric language to its primitive form; however,


s: finally, the Attic dialect may not have assumed all its more


s: transitions, and connecting parts, should not more clearly betray


s: expression. It is not quite in character with such a period to


s: imitate an antique style, in order to piece out an imperfect poem


s: "If, however, not even such faint and indistinct traces of


s: Athenian compilation are discoverable in the language of the


s: poems, the total absence of Athenian national feeling is perhaps


s: no less worthy of observation. In later, and it may fairly be


s: suspected in earlier times, the Athenians were more than


s: ordinarily jealous of the fame of their ancestors. But, amid all


s: the traditions of the glories of early Greece embodied in the


s: Iliad, the Athenians play a most subordinate and insignificant


s: part. Even the few passages which relate to their ancestors, Mr.


s: that in the great maritime expedition of western Greece against


s: the rival and half-kindred empire of the Laomedontiadae, the


s: chieftain of Thessaly, from his valour and the number of his


s: Trojan war may thus have forced the national feeling of the


s: Athenians to yield to their taste. The songs which spoke of their


s: popularity, or, at first sight, a Theseid would have been much


s: more likely to have emanated from an Athenian synod of compilers


s: of ancient song, than an Achilleid or an Olysseid. Could France


s: have given birth to a Tasso, Tancred would have been the hero of


s: the Jerusalem. If, however, the Homeric ballads, as they are


s: sometimes called, which related the wrath of Achilles, with all


s: its direful consequences, were so far superior to the rest of the


s: betray the workmanship of an Athenian hand, and that the national


s: compared to our self admiring neighbours, the French, should


s: submit with lofty self denial to the almost total exclusion of


s: their own ancestors—or, at least, to the questionable dignity of


s: only having produced a leader tolerably skilled in the military


s: "No doubt the common soldiers of that age had, like the common


s: sailors of some fifty years ago, some one qualified to ’discourse


s: impress themselves, as the mystical legends of former times had


s: done, upon their memory; besides which, a retentive memory was


s: beginning of the war with Troy, were merely recitations, with an


s: intonation. Then followed a species of recitative, probably with


s: an intoned burden. Tune next followed, as it aided the memory


s: "It was at this period, about four hundred years after the war,


s: that a poet flourished of the name of Melesigenes, or Moeonides,


s: but most probably the former. He saw that these ballads might be


s: made of great utility to his purpose of writing a poem on the


s: social position of Hellas, and, as a collection, he published


s: these lays, connecting them by a tale of his own. This poem now


s: poem of Homeros, or the Collector; but this is rather a proof of


s: his modesty and talent, than of his mere drudging arrangement of


s: other people’s ideas; for, as Grote has finely observed, arguing


s: for the unity of authorship, ’a great poet might have re-cast


s: pre-existing separate songs into one comprehensive whole; but no


s: mere arrangers or compilers would be competent to do so.’


s: "While employed on the wild legend of Odysseus, he met with a


s: Achilleis(32) grew under his hand. Unity of design, however,


s: caused him to publish the poem under the same pseudonyme as his


s: former work: and the disjointed lays of the ancient bards were


s: joined together, like those relating to the Cid, into a chronicle


s: destined to be a lasting one, and so it has proved; but, first,


s: the poems were destined to undergo many vicissitudes and


s: corruptions, by the people who took to singing them in the


s: streets, assemblies, and agoras. However, Solon first, and then


s: Peisistratus, and afterwards Aristoteles and others, revised the


s: poems, and restored the works of Melesigenes Homeros to their


s: original integrity in a great measure."(33)


s: "It was Homer who formed the character of the Greek nation. No


s: poet has ever, as a poet, exercised a similar influence over his


s: countrymen. Prophets, lawgivers, and sages have formed the


s: lawgivers and sages appeared in Greece, the work of the poet had


s: already been accomplished; and they paid homage to his superior


s: genius. He held up before his nation the mirror, in which they


s: poems are founded on the first feeling of human nature; on the


s: love of children, wife, and country; on that passion which


s: outweighs all others, the love of glory. His songs were poured


s: forth from a breast which sympathized with all the feelings of


s: man; and therefore they enter, and will continue to enter, every


s: breast which cherishes the same sympathies. If it is granted to


s: his immortal spirit, from another heaven than any of which he


s: dreamed on earth, to look down on his race, to see the nations


s: from the fields of Asia to the forests of Hercynia, performing


s: pilgrimages to the fountain which his magic wand caused to flow;


s: being by means of his songs; wherever his immortal spirit may


s: reside, this alone would suffice to complete his happiness."(35)


s: "This poem," says Coleridge, "is a short mock-heroic of ancient


s: date. The text varies in different editions, and is obviously


s: disturbed and corrupt to a great degree; it is commonly said to


s: have been a juvenile essay of Homer’s genius; others have


s: attributed it to the same Pigrees, mentioned above, and whose


s: reputation for humour seems to have invited the appropriation of


s: any piece of ancient wit, the author of which was uncertain; so


s: little did the Greeks, before the age of the Ptolemies, know or


s: care about that department of criticism employed in determining


s: the genuineness of ancient writings. As to this little poem being


s: from the beginning to the end it is a plain and palpable parody,


s: not only of the general spirit, but of the numerous passages of


s: the Iliad itself; and even, if no such intention to parody were


s: discernible in it, the objection would still remain, that to


s: suppose a work of mere burlesque to be the primary effort of


s: poetry in a simple age, seems to reverse that order in the


s: development of national taste, which the history of every other


s: people in Europe, and of many in Asia, has almost ascertained to


s: be a law of the human mind; it is in a state of society much more


s: popularity would attend such a ridicule of war and the gods as is


s: with as much reason to Homer, is a strong inducement to believe


s: that none of them were of the Homeric age. Knight infers from the


s: employed by the Asiatic Greeks for that purpose, that this poem


s: was another offspring of Attic ingenuity; and generally that the


s: Hoid’ ar’ isan hosei te puri chthon pasa nemoito.


s: Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegorical, and the


s: If, in the next place, we take a view of the sentiments, the same


s: intervention of a deity to save the probability.


s: "Read Homer once, and you can read no more;


s: For all books else appear so mean, so poor,


s: Verse will seem prose: but still persist to read,


s: And Homer will be all the books you need."


s: Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring


s: Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!


s: That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s gloomy reign


s: The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;


s: Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore,


s: Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore.(41)


s: Since great Achilles and Atrides strove,


s: Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!(42)


s: Declare, O Muse! in what ill-fated hour(43)


s: Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended power


s: Latona’s son a dire contagion spread,(44)


s: And heap’d the camp with mountains of the dead;


s: The king of men his reverent priest defied,(45)


s: And for the king’s offence the people died.


s: For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain


s: His captive daughter from the victor’s chain.


s: By these he begs; and lowly bending down,


s: Extends the sceptre and the laurel crown


s: He sued to all, but chief implored for grace


s: The brother-kings, of Atreus’ royal race(46)


s: "Ye kings and warriors! may your vows be crown’d,


s: And Troy’s proud walls lie level with the ground.


s: May Jove restore you when your toils are o’er


s: Safe to the pleasures of your native shore.


s: But, oh! relieve a wretched parent’s pain,


s: If mercy fail, yet let my presents move,


s: And dread avenging Phoebus, son of Jove."


s: The Greeks in shouts their joint assent declare,


s: The priest to reverence, and release the fair.


s: Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied:


s: "Hence on thy life, and fly these hostile plains,


s: Nor ask, presumptuous, what the king detains


s: Hence, with thy laurel crown, and golden rod,


s: Nor trust too far those ensigns of thy god.


s: Mine is thy daughter, priest, and shall remain;


s: And prayers, and tears, and bribes, shall plead in vain;


s: Till time shall rifle every youthful grace,


s: And age dismiss her from my cold embrace,


s: Or doom’d to deck the bed she once enjoy’d


s: Hence then; to Argos shall the maid retire,


s: Far from her native soil and weeping sire."


s: The trembling priest along the shore return’d,


s: Silent he wander’d by the sounding main;


s: Till, safe at distance, to his god he prays,


s: The god who darts around the world his rays.


s: "O Smintheus! sprung from fair Latona’s line,(47)


s: Thou guardian power of Cilla the divine,(48)


s: Thou source of light! whom Tenedos adores,


s: And whose bright presence gilds thy Chrysa’s shores.


s: If e’er with wreaths I hung thy sacred fane,(49)


s: Or fed the flames with fat of oxen slain;


s: God of the silver bow! thy shafts employ,


s: Avenge thy servant, and the Greeks destroy."


s: Thus Chryses pray’d.—the favouring power attends,


s: Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound;(50)


s: Fierce as he moved, his silver shafts resound.


s: Breathing revenge, a sudden night he spread,


s: And gloomy darkness roll’d about his head.


s: The fleet in view, he twang’d his deadly bow,


s: And hissing fly the feather’d fates below.


s: On mules and dogs the infection first began;(51)


s: And last, the vengeful arrows fix’d in man.


s: For nine long nights, through all the dusky air,


s: The pyres, thick-flaming, shot a dismal glare.


s: But ere the tenth revolving day was run,


s: Convened to council all the Grecian train;


s: For much the goddess mourn’d her heroes slain.(52)


s: The assembly seated, rising o’er the rest,


s: Achilles thus the king of men address’d:


s: "Why leave we not the fatal Trojan shore,


s: And measure back the seas we cross’d before?


s: The plague destroying whom the sword would spare,


s: ’Tis time to save the few remains of war.


s: But let some prophet, or some sacred sage,


s: Explore the cause of great Apollo’s rage;


s: Or learn the wasteful vengeance to remove


s: By mystic dreams, for dreams descend from Jove.(53)


s: If broken vows this heavy curse have laid,


s: Let altars smoke, and hecatombs be paid.


s: So Heaven, atoned, shall dying Greece restore,


s: And Phoebus dart his burning shafts no more."


s: He said, and sat: when Chalcas thus replied;


s: Chalcas the wise, the Grecian priest and guide,


s: That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view,


s: The past, the present, and the future knew:


s: Thus spoke the prudence and the fears of age:


s: "Beloved of Jove, Achilles! would’st thou know


s: First give thy faith, and plight a prince’s word


s: Of sure protection, by thy power and sword:


s: For I must speak what wisdom would conceal,


s: And truths, invidious to the great, reveal,


s: Bold is the task, when subjects, grown too wise,


s: Instruct a monarch where his error lies;


s: For though we deem the short-lived fury past,


s: ’Tis sure the mighty will revenge at last."


s: Speak what thou know’st, and speak without control.


s: E’en by that god I swear who rules the day,


s: To whom thy hands the vows of Greece convey.


s: And whose bless’d oracles thy lips declare;


s: Long as Achilles breathes this vital air,


s: No daring Greek, of all the numerous band,


s: Against his priest shall lift an impious hand;


s: Not e’en the chief by whom our hosts are led,


s: The king of kings, shall touch that sacred head."


s: Encouraged thus, the blameless man replies:


s: "Nor vows unpaid, nor slighted sacrifice,


s: But he, our chief, provoked the raging pest,


s: Apollo’s vengeance for his injured priest.


s: But plagues shall spread, and funeral fires increase,


s: Till the great king, without a ransom paid,


s: To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid.(54)


s: Perhaps, with added sacrifice and prayer,


s: The priest may pardon, and the god may spare."


s: The prophet spoke: when with a gloomy frown


s: The monarch started from his shining throne;


s: Black choler fill’d his breast that boil’d with ire,


s: And from his eye-balls flash’d the living fire:


s: "Augur accursed! denouncing mischief still,


s: Prophet of plagues, for ever boding ill!


s: Still must that tongue some wounding message bring,


s: And still thy priestly pride provoke thy king?


s: To teach the Greeks to murmur at their lord?


s: For this with falsehood is my honour stain’d,


s: Is heaven offended, and a priest profaned;


s: Because my prize, my beauteous maid, I hold,


s: And heavenly charms prefer to proffer’d gold?


s: A maid, unmatch’d in manners as in face,


s: Skill’d in each art, and crown’d with every grace;


s: Not half so dear were Clytaemnestra’s charms,


s: When first her blooming beauties bless’d my arms.


s: Yet, if the gods demand her, let her sail;


s: Let me be deem’d the hateful cause of all,


s: The prize, the beauteous prize, I will resign,


s: But since for common good I yield the fair,


s: My private loss let grateful Greece repair;


s: Nor unrewarded let your prince complain,


s: That he alone has fought and bled in vain."


s: "Insatiate king (Achilles thus replies),


s: Fond of the power, but fonder of the prize!


s: Would’st thou the Greeks their lawful prey should yield,


s: The due reward of many a well-fought field?


s: The spoils of cities razed and warriors slain,


s: We share with justice, as with toil we gain;


s: But to resume whate’er thy avarice craves


s: (That trick of tyrants) may be borne by slaves.


s: Yet if our chief for plunder only fight,


s: The spoils of Ilion shall thy loss requite,


s: Whene’er, by Jove’s decree, our conquering powers


s: Shall humble to the dust her lofty towers."


s: Then thus the king: "Shall I my prize resign


s: With tame content, and thou possess’d of thine?


s: Great as thou art, and like a god in fight,


s: Think not to rob me of a soldier’s right.


s: Or grant me this, or with a monarch’s claim


s: This hand shall seize some other captive dame.


s: The mighty Ajax shall his prize resign;(55)


s: Ulysses’ spoils, or even thy own, be mine.


s: The man who suffers, loudly may complain;


s: And rage he may, but he shall rage in vain.


s: But this when time requires.—It now remains


s: We launch a bark to plough the watery plains,


s: And waft the sacrifice to Chrysa’s shores,


s: With chosen pilots, and with labouring oars.


s: Soon shall the fair the sable ship ascend,


s: And some deputed prince the charge attend:


s: This Creta’s king, or Ajax shall fulfil,


s: Achilles’ self conduct her o’er the main;


s: Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,


s: The god propitiate, and the pest assuage."


s: At this, Pelides, frowning stern, replied:


s: "O tyrant, arm’d with insolence and pride!


s: Inglorious slave to interest, ever join’d


s: What generous Greek, obedient to thy word,


s: Shall form an ambush, or shall lift the sword?


s: To Phthia’s realms no hostile troops they led:


s: Safe in her vales my warlike coursers fed;


s: Far hence removed, the hoarse-resounding main,


s: And walls of rocks, secure my native reign,


s: Whose fruitful soil luxuriant harvests grace,


s: Rich in her fruits, and in her martial race.


s: To avenge a private, not a public wrong:


s: What else to Troy the assembled nations draws,


s: But thine, ungrateful, and thy brother’s cause?


s: Is this the pay our blood and toils deserve;


s: Disgraced and injured by the man we serve?


s: And darest thou threat to snatch my prize away,


s: Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day?


s: A prize as small, O tyrant! match’d with thine,


s: Thine in each conquest is the wealthy prey,


s: Though mine the sweat and danger of the day.


s: Some trivial present to my ships I bear:


s: Or barren praises pay the wounds of war.


s: But know, proud monarch, I’m thy slave no more;


s: My fleet shall waft me to Thessalia’s shore:


s: What spoils, what conquests, shall Atrides gain?"


s: To this the king: "Fly, mighty warrior! fly;


s: Thy aid we need not, and thy threats defy.


s: There want not chiefs in such a cause to fight,


s: And Jove himself shall guard a monarch’s right.


s: Of all the kings (the god’s distinguish’d care)


s: To power superior none such hatred bear:


s: Strife and debate thy restless soul employ,


s: And wars and horrors are thy savage joy,


s: If thou hast strength, ’twas Heaven that strength bestow’d;


s: For know, vain man! thy valour is from God.


s: Haste, launch thy vessels, fly with speed away;


s: Rule thy own realms with arbitrary sway;


s: I heed thee not, but prize at equal rate


s: Thy short-lived friendship, and thy groundless hate.


s: Go, threat thy earth-born Myrmidons:—but here(56)


s: ’Tis mine to threaten, prince, and thine to fear.


s: Know, if the god the beauteous dame demand,


s: My bark shall waft her to her native land;


s: But then prepare, imperious prince! prepare,


s: Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair:


s: Even in thy tent I’ll seize the blooming prize,


s: Thy loved Briseis with the radiant eyes.


s: Hence shalt thou prove my might, and curse the hour


s: Thou stood’st a rival of imperial power;


s: And hence, to all our hosts it shall be known,


s: That kings are subject to the gods alone."


s: Achilles heard, with grief and rage oppress’d,


s: His heart swell’d high, and labour’d in his breast;


s: Distracting thoughts by turns his bosom ruled;


s: Now fired by wrath, and now by reason cool’d:


s: That prompts his hand to draw the deadly sword,


s: Force through the Greeks, and pierce their haughty lord;


s: This whispers soft his vengeance to control,


s: And calm the rising tempest of his soul.


s: Just as in anguish of suspense he stay’d,


s: While half unsheathed appear’d the glittering blade,(57)


s: (For both the princes claim’d her equal care);


s: Behind she stood, and by the golden hair


s: Achilles seized; to him alone confess’d;


s: A sable cloud conceal’d her from the rest.


s: He sees, and sudden to the goddess cries,


s: Known by the flames that sparkle from her eyes:


s: "Descends Minerva, in her guardian care,


s: From Atreus’ son?—Then let those eyes that view


s: The daring crime, behold the vengeance too."


s: Let great Achilles, to the gods resign’d,


s: To reason yield the empire o’er his mind.


s: The king and you are both the care of heaven.


s: The force of keen reproaches let him feel;


s: But sheathe, obedient, thy revenging steel.


s: For I pronounce (and trust a heavenly power)


s: When the proud monarch shall thy arms implores


s: And bribe thy friendship with a boundless store.


s: Then let revenge no longer bear the sway;


s: Command thy passions, and the gods obey."


s: ’Tis just, O goddess! I thy dictates hear.


s: Those who revere the gods the gods will bless."


s: He said, observant of the blue-eyed maid;


s: Then in the sheath return’d the shining blade.


s: The goddess swift to high Olympus flies,


s: And joins the sacred senate of the skies.


s: Nor yet the rage his boiling breast forsook,


s: "O monster! mix’d of insolence and fear,


s: Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!


s: When wert thou known in ambush’d fights to dare,


s: ’Tis ours, the chance of fighting fields to try;


s: Thine to look on, and bid the valiant die:


s: So much ’tis safer through the camp to go,


s: Scourge of thy people, violent and base!


s: Who, lost to sense of generous freedom past,


s: Are tamed to wrongs;—or this had been thy last.


s: Now by this sacred sceptre hear me swear,


s: Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear,


s: Which sever’d from the trunk (as I from thee)


s: On the bare mountains left its parent tree;


s: This sceptre, form’d by temper’d steel to prove


s: From whom the power of laws and justice springs


s: By this I swear:—when bleeding Greece again


s: Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain.


s: When, flush’d with slaughter, Hector comes to spread


s: The purpled shore with mountains of the dead,


s: Then shall thou mourn the affront thy madness gave,


s: Forced to deplore when impotent to save:


s: This act has made the bravest Greek thy foe."


s: He spoke; and furious hurl’d against the ground


s: His sceptre starr’d with golden studs around:


s: Then sternly silent sat. With like disdain


s: The raging king return’d his frowns again.


s: To calm their passion with the words of age,


s: Slow from his seat arose the Pylian sage,


s: Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill’d;


s: Words, sweet as honey, from his lips distill’d:(58)


s: Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway;


s: Two ages o’er his native realm he reign’d,


s: And now the example of the third remain’d.


s: "What shame, what woe is this to Greece! what joy


s: To Troy’s proud monarch, and the friends of Troy!


s: That adverse gods commit to stern debate


s: The best, the bravest, of the Grecian state.


s: Young as ye are, this youthful heat restrain,


s: Nor think your Nestor’s years and wisdom vain.


s: Such as no more these aged eyes shall view!


s: Lives there a chief to match Pirithous’ fame,


s: Dryas the bold, or Ceneus’ deathless name;


s: Theseus, endued with more than mortal might,


s: With these of old, to toils of battle bred,


s: Fired with the thirst which virtuous envy breeds,


s: Strongest of men, they pierced the mountain boar,


s: Ranged the wild deserts red with monsters’ gore,


s: And from their hills the shaggy Centaurs tore:


s: Yet these with soft persuasive arts I sway’d;


s: When Nestor spoke, they listen’d and obey’d.


s: If in my youth, even these esteem’d me wise;


s: Do you, young warriors, hear my age advise.


s: Atrides, seize not on the beauteous slave;


s: That prize the Greeks by common suffrage gave:


s: Nor thou, Achilles, treat our prince with pride;


s: Let kings be just, and sovereign power preside.


s: Thee, the first honours of the war adorn,


s: Like gods in strength, and of a goddess born;


s: The powers of earth, and sceptred sons of Jove.


s: Let both unite with well-consenting mind,


s: So shall authority with strength be join’d.


s: Leave me, O king! to calm Achilles’ rage;


s: Rule thou thyself, as more advanced in age.


s: Forbid it, gods! Achilles should be lost,


s: The pride of Greece, and bulwark of our host."


s: This said, he ceased. The king of men replies:


s: "Thy years are awful, and thy words are wise.


s: But that imperious, that unconquer’d soul,


s: Before his pride must his superiors fall;


s: His word the law, and he the lord of all?


s: Him must our hosts, our chiefs, ourself obey?


s: Grant that the gods his matchless force have given;


s: Has foul reproach a privilege from heaven?"


s: Here on the monarch’s speech Achilles broke,


s: And furious, thus, and interrupting spoke:


s: "Tyrant, I well deserved thy galling chain,


s: To live thy slave, and still to serve in vain,


s: Command thy vassals, but command not me.


s: Seize on Briseis, whom the Grecians doom’d


s: My prize of war, yet tamely see resumed;


s: And seize secure; no more Achilles draws


s: His conquering sword in any woman’s cause.


s: The gods command me to forgive the past:


s: But let this first invasion be the last:


s: For know, thy blood, when next thou darest invade,


s: Shall stream in vengeance on my reeking blade."


s: At this they ceased: the stern debate expired:


s: Where near his tents his hollow vessels lay.


s: Meantime Atrides launch’d with numerous oars


s: A well-rigg’d ship for Chrysa’s sacred shores:


s: High on the deck was fair Chryseis placed,


s: And sage Ulysses with the conduct graced:


s: Safe in her sides the hecatomb they stow’d,


s: Then swiftly sailing, cut the liquid road.


s: The host to expiate next the king prepares,


s: With pure lustrations, and with solemn prayers.


s: Wash’d by the briny wave, the pious train(59)


s: Are cleansed; and cast the ablutions in the main.


s: Along the shore whole hecatombs were laid,


s: And bulls and goats to Phoebus’ altars paid;


s: The sable fumes in curling spires arise,


s: And waft their grateful odours to the skies.


s: Atrides still with deep resentment raged.


s: To wait his will two sacred heralds stood,


s: "Haste to the fierce Achilles’ tent (he cries),


s: Submit he must; or if they will not part,


s: Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart."


s: The unwilling heralds act their lord’s commands;


s: Pensive they walk along the barren sands:


s: Arrived, the hero in his tent they find,


s: At awful distance long they silent stand,


s: Loth to advance, and speak their hard command;


s: Perceived, and thus with accent mild began:


s: "With leave and honour enter our abodes,


s: Ye sacred ministers of men and gods!(60)


s: I know your message; by constraint you came;


s: Not you, but your imperious lord I blame.


s: Patroclus, haste, the fair Briseis bring;


s: But witness, heralds, and proclaim my vow,


s: But first, and loudest, to your prince declare


s: (That lawless tyrant whose commands you bear),


s: Though prostrate Greece shall bleed at every vein:


s: The raging chief in frantic passion lost,


s: Blind to himself, and useless to his host,


s: Unskill’d to judge the future by the past,


s: In blood and slaughter shall repent at last."


s: Patroclus now the unwilling beauty brought;


s: She, in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,


s: Pass’d silent, as the heralds held her hand,


s: And of look’d back, slow-moving o’er the strand.


s: Not so his loss the fierce Achilles bore;


s: But sad, retiring to the sounding shore,


s: O’er the wild margin of the deep he hung,


s: That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung:(61)


s: There bathed in tears of anger and disdain,


s: Thy son must fall, by too severe a doom;


s: Great Jove in justice should this span adorn:


s: Honour and fame at least the thunderer owed;


s: If yon proud monarch thus thy son defies,


s: Obscures my glories, and resumes my prize."


s: Where aged Ocean holds his watery reign,


s: The goddess-mother heard. The waves divide;


s: And like a mist she rose above the tide;


s: Beheld him mourning on the naked shores,


s: And thus the sorrows of his soul explores.


s: "Why grieves my son? Thy anguish let me share;


s: Reveal the cause, and trust a parent’s care."


s: Is but to mention what too well you know.


s: (Aetion’s realm), our conquering army came,


s: With treasure loaded and triumphant spoils,


s: Whose just division crown’d the soldier’s toils;


s: But bright Chryseis, heavenly prize! was led,


s: The priest of Phoebus sought by gifts to gain


s: His beauteous daughter from the victor’s chain;


s: The fleet he reach’d, and, lowly bending down,


s: Held forth the sceptre and the laurel crown,


s: Intreating all; but chief implored for grace


s: The brother-kings of Atreus’ royal race:


s: The generous Greeks their joint consent declare,


s: The priest to reverence, and release the fair;


s: The sire insulted, and his gifts denied:


s: The insulted sire (his god’s peculiar care)


s: To Phoebus pray’d, and Phoebus heard the prayer:


s: A dreadful plague ensues: the avenging darts


s: Incessant fly, and pierce the Grecian hearts.


s: A prophet then, inspired by heaven, arose,


s: And points the crime, and thence derives the woes:


s: Myself the first the assembled chiefs incline


s: To avert the vengeance of the power divine;


s: Then rising in his wrath, the monarch storm’d;


s: Incensed he threaten’d, and his threats perform’d:


s: With offer’d gifts to make the god relent;


s: But now he seized Briseis’ heavenly charms,


s: And of my valour’s prize defrauds my arms,


s: Defrauds the votes of all the Grecian train;(63)


s: And service, faith, and justice, plead in vain.


s: But, goddess! thou thy suppliant son attend.


s: Urge all the ties to former service owed,


s: And sue for vengeance to the thundering god.


s: Oft hast thou triumph’d in the glorious boast,


s: That thou stood’st forth of all the ethereal host,


s: When bold rebellion shook the realms above,


s: The undaunted guard of cloud-compelling Jove:


s: When the bright partner of his awful reign,


s: The warlike maid, and monarch of the main,


s: The traitor-gods, by mad ambition driven,


s: Durst threat with chains the omnipotence of Heaven.


s: Then, call’d by thee, the monster Titan came


s: Through wondering skies enormous stalk’d along;


s: Not he that shakes the solid earth so strong:


s: With giant-pride at Jove’s high throne he stands,


s: And brandish’d round him all his hundred hands:


s: The affrighted gods confess’d their awful lord,


s: They dropp’d the fetters, trembled, and adored.(64)


s: This, goddess, this to his remembrance call,


s: Embrace his knees, at his tribunal fall;


s: Conjure him far to drive the Grecian train,


s: To hurl them headlong to their fleet and main,


s: To heap the shores with copious death, and bring


s: The Greeks to know the curse of such a king.


s: And mourn in blood that e’er he durst disgrace


s: The boldest warrior of the Grecian race."


s: "Unhappy son! (fair Thetis thus replies,


s: While tears celestial trickle from her eyes)


s: Why have I borne thee with a mother’s throes,


s: To Fates averse, and nursed for future woes?(65)


s: So short a space the light of heaven to view!


s: So short a space! and fill’d with sorrow too!


s: O might a parent’s careful wish prevail,


s: Far, far from Ilion should thy vessels sail,


s: And thou, from camps remote, the danger shun


s: Which now, alas! too nearly threats my son.


s: Yet (what I can) to move thy suit I’ll go


s: To great Olympus crown’d with fleecy snow.


s: Meantime, secure within thy ships, from far


s: Behold the field, not mingle in the war.


s: The sire of gods and all the ethereal train,


s: On the warm limits of the farthest main,


s: Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace


s: The feasts of Æthiopia’s blameless race,(66)


s: Twelve days the powers indulge the genial rite,


s: Returning with the twelfth revolving light.


s: Then will I mount the brazen dome, and move


s: The goddess spoke: the rolling waves unclose;


s: Then down the steep she plunged from whence she rose,


s: And left him sorrowing on the lonely coast,


s: In wild resentment for the fair he lost.


s: Beneath the deck the destined victims stow’d:


s: The sails they furl’d, they lash the mast aside,


s: And dropp’d their anchors, and the pinnace tied.


s: Next on the shore their hecatomb they land;


s: Her, thus returning from the furrow’d main,


s: "Hail, reverend priest! to Phoebus’ awful dome


s: Unransom’d, here receive the spotless fair;


s: And may thy god who scatters darts around,


s: Atoned by sacrifice, desist to wound."(67)


s: At this, the sire embraced the maid again,


s: So sadly lost, so lately sought in vain.


s: Then near the altar of the darting king,


s: Disposed in rank their hecatomb they bring;


s: While thus with arms devoutly raised in air,


s: And solemn voice, the priest directs his prayer:


s: "God of the silver bow, thy ear incline,


s: And gilds fair Chrysa with distinguish’d rays!


s: If, fired to vengeance at thy priest’s request,


s: Thy direful darts inflict the raging pest:


s: Once more attend! avert the wasteful woe,


s: And smile propitious, and unbend thy bow."


s: So Chryses pray’d. Apollo heard his prayer:


s: And now the Greeks their hecatomb prepare;


s: Between their horns the salted barley threw,


s: And, with their heads to heaven, the victims slew:(68)


s: The limbs they sever from the inclosing hide;


s: The thighs, selected to the gods, divide:


s: On these, in double cauls involved with art,


s: The choicest morsels lay from every part.


s: The priest himself before his altar stands,


s: And burns the offering with his holy hands.


s: Pours the black wine, and sees the flames aspire;


s: The youth with instruments surround the fire:


s: The thighs thus sacrificed, and entrails dress’d,


s: The assistants part, transfix, and roast the rest:


s: Then spread the tables, the repast prepare;


s: Each takes his seat, and each receives his share.


s: When now the rage of hunger was repress’d,


s: With pure libations they conclude the feast;


s: The youths with wine the copious goblets crown’d,


s: And, pleased, dispense the flowing bowls around;(69)


s: With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends,


s: The paeans lengthen’d till the sun descends:


s: The Greeks, restored, the grateful notes prolong;


s: ’Twas night; the chiefs beside their vessel lie,


s: Till rosy morn had purpled o’er the sky:


s: Then launch, and hoist the mast: indulgent gales,


s: Supplied by Phoebus, fill the swelling sails;


s: The milk-white canvas bellying as they blow,


s: Above the bounding billows swift they flew,


s: Till now the Grecian camp appear’d in view.


s: Far on the beach they haul their bark to land,


s: (The crooked keel divides the yellow sand,)


s: Then part, where stretch’d along the winding bay,


s: The ships and tents in mingled prospect lay.


s: The stern Achilles, stedfast in his hate;


s: Nor mix’d in combat, nor in council join’d;


s: But wasting cares lay heavy on his mind:


s: In his black thoughts revenge and slaughter roll,


s: And scenes of blood rise dreadful in his soul.


s: Twelve days were past, and now the dawning light


s: The gods had summon’d to the Olympian height:


s: Jove, first ascending from the watery bowers,


s: Leads the long order of ethereal powers.


s: When, like the morning-mist in early day,


s: Rose from the flood the daughter of the sea:


s: And to the seats divine her flight address’d.


s: There, far apart, and high above the rest,


s: The thunderer sat; where old Olympus shrouds


s: His hundred heads in heaven, and props the clouds.


s: Suppliant the goddess stood: one hand she placed


s: Beneath his beard, and one his knees embraced.


s: "If e’er, O father of the gods! (she said)


s: My words could please thee, or my actions aid,


s: Fame is at least by heavenly promise due


s: To life so short, and now dishonour’d too.


s: Avenge this wrong, O ever just and wise!


s: Let Greece be humbled, and the Trojans rise;


s: Till the proud king and all the Achaian race


s: Shall heap with honours him they now disgrace."


s: Thus Thetis spoke; but Jove in silence held


s: The sacred counsels of his breast conceal’d.


s: Not so repulsed, the goddess closer press’d,


s: Still grasp’d his knees, and urged the dear request.


s: "O sire of gods and men! thy suppliant hear;


s: Refuse, or grant; for what has Jove to fear?


s: Or oh! declare, of all the powers above,


s: Is wretched Thetis least the care of Jove?"


s: She said; and, sighing, thus the god replies,


s: Who rolls the thunder o’er the vaulted skies:


s: "What hast thou ask’d? ah, why should Jove engage


s: The gods’ complaints, and Juno’s fierce alarms,


s: While I, too partial, aid the Trojan arms?


s: With jealous eyes thy close access survey;


s: But part in peace, secure thy prayer is sped:


s: This seals thy suit, and this fulfils thy vows—"


s: He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows,(70)


s: Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,


s: The stamp of fate and sanction of the god:


s: High heaven with trembling the dread signal took,


s: And all Olympus to the centre shook.(71)


s: Swift to the seas profound the goddess flies,


s: Jove to his starry mansions in the skies.


s: The coming god, and from their thrones of state


s: Trembling they stand, while Jove assumes the throne,


s: All, but the god’s imperious queen alone:


s: Late had she view’d the silver-footed dame,


s: And all her passions kindled into flame.


s: "Say, artful manager of heaven (she cries),


s: Who now partakes the secrets of the skies?


s: What favourite goddess then those cares divides,


s: Which Jove in prudence from his consort hides?"


s: To this the thunderer: "Seek not thou to find


s: Involved in darkness likes the great decree,


s: Nor can the depths of fate be pierced by thee.


s: What fits thy knowledge, thou the first shalt know;


s: But thou, nor they, shall search the thoughts that roll


s: Full on the sire the goddess of the skies


s: Roll’d the large orbs of her majestic eyes,


s: And thus return’d:—"Austere Saturnius, say,


s: From whence this wrath, or who controls thy sway?


s: Thy boundless will, for me, remains in force,


s: And all thy counsels take the destined course.


s: But ’tis for Greece I fear: for late was seen,


s: In close consult, the silver-footed queen.


s: Nor was the signal vain that shook the sky.


s: Perhaps in Grecian blood to drench the plain,


s: And glut his vengeance with my people slain."


s: Then thus the god: "O restless fate of pride,


s: That strives to learn what heaven resolves to hide;


s: Vain is the search, presumptuous and abhorr’d,


s: Anxious to thee, and odious to thy lord.


s: No force can shake: what is, that ought to be.


s: Goddess, submit; nor dare our will withstand,


s: But dread the power of this avenging hand:


s: The united strength of all the gods above


s: In vain resists the omnipotence of Jove."


s: The thunderer spoke, nor durst the queen reply;


s: The feast disturb’d, with sorrow Vulcan saw


s: His mother menaced, and the gods in awe;


s: Peace at his heart, and pleasure his design,


s: "The wretched quarrels of the mortal state


s: Let men their days in senseless strife employ,


s: Thou, goddess-mother, with our sire comply,


s: Lest, roused to rage, he shake the bless’d abodes,


s: Launch the red lightning, and dethrone the gods.


s: If you submit, the thunderer stands appeased;


s: The gracious power is willing to be pleased."


s: Thus Vulcan spoke: and rising with a bound,


s: The double bowl with sparkling nectar crown’d,(72)


s: "Goddess (he cried), be patient and obey.


s: Dear as you are, if Jove his arm extend,


s: Or lift his hand against the force of Jove?


s: Once in your cause I felt his matchless might,


s: Hurl’d headlong down from the ethereal height;(73)


s: Toss’d all the day in rapid circles round,


s: Nor till the sun descended touch’d the ground.


s: Breathless I fell, in giddy motion lost;


s: The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast;(74)


s: He said, and to her hands the goblet heaved,


s: Which, with a smile, the white-arm’d queen received


s: Then, to the rest he fill’d; and in his turn,


s: Each to his lips applied the nectar’d urn,


s: Vulcan with awkward grace his office plies,


s: And unextinguish’d laughter shakes the skies.


s: Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong,


s: In feasts ambrosial, and celestial song.(75)


s: With voice alternate aid the silver sound.


s: Meantime the radiant sun to mortal sight


s: Descending swift, roll’d down the rapid light:


s: Then to their starry domes the gods depart,


s: Jove on his couch reclined his awful head,


s: Now pleasing sleep had seal’d each mortal eye,


s: Stretch’d in the tents the Grecian leaders lie:


s: The immortals slumber’d on their thrones above;


s: All, but the ever-wakeful eyes of Jove.(76)


s: To honour Thetis’ son he bends his care,


s: And plunge the Greeks in all the woes of war:


s: Then bids an empty phantom rise to sight,


s: And thus commands the vision of the night.


s: "Fly hence, deluding Dream! and light as air,(77)


s: Bid him in arms draw forth the embattled train,


s: Lead all his Grecians to the dusty plain.


s: Declare, e’en now ’tis given him to destroy


s: For now no more the gods with fate contend,


s: At Juno’s suit the heavenly factions end.


s: Destruction hangs o’er yon devoted wall,


s: And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall."


s: Swift as the word the vain illusion fled,


s: Descends, and hovers o’er Atrides’ head;


s: Clothed in the figure of the Pylian sage,


s: Renown’d for wisdom, and revered for age:


s: Around his temples spreads his golden wing,


s: And thus the flattering dream deceives the king.


s: "Canst thou, with all a monarch’s cares oppress’d,


s: O Atreus’ son! canst thou indulge the rest?(78)


s: Ill fits a chief who mighty nations guides,


s: Directs in council, and in war presides,


s: To waste long nights in indolent repose.(79)


s: Monarch, awake! ’tis Jove’s command I bear;


s: Thou, and thy glory, claim his heavenly care.


s: In just array draw forth the embattled train,


s: Lead all thy Grecians to the dusty plain;


s: E’en now, O king! ’tis given thee to destroy


s: For now no more the gods with fate contend,


s: At Juno’s suit the heavenly factions end.


s: Destruction hangs o’er yon devoted wall,


s: And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.


s: And trust the vision that descends from Jove."


s: The phantom said; then vanish’d from his sight,


s: Resolves to air, and mixes with the night.


s: A thousand schemes the monarch’s mind employ;


s: Vain as he was, and to the future blind,


s: Nor saw what Jove and secret fate design’d,


s: What mighty toils to either host remain,


s: What scenes of grief, and numbers of the slain!


s: The voice celestial murmuring in his ears.


s: First on his limbs a slender vest he drew,


s: The embroider’d sandals on his feet were tied;


s: The starry falchion glitter’d at his side;


s: And last, his arm the massy sceptre loads,


s: Unstain’d, immortal, and the gift of gods.


s: Now rosy Morn ascends the court of Jove,


s: Lifts up her light, and opens day above.


s: The king despatch’d his heralds with commands


s: To range the camp and summon all the bands:


s: The gathering hosts the monarch’s word obey;


s: While to the fleet Atrides bends his way.


s: In his black ship the Pylian prince he found;


s: There calls a senate of the peers around:


s: The assembly placed, the king of men express’d


s: The counsels labouring in his artful breast.


s: "Friends and confederates! with attentive ear


s: Receive my words, and credit what you hear.


s: Late as I slumber’d in the shades of night,


s: A dream divine appear’d before my sight;


s: The same in habit, and in mien the same.(80)


s: The heavenly phantom hover’d o’er my head,


s: ’And, dost thou sleep, O Atreus’ son? (he said)


s: Ill fits a chief who mighty nations guides,


s: Directs in council, and in war presides;


s: To waste long nights in indolent repose.


s: Monarch, awake! ’tis Jove’s command I bear,


s: Thou and thy glory claim his heavenly care.


s: In just array draw forth the embattled train,


s: And lead the Grecians to the dusty plain;


s: E’en now, O king! ’tis given thee to destroy


s: For now no more the gods with fate contend,


s: At Juno’s suit the heavenly factions end.


s: Destruction hangs o’er yon devoted wall,


s: And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.


s: This hear observant, and the gods obey!’


s: The vision spoke, and pass’d in air away.


s: Now, valiant chiefs! since heaven itself alarms,


s: Unite, and rouse the sons of Greece to arms.


s: But first, with caution, try what yet they dare,


s: Worn with nine years of unsuccessful war.


s: To move the troops to measure back the main,


s: Be mine; and yours the province to detain."


s: He spoke, and sat: when Nestor, rising said,


s: (Nestor, whom Pylos’ sandy realms obey’d,)


s: "Princes of Greece, your faithful ears incline,


s: Nor doubt the vision of the powers divine;


s: Sent by great Jove to him who rules the host,


s: Forbid it, heaven! this warning should be lost!


s: Then let us haste, obey the god’s alarms,


s: And join to rouse the sons of Greece to arms."


s: Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay


s: Dissolve the council, and their chief obey:


s: The sceptred rulers lead; the following host,


s: Pour’d forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.


s: As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees


s: Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees,


s: Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,


s: With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms;


s: Dusky they spread, a close embodied crowd,


s: And o’er the vale descends the living cloud.(81)


s: So, from the tents and ships, a lengthen’d train


s: Spreads all the beach, and wide o’ershades the plain:


s: Along the region runs a deafening sound;


s: Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.


s: Fame flies before the messenger of Jove,


s: And shining soars, and claps her wings above.


s: Nine sacred heralds now, proclaiming loud(82)


s: The monarch’s will, suspend the listening crowd.


s: Soon as the throngs in order ranged appear,


s: The king of kings his awful figure raised:


s: High in his hand the golden sceptre blazed;


s: By Vulcan form’d, from Jove to Hermes came.


s: To Pelops he the immortal gift resign’d;


s: The immortal gift great Pelops left behind,


s: In Atreus’ hand, which not with Atreus ends,


s: To rich Thyestes next the prize descends;


s: Subjects all Argos, and controls the main.(83)


s: On this bright sceptre now the king reclined,


s: And artful thus pronounced the speech design’d:


s: "Ye sons of Mars, partake your leader’s care,


s: Heroes of Greece, and brothers of the war!


s: Of partial Jove with justice I complain,


s: A safe return was promised to our toils,


s: Renown’d, triumphant, and enrich’d with spoils.


s: Now shameful flight alone can save the host,


s: Our blood, our treasure, and our glory lost.


s: So Jove decrees, resistless lord of all!


s: At whose command whole empires rise or fall:


s: He shakes the feeble props of human trust,


s: And towns and armies humbles to the dust


s: What shame to Greece a fruitful war to wage,


s: Once great in arms, the common scorn we grow,


s: So small their number, that if wars were ceased,


s: And Greece triumphant held a general feast,


s: All rank’d by tens, whole decades when they dine


s: Must want a Trojan slave to pour the wine.(84)


s: But other forces have our hopes o’erthrown,


s: And Troy prevails by armies not her own.


s: Now nine long years of mighty Jove are run,


s: Since first the labours of this war begun:


s: Our cordage torn, decay’d our vessels lie,


s: And scarce insure the wretched power to fly.


s: Haste, then, for ever leave the Trojan wall!


s: Our weeping wives, our tender children call:


s: ’Tis nature’s voice, and nature we obey,


s: Our shatter’d barks may yet transport us o’er,


s: Safe and inglorious, to our native shore.


s: Fly, Grecians, fly, your sails and oars employ,


s: And dream no more of heaven-defended Troy."


s: His deep design unknown, the hosts approve


s: Atrides’ speech. The mighty numbers move.


s: So roll the billows to the Icarian shore,


s: From east and south when winds begin to roar,


s: Burst their dark mansions in the clouds, and sweep


s: The whitening surface of the ruffled deep.


s: And as on corn when western gusts descend,(85)


s: Before the blast the lofty harvests bend:


s: Thus o’er the field the moving host appears,


s: With nodding plumes and groves of waving spears.


s: The gathering murmur spreads, their trampling feet


s: Beat the loose sands, and thicken to the fleet;


s: With long-resounding cries they urge the train


s: To fit the ships, and launch into the main.


s: They toil, they sweat, thick clouds of dust arise,


s: The doubling clamours echo to the skies.


s: E’en then the Greeks had left the hostile plain,


s: And fate decreed the fall of Troy in vain;


s: But Jove’s imperial queen their flight survey’d,


s: And sighing thus bespoke the blue-eyed maid:


s: "Shall then the Grecians fly! O dire disgrace!


s: And leave unpunish’d this perfidious race?


s: Shall Troy, shall Priam, and the adulterous spouse,


s: In peace enjoy the fruits of broken vows?


s: And bravest chiefs, in Helen’s quarrel slain,


s: No: let my Greeks, unmoved by vain alarms,


s: Once more refulgent shine in brazen arms.


s: Haste, goddess, haste! the flying host detain,


s: Nor let one sail be hoisted on the main."


s: Swift to the ships precipitates her flight.


s: Ulysses, first in public cares, she found,


s: For prudent counsel like the gods renown’d:


s: Oppress’d with generous grief the hero stood,


s: Nor drew his sable vessels to the flood.


s: Thus fly the Greeks (the martial maid begun),


s: Thus to their country bear their own disgrace,


s: Shall beauteous Helen still remain unfreed,


s: Still unrevenged, a thousand heroes bleed!