That for her husband mix'd a pois'nous draught, 405 How fome with fwords their sleeping lords have flain, And fome have hammer'd nails into their brain, And some have drench'd them with a deadly potion; All this he read, and read with great devotion. 410 Long time I heard, and fwell'd, and blufh'd, and frown'd; But when no end of these vile tales I found, - 420 And half the night was thus consum'd in vain ; life: face; 425 And flood content to rule by wholesome laws; 430 Receiv'd the reins of abfolute command, With all the government of house and land, And empire o'er his tongue, and o'er his hand. 434 'Twas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to flames. Now heav'n on all my husbands gone, bestow Pleasures above, for tortures felt below: That reft they wish'd for, grant them in the grave, And blefs those fouls my conduct help'd to fave! OE EDIPUS King of Thebes having by mistake slain his father Laius, and married his mother Jocafta; put out his own eyes, and refign'd the realm to his fons, Etcocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tifiphone, to fow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at laft to reign fingly, each a year by turns, and the firft lot is obtain'd by Eteocles. Jupiter, in a council of the Gods, declares his refolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives alfo, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adraftus King of Argos. Juno oppofes, but to no effect; and Mercury is fent on a message to the Shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Eteocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices in the mean time departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a storm, and arrives at Argos; where he meets with Tydeus, whe had fled from Calydon, having killed his brother. Adraftus entertains them, having received an oracle from Apollo, that his daughters fhould be married to a Boar and a Lion, which he understands to be meant of thefe ftrangers, by whom the hides of thofe beafts were worn, and who arrived at the time when he kept an annual feaft in honour of that God. The rife of this folemnity he relates to his guefts, the loves of Phoebus and Pfamathe, and the ftory of Chorobus. He enquires, and is made acquainted with their defcent and quality: The facrifice is renewed, and the book concludes with a Hymn to Apollo. The Tranflater kepes he needs not apologize for hi. choice of this piece, which was made almoft in his Childhood. But finding the Verfion better than he expected, he gave it fome Correction a few years afterwards. THE FIRST BOOK O F STATIUS HIS THEBA I S. FRATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes' alarms, Th' alternate reign destroy'd by impious arms, Demand our föng; a facred fury fires My ravish'd breaft, and all the Muse inspires. FRATERNAS acies, alternaque regna profanis 5 10 Legis Agenoreae? fcrutantemque aequora Cadmum ? Agricolam infandis condentem praelia fulcis ΤΟ |