In evil plight, and Tityus, son of Earth,
O Hercules! what a size! and what a space
Of ground his body covered as he lay !
These passed, we reached the Acherusian plain,
And there we found the demigods and heroines,
And all the crowd of death, in wards and tribes
Dwelling together, ancient some, and mouldy,
And "vanishing away," as Homer calls them.
But some again were fresh, of good consistence,-
Those specially of Egypt, from their pickling.
It was not easy to distinguish each

330

335

From other, all alike being naked bones,—
Requiring looking sharp to recognise;

340

There they all lay together, low and lofty,

Retaining nought that decked them here above.
Gazing upon this crowd of skeletons,

All like in aspect with their hollow looks

And dread appearance, in my mind I felt
No little doubt how to discriminate

345

Between Thersites and the handsome Nireus,
The beggar Irus and Alcinous,

Or the cook Pyrrhias from King Agamemnon :
None of their former marks of recognition
Remained to trace them; all alike were bones,
Obscure and undistinguished, nothing left
By which we could distinguish them asunder.
Seeing all this, I could not help comparing
The life of mankind to a long procession,
Managed and led by Fortune, who assigns
Various and particoloured garbs to each
Who join the train. One in a kingly style
She decks, and dresses in a proud tiara,-
Surrounds with body-guards, and on his head
She plants a diadem; while on another

She sets the raiment of a slave; to this one
She gives the mask of beauty, and to that
Of ugliness and ridicule the form.
The spectacle, of course, requires variety;
And ofttimes, in the middle of the play,
She changes dresses, not permitting some

350

355

360

365

To play it out to the end as they began.

For instance: stripping Croesus, she compelled him

To take the garment of a slave and captive;

370

And with Polycrates's tyrant-robe

Dressed up Mæandrius, erst among the servants

Playing his part; and, for a little while,

Allowed him that attire. But when the time

No greater honour than the vulgar dead?

Men. Nonsense, my friend: if thou hadst seen Mausolus ·

I mean the Carian, him so much renowned

For his proud sepulchre-thou wouldst have laughed

With ceaseless laughter; humbly thrust aside
Into a corner, lost amid the crowd

405

Of the plebeian dead; no otherwise
Profiting from his tomb, except in being
Weighed down beneath so ponderous a load;
For, sir, when acus assigns to each

His spot of ground — and he will at the most
Measure out but a foot - there must ye lie
Content, and cramped to fit the space allotted.
Still louder were thy laughter hadst thou seen
Satraps and kings turned beggarmen," perhaps
Selling salt fish for sustenance, or teaching
The rudiments of letters, spurned and scorned
By passers-by, and smitten on the cheek

Like vilest slaves. I scarce could hold myself
When I saw Philip, king of Macedon.
There he was pointed out to me in a corner,
Patching old shoes for hire; and many more,—
Your Xerxeses, Polycrates', Darii,

Alms-asking in the streets.

Phil.

410

415

420

Strange stories these

425

About earth's monarchs, and scarce credible;
But what do Socrates, Diogenes,

And others of the wise?

And pointed with his hand to where a light,

Dim and obscure, shone in as through a chink.
"That," said he," is Trophonius' cave, through which

They come down from Boeotia: go through that,
And in a moment thou wilt be in Greece."

510

I gladly heard these words-embraced the Magus,
And, with no little difficulty creeping

Up through the narrow pass, I know not how
I found myself at once in Lebadía.

515

For a singular note on those lines in the original, see a very singular book, Palæoromaica.

b Translated after the ordinary reading. If for vioυ, we read voũ, the verse should run :

Youth urged me on, and boldness more than reason.

¿'Ofohostavovciv. Translated usuras colligunt by Sir Thomas More. Our version, which is at least more verbally literal, is supplied by an Irish editor, Murphy. In the next line, "born under evil demon," is the literal translation of xxxodaíμovss; as, in l. 36, 37, "by show of hands," &c., is of xsxsigoróvntai.

₫ Þiλózaλov Övra. See Akenside's definition of a virtuoso :

"He knew the various modes of ancient times,

Their arts and fashions of each various guise," &c.

It is quoted in Lockhart's Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 87.

• Literally from the smoke to the fire. Τὸ πῦρ ἐκ τοῦ καπνοῦ. We have taken the analogous English proverb.

Ο Χρυσοῦν — τὸν τῶν ἰδιωτῶν βίον.

* Τὸ εὔδαιμον.

Happiness, our being's end and aim."

* For οἱ φαῦλοι τῶν κήρυκων, read τραυλοι, lisping, inarticulate.

The only water drank by the kings of Persia.

* Όλον με καταμαγεύσας.

This joke is borrowed from Aristophanes, who makes Bacchus endeavour to pass the Styx in the character of Hercules.

m From the Odyssey, which is here parodied throughout.

"Translated after the reading israiny, not aixívny. The line is evidently patched together for a hexameter, and airíny is therefore inadmissible. 'Erain is a common epithet of Proserpine. Proserpine is accented on the second syllable, as in Milton: "Not that fair field

Of Enna, where Proserpine, gathering flowers," &c.

- and in other elder English poets.

• Il. v. 61.

- Τετριγυίαι τῶν νεκρῶν σκιαί.

¶ Kéęaza ditahávrov. Tormenti genus videtur, says Guyetus; and nobody since his time appears to have been better informed. Διταλαντον is in all probability a corruption.

Αμενήνους.

There were but three actors allowed in a Greek play, and, consequently, they often doubled.

t Polus and Satyrus were famous players.

This is imitated, but with infinitely more humour, by Rabelais, book ii. chap. xxx.: "Comment Epistemon qui avoyt la couppe testée feut guary habillement par Panurge; et des nouelles des dyables, et des damnez." It is Alexander, however, not Philip, whom Epistemon saw mending old shoes. "Car je veidz Alexandre le Grande, que repetassoyt des vielles chausses, et ainsi guaignoyt sa paourue vie."

* Κρανίων Σκελετίωνος Νεκυσιτεὺς, φυλῆς ̓Αλιβαντιάδος. In More, " Calvarius patre Aridello patria Manicensis, tribu Stygiana." Our version is again borrowed mostly from Murphy.