Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

THE SECOND BOOK OF HOMER'S ILIADS.

THE ARGUMENT.

JOVE calls a vision up from Somnus' den
To bid Atrides muster up his men.

The King, to Greeks dissembling his desire,
Persuades them to their country to retire.
By Pallas' will, Ulysses stays their flight;
And wise old Nestor heartens them to fight.
They take their meat; which done, to arms
they go,

And march in good array against the foe.
So those of Troy; when Iris, from the sky,
Of Saturn's son performs the embassy.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT.

Beta the dream and synod cites; And catalogues the naval knights.

THE other Gods, and knights at arms, all night slept; only Jove

Sweet slumber seized not; he discoursed how best he might approve

His vow made for Achilles' grace, and make the Grecians find

His miss in much death. All ways cast, this counsel served his mind With most allowance; to despatch a harmful dream to greet

The king of men, and gave this charge: "Go to the Achive fleet, Pernicious dream, and, being arrived in Agamemnon's tent, [him to convent Deliver truly all this charge. Command His whole host arm'd before these towers; for now Troy's broad-way'd town He shall take in; the heaven-housed Gods are now indifferent grown : Juno's request hath won them; Troy now

under imminent ills

At all parts labours." This charge heard, the Vision straight fulfils; The ships reach'd, and Atrides' tent, in which he found him laid, Divine sleep pour'd about his powers. He stood above his head

Like Nestor, graced of old men most, and this did intimate:

"Sleeps the wise Atreus'-tame-horse son? a councillor of state Must not the whole night spend in sleep; to whom the people are

For guard committed, and whose life stands bound to so much care.

Now hear me, then, Jove's messenger, who, though far off from thee,

Is near thee yet in ruth and care, and gives command by me

To arm thy whole host. Thy strong hand the broad-way'd town of Troy Shall now take in; no more the Gods dissentiously employ

Their high-housed powers; Juno's suit hath won them all to her;

And ill fates overhang these towers, address'd by Jupiter.

Fix in thy mind this, nor forget to give it action, when

Sweet sleep shall leave thee." Thus he fled; and left the king of men Repeating in discourse his dream, and dreaming still, awake,

Of power, not ready yet for act. O fool, he thought to take

In the next day old Priam's town; not knowing what affairs

Jove had in purpose, who prepared, by strong fight, sighs and cares

For Greeks and Trojans. The dream gone, his voice still murmured About the king's ears; who sate up, put on him in his bed

His silken inner weed, fair, new; and then in haste arose,

Cast on his ample mantle, tied to his soft feet fair shoes,

[blocks in formation]

Within my fantasy. His form did passing naturally

Resemble Nestor; such attire, a stature just as high.

He stood above my head, and words thus fashion'd did relate:

'Sleeps the wise Atreus'-tame-horse son? A councillor of state Must not the whole night spend in sleep; to whom the people are For guard committed, and whose life stands bound to so much care. Now hear me then, Jove's messenger, who, though far off from thee,

Is near thee yet in love and care, and gives command by me

To arm thy whole host. Thy strong hand the broad-way'd town of Troy Shall now take in; no more the Gods dissentiously employ

Their high-housed powers; Saturnia's suit hath won them all to her;

And ill fates over-hang these towers, address'd by Jupiter.

Fix in thy mind this.' This express'd, he took wing and away, And sweet sleep left me.

Let us then by

all our means assay To arm our army; I will first (as far as fits our right)

Try their addictions, and command with full-sail'd ships our flight; Which if they yield to, oppose you." He sate, and up arose

Nestor, of sandy Pylos king, who willing to dispose

Their counsel to the public good, proposed this to the state:

"Princes and Councillors of Greece, if any should relate

This vision but the king himself, it might be held a tale,

And move the rather our retreat; but since our General

Affirms he saw it, hold it true, and all our best means make To arm our army."

This speech used, he first the Council brake; The other sceptre-bearing States arose too, and obey'd

The people's Rector. Being abroad, the earth was overlaid

With flockers to them, that came forth, as when of frequent bees1

Swarms rise out of a hollow rock, repairing the degrees

Of their egression endlessly, with ever rising new [still as it faded, grew, From forth their sweet nest; as their store,

And never would cease sending forth her clusters to the spring,

They still crowd out so; this flock here, that there, belabouring

The loaded flowers; so from the ships and tents the army's store

Troop'd to these princes and the court, along th' unmeasured shore; Amongst whom, Jove's ambassadress, Fame, in her virtue shined, Exciting greediness to hear. The rabble, thus inclined,

Hurried together; uproar seized the high court; earth did groan

Beneath the settling multitude; tumult was there alone.

Thrice-three vociferous heralds rose, to check the rout, and get

Ear to their Jove-kept governors; and instantly was set

That huge confusion; every man set fast, and clamour ceased:

Then stood divine Atrides up, and in his hand compress'd

His sceptre, th' elaborate work of fiery Mulciber, [his messenger; Who gave it to Saturnian Jove; Jove to His messenger, Argicides, to Pelops, skill'd in horse;

Pelops to Atreus, chief of men; he, dying, gave it course

To prince Thyestes, rich in herds; Thyestes to the hand

Of Agamemnon render'd it, and with it the command

Of many isles and Argos all. On this he leaning, said:

A

"O friends, great sons of Danaus, servants of Mars, Jove laid.

heavy curse on me, to vow, and bind it with the bent

Of his high forehead; that this Troy of all her people spent,

I should return; yet now to mock our hopes built on his vow,

And charge ingloriously my flight, when such an overthrow

Of brave friends I have authored. But to his mightiest will

We must submit us, that hath razed, and will be razing still

Men's footsteps from so many towns; because his power is most, He will destroy most.

and so great an host

But how vile such

Will show to future times! that, match'd with lesser numbers far,

We fly, not putting on the crown of our so long-held war,

[blocks in formation]

To fill his feast-cup; many tens would their attendant want;

So much I must affirm our power exceeds th' inhabitant.

But their auxiliary bands, those brandishers of spears, [our hinderers, From many cities drawn, are they that are Not suffering well-raised Troy to fall.

Nine years are ended now,

Since Jove our conquest vow'd; and now, our vessels rotten grow, Our tackling fails; our wives, young sons, sit in their doors and long

For our arrival; yet the work, that should

have wreak'd our wrong,

And made us welcome, lies unwrought. Come then, as I bid, all

Obey, and fly to our loved home; for now, nor ever, shall

Our utmost take in broad-way'd Troy." This said, the multitude

Was all for home; and all men else that

what this would conclude

Had not discover'd. All the crowd was shoved about the shore,

In sway, like rude and raging waves, roused with the fervent blore

Of th east and south winds, when they

break from Jove's clouds, and are borne On rough backs of th' Icarian seas: or like a field of corn

High grown, that Zephyr's vehement gusts bring easily underneath, And make the stiff up-bristled ears do homage to his breath;

For even so easily, with the breath Atrides used, was sway'd

The violent multitude. To fleet with shouts, and disarray'd,

All rush'd; and, with a fog of dust, their

rude feet dimm'd the day; Each cried to other, 'Cleanse our ships, come, launch, aboard, away.' The clamour of the runners home reach'd heaven; and then past fate The Greeks had left Troy, had not then

the Goddess of estate

Thus spoke to Pallas: "O foul shame, thou untamed seed of Jove, Shall thus the sea's broad back be charged with these our friends' remove?

[blocks in formation]

Lest we incensed him to our hurt. The

anger of a king

Is mighty; he is kept of Jove, and from Jove likewise spring

His honours, which, out of the love of wise Jove, he enjoys."

Thus he the best sort used; the worst, whose spirits brake out in noise, He cudgell'd with his sceptre, chid, and said: "Stay, wretch, be still, And hear thy betters; thou art base, and both in power and skill

Poor and unworthy, without name in council or in war. [most irregular, We must not all be kings. The rule is Where many rule. One lord, one king, propose to thee; and he,

To whom wise Saturn's son hath given both law and empery

To rule the public, is that king." Thus ruling, he restrain'd

The host from flight; and then again the Council was maintain'd

With such a concourse, that the shore rung with the tumult made;

As when the far-resounding sea doth in his rage invade

His sandy confines, whose sides groan with his involved wave,

And make his own breast echo sighs. All sate, and audience gave.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Than it could manage; anything, with which he could procure Laughter, he never could contain. He should have yet been sure To touch no kings; t' oppose their states becomes not jesters' parts.

But he the filthiest fellow was of all that had deserts

In Troy's brave siege; he was squint-eyed, and lame of either foot;

So crook-back'd, that he had no breast; sharp-headed, where did shoot (Here and there spersed) thin mossy hair. He most of all envied

Ulysses and acides, whom still his spleen would chide.

Nor could the sacred King himself avoid

[blocks in formation]

Thy tents are full of brass; and dames, the choice of all, are thine,

With whom we must present thee first, when any towns resign

To our invasion. Want'st thou then, besides all this, more gold

From Troy's knights to redeem their sons, whom to be dearly sold

I or some other Greek must take? or wouldst thou yet again

Force from some other lord his prize, to soothe the lusts that reign

In thy encroaching appetite? It fits no prince to be [progeny A prince of ill, and govern us, or lead our By rape to ruin. O base Greeks, deserving infamy,

By ills eternal; Greekish girls, not Greeks, ye are: Come, fly

Home with our ships; leave this man here to perish with his preys,

And try if we help'd him or not; he wrong'd a man that weighs

Far more than he himself in worth; he forced from Thetis' son,

And keeps his prize still. Nor think I that mighty man hath won

The style of wrathful worthily; he's soft, he's too remiss;

Or

else, Atrides, his had been thy last of injuries."

Thus he the people's Pastor chid; but straight stood up to him

Divine Ulysses, who, with looks exceeding grave and grim,

This bitter check gave: "Cease, vain fool, to vent thy railing vein

On kings thus, though it serve thee well; nor think thou canst restrain, With that thy railing faculty, their wills in least degree;

For not a worse, of all this host, came

with our King than thee,

To Troy's great siege; then do not take into that mouth of thine

The names of kings; much less revile the dignities that shine

In their supreme states, wresting thus this motion for our home,

To soothe thy cowardice; since ourselves yet know not what will come Of these designments: if it be our good, to stay or go.

Nor is it that thou stand'st on; thou revilest our General so,

Only because he hath so much, not given by such as thou

But our heroes. Therefore this thy rude vein makes me vow

(Which shall be curiously observed) if ever

I shall hear

This madness from thy mouth again, let not Ulysses bear

This head, nor be the father call'd of young Telemachus,

If to thy nakedness I take and strip thee not, and thus

Whip thee to fleet from council; send, with sharp stripes, weeping hence This glory thou affect'st to rail." This said, his insolence

He settled with his sceptre; strook his back and shoulders so

That bloody wales rose. He shrunk round;

and from his eyes did flow Moist tears, and, looking filthily, he sate, fear'd, smarted, dried

His blubber'd cheeks; and all the prease, though grieved to be denied Their wish'd retreat for home, yet laugh'd delightsomely, and spake Either to other: "O ye Gods, how infinitely take [counsels, great Ulysses' virtues in our good! author of In ordering armies, how most well this act became his heat,

To beat from council this rude fool! I think his saucy spirit,

Hereafter, will not let his tongue abuse the sovereign merit,

Exempt from such base tongues as his."
Thus spake the people; then
The city-razer Ithacus stood up to speak
again,

Holding his sceptre. Close to him greyeyed Minerva stood,

And, like a herald, silence caused, that all the Achive brood

(From first to last) might hear and know the counsel; when, inclined To all their good, Ulysses said: "Atrides, now I find

These men would render thee the shame of all men; nor would pay Their own vows to thee, when they took their free and honour'd way From Argos hither, that, till Troy were by their brave hands razed, They would not turn home: yet, like babes, and widows, now they haste To that base refuge. 'Tis a spite to see

men melted so

In womanish changes; though 'tis true, that if a man do go

Only a month to sea, and leave his wife far off, and he,

Tortured with winter's storms, and toss'd with a tumultuous sea,

[blocks in formation]

(Whom these late death-conferring fates have fail'd to send to hell)

That when in Aulis, all our fleet assembled with a freight

Of ills to Ilion and her friends, beneath the fair grown height

A platan bore, about a fount, whence crystal water flow'd,

And near our holy altar, we upon the Gods bestow'd

Accomplish'd hecatombs; and there appear'd a huge portent,

A dragon with a bloody scale, horrid to sight, and sent

To light by great Olympius; which, crawling from beneath

The altar, to the platan climb'd, and ruthless crash'd to death

A sparrow's young, in number eight, that in a top-bough lay

Hid under leaves; the dam the ninth, that hover'd every way,

Mourning her loved birth, till at length, the serpent, watching her,

Her wing caught, and devour'd her too. This dragon, Jupiter,

That brought him forth, turn'd to a stone; and made a powerful mean?

To

Of

stir our zeals up, that admired, when of a fact so clean

all ill as our sacrifice, so fearful an ostent

Should be the issue. Calchas, then, thus prophesied th' event:

'Why are ye dumb strook, fair-hair'd Greeks? Wise Jove is he hath shown This strange ostent to us. "Twas late,

and passing lately done, But that grace it foregoes to us, for suffering all the state

Of his appearance (being so slow) nor time shall end, nor fate.

As these eight sparrows, and the dam (that made the ninth) were eat By this stern serpent; so nine years we are t' endure the heat

« AnteriorContinuar »