765 Then stoops, and fowfing on the quiv'ring hare,

Snatches his life amid the clouds of air.

Not with lefs quickness, his exerted fight

Pafs'd this, and that way, thro' the ranks of fight: Till on the left the chief he fought, he found; 770 Chearing his men, and spreading deaths around:

To him the King. Belov'd of Jove! draw near,
For fadder tydings never touch'd thy ear,
Thy eyes have witnefs'd what a fatal turn!

How lion triumphs, and th' Achaians mourn. 775 This is not all: Patroclus on the shore

Now pale and dead, fhall fuccour Greece no more.
Fly to the fleet, this inftant fly, and tell

The fad Achilles how his lov'd one fell:

He too may hafte the naked corps to gain; 780 The arms are Hector's, who defpoil'd the flain.

The youthful warrior heard with filent woe,

From his fair eyes the tears began to flow;
Big with the mighty grief, he ftrove to say
What forrow dictates, but no word found way.

v.781 The youthful warrior heard with filent woe.] Homer ever reprefents an excefs of grief by a deep horrour, filence, weeping, and not enquiring into the manner of the friend's death: Nor could Antilochus have exprefs'd his forrow in any manner fo moving as silence. Euftathius.

To

785 To brave Laodocus his arms he flung,

Who near him wheeling, drove his steeds along ;'
Then ran, the mournful message to impart,
With tear-ful eyes, and with dejected heart.

Swift fled the youth; nor Menelaus ftands,

790 (Tho' fore diftreft) to aid the Pylian bands; But bids bold Thrafymede thofe troops fuftain, Himself returns to his Patroclus flain.

795

Gone is Antilochus (the hero faid)

But hope not, warriors, for Achilles' aid : :
Tho' fierce his rage, unbounded be his woe,
Unarm'd, he fights not with the Trojan foe.
'Tis in our hands alone our hopes remain,

'Tis our own vigour muft the dead regain ; And fave ourselves, while with impetuous hate 800 Troy pours along, and this way rolls our fate.

v. 785. To brave Laodocus his arms he flung.] Antilochus leaves his armour, not only that he might make the more haste, but (as the ancients conjecture) that he might not be thought to be abfent by the enemies; and that feeing his armour on fome other perfon, they might think him ftill in the fight. Euftathius.

v. 794. But hope not, warriors, for Achilles aid : Unarm'd - This is an ingenious way of making the valour of Achilles appear the greater; who, tho' without arms, goes forth, in the next book, contrary to the expectation of Ajax and Menelaus. Dacier..

'Tis well (faid Ajax) be it then thy care, With Merion's aid, the weighty corfe to rear; Myfelf, and my bold brother will fuftain

The fhock of Hector, and his charging train : 805 Nor fear we armies, fighting fide by fide;

What Troy can dare, we have already try'd,
Have try'd it, and have ftood. The hero faid.
High from the ground the warriors heave the dead.
A gen'ral clamour rifes at the fight:

810 Loud fhout the Trojans, and renew the fight.
Not fiercer rufh along the gloomy wood,
With rage infatiate and with thirft of blood,
Voracious hounds, that many a length before
Their furious hunters, drive the wounded boar ;
815 But if the favage turns his glaring eye,

They howl aloof, and round the forest fly. Thus on retreating Greece the Trojans pour, Wave their thick falchions,and their jav'lins show'r: But Ajax turning, to their fears they yield, 820 All pale they tremble, and forfake the field.

While thus aloft the hero's corfe they bear,

Behind them

rages

all the ftorm of war;

Confufion, tumult, horror, o'er the throng

Of men, fteeds, chariots, urg'd the rout along:

Lefs

825 Lefs fierce the winds with rifing flames confpire, To whelm fome city under waves of fire;

Now fink in gloomy clouds the proud abodes;
Now crack the blazing temples of the Gods;
The rumbling torrent thro' the ruin rolls,

830 And sheets of fmoak mount heavy to the poles. The heroes fweat beneath their honour'd load: As when two mules, along the rugged road,

From the steep mountain with exerted strength Drag fome vaft beam, or maft's unwieldy length; 835 Inly they groan, big drops of fweat diftill,

Th' enormous timber lumb'ring down the hill:

V. 825, &c.] The heap of images which Homer throws together at the end of this book, makes the fame action ap pear with a very beautiful variety. The defcription of the burning of a city is fhort, but very lively: That of Ajax alone bringing up the rear guard, and fielding thofe that bore the body of Patroclus from the whole Trojan hoft, gives a prodigious idea of Ajax, and as Homer has often hinted, makes him juft fecond to Achilles. The image of the beam paints the great ftature of Patroclus: That of the hill dividing the ftream is noble and natural.

He compares the Ajaxes to a boar, for their fierceness and boldness; to a long bank that keeps off the courfe of the waters, for their ftanding firm and immoveable in the battel: Thofe that carry the dead body, to mules dragging a vast beam thro' rugged paths, for their laborioufnefs: The body carried, to a beam, for being heavy and inanimate: The Trojans to dogs, for their boldnefs; and to water, for their a gility and moving backwards and forwards: The Greeks to a Hight of ftarlings and jays, for their timorousness and fwiftnefs. Euftathius.

So

So these Behind, the bulk of Ajax ftands,

And breaks the torrent of the rushing bands. Thus when a river fwell'd with fudden rains 840 Spreads his broad waters o'er the level plains, Some interpofing hill the stream divides,

845

And breaks its force, and turns the winding tides.
Still close they follow, close the rear engage;
Eneas ftorms, and Hector foams with
rage:
While Greece a heavy, thick retreat maintains,
Wedg'd in one body, like a flight of cranes,
That fhriek inceffant while the faulcon bung
High on pois'd pinions, threats their callow young.
So from the Trojan chiefs the Grecians Ay,
-850 Such the wild terror, and the mingled cry:

Within, without the trench, and all the way,
Strow'd in bright heaps, their arms and armour lay:
Such horror Jove impreft! Yet ftill proceeds

854 The work of death, and ftill the battel bleeds.