Let old Timotheus yield the Prize, Or both divide the Crown; Grand CHORUS. At last, Divine Cecilia came, Inventress of the Vocal Frame ; Enlarg’d the former narrow Bounds, [fore. With Nature's Mother-Wit, and Arts unknown be Let old Timotheus gield the Prize, Or both divide the Crown; She drew an Angel down. THE TWELFTH BOOK OF OVID'S Metamorphofes, Wholly Tranflated. Connection to the End of the Eleventh Book. Æfacus, the Son of Priam, loving a Country-Life, for fakes the Court: Living obfcurely, he falls in Love with a Nymph; who flying from him, was kill'd by a Serpent; for Grief of this, he wou'd have drown'd himself; but by the pity of the Gods, is turn'd into a Cormorant. Priam, not hearing of Efacus, believes him to be dead, and raises a Tomb to preserve his Memory. By this Tranfition, which is one of the finest in all Ovid, the Poet naturally falls into the Story of the Trojan War, which is fumm'd up, in the prefent Book, but fo very briefly, in many Places, that Ovid seems more short than Virgil, contrary, to his ufual Style. Yet the House of Fame, which is here defcrib'd, is one of the most beautiful Pieces in the whole Metamorphofes. The Fight of Achilles and Cygnus, and the Fray betwixt the Lapythæ and Centaurs, yield to no other part of this Poet: And particularly the Loves and Death of Cyllarus and Hylonome, the Male and Female Centaur, are wonderfully moving: P RIAM, to whom the Story was unknown, As dead, deplor'd his Metamor phos'd Son: A Cenotaph his Name and Title kept, [wept. And Hector round the Tomb, with all his Brothers This pious Office Paris did not share, Abfent alone; and Author of the War, Which, for the Spartan Queen, the Grecians drew T'avenge the Rape; and Asia to fubdue. A thousand Ships were mann'd, to fail the Sea: Nor had their just Resentments found delay, Had not the Winds and Waves oppos'd their way. At Aulis, with United Pow'rs they meet, But there, Cross-winds or Calms detain'd theFleet. Now, while they raise an Altar on the Shore, And Jove with folemn Sacrifice adore; A boding Sign the Priests and People fee: A Snake of fize immense afcends a Tree, And, in the leafie Summet, spy'd a Nest, Which, o'er her Callow young, a Sparrow prefs'd. Eight were the Birds unfledg'd; their Mother flew; And hover'd round her Care; but still in view: Till the fierce Reptile first devour'd the Brood; Then feiz'd the flutt'ringDam,and drunk her Blood. This dire Oftent, the fearful People view; Calchas alone, by Phebus taught, foreknew What Heav'n decreed; and with a smiling Glance, Thus gratulates to Greece her happy Chance. O Argives, we fhall Conquer: Troy is ours, But long Delays fhall firft afflict our Pow'rs: Nine Years of Labour, the nine Birds portend; The Tenth fhall in the Town's Destruction end. The Serpent, who his Maw obscene had fill'd, Whose building had his Hands divine employ'd : Prevail'd; and Pity yielding to the Laws, [ray'd; |