Like good Aurelius let him reign; or bleed
Like Socrates; that man is great indeed.
What's fame? A fancied life in other's breath; Deprecating.
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Just what you hear's your own; and what's unknown,
The same (my lord!) if Tully's or your own.
All, that we feel of it, begins and ends,
In the small circle of our foes or friends;
To all besides as much an empty shade,
An Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead;
Alike or when, or where, they shone, or shine,
Or on the Rubicon or on the Rhine.
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Fame, but from death a villain's name can save,
As justice tears his body from the grave;
When what t' oblivion better were resign'd,
Is hung on high to poison half mankind.
All fame is foreign; but of true desert;
Plays round the head; but comes not to the heart.
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs.
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas ;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.
In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
'Tis but to know, how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own :
Condemn'd in bus'ness, or in arts, to drudge
Without a second, and without a judge.
Truths would you teach, to save a sinking land,
All fear; none aid you; and few understand.
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view
Above life's weakness and its comforts too.
Bring then these blessings to a strict account;
Make fair deductions; see to what they mount.
Contempt.
Approbation.
Aversion.
Contempt.
Questioning.
Respect.
Concern.
How much of other each is sure to cost;
How each for other oft is wholly lost;
How inconsistent greater goods with these;
How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease;
Think. And if still such things thy envy call,
Questioning. Say, wouldst thou be the man to whom they fall?
Contempt. To sigh for ribands if thou art so silly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life;
Look but on Gripus or on Gripus' wife.
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:
Contempt. Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,
A version. See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame;
Teaching. If all united thy ambition call,
From ancient story learn to scorn them all.
Trepidation. Now had the Grecians snatch'd a short repast,
And buckled on their shining arms in haste,
Perplexity. Troy rous'd as soon; for on that dreadful day
The fate of fathers, wives, and infants lay.
Trepidation. The gates unfolding pour forth all their train;
Squadrons on squadrons cloud the dusty plain;
Men, steeds, and chariots shake the trembling ground;
The tumult thickens, and the skies resound.
'And now with shouts the shocking armies clos'd
To lances lances, shields to shields oppos'd,
Host against host their shadowy legions drew;
The sounding darts in iron tempests flew;
1 To be spoken quick and loud.
[2 Shocking; that is, the encountering armies. derived from shake, and properly means a concussion.]
Victors and vanquish'd join promiscuous cries;
Triumphant shouts and dying groans arise;
With streaming blood the slipp'ry fields are dy'd,
And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide.
Long as the morning beams increasing bright,
O'er heav'n's clear azure spread the sacred light,
Promiscuous death the fate of war confounds,
Each adverse battle gor'd with equal wounds.
But when the sun the height of heav'n ascends,
The sire of gods his golden scales suspends
With equal hand. In these explores the fate
Of Greece and Troy, and pois'd the mighty weight.
Press'd with its load the Grecian balance lies
Low sunk on earth; the Trojan strikes the skies.
Then Jove from Ida's top his horror spreads;
The clouds burst dreadful o'er the Grecian heads;
Thick lightnings flash; the mutt'ring thunder rolls,
Their strength he withers, and unmans their souls.
Before his wrath the trembling hosts retire,
The god in terrors, and the skies on fire.
XIII. SUBLIME AND TERRIBLE DESCRIPTION.
The fight about Patroclus's body, broken off by Achilles's appearing on the rampart, unarmed, and calling aloud.
Her agis Pallas o'er his shoulder throws;
Around his brows a golden cloud she spread
A stream of glory flam'd above his head,
As when from some beleaguer'd town arise,
The smokes high-curling to the shaded skies,
(Seen from some island o'r the main afar
When men distress'd hang out the sign of war,)
With long-projected beams the seas are bright,
And heav'n's wide arch reflects the ruddy light;
So from Achilles' head the splendours rise,
Reflecting blaze on blaze against the skies.
Forth march'd the chief, and, distant from the crowd,
High on the rampart1 rais'd his voice aloud.
With her own shout Minerva swells the sound;
Troy starts astonish'd, and the shores rebound.
As the loud trumpet's brazen mouth from far,
With shrilling clangor sounds th' alarm of war.
So high his dreadful voice the hero rear'd;
Trepidation. Hosts dropp'd their arms, and trembled as they heard;
And back the chariots roll, and coursers bound,
And steeds and men lie mingled on the ground.
Aghast they see the living lightnings play,
And turn their eyeballs from the flashing ray;
Thrice from the trench his brazen voice he rais'd;
And thrice they fled confounded and amaz’d;
Twelve in the tumult wedg'd untimely rush'd
On their own spears, by their own chariots crush'd:
While shielded from the darts, the Greeks obtain
The long-disputed carcase of the slain.
Complaining with affection.
XIV. CONJUGAL AFFECTION WITH DISTRESS.
The parting scene between Hector and Andromache.
"Too daring prince! Ah, whither dost thou run?
Ah, too forgetful of thy wife and son!
And think'st thou not how wretched we shall be,
A widow I, an helpless orphan he!
For sure such courage length of life denies,
And thou must fall, thy virtue's sacrifice.
Greece in her single heroes strove in vain :
Now hosts oppose thee, and thou must be slain.
The reader will hardly need to be told, that such matter ought to be expressed with a raised voice.
These three lines to be spoken quicker than the rest.
Oh, grant me, gods! ere Hector meets his doom,
All I can ask of heav'n, an early tomb!
So shall my days in one sad tenor run,
And end with sorrows, as they first begun.
No parent now remains my griefs to share,
No father's aid, no mother's tender care.
Yet while my Hector still survives, I
My father, mother, brethren, all in thee.
Alas! my parents, brothers, kindred, all,
Once more will perish, if my Hector fall.
Thy wife, thy infant, in the danger share;
Oh, prove a husband's and a parent's care.
That quarter most the skilful Greeks annoy,
Where yon wild fig-trees join the wall of Troy.
Thou from this tow'r defend th' important post,
There Agamemnon points his dreadful host;
That pass Tydides, Ajax, strives to gain,
And there the vengeful Spartan fires his train.
Thrice our bold foes the fierce attack have giv'n,
Or led by hopes, or dictated from heav'n.
Let others in the field their arm employ ;
Entreating. Apprehension.
But stay, my Hector, here, and guard his Troy."
The chief replied, "That post shall be my care; Courage.
Nor that alone, but all the works of war.
How would the sons of Troy, in arms renown'd,
And Troy's proud dames, whose garments sweep the ground,
Attaint the lustre of my former name,
Should Hector basely quit the field of fame?
My early youth was bred to warlike pains;
My soul impels me to the martial plains.
Still foremost let me stand to guard the thrope,
To save my father's honours and my own.
Yet come it will! the day decreed by fates!
(How my heart trembles, while my tongue relates!)
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