Phoebe parens, feu te Lyciae Pataraea nivofis Exercent dumeta jugis, feu rore pudico Caftaliae flavos amor eft tibi mergere crines; Seu Trojam Thymbraeus habes, ubi fama volentem Ingratis Phrygios humeris fubiiffe molares: Seu juvat Aegaeum feriens Latonius umbra Cynthus, et affiduam pelago non quaerere Delon : Tela tibi, longeque feros lentandus in hoftes Arcus, et aetherii dono ceffere parentes Aeternum florere genas. tu doctus iniquas Parcarum praenôffe minas, fatumque quod ultra eft, Et fummo placitura Jovi. quis letifer annus, 840 Bella quibus populis, mutent quae fceptra cometae. Tu Phryga fubmittis citharae. tu matris honori Terrigenam Tityon Stygiis extendis arenis.

830

Te

Oh father Phoebus! whether Lycia's coaft And fnowy mountain, thy bright presence boast! Whether to sweet Castalia thou repair, And bathe in filver dews thy yellow hair; Or pleas'd to find fair Delos float no more, Delight in Cynthus, and the shady shore; Or chufe thy feat in Ilion's proud abodes, The fhining structures rais'd by lab'ring Gods; By thee the bow and mortal shafts are born; Eternal charms thy blooming youth adorn; Skill'd in the laws of fecret fate above, And the dark counfels of almighty Jove, 'Tis thine the feeds of future war to know, The change of Sceptres, and impending woe; When direful meteors spread through glowing air Long trails of light, and shake their blazing hair. Thy rage the Phrygian felt, who durst aspire T'excel the mufic of thy heav'nly lyre; Thy shafts aveng'd lewd Tityus' guilty flame, Th' immortal victim of my mother's fame;

829

835

840

845

Thy

NOTES.

VER. 829. Some of the most finished lines he has ever written, down to verfe 854.

VER. 841. 'Tis thine] Far fuperior to the original are these four lines; and how mean is the Tityus of Statius, compared with the tremendous picture in Virgil! May I venture to add, that we have in our language fome tranflations that have excelled the ori ginals; perhaps they are, Rowe's Lucan, Pitt's Vida, Hampton's Polybius, Melmoth's Pliny, and Carter's Epictetus.

Te viridis Python, Thebanaque mater ovantem,
Horruit in pharetris. ultrix tibi torva Megaera 850
Jejunum Phlegyam fubter cava faxa jacentem
Aeterno premit accubitu, dapibufque profanis
Inftimulat: fed mifta famem faftidia vincunt.
Adfis o, memor hofpitii, Junoniaque arva
Dexter ames; feu te rofeum Titana vocari
Gentis Achaemeniae ritu, feu praeftat Ofirin
Frugiferum, feu Perfei fub rupibus antri
Indignata fequi torquentem cornua Mitram.

NOTES.

855

VER. 850. Torva Megaera] This expreffion, and premit and inftimulat, are weakened in the translation; but mifta faftidia is a harth expreffion; as also is a line above, 842, Tu Phryga fubmittis sitharae.

850

Thy hand flew Python, and the dame who loft
Her num'rous offspring for a fatal boast.
In Phlegyas' doom thy juft revenge appears,
Condemn'd to Furies and eternal fears;
He views his food, but dreads, with lifted
eye,
The mouldring rock that trembles from on high.
Propitious hear our pray'r, O Pow'r divine! 855
And on thy hofpitable Argos fhine,
Whether the stile of Titan please thee more,
Whofe purple rays th' Achaemenes adore;
Or great Ofiris, who first taught the swain
In Pharian fields to fow the golden grain;
Or Mitra, to whofe beams the Perfian bows,

And pays, in hollow rocks, his awful vows;
Mitra, whose head the blaze of light adorns,
Who grasps the struggling heifer's lunar horns.

"Illum ingens haurit fpecus, & tranfire parantes,
Mergit equos; non arma manu non frena remifit
Sicut erat, rectos defert in Tartara currus,
Refpexitq. cadens cœlum, campumq. coire
Ingemuit !"

860

IN order to give young readers a juft notion of chaftenefs and fimplicity of style, I have feen it of ufe to let them compare the mild majesty of Virgil and the violent exuberance of Statius, by reading ten lines of each immediately after one another. The motto for the style of the age of Auguftus may be the "Simplex Munditiis" of Horace; for the age of Domitian and the fucceeding ages, the "Cultûque laborat Multiplici" of Lucan. After this cenfure of Statius's manner, it is but justice to add, that in The Thebais there are many strokes of a strong imagination; and indeed the picture of Amphiaraus, fwallowed up fuddenly by a chaẩm that opened in the ground, is truly fublime:

B. vi. v. 817.