TRANSLATIONS, &c.
133
"The voice of Grief along the tented shore
"Was heard, as loud as when the flow'r of war,
"Divine Achilles, dy'd: nor deem that aught
"Of human interpos'd to urge thy doom, 630
"But ireful Jove, to punish all our host,
"Cut off its darling hope. O royal Shade!
"Approach, and affable to me vouchsafe
"Mild audience, calming thy tempestuous rage."
Vain was my suit! for with th' unbody'd troop
Of spectres, fleeting to th' interior shade 636
Of Erebus, he to my friendly speech
Disdain'd reply; yet to that dark recess
Had I pursu'd his flight, he must have borne
Unwilling correspondence, forc'd by Fate, 640
Impassion'd as he was; but I refrain'd,
For other visions drew my curious eye.
Intent I saw, with golden sceptre, grave
Minos, the son of Jove, to the pale ghosts
Dispensing equity; with faded looks 645
They thro' the wide Plutonian hall appear'd
Frequent and full, and argu'd each his cause
At that tribunal, trembling whilst he weigh'd
Their pleaded reason. Of portentous size
Orion next I view'd; a brazen mace 650
Invincible he bore, in fierce pursuit
Of those huge mountain savages he flew
While habitant of earth, whose grizzly forms
He urg'd in chase the flow'ry mead along.
"Was heard, as loud as when the flow'r of war,
"Divine Achilles, dy'd: nor deem that aught
"Of human interpos'd to urge thy doom, 630
"But ireful Jove, to punish all our host,
"Cut off its darling hope. O royal Shade!
"Approach, and affable to me vouchsafe
"Mild audience, calming thy tempestuous rage."
Vain was my suit! for with th' unbody'd troop
Of spectres, fleeting to th' interior shade 636
Of Erebus, he to my friendly speech
Disdain'd reply; yet to that dark recess
Had I pursu'd his flight, he must have borne
Unwilling correspondence, forc'd by Fate, 640
Impassion'd as he was; but I refrain'd,
For other visions drew my curious eye.
Intent I saw, with golden sceptre, grave
Minos, the son of Jove, to the pale ghosts
Dispensing equity; with faded looks 645
They thro' the wide Plutonian hall appear'd
Frequent and full, and argu'd each his cause
At that tribunal, trembling whilst he weigh'd
Their pleaded reason. Of portentous size
Orion next I view'd; a brazen mace 650
Invincible he bore, in fierce pursuit
Of those huge mountain savages he flew
While habitant of earth, whose grizzly forms
He urg'd in chase the flow'ry mead along.
