The rivers would stand still, the cedars bend;
And birds neglect their pinions to attend;
The favage kind in forest-wilds grow tame;
And Canens, from her heavenly voice, her name.
Hymen had now in fome ill-fated hour
Their hands united, as their hearts before.
Whilft their foft moments in delights they waste,
And each new day was dearer than the past;
Picus would fometimes o'er the forests rove,
And mingle sports with intervals of love.
It chanc'd, as once the foaming boar he chac'd,
His jewels fparkling on his Tyrian vest,
Lafcivious Circe well the youth furvey'd,
As fimpling on the flowery hills she stray'd.
Her wishing eyes their filent message tell,
And from her lap the verdant mifchief fell.
As the attempts at words, his courfer springs
O'er hills, and lawns, and ev'n a wish outwings.
Thou shalt not 'fcape me fo, pronounc'd the dame,
If plants have power, and spells be not a name.
She faid-and forthwith form'd a boar of air,
That fought the covert with diffembled fear.
Swift to the thicket Picus wings his way
On foot, to chace the vifionary prey.
Now the invokes the daughters of the night,
Does noxious juices fmear, and charms recite;
Such as can veil the moon's more feeble fire,
Or fhade the golden luftre of her fire.
In filthy fogs the hides the chearful noon;
The guard at diftance, and the youth alone :
By those fair eyes, the cries, and every grace
That finish all the wonders of your face,
Oh! I conjure thee, hear a queen complain;
Nor let the fun's soft lineage fue in vain.
Whoe'er thou art, reply'd the king, forbear,
None can my paffion with my Canens share.
She first my every tender with possest,
And found the foft approaches to my breaft.
In nuptials bleft, each loose desire we shun,
Nor time can end what innocence begun.
Think not, the cry'd, to faunter out a life
Of form, with that domeftic drudge a wife;
My juft revenge, dull fool, ere long, shall show
What ills we women, if refus'd, can do:
Think me a woman, and a lover too.
From dear fuccefsful fpite we hope for eafe,
Nor fail to punish, where we fail to please.
Now twice to eaft the turns, as oft' to weft;
Thrice waves her wand, as oft' a charm exprest.
On the loft youth her magic power she tries ;
Aloft he fprings, and wonders how he flies.
On painted plumes the woods he feeks, and ftill
The monarch oak he pierces with his bill.
Thus chang'd, no more o'er Latian lands he reigns;
Of Picus nothing but the name remains.
The winds from drizling damps now purge the air, The mifts fubfide, the fettling fkies are fair: The court their fovereign feek with arms in hand, They threaten Circe, and their Lord demand.
Quick the invokes the fpirits of the air,
And twilight elves, that on dun wings repair
To charnels, and th' unhallow'd fepulchre.
Now, ftrange to tell, the plants fweat drops of blood,
The trees are tofs'd from forests where they flood ;
Blue ferpents o'er the tainted herbage slide,
Pale glaring spectres on the æther ride;
Dogs howl, earth yawns; rent rocks forfake their beds,
And from their quarries heave their ftubborn heads.
The fad fpectators, ftiffen'd with their fears,
She fees, and fudden every limb fhe smears;
Then each of favage beafts the figure bears.
The fun did now to western waves retire,
In tides to temper his bright world of fire.
Canens laments her royal husband's stay;
Ill fuits fond love with abfence, or delay:
Where the commands, her ready people run;
She wills, retracts; bids, and forbids anon.
Reftlefs in mind, and dying with defpair,
Her breafts the beats, and tears her flowing hair.
Six days and nights fhe wanders on, as chance
Directs, without or fleep, or fuftenance.
Tiber at last beholds the weeping fair;
Her feeble limbs no more the mourner bear;
Stretch'd on his banks, fhe to the flood complains,
And faintly tunes her voice to dying strains.
The fickening fwan thus hangs her filver wings,
And, as the droops, her elegy fhe fings:
Ere-long fad Canens waftes to air; whilft Fame
The place ftill honours with her hapless name.
K 4
Here did the tender tale of Picus cease,
Above belief the wonder, I confefs.
Again we fail, but more difafters meet,
Foretold by Circe, to our fuffering fleet.
Myself, unable further woes to bear,
Declin'd the voyage, and am refug'd here.
Thus Macareus-Now with a pious aim
Had good Æneas rais'd a funeral flame,
In honour of his hoary nurfe's name.
Her epitaph he fix'd; and fetting fail,
Cajeta left, and catch'd at every gale.
He fteer'd at diftance from the faithlefs fhore Where the falfe Goddefs reigns with fatal power; And fought thofe grateful groves, that shade the plain, Where Tiber rolls majestic to the main,
And fattens, as he runs, the fair campain.
His kindred Gods the Hero's wishes crown
With fair Lavinia, and Latinus' throne:
But not without a war the prize he won.
Drawn up in bright array the battle stands :
Turnus with arms his promis'd wife demands.
Hetrurians, Latians, equal fortune fhare;
And doubtful long appears the face of war.
Both powers from neighbouring princes feek fupplies,
And embaflies appoint for new allies.
Æneas, for relief, Evander moves;
His quarrel he afferts, his cause approves.
The bold Rutilians, with an equal speed,
Sage Venelus difpatch to Diomede.
The king, late griefs revolving in his mind,
Thefe reafons for neutrality affign'd:
Shall I, of one poor dotal town possest,
My people thin, my wretched country waste;
An exil'd prince, and on a fhaking throne
Or risk my patron's fubjects, or my own?
You'll grieve the harshness of our hap to hear ;
Nor can I tell the tale without a tear.
After fam'd Ilium was by Argives won,
And flames had finish'd, what the sword begun;
Pallas, incens'd, pursued us to the main,
In vengeance of her violated fane.
Alone Oileus forc'd the Trojan maid,
Yet all were punish'd for the brutal deed.
A ftorm begins, the raging waves run high,
The clouds look heavy, and benight the sky;
Red sheets of lightning o'er the feas are spread,
Our tackling yields, and wrecks at last succeed.
'Tis tedious our difaftrous ftate to tell;
Even Priam would have pitied what befel.
Yet Pallas fav'd me from the swallowing main;
At home new wrongs to meet, as Fates ordain,
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