T

The ARGUMEN T.

The Death of Hector.

HE Trojans being fafe within the walls, Hector only stays to oppofe Achilles. Priam is ftruck at his approach, and tries to perfuade his fon to re-enter the town.. Hecuba joins her entreaties, but in vain. Hector confults within himself what measures to take; but at the advance of Achilles, his refolution fails him, and he flies; Achilles purfues him thrice round the walls of Troy. The Gods debate concerning the fate of Hector, at length Minerva defcends to the aid of Achilles. She deludes Hector in the Shape of Deiphobus; he ftands the combate, and is flain. Achilles drags the dead body at his chariot, in the fight of Priam and Hecuba. Their lamentations, tears and despair. Their cries reach the ears of Andromache, who, ignorant of this, was retired into the inner part of the palace: She mounts up to the walls, and beholds her dead husband. She fwoons at the fpectacle. Her excess of grief and lamentation. The thirtieth day ftill continues. The fcene lies under the walls, and on the battlements of Troy.

THE

Ekirkall fo.

Achilles, being Sav'd from the Waters of Xanthus, & having Slain the unfortunate Hector inhumanly wes him to his Chariot & drags him in that manner in View of the Trojans.

B. XXII.

THE

*TWENTY-SECOND BOOK

OF THE

ILIA D.

T

HUS to their bulwarks, fmit with panick

fear,

The hearded Ilians rufh like driven deer;

There fafe, they wipe the briny drops away,
And drown in bowls the labours of the day.

Clofe

*It is impoffible but the whole attention of the reader must be awaken'd in this book: The heroes of the two armies are now to encounter; all the foregoing battels have been but fo many preludes and under-actions, in order to this great event; wherein the whole fate of Greece and Troy is to be decided by the fword of Achilles and Hector.

A 4

This

Close to the walls advancing o'er the fields,
Beneath one roof of well-compacted shields,.
March, bending on, the Greeks embodied pow'rs,
Far-ftretching in the fhade of Trojan tow'rs.

Great Hector fingly stay'd; chain'd down by fate,
10 There fix'd he ftood before the Scaan gate;
Still his bold arms determin'd to employ,
The guardian still of long-defended Troy.
Apollo now to tir'd Achilles turns;

(The pow'r confest in all his glory burns) 15 And what (he cries) has Peleus' fon in view, With mortal speed a Godhead to pursue?

For not to thee to know the Gods is giv'n,
Unskill'd to trace the latent marks of heav'n.

What boots thee now, that Troy forfook the plain?

20 Vain thy paft labour, and thy present vain :
Safe in their walls are now her troops bestow'd,
While here thy frantick rage attacks a God.

This is the book, which of the whole Iliad appears to me the moft charming. It affembles in it all that can be imagined of great and important on the one hand, and of tender and melancholy on the other Terror and Pity are here wrought up in perfection; and if the reader is not fenfible of both in a high degree, either he is utterly void of all tafte, or the translator of all skill, in poetry.

The