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Thus fond of vengeance, with a furious bound,
In clanging arms he leaps upon the ground

From his high chariot: Him, approaching near,
The beauteous champion views with marks of fear,
45 Smit with a confcious fenfe, retires behind,
And fhuns the fate he well deferv'd to find.
As when fome fhepherd from the rustling trees
Shot forth to view, a fcaly ferpent fees;
Trembling and pale, he ftarts with wild affright,
Jo And all confus'd, precipitates his flight.

. 47. As when a shepherd.] This comparison of the ferpent is finely imitated by Virgil in the fecond Æneid.

Improvifum afpris veluti qui fentibus anguem
Preffit humi nitens, trepidufque repentè refugit
Attollentem ir as, & cærula colla tumentem:
Haud fecus Androgens visu tremefa&us abibat.

But it may be faid to the praife of Virgil, that he has apply'd it upon an occafion where it has an additional beauty. Paris upon the fight of Menelaus's approach, is compar'd to a travelter who fees a fake fhoot on a fudden towards him. But the furprize and danger of Androgens is more lively, being just in the reach of his enemies before he perceiv'd it; and the cir cumftance of the ferpent's rouzing his creft, which brightens with anger, finely images the fhining of their arms in the night-time, as they were juft lifted up to deftroy him. Scaliger criticizes on the needlefs repetition in the words warivog

and avexwendev, which is avoided in the tranflation. But it must be obferv'd in general, that little exactneffes are what we should not look for in Homer; the genius of his age was too incorrect, and his own too fiery, to regard them.

So from the King the fhining warrior flies,
And plung'd amid the thickeft Trojans lies.

As Godlike Hector fees the Prince retreat,
He thus upbraids him with a gen'rous heat.

Unhappy

. 53. As God-like Hector.] This is the first place of the poem where Hector makes a figure, and here it seems proper to give an id a of his character, fince if he is not the chief heroe of the Iliad, he is at least the most amiable. There are feveral reasons which render Hector a favorite character with every reader, fome of which will here be offer'd. The chief moral of Homer was to expofe the ill effects of difcord; the Greeks were to be fhewn difunited, and to render the disunion the more probable, he has defignedly given them mixt chaacters. The Trojans, on the other hand, were to be repreSented making all advantages of the others difagreement which they could not do without a ftri&t union among themfelves. Hector therefore, who commanded them, must be endu'd with all fuch qualifications as tended to the prefervation of it; as Achilles with fuch as promoted the contrary. The one ftands in contrafte to the other, an accomplish'd character of valour unruffled by rage and anger, and uniting his people by his prudence and example. Hector has alfo a foil to fet him off in his own family; we are perpetually oppofing in our own minds the incontinence of Paris, who expofes his country, to the temperance of Hector who protects it. And indeed it is this love of his country, which appears his principal paffion, and the motive of all his actions. He has no other blemish than that he fights in an unjust cause, which Homer has yet been careful to tell us he would not do, if his opinion were followed. But fince he cannot prevail, the affection he bears to his parents and kindred, and his defire of defending them, incites him to do his utmost for their fafety. We may add, that Homer having fo many Greeks to celebrate, makes them fhine in their turns. and fingly in their several books, one fucceeding in the abfence of another: Whereas Hector appears in every battel the life and foul of his party, and the conftant bulwark against every enemy: He ftands against Agamemnon's magnanimity, Diomed's bravery, Ajax's ftrength,

5 Unhappy Paris! but to women brave! So fairly form'd, and only to deceive!

Oh had'st thou dy'd when first thou faw'ft the light, Or dy'd at least before thy nuptial rite!

ftrength, and Achilles's fury. There is befides, an accidental caufe for our liking him, from reading the writers of the Auguftan age (especially Virgil) whofe favorite he grew more particularly from the time when the Cafars fanfy'd to derive their pedigree from Troy.

.SS. Unhappy Paris, &c.] It may be obferv'd in honour of Homer's judgment, that the words which Hector is made to speak here, very ftrongly mark his character. They contain a warm reproach of cowardice, and fhew him to be touch'd with fo high a fenfe of glory, as to think life insupportable without it. His calling to mind the gallant figure which Paris had made in his amours to Helen, and oppofing to it the image of his flight from her husband, is a farcafm of the utmoft bitterness and vivacity. After he has named that action of the rape, the caufe of fo many mifchiefs, his infifting upon it in fo many broken periods, thofe disjointed fhortnelles of Speech

(Πατρί τε τῷ μέγα σήμα, πολυ
TE, παντί τε δήμῳ,
Δυσαρέσιν μαι χάρμα, καληφείην δέ σοι αυτῳ.)

That hafty manner of expreffion without the connexion of particles, is (as Euftathius remarks) extreamly natural to a 'man in anger, who thinks he can never vent himself too foon. That contempt of outward shew, of the gracefulness of perfon, and of the accomplishments of a courtly life, is what correfponds very well with the warlike temper of Hector; and thefe verfes have therefore a beauty here which they want in Horace, however admirably he has tranflated them, in the ode of Nereus's prophecy.

Necquicquam Veneris præfidio ferox,
Petes cafariem; grataque fœminis
Imbelli cithera carmina divides, &c.

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A better fate, than vainly thus to boast, 60 And fly, the fcandal of thy Trojan hoft.

Gods! how the fcornful Greeks exult to fee
Their fears of danger undeceiv'd in thee!
Thy figure promis'd with a martial air,

But ill thy foul fupplies a form fo fair. 65 In former days, in all thy gallant pride,

When thy tall fhips triumphant ftem'd the tide,
When Greece beheld thy painted canvas flow,
And crowds stood wond'ring at the paffing fhow;
Say, was it thus, with fuch a baffled mien,

70 You met th' approaches of the Spartan Queen,

Thus from her realm convey'd the beauteous prize, Thefe. And both her warlike lords out fhin'd in Helen's eyes? Menela This deed, thy foes delight, thy own difgrace,

us and

us.

Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race;

75 This deed recalls thee to the proffer'd fight;

Or haft thou injur'd whom thou dar'st not right?
Soon to thy coft the field would make the know
Thou keep'it the confort of a braver foe.

.72. And both her warlike lords.] The original is Nuv dv desov aixuntáwv. The spouse of martial men. I wonder why Madam Dacier chofe to turn it Alliée à tant de braves guerriers, fince it fo naturally refers to Thefeus and Menelaus, the former hufbands of Helena.

Thy

Thy graceful form inftilling foft defire, 80 Thy curling treffes, and thy filver lyre,

Beauty and youth, in vain to these you trust, When youth and beauty fhall be laid in duft: Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow Crush the dire author of his country's woe. 85 His filence here, with blushes, Paris breaks;

Tis juft, my brother, what your anger speaks:

But

.80. Thy curling treffes, and the filver lyre. It is ingeniously remark'd by Dacier, that Homer, who celebrates the Greeks for their long hair [nagnoμówvras 'Axuss] and Achilles for his skill on the harp, makes Hector in this place object them both to Paris. The Greeks nourish'd their hair to appear more dreadful to the enemy, and Paris to please the eyes of women. Ahilles fung to his harp the acts of Heroes, and Paris the amours of lovers. The fame reafon which makes Hector here difpleas'd at them, made Alexander afterwards refufe to fee this lyre of Paris, when offer'd to be fhewn to him, as Plutarch relates the story in his oration of the fortune of Alexander.

. 83. One avenging blow. It is in the Greek, You had been clad in a coat of ftone Giphanius would have it to mean ftoned to death on the account of his adultery: But this does not appear to have been the punishment of that crime among the Phrygians. It feems rather to fignify, deftroy'd by the fury of the people, for the war he had brought upon them; or perhaps may imply no more than being laid in his grave under a monument of ftones; but the former being the ftronger fense

is here followed.

. 86. 'Tis just, my brother.] This fpeech is a farther opening of the true character of Paris. He is a mafter of civility, no less well-bred to his own fex than countly to the other. The reproof of Hector was of a fevere nature, yet he receives it as from a brother and a friend, with candour and modesty. This anfwer is remarka le for its fine addrefs; he gives the heroe a decent and agreeable reproof for having too rafhly

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