But this when time requires-It now remains And fome deputed Prince the charge attend;, Or, if our royal Pleasure shall ordain, At this, Pelides frowning ftern, reply'd:: O tyrant, arm'd with infolence and pride!. 195 Inglorious flave to int'reft, ever join'd With fraud, unworthy of a royal mind! 200 The diftant Trojans never injur'd me: To Phthia's realms no hoftile troops they led, Whofe 205 Whose fruitful foil luxuriant harvests grace, Rich in her fruits, and in her martial race. Hither we fail'd, a voluntary throng, T'avenge a private, not a publick wrong: What else to Troy th' affembled nations draws, 210 But thine, ungrateful, and thy brother's caufe? Is this the pay our blood and toils deferve, Difgrac'd and injur'd by the man we serve. And dar'ft thou threat to fnatch my prize away, Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day? . 213. And dart thou threat to fnatch my prize away, The anger of thefe two Princes was equally upon the account of women, but yet it is obfervable that they are conducted with a different air. Agamemnon appears as a lover, Achilles as a warriour: The one fpeaks of Chryfeï's as a beauty whom he valu'd equal to his wife, and whose merit was too confiderable to be easily refign'd; the other treats Brifeis as a flave, whom he is concern'd to preserve in point of honour, and as a teftimony of his glory. Hence it is that we never hear him mention her but as his Spoil, the Reward of war, the Gift the Grecians gave him, or the like expreffions: And accordingly he yields her up, not in grief for a mistress whom he lofes, but in fullennefs for an injury that is done him. This obfervation is Madam Dacier's, and will often appear juft as we proceed farther. Nothing is finer than the Moral fhewn us in this quarrel, of the blindness and partiality of mankind to their own faults: The Grecians make a war to recover a woman that was ravish'd, and are in danger to fail in the attempt by a dispute about another. Agamemnon while he is revenging a rape, commits one; and Achilles while he is in the utmoft fury himself, reproaches Agamemnon for his paffionate temper. 215 A prize as fmall, O tyrant! match'd with thine, As thy own actions if compar'd to mine. Thine in each conqueft is the wealthy prey, 220 Or barren praises pay the wounds of war. But know, proud monarch, I'm thy flave no more; Left by Achilles on the Trojan plain, What spoils, what conquests shall Atrides gain ? 225 To this the King: Fly, mighty warriour! fly, Thy aid we need not, and thy threats defy. There want not chiefs in fuch a cause to fight, And Jove himself fhall guard a monarch's right. Of all the Kings (the Gods diftinguish'd care) 230 To pow'r fuperior none fuch hatred bear: Strife . 225. Fly, mighty warriour.] Achilles having threaten'd to leave them in the former fpeech and fpoken of his warlike actions; the Poet here puts an artful peice of fpite in the mouth of Agamemnon, making him opprobrioufly brand his retreat as a fight, and leffen the appearance of his courage, by calling it the love of contention and flaughter. . 229. Kings, the Gods diftinguifb'd care.] In the original it is Algpeis, or nurst by Jove. Homer often ufes to call his Kings by fuch epithets as out, born of the Gods, or A107geESC, bred by the Gods; by which he points out to themselves, the offices they were ordain'd for; and to their people, the reverence Strife and debate thy reftlefs foul employ, And wars and horrors are thy favage joy. If thou hast strength, 'twas Heav'n that ftrength be[ftow'd, For know,vain man! thy valour is from God. 35 Hafte, launch thy veffels, fly with speed away, Rule thy own realms with arbitrary fway: I heed thee not, but prize at equal rate Thy fhort-liv'd friendship, and thy groundless hate. Go, threat thy earth-born Myrmidons; but here 240 'Tis mine to threaten, Prince, and thine to fear. Know, if the God the beauteous dame deinand, My bark fhall waft her to her native land; But then prepare, imperious Prince! prepare, Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair: 245 Ev'n in thy tent I'll feize the blooming prize, Thy lov'd Brifeïs with the radiant eyes. Hence fhalt thou prove my might, and curfe the hour, Thou stood'ft a rival of imperial pow'r; And hence to all our host it shall be known, 250 That Kings are fubject to the Gods alone. reverence that fhould be paid them. Thefe expreffions are perfectly in the exalted ftyle of the eastern nations, and correfpondent to thofe places of holy fcripture where they are call'd Geds, and the Sons of the moft High. Achilles Achilles heard, with grief and rage opprest, Now fir'd by wrath, and now by reafon cool'd: 255 That prompts his hand to draw the deadly fword, Juft as in anguifh of fufpence he stay'd, 260 While half unheath'd appear'd the glitt'ring blade, Minerva fwift defcended from above, *Juno. Sent by the * fifter and the wife of Jove: (For . 261. Minerva fwift defcended from above.] Homer having by degrees rais'd Achilles to fuch a pitch of fury, as to make him capable of attempting Agamemnon's life in the council, Pallas the Goddefs of Wisdom defcends, and being feen only by him, pulls him back in the very inftant of execution. He parlies with her a while, as imagining the would advise him. to proceed, but upon the promife of fuch a time wherein there hould be a full reparation of his honour, he fheaths his fword in obedience to her. She afcends to Heaven, and he being left to himself, falls again upon his General with bitter expreffions. The allegory here may be allow'd by every reader to be unforc'd: The prudence of Achilles checks him in the rafheft moment of his anger, it works upon him unfeen to others, but does not entirely prevail upon him to de-fift till he remembers his own importance, and depends up on it that there will be a neceffity of their courting him at any expence into the alliance again. Having perfuaded him felf by fuch reflexions, he forbears to attack his General, but thinking that he facrifices enough to prudence by this forbearance, |