Let old Timotheus yield the Prize,

Or both divide the Crown;
He rais'd a Mortal to the Skies;
She drew an Angel down.

Grand CHORUS.

At last, Divine Cecilia came,

Inventress of the Vocal Frame ;
The sweet Enthufiaft, from her Sacred Store,

Enlarg’d the former narrow Bounds,
And added Length to folemn Sounds,

[fore. With Nature's Mother-Wit, and Arts unknown be

Let old Timotheus gield the Prize,

Or both divide the Crown;
He rais'd a Mortal to the Skies;

She drew an Angel down.

THE

TWELFTH BOOK

OF

OVID'S Metamorphofes,

Wholly Tranflated.

Connection to the End of the Eleventh Book. Æfacus, the Son of Priam, loving a Country-Life, for fakes the Court: Living obfcurely, he falls in Love with a Nymph; who flying from him, was kill'd by a Serpent; for Grief of this, he wou'd have drown'd himself; but by the pity of the Gods, is turn'd into a Cormorant. Priam, not hearing of Efacus, believes him to be dead, and raises a Tomb to preserve his Memory. By

this Tranfition, which is one of the finest in all Ovid, the Poet naturally falls into the Story of the Trojan War, which is fumm'd up, in the prefent Book, but fo very briefly, in many Places, that Ovid seems more short than Virgil, contrary, to his ufual Style. Yet the House of Fame, which is here defcrib'd, is one of the most beautiful Pieces in the whole Metamorphofes. The Fight of Achilles and Cygnus, and the Fray betwixt the Lapythæ and Centaurs, yield to no other part of this Poet: And particularly the Loves and Death of Cyllarus and Hylonome, the Male and Female Centaur, are wonderfully moving:

P

RIAM, to whom the Story was

A thousand Ships were mann'd, to fail the Sea: Nor had their just Resentments found delay, Had not the Winds and Waves oppos'd their way. At Aulis, with United Pow'rs they meet, But there, Cross-winds or Calms detain'd theFleet. Now, while they raise an Altar on the Shore, And Jove with folemn Sacrifice adore; A boding Sign the Priests and People fee: A Snake of fize immense afcends a Tree, And, in the leafie Summet, spy'd a Nest, Which, o'er her Callow young, a Sparrow prefs'd. Eight were the Birds unfledg'd; their Mother flew; And hover'd round her Care; but still in view: Till the fierce Reptile first devour'd the Brood; Then feiz'd the flutt'ringDam,and drunk her Blood. This dire Oftent, the fearful People view; Calchas alone, by Phebus taught, foreknew What Heav'n decreed; and with a smiling Glance, Thus gratulates to Greece her happy Chance. O Argives, we fhall Conquer: Troy is ours, But long Delays fhall firft afflict our Pow'rs: Nine Years of Labour, the nine Birds portend; The Tenth fhall in the Town's Destruction end.

The Serpent, who his Maw obscene had fill'd,
The Branches in his curl'd Embraces held:
But, as in Spires he ftood, he turn'd to Stone:
The ftony Snake retain'd the Figure still his own.
Yet, not for this, the Wind-boundNavy weigh'd,
Slack were their Sails; and Neptune disobey'd.
Some thought him loath the Town fhou'd be de-
stroy'd,

Whose building had his Hands divine employ'd :
Not fo theSeer; who knew, and known foreshow'd,
The Virgin Phabe, with a Virgin's Blood
Must first be reconcil'd; the common Caufe

Prevail'd; and Pity yielding to the Laws,
Fair Iphigenia the devoted Maid

[ray'd;
Was, by the weeping Priests, in Linnen-Robes ar-
All mourn her Fate; but no Relief appear'd:
The Royal Victim bound, the Knife already rear'd:
When that offended Pow'r, who caus'd their Woe,
Relenting ceas'd her Wrath;and stopp'd the coming
A Mist before the Ministers fhe caft; [Blow.
And, in the Virgin's room, a Hind fhe plac'd.
Th' Oblation flain, and Phabe reconcil'd,
The Storm was hush'd, and dimpled Ocean smil❜d: