THE DESTRUCTION OF TROY, An Essay on the second BOOK of Virgil's Aeneis.
WHile all with silence and attention wait,
Thus speaks
Aeneas from the bed of State.
Madam, when you command us to review
Our Fate, you make our old wounds bleed anew,
And all those sorrows to my sence restore,
Whereof none saw so much, none suffer'd more,
Not the most cruel of Our conqu'ering Foes
So unconcern'dly can relate our woes,
As not to lend a tear, Then how can I
Repress the horror of my thoughts, which flie
[Page 2] The sad remembrance. Now th' expiring night
And the declining Stars to rest invite;
Yet since 'tis your command, what you, so well
Are pleas'd to hear, I cannot grieve to tell.
By Fate repell'd, and with repulses tyr'd
The
Greeks, so many Lives and years expir'd,
A Fabrick like a moving Mountain frame,
Pretending vows for their return; This, Fame
Divulges, then within the beasts vast womb
The choice and flower of all their Troops intomb,
In view the Isle of
Tenedos, once high
In fame and wealth, while
Troy remain'd, doth lie,
(Now but an unsecure and open Bay)
Thither by stealth the
Greeks their Fleet convey,
We gave them gone, and to
Mycenae saild,
And
Troy reviv'd, her mourning face unvaild;
All through th' unguarded Gates with joy resort
To see the slighted Camp, the vacant Port,
Here lay
Ulysses, there
Achilles, here
The Battels joyn'd, the Grecian Fleet rode there;
[Page 3] But the vast Pile th'amazed vulgar views
Till they their Reason in their wonder lose,
And first
Tymaete moves, (urg'd by the Power
Of Fate, or Fraud) to place it in the Tower,
But
Capis and the graver sort thought fit,
The
Greeks suspected Present to commit
To Seas or Flames, at least to search and bore
The sides, and what that space contains to' explore;
Th'uncertain Multitude with both engag'd,
Divided stands, till from the Tower, enrag'd,
Laocoon ran, whom all the crowd attends,
Crying, what desperate Frenzy's this? (oh Friends)
To think them gone? Judge rather their retreat
But a design, their gifts but a deceit,
For our Destrction 'twas contriv'd no doubt,
Or from within by fraud, or from without
By force; yet know ye not
Ulysses shifts?
Their swords less danger carry then their gifts▪
(This said) against the Horses side, his spear
He throws, which trembles with inclosed fear,
[Page 4] Whilst from the hollows of his womb proceed
Groans, not his own; And had not Fate decreed
Our Ruine, We had fill'd with
Grecian blood
The Place, Then
Troy and
Priam's Throne had stood;
Mean while a fetter'd pris'ner to the King
With joyful shouts the
Dardan Shepherds bring,
Who to betray us did himself betray,
At once the Taker, and at once the Prey,
Firmly prepar'd, of one Event secur'd,
Or of his Death or his Design assur'd.
The
Trojan Youth about the Captive flock,
To wonder, or to pitty, or to mock.
Now hear the
Grecian fraud, and from this one
Conjecture all the rest.
Disarm'd, disorder'd, casting round his eyes
On all the Troops that guarded him, he cryes,
What Land, what Sea, for me what Fate attends?
Caught by my Foes, condemned by my Friends,
Incensed
Troy a wretched Captive seeks
To sacrifice, a Fugitive, the Greeks,
[Page 5] To Pitty, This Complaint our former Rage,
Converts, we now enquire his Parentage,
What of their Councels, or affairs he knew,
Then fearless', he replies, Great King to you
All truth I shall relate: Nor first can I
My self to be of
Grecian Birth deny,
And though my outward state, misfortune hath
Deprest thus low, it cannot reach my Faith.
You may by chance have heard the famous name
Of
Palimede, who from old
Belus came,
Whom, but for voting Peace, The Greeks pursue,
Accus'd unjustly, then unjustly slew,
Yet mourn'd his death. My Father was his friend,
And Me to his commands did recommend,
While Laws and Councels did his Throne support,
I but a youth, yet some Esteem and Port
We then did bear, till by
Ulysses craft
(Things known I speak) he was of life bereft,
Since in dark sorrow I my days did spend,
Till now disdaining his unworthy end
[Page 6] I could not silence my Complaints, but vow'd
Revenge, if ever fate or chance allow'd
My wisht return to
Greece; From hence his hate,
From thence my crimes, and all my ills bear date,
Old guilt fresh malice gives; The peoples ears
He fills with rumors, and their hearts with fears,
And then the Prophet to his party drew.
But why do I these thankless truths pursue?
Or why defer your Rage? on me, for all
The
Greeks, let your revenging fury fall.
Ulysses this, th'
Atridae this desire
At any rate. We streight are set on fire
(Unpractis'd in such Mysteries) to enquire
The manner and the cause, Which thus he told
With gestures humble, as his Tale was bold.
Oft have the Greeks (the siege detesting) tyr'd
With tedious war a stoln retreat desir'd,
And would to heaven they'had gone: But still dismay'd
By Seas or Skies, unwillingly they stayd,
Chiefly when this stupendious Pile was rais'd
Strange noises fill'd the Air, we all amaz'd
[Page 7] Dispatch
Eurypilus to enquire our Fates
Who thus the sentence of the Gods relates,
A Virgins slaughter did the storm appease
When first towards
Troy the
Grecians took the Seas,
Their safe retreat another
Grecians blood
Must purchase; All, at this confounded stood.
Each thinks himself the Man, the fear on all
Of what, the mischief, but on one can fall:
Then
Chalcas (by
Ulysses first inspir'd)
Was urg'd to name whom th' angry Gods requir'd,
Yet was I warn'd (for many were as well
Inspir'd as he) and did my fate foretel.
Ten days the Prophet in suspence remain'd,
Would no mans fate pronounce; at last constrain'd
By
Ithacus, he solemnly design'd
Me for the Sacrifice; the people joyn'd
In glad consent, and all their common fear
Determine in my fate, the day drew neer;
The sacred Rites prepar'd, my Temples crown'd
With holy wreaths, Then I confess I found
[Page 8] The means to my escape, my bonds I brake,
Fled from my Guards, and in a muddy Lake
Amongst the Sedges all the night lay hid,
Till they their Sails had hoist (if so they did)
And now alas no hope remains for me
My home, my father and my sons to see,
Whom, They enrag'd will kill for my Offence,
And punish for my guilt their Innocence.
Those Gods who know the Truths I now relate,
That faith which yet remains inviolate
By mortal Men, By these I beg, redress
My causless wrongs, and pitty such distress.
And now true Pitty in exchange he finds
For his false Tears, his Tongue, his hands unbinds.
Then spake the King, be Ours who ere thou art,
Forget the
Greeks. But first the truth impart.
Why did they raise, or to what use intend
This Pile? to'a Warlike, or Religious end?
Skilfull in fraud, (his native Art) his hands
Towards heaven he rais'd, deliver'd now from bands.
[Page 9] Ye pure Aethereal flames, ye Powers ador'd
By mortal men, ye Altars, and the sword
I scap'd; ye sacred Fillets that involv'd
My destin'd head, grant I may stand absolv'd
From all their Laws and Rites, renounce all name
Of faith or love, their secret thoughts proclaim;
Only O
Troy, preserve thy faith to me,
If what I shall relate preserveth thee.
From
Pallas favour, all our hopes, and all
Counsels, and Actions took Original,
Till
Diomed (for such attempts made fit
By dire conjunction with
Ulysses wit)
Assails the sacred Tower, the Guards they slay,
Defile with bloody hands, and thence convey
The fatal Image; straight with our success
Our hopes fell back, whilst prodigies express
Her just disdain, her flaming eyes did throw
Flashes of lightning, from each part did flow
A briny sweat, thrice brandishing her spear,
Her Statue from the ground it self did rear;
[Page 10] Then, that we should our Sacriledge restore
And reconveigh their gods from
Argos shore,
Chalcas perswades, till then we urge in vain
The fate of
Troy. To measure back the Main
They all consent, but to return agen,
When re inforc'd with aids of Gods and men.
Thus
Chalcas, then instead of that, this Pile
To
Pallas was design'd; to reconcile
Th' offended Power, and expiate our guilt,
To this vast height and monstrous stature built,
Least through your gates receiv'd, it might renew
Your vows to her, and her Defence to you.
But if this sacred gift you dis-esteem,
Then cruel Plagues (which heaven divert on them)
Shall fall on
Priams State: But if the horse
Your walls ascend, assisted by your force,
A League 'gainst
Greece all
Asia shall contract;
Our Sons then suffering what their Sires would act.
Thus by his fraud and our own faith o'recome,
A feined tear destroys us, against whom
Nor ten years conflict, nor a thousand sail.
This seconded by a most sad Portent
Which credit to the first imposture lent;
Laocoon, Neptunes Priest, upon the day
Devoted to that God, a Bull did slay,
When two prodigious Serpents were descride,
Whose circling stroaks the Seas smooth face divide,
Above the deep they raise their scaly Crests,
And stemme the flood with their erected breasts,
Their winding tails advance and steer their course,
And 'gainst the shore the breaking Billow force.
Now landing, from their brandisht tongues there came
A dreadful hiss, and from their eyes a flame:
Amaz'd we flie, directly in a line
Laocoon they pursue, and first intwine
(Each preying upon one) his tender sons,
Then him, who armed to their rescue runs,
They seiz'd, and with intangling folds imbrac'd
His neck twice compassing, and twice his wast,
[Page 12] Their poys'nous knots he strives to break, and tear,
Whilst slime and blood his sacred wreaths besmear,
Then loudly roars, as when th'enraged Bull
From th'Altar flies, and from his wounded skull
Shakes the huge Ax; the conqu'ring serpents flie
To cruel
Pallas Altar, and there lie
Under her feet, within her shields extent;
We in our fears conclude this fate was sent
Justly on him, who strook the Sacred Oak
With his accursed Lance. Then to invoke
The Goddess, and let in the fatal horse
We all consent:
A spacious breach we make, and
Troys proud wall
Built by the gods, by our own hands doth fall;
Thus, all their help to their own ruin give,
Some draw with cords, and some the Monster drive
With Rolls and Leavers, thus our works it climbs,
Big with our fate, the youth with Songs and Rhimes,
Some dance, some hale the Rope; at last let down
It enters with a thundering noise the Town.
[Page 13] Oh
Troy the seat of gods, in war renown'd;
Three times it stuck, as oft the clashing sound
Of Arms was heard, yet blinded by the Power
Of Fate, we place it in the sacred Tower.
Cassandra then foretels th'event, but she
Finds no belief (such was the Gods decree.)
The Altars with fresh flowers we crown, and wast
In Feasts, that day, which was (alas) our last.
Now by the revolution of the Skies,
Nights sable shadows from the Ocean rise,
Which heaven and earth, and the
Greek frauds involv'd,
The City in secure repose dissolv'd,
When from the Admirals high Poop appears
A light, by which the
Argive Squadron Steers
Their silent course to
Iliums well known shore,
When
Synon (sav'd by the Gods partial power)
Opens the horse, and through the unlockt doors
To the free Ayr the armed fraight restores:
Ulysses, Stenelus, Tysander slide
Down by a Rope,
Machaon was their guide;
[Page 14]
Atrides, Pyrrhus, Thoas, Athamas,
And
Epeus who the frauds contriver was,
The Gates they seize, the Guards with sleep and wine
Opprest, surprize, and then their forces joyn.
'Twas then, when the first sweets of sleep repair
Our bodies spent with toil, our minds with care
(The Gods best gift) When bath'd in tears and blood
Before my face lamenting
Hector stood,
Such his aspect when soyld with bloody dust
Dragg'd by the cords which through his feet were thrust
By his insulting Foe; O how transform'd?
How much unlike that
Hector, who return'd
Clad in
Achilles spoyls; when he, among
A thousand ships (like
Jove) his Lightning flung;
His horrid Beard and knotted Tresses stood
Stiff with his gore, and all his wounds ran blood,
Intranc'd I lay, then (weeping) said, The Joy,
The hope and stay of thy declining
Troy;
What Region held thee, whence, so much desir'd,
Art thou restor'd to us consum'd and tyr'd
[Page 15] With toyls and deaths; but what sad cause confounds
Thy once fair looks, or why appear those wounds?
Regardless of my words, he no reply
Returns, but with a dreadfull groan doth cry,
Fly from the Flame, O Goddess-born, our walls
The
Greeks possess, and
Troy confounded falls
From all her glories; if it might have stood
By any Power, by this right hand it should.
What Man could do, by me for
Troy was don,
Take here her Reliques and her Gods, to run
With them thy fate, with them new Walls expect,
Which, tost on Seas, thou shalt at last erect;
Then brings old
Vesta from her sacred Quire,
Her holy Wreaths, and her eternall Fire.
Mean while the Walls with doubtfull cries resound
From far (for shady coverts did surround
My Fathers house) approaching still more near
The clash of Armes, and voice of Men we hear▪
Rowz'd from my Bed, I speedily ascend
The house's top, and listning there attend,
[Page 16] As flames rowl'd by the winds conspiring force,
Ore full-eard Corn, or Torrents raging course
Bears down tho'opposing Oaks; the fields destroys
And mocks the Plough-mans toil, th'unlookt for noise
From neighb'ring hills, th'amazed Shepherd hears;
Such my surprise, and such their rage appears.
First fell thy house
Ucalegon, then thine
Deiphobus, Sigaan Seas did shine
Bright with
Troys flames, the Trumpets dreadful sound,
The louder groans of dying men confound.
Give me my arms I cryed, resolv'd to throw
My self 'mongst any that oppos'd the Fo:
Rage, Anger and Despair at once suggest
That of all deaths, to die in Arms was best.
The first I met was
Panthus, Phoebus Priest,
Who scaping with his Gods and Reliques fled
And towards the shore his little grandchilde led;
Panthus, what hope remains? what force? what place
Made good? but sighing he replies (alas)
Trojans we were, and mighty
Ilium was,
[Page 17] But the last period and the fatal hour
Of
Troy is come, Our glory and Our Power
Incensed
Jove transfers to Grecian hands,
The foe within, the burning Town commands,
And (like a smother'd fire) an unseen force
Breaks from the bowels of the fatal Horse,
Insulting
Synon flings about the flame,
And thousands more then e're from
Argos came
Possess the Gates, the Passes and the Streets,
And these the sword oretakes, and those it meets,
The guard nor fights nor flies, Their fate so near
At once suspends their Courage and their fear.
Thus by the Gods, and by
Otrides words
Inspir'd, I make my way through fire, through swords,
Where Noises, Tumults, Outcries and Alarms
I heard, first
Iphitus renownd for Arms
We meet, who knew us (for the Moon did shine)
Then
Ripheus, Hippanis and
Dymas joyn
Their force, and young
Choraebus Mygdons son,
Who, by the Love of fair
Cassandra, won,
[Page 18] Arriv'd but lately in her fathers Ayd
Unhappy, whom the Threates could not disswade
Of his Prophetique Spouse,
Whom, when I saw, yet daring to maintain
The fight, I said, Brave Spirits (but in vain)
Are you resolv'd to follow one who dares
Tempt all extreams, The state of Our affairs
You see, The Gods have left us by whose aid
Our Empire stood, nor can the flame be staid,
Then let us fall amidst Our Foes; this one
Relief the vanquisht have, to hope for none.
Then re-inforc'd, as in a stormy night
Wolves urged by their raging appetite
Forrage for prey, which their neglected young
With greedy jaws expect, ev'en so among
Foes, Fire and Swords, to'assured death we pass,
Darkness our Guide, Despaire our Leader was.
Who can relate that Evenings woes and spoils,
Or can his tears proportion to our Toils!
The City, which so long had flourisht, falls,
[Page 19] Death triumphs o're the Houses, Temples, Walls,
Nor onely on the Trojans fell this doom,
Their hearts at last the vanquish'd re-assume,
And now the Victors fall, on all sides, fears,
Groans and pale Death in all her shapes appears,
Androgeus first with his whole Troop was cast
Upon us with civility misplac't,
Thus greeting us you lose by your delay,
Your share both of the honor and the prey,
Others the spoils of burning
Troy convey
Back to those ships, which you but now forsake;
We making no return, his sad mistake
Too late he findes; As when an unseen Snake
A Travellers unwary foot hath prest,
Who trembling starts, when the Snakes azure Crest,
Swoln with his rising Anger, he espies,
So from our view surpriz'd
Androgeus flies.
But here an easie victory we meet:
Fear binds their hands, and ignorance their feet,
Whilst Fortune, our first Enterprize, did aid,
Encourag'd with success,
Choraebus said,
[Page 20] O Friends, we now by better Fates are led,
And the fair Path, they lead us, let us dread.
First change your Arms, and their distinctions beare;
The same, in foes, Deceit and Vertue are.
Then of his Arms,
Androgeus he divests,
His Sword, his shield he takes, and plumed Crests,
Then
Ripheus, Dymas, and the rest, All glad
Of the occasion, in fresh spoils are clad.
Thus mixt, with Greeks, as if their Fortune still
Follow'd their swords, we fight, pursue, and kill.
Some re-ascend the Horse, and he, whose sides
Let forth the valiant, now, the Coward, hides.
Some to their safer guard their ships retire,
But vain's that hope, 'gainst which the Gods conspire:
Behold the Royal Virgin, The Divine
Cassandra, from
Minerva's fatal shrine
Dragg'd by the hair, casting tow'ards heaven, in vain,
Her Eyes; for Cords, her tender hands, did strain:
Choraebus, at the spectacle enrag'd
Flyes in amidst the foes: we thus engag'd,
To second him, amongst the thickest ran,
[Page 21] Here first our ruine from our friends began,
Who from the Temples Battlements, a showr
Of Darts and Arrows, on our heads did powr:
They, us for Greeks, and now the Greeks (who knew
Cassandra's rescue) us for Trojans slew.
Then from all parts
Ulysses, Ajax, then,
And then th'
Atridae rally all their men;
As winds, that meet from several Coasts, contest,
Their prisons being broke, The South and West,
And
Eurus on his winged Coursers born
Triumphing in their speed, the woods are torn,
And chafing
Nereus with his
Trident throws
The Billows from their bottom; Then all those
Who in the dark Our fury did escape,
Returning, know our borrowed Arms and shape.
And diff'ring Dialect, Then their numbers swell
And grow upon us, first
Choraebus fell
Before
Minerva's Altar, next did bleed
Just
Ripheus, whom no Trojan did exceed
In virtue, yet the Gods his fate decreed.
Then
Hippanis and
Dymas wounded by
Their friends: nor thee
Panthus thy Piety,
[Page 22] Nor consecrared Mitre, from the same
Ill fate could save; My Countreys funeral flame
And
Troys cold ashes I attest, and call
To witness for my self, That in their fall
No Foes, no Death, nor Danger I declin'd,
Did, and deserv'd no less, my Fate to find.
Now
Iphitus with me, and
Pelias
Slowly retire, the one retarded was
By feeble Age, the other by a wound,
To Court the Cry directs us, where We found
Th'Assault so hot, as if 'twere onely there,
And all the rest secure from foes or feare,
The Greeks the Gates approach'd, their Targets cast
Over their heads, some scaling ladders plac't
Against the walls, the rest the steps ascend,
And with their shields on their left Arms defend
Arrows and darts, and with their right hold fast
The Battlement; on them the Trojans cast
Stones, Rafters, Pillars, Beams, such Arms as these,
Now hopeless, for their last defence they seize.
[Page 23] The gilded Roofs, the marks of ancient state
They tumble down, and now against the Gate
Of th'Inner Court their growing force they bring,
Now was Our last effort to save the King,
Relieve the fainting, and succeed the dead.
A Private Gallery 'twixt th'appartments led,
Not to the Foe yet known, or not observ'd,
(The way for
Hectors hapless wife reserv'd,
When to the aged King, her little son
She would present) Through this We pass, and run
Up to the highest Battlement, from whence
The Trojans threw their darts without Offence.
A Tower so high, it seem'd to reach the sky,
Stood on the roof, from whence we could descry
All
Ilium—both the Camps, the Grecian Fleet;
This, where the Beams upon the Columnes meet,
We loosen, which like Thunder from the Cloud
Breaks on their heads, as sudden and as loud.
But others still succeed: mean time, nor stones
Nor any kinde of weapons cease.
[Page 24] Before the Gate in gilded Armour, shone
Young
Pyrrhus, like a Snake his skin new grown,
Who fed on poys'nous herbs, all winter lay
Under the ground, and now reviews the day
Fresh in his new apparel, proud and yong,
Rowls up his Back, and brandishes his tongue,
And lifts his scaly breast against the Sun,
With him his Fathers Squire,
Automedon
And
Periphas who drove his winged steeds,
Enter the Court; whom all the youth succeeds
Of
Scyros Isle, who flaming firebrands flung
Up to the roof,
Pyrrhus himself among
The formost with an Ax an entrance hews
Through Beams of solid Oak, then freely views
The Chambers, Galleries, and Rooms of State,
Where
Priam and the Ancient Monarchs sate.
At the first Gate an Armed Guard appears;
But th'Inner Court with horror, noise and tears
Confus'dly fill'd, The womens shrieks and cryes,
The Arched Vaults re-eccho to the skyes,
[Page 25] Sad Matrons wandring through the spacious Rooms
Embrace and kiss the Posts, Then
Pyrrhus comes
Full of his Father, neither men nor Walls
His force sustain, the torn Port-cullis falls,
Then from the hinge, their strokes the Gates divorce,
And where the way they cannot finde, they force▪
Not with such rage a Swelling Torrent flows
Above his banks, th'opposing Dams orethrows,
Depopulates the Fields, the Cattel, Sheep,
Shepherds, and folds the foaming Surges sweep.
And now between two sad extreams I stood,
Here
Pyrrhus and th'
Atridae drunk with blood,
There th'hapless Queen amongst an hundred Dames,
And
Priam quenching from his wounds those flames
Which his own hands had on the altar laid:
Then they the secret Cabinets invade,
Where stood the Fifty Nuptial Beds, the hopes
Of that great Race, The Golden Posts whose tops
Old hostile spoils adorn'd, demolisht lay,
Or to the foe, or to the fire a Prey.
[Page 26] Now,
Priams fate perhaps you may enquire,
Seeing his Empire lost, his
Troy on fire,
And his own Palace by the Greeks possest,
Arms, long disus'd, his trembling limbs invest,
Thus on his foes he threw himself alone
Not for their Fate, but to provoke his owne,
There stood an Altar open to the view
Of Heaven, neer which an aged Lawrel grew,
Whose shady arms the houshold Gods embrac'd,
Before whose feet the Queen her self had cast
With all her daughters, and the Trojan wives,
As Doves whom an approaching tempest drives
And frights into one flock; But having spy'd
Old
Priam clad in youthful Arms, she cry'd,
Alas my wretched husband, what pretence
To bear those Arms, and in them what defence?
Such aid such times require not, when again
If
Hector were alive, he liv'd in vain;
Or here We shall a Sanctuary find,
Or as in life, we shall in death be joyn'd.
[Page 27] Then weeping, with kinde force held and embrac'd,
And on the sacred seat the King she plac'd;
Mean while
Polites one of
Priams sons
Flying the rage of bloody
Pyrrhus, runs
Through Foes and Swords, and ranges all the Court
And empty Galleries amaz'd and hurt,
Pyrrhus pursues him, now oretakes, now kills,
And his last blood in
Priams presence spills.
The King (though him so many deaths inclose)
Nor fear nor grief, but Indignation shows,
The Gods requite thee (if within the care
Of those alone th'affairs of mortals are)
Whose fury on the son but lost had been,
Had not his Parents Eyes his murder seen,
Not That
Achilles (whom thou feignst to be
Thy Father) so inhumane was to me,
He blusht, when I the rights of Arms implor'd;
To me my
Hector, me to
Troy restor'd▪
This said, His feeble Arm a Javelin flung,
Which on the sounding shield, scarce entring, rung.
[Page 28] Then
Pyrrhus; go a messenger to Hell
Of my black deeds, and to my Father tell
The Acts of his degenerate Race. So through
The Sons warm blood, the Trembling King he drew
To th'Altar: in his hair one hand he wreathes;
His sword, the other, in his Bosom sheathes.
Thus fell the King, who yet surviv'd the State,
With such a signal and peculiar Fate,
Under so vast a ruine not a Grave,
Nor in such flames a funeral fire to have:
He, whom such Titles sweld, such Power made proud,
To whom the Scepters of all
Asia bow'd,
On the cold earth lyes this neglected King,
A headless Carkass, and a nameless Thing.
FINIS.