Now from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let some kind nurse supply a mother's care:
Yet to his mother let him oft' be led,

Sport in her fhades, and in her fhades be fed;
Teach him, when first his infant voice fhall frame
Imperfect words, and lifp his mother's name,
To hail this tree; and fay, with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies:
And when in youth he feeks the fhady woods,
Oh, let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a Goddefs fhrin'd in ev'ry tree.

My fire, my fifter, and my fpoufe farewell!
If in your breasts or love or pity dwell,
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browzing cattel, or the piercing steel.
Farewell! and fince I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My fon, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kifs to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My closing lips, and hides my head in shades:

Remove your hands, the bark fhall foon fuffice
Without their aid, to feal thefe dying eyes.

She ceas'd at once to speak, and ceas'd to be ;
And all the nymph was loft within the tree:
Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd,
And long the plant a human heat retain'd.

THE

THE

FIRST BO O K

O F

STATIUS

HIS

THEBA I S.

Tranflated in the Year 1703.

Ccc c

The ARGUMENT.

Edipus King of Thebes having by mistake flain his father Laius, and marry'd his mother Jocasta, put

out his own eyes, and refign'd the realm to his fons, Etheocles and Polynices. Being neglected by them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tifiphone, to fow debate betwixt the brothers. They agree at last to reign fingly, each a year by turns, and the first lot is obtain'd by Etheocles. Jupiter, in a council of the Gods, declares his refolution of punishing the Thebans, and Argives also, by means of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the daughters of Adrastus King of Argos. Juno oppofes, but to no effect; and Mercury is fent on a message to the Shades, to the ghost of Laius, who is to appear to Etheocles, and provoke him to break the agreement. Polynices in the mean time departs from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a form, and arrives at Argos; where he meets with Tydeus, who had fled from Calydon, having kill'd his brother. Adraftus entertains them, having receiv'd an oracle from Apollo that his daughters should be marry'd to a Boar and a Lion, which he understands to be meant of thefe frangers by whom the hides of those beafts were worn, and who arriv'd at the time when he kept an annual feast in honour of that God. The rife of this folemnity he relates to his guefts, the loves of Phoebus and Pfamathe, and the ftory of Chorabus. He enquires, and is made acquainted with, their defcent and quality: The facrifice is renew'd, and the book concludes with a Hymn to Apollo.

THE

THE

FIRST BOOK

O F

STATIUS his THE BAIS.

F

Raternal rage, the guilty Thebes alarms,

Th'alternate reign deftroy'd by impious arms,
Demand our fong; a facred fury fires

My ravish'd breast, and all the Mufe infpires.
O Goddess, fay, fhall I deduce my rhimes
From the dire nation in its early times,
Europa's rape, Agenor's ftern decree,

And Cadmus fearching round the spacious fea?
How with the serpent's teeth he fow'd the foil,
And reap'd an Iron harvest of his toil;

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