Of an impérious Monarch, and cause tears
To stream from their fond Parents? May I end
My life, ere these indignant eyes behold

The violation of my Daughter's honour!
Thus far in answer to thy speech.

Now say,

What claims hast thou to make on this domain?
Wert thou not hither by thy city sent,

Thou, the impertinent harangues thou cam'st
To utter, should'st bewail. A messenger
When he hath spoken what his lords enjoin,
Ought to depart with speed. Next time let Creon
A less loquacious messenger dispatch

To the Athenian land.

CHORUS.

Alas! when Fortune

Profusely showers her gifts upon the wicked,
How insolent they are, as if they deem'd

They should for ever prosper!

THEBAN HERALD.

I will now

Speak what I have in charge; your thoughts indeed Differ from mine on these contested points;

But I and all the Theban race pronounce

This interdict: let not Adrastus enter

The land, or if he be already here,

Ere yon bright chariot of the Sun descends,
Regardless of these mystic branches borne

By suppliant matrons, drive him from the realm,

Nor furiously attempt to take away

The slain by force, for in the Argive state
You have no interest. If to my advice.

You yield due credence; by no boisterous waves
O'ertaken in your course, you cross the deep
Shall sail your Nation's pilot, else the storm
Of direful war shall burst on us and you,
And allies. Deliberate well, nor give
An haughty answer, by my words provok'd,

your

And of the freedom of your city vain:
For a reliance on superior might

Is most pernicious, oft hath it embroil'd

Contending states, and rous'd immoderate ire.
For when whole cities by their votes decide
In favour of a war, there's not a man
Expects to perish; all avert the doom

Which threats their own, upon another's head.
But while they give their suffrages, if Death
Were present to their eyes, Greece ne'er had ow'd
Its ruin to a frantic lust for war.

We all know how to choose the better part,
Distinguish good from ill, and are aware
That Peace, the benefactress of mankind (12)
Is preferable to war, by every Muse

Held justly dear, and to the fiends of Hell

A foe, in population she delights,

And wealth abundant: but these blessings slighting,

We wickedly embark in needless wars;

A man to servitude consigns the man

His arms subdu'd, on city the same doom
City imposes. But you aid our foes

E'en after they are dead, and would inter

With pomp funereal those who owe their fate

(12) An imitation of this passage occurred where I should by no means have thought of searching for it.

Euripides tragicæ que gloria prima Camœnæ,

Pacem describens, " opulentam" tumque "beatam"
Nominat hæc addens : " inter pulcherrima Divas."
Atque alibi "quantum bello potiorque serena
"Sit Pax in primis qui Musas promovet almas
"Luctibus ac adversatur, sobolisque suavi

"Dexteritate, hinc atque opibus congaudet opimis."

Leland. Encom. Pacis, p. 8. ed. Lond. 1546, and reprinted in his Collectanea, v. 5. p. 75. ed. Lond. 1770. The Antiquarian Bard has evidently translated his four last lines from hence, and Kamora paxaqur Or in the fragment of our Author's Cresphontes, v. 15, may have furnished him with the expression "inter pulcherrima Divas."