The Odysseys of Homer, together with the shorter poems. Homer

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СКАЧАТЬ ‭ What friendly premonitions have been spent

       ‭ On your forbearance, and their vain event.

       ‭ Yet, with my other friends, let love prevail

       ‭ To fit me with a vessel free of sail,

       ‭ And twenty men, that may divide to me

       ‭ My ready passage through the yielding sea

       ‭ For Sparta, and Amathoan Pylos’ shore,

       ‭ I now am bound, in purpose to explore

       ‭ My long-lack’d father, and to try if fame

       ‭ Or Jove, most author of man’s honour’d name,

       ‭ With his return and life may glad mine ear,

       ‭ Though toil’d in that proof I sustain a year.

       ‭ If dead I hear him, nor of more state, here

       ‭ Retir’d to my lov’d country, I will rear

       ‭ A sepulchre to him, and celebrate

       ‭ Such royal parent-rites, as fits his state;

       ‭ And then my mother to a spouse dispose.”

       ‭ This said, he sat; and to the rest arose

       ‭ Mentor, that was Ulysses’ chosen friend,

       ‭ To whom, when he set forth, he did commend

       ‭ His cómplete family, and whom he will’d

       ‭ To see the mind of his old sire fulfill’d,

       ‭ All things conserving safe, till his retreat.

       ‭ Who, tender of his charge, and seeing so set

       ‭ In slight care of their king his subjects there,

       ‭ Suff’ring his son so much contempt to bear,

       ‭ Thus gravely, and with zeal, to him began:

       ‭ “No more let any sceptre-bearing man,

       ‭ Benevolent, or mild, or human be,

       ‭ Nor in his mind form acts of piety,

       ‭ But ever feed on blood, and facts unjust

       ‭ Commit, ev’n to the full swing of his lust,

       ‭ Since of divine Ulysses no man now,

       ‭ Of all his subjects, any thought doth show.

       ‭ All whom he govern’d, and became to them,

       ‭ Rather than one that wore a diadem,

       ‭ A most indulgent father. But, for all

       ‭ That can touch me, within no envy fall

       ‭ These insolent Wooers, that in violent kind

       ‭ Commit things foul by th’ ill wit of the mind,

       ‭ And with the hazard of their heads devour

       ‭ Ulysses’ house, since his returning hour

       ‭ They hold past hope. But it affects me much,

       ‭ Ye dull plebeians, that all this doth touch

       ‭ Your free states nothing; who, struck dumb, afford

       ‭ These Wooers not so much wreak as a word,

       ‭ Though few, and you with only number might

       ‭ Extinguish to them the profaned light.”

       ‭ Evenor’s son, Leocritus, replied:

       ‭ “Mentor! the railer, made a fool with pride,

       ‭ What language giv’st thou that would quiet us

       ‭ With putting us in storm, exciting thus

       ‭ The rout against us? Who, though more than we,

       ‭ Should find it is no easy victory

       ‭ To drive men, habited in feast, from feasts,

       ‭ No not if Ithacus himself such guests

       ‭ Should come and find so furnishing his Court,

       ‭ And hope to force them from so sweet a fort.

       ‭ His wife should little joy in his arrive,

       ‭ Though much she wants him; for, where she alive

       ‭ Would her’s enjoy, there death should claim his rights.

       ‭ He must be conquer’d that with many fights. ‭ Thou speak’st unfit things. To their labours then ‭ Disperse these people; and let these two men, ‭ Mentor and Halitherses, that so boast ‭ From the beginning to have govern’d most ‭ In friendship of the father, to the son ‭ Confirm the course he now affects to run. ‭ But my mind says, that, if he would but use ‭ A little patience, he should here hear news ‭ Of all things that his wish would understand, ‭ But no good hope for of the course in hand.” ‭ This said, the Council rose; when ev’ry peer ‭ And all the people in dispersion were ‭ To houses of their own; the Wooers yet ‭ Made to Ulysses’ house their old retreat. ‭ Telemachus, apart from all the prease, ‭ Prepar’d to shore, and, in the aged seas ‭ His fair hands wash’d, did thus to Pallas pray: ‭ “Hear me, O Goddess, that but yesterday ‭ Didst deign access to me at home, and lay ‭ Grave charge on me to take ship, and inquire ‭ Along the dark seas for mine absent sire! ‭ Which all the Greeks oppose; amongst whom most ‭ Those that are proud still at another’s cost, ‭ Past measure, and the civil rights of men, ‭ My mother’s Wooers, my repulse maintain.” ‭ Thus spake he praying; when close to him came ‭ Pallas, resembling Mentor both in frame ‭ Of voice and person, and advis’d him thus: ‭ “Those Wooers well might know, Telemachus, ‭ Thou wilt not ever weak and childish be, ‭ If to thee be instill’d the faculty ‭ Of mind and body that thy father grac’d; ‭ And if, like him, there be in thee enchac’d ‭ Virtue to give words works, and works their end. ‭ This voyage, that to them thou didst commend, ‭ Shall not so quickly, as they idly ween, ‭ Be vain, or giv’n up, for their opposite spleen. ‭ But, if Ulysses nor Penelope ‭ Were thy true parents, I then hope in thee ‭ Of no more urging thy attempt in hand; ‭ For few, that rightly bred on both sides stand, ‭ Are like their parents, many that are worse, ‭ And most few better. Those then that the nurse ‭ Or mother call true-born yet are not so, ‭ Like worthy sires much less are like to grow. ‭ But thou show’st now that in thee fades not quite ‭ Thy father’s wisdom; and that future light ‭ Shall therefore show thee far from being unwise, ‭ Or touch’d with stain of bastard cowardice. ‭ Hope therefore says, that thou wilt to the end ‭ Pursue the brave act thou didst erst intend. ‭ But for the foolish Wooers, they bewray ‭ They neither counsel have nor soul, since they ‭ Are neither wise nor just, and СКАЧАТЬ