The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse. Virgil

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СКАЧАТЬ when in arms of early days King Priam now she sees,

       She crieth: 'O unhappy spouse! what evil heart hast thou,

       With weapons thus to gird thyself, or whither wilt thou now?520

       Today availeth no such help, and no such warder's stay

       May better aught; not even were my Hector here today.

       But come thou hither unto me; this altar all shall save,

       Or we shall die together here!'

       Her arms about she gave

       And took him, and the elder set adown in holy stead.

      But lo! now one of Priam's sons, Polites, having fled

       From Pyrrhus' murder through the swords and through the foeman's throng,

       Runs wounded through the empty hall from out the cloister long,

       And burning Pyrrhus, hard at heel, the deadly hurt doth bear,

       And grip of hand is on him now, and now the point of spear.530

       But as he rushed before their eyes, his parents' face beneath

       He fell, and with most plenteous blood shed forth his latest breath;

       Then Priam, howsoever nigh the very death might grip,

       Refrained him nothing at the sight, but voice and wrath let slip:

       'Ah, for such wickedness,' he cried, 'for daring such a deed,

       If aught abide in heaven as yet such things as this to heed,

       May the Gods give thee worthy thanks, and pay thee well-earned prize,

       That thou hast set the death of sons before my father's eyes,

       That thou thy murder's fouling thus in father's face hast flung.

       Not he, Achilles, whence indeed thou liar hast never sprung,540

       Was such a foe to Priam erst; for shamfast meed he gave

       To law and troth of suppliant men, and rendered to the grave

       The bloodless Hector dead, and me sent to mine own again.'

      So spake the elder, and cast forth a toothless spear and vain,

       That forthwith from the griding brass was put aback all spent,

       And from the shield-boss' outer skin hung down, for nothing sent.

       Then Pyrrhus cried: 'Yea tell him this, go take the tidings down

       To Peleus' son my father then, of Pyrrhus worser grown

       And all these evil deeds of mine! take heed to tell the tale!

       Now die!'

       And to the altar-stone him quivering did he hale,550

       And sliding in his own son's blood so plenteous: in his hair

       Pyrrhus his left hand wound, his right the gleaming sword made bare,

       That even to the hilts thereof within his flank he hid.

       Such was the end of Priam's day, such faring forth fate bid,

       Troy all aflame upon the road, all Pergamus adown.

       He, of so many peoples once the mighty lord and crown,

       So many lands of Asia once, a trunk beside the sea

       Huge with its headless shoulders laid, a nameless corpse is he.

      Then first within the compassing of bitter fear I was;

       The image of my father dear by me all mazed did pass,560

       When I beheld the like-aged king gasping his life away

       Through cruel wound: upon mine eyes forlorn Creusa lay,

       The wasted house, my little one, Iulus', evil end.

       I look aback to see what folk about me yet do wend,

       But all, foredone, had fallen away, their weary bodies spent,

       Some all amid the fire had cast, some unto earth had sent.

      Alone was I of all men now, when lo, in Vesta's house

       Abiding, and in inmost nook silent and lurking close,

       Helen the seed of Tyndarus! the clear fires give her light

       As there she strayeth, turning eyes on every shifting sight;570

       She, fearful of the Teucrian wrath for Pergamus undone,

       And fearful of the Danaan wrath and husband left alone,

       The wasting fury both of Troy and land where she was born,

       She hid her by the altar-stead, a thing of Gods forlorn.

      Forth blazed the wildfire in my soul, wrath stirred me up to slake

       My vengeance for my dying home, and ill's atonement take.

       What! should she come to Sparta safe, and her Mycenæ then,

       And in the hard-won triumphing go forth a Queen of men,

       And see her husband and her home, her parents and her sons,

       Served by the throng of Ilian wives and Phrygian vanquished ones?580

       Shall Priam so be slain with sword; shall Troy so blaze aloft;

       Shall the sea-beach the Dardan blood have sweat so oft and oft

       For this? Nay, nay: and though forsooth no deed to blaze abroad

       The slaying of a woman be, nor gaineth fame's reward,

       Yet still to quench an evil thing and pay the well-earned meed

       Is worthy praise, and joy it were unto the full to feed

       My heart's fell flame, and satisfy these ashes well beloved.

      Such things my soul gave forth; such things in furious heart I moved.

       When lo, my holy mother now, ne'er seen by eyes of mine

       So clear before, athwart the dark in simple light did shine;590

       All God she was; of countenance and measure was she nought,

       But her the heaven-abiders see; so my right hand she caught,

       And held me, and from rosy mouth moreover added word:

      'O son, what anger measureless thy mighty grief hath stirred?

       Why СКАЧАТЬ