THE

POSTHUMOUS

POEMS AND FRAGMENTS

OF GRAY.

TRANSLATION

OF

A PASSAGE FROM STATIUS a.

THEB. lib. vi. ver. 704-724.

THIRD in the labours of the disc came on,

With sturdy step and slow, Hippomedon;

Artful and strong he poised the well-known weight, By Phlegyas warned, and fired by Mnestheus' fate, That to avoid, and this to emulate.

5

His vigorous arm he tried before he flung,

Braced all his nerves, and every sinew strung;
Then, with a tempest's whirl, and wary eye,

Pursued his cast, and hurled the orb on high;
The orb on high tenacious of its course,
True to the mighty arm that gave it force,

10

Far overleaps all bound, and joys to see
Its ancient lord secure of victory.

The theatre's green height and woody wall
Tremble ere it precipitates its fall;

15

The ponderous mass sinks in the cleaving ground, While vales and woods and echoing hills rebound.

a See Sect. I. Letter II.

As when from Ætna's smoking summit broke,
The eyeless Cyclops heaved the craggy rock;
Where Ocean frets beneath the dashing oar,
And parting surges round the vessel roar;
'Twas there he aimed the meditated harm,
And scarce Ulysses 'scaped his giant arm.
A tiger's pride the victor bore away,
With native spots and artful labour gay,
A shining border round the margin rolled,
And calmed the terrors of his claws in gold.

Cambridge, May 8, 1736.

20

25

AGRIPPINA;

A TRAGEDY.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

AGRIPPINA, the Empress-mother.

NERO, the Emperor.

POPPAA, believed to be in love with Otho.

Отно, a young man of quality, in love with Poppaa.

SENECA, the Emperor's Preceptor.

ANICETUS, Captain of the Guards.

DEMETRIUS, the Cynic, friend to Seneca.

ACERONIA, Confidant to Agrippina.

SCENE, the Emperor's villa at Baiæ.

ARGUMENT.

"The drama opens with the indignation of Agrippina, at receiving her son's orders from Anicetus to remove from Baiæ, and to have her guard taken from her. At this time Otho having conveyed Poppea from the house of her husband, Rufus Crispinus, brings her to Baiæ, where he means to conceal her among the crowd; or, if his fraud is discovered, to have recourse to the Emperor's authority; but, knowing the lawless temper of Nero, he determines not to have recourse to that expedient, but on the utmost necessity. In the mean time he commits her to the care of Anicetus, whom he takes to be his friend, and in whose age he thinks he may

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