Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/190

But basely fled that memorable Day,
When I from Hector's Hands redeem'd the flaming Prey.
So much 'tis safer at the noisie Bar
With Words to flourish, than ingage in War.
By diff'rent Methods we maintain our Right,
Nor am I made to Talk, nor he to Fight.
In bloody Fields I labour to be great;
His Arms are a smooth Tongue, and soft Deceit:
Nor need I speak my Deeds, for those you see,
The Sun, and Day are Witnesses for me.
Let him who fights unseen, relate his own,
And vouch the silent Stars, and conscious Moon.
Great is the Prize demanded, I confess,
But such an abject Rival makes it less;
That Gift, those Honours, he but hop'd to gain,
Can leave no room for Ajax to be vain:
Losing he wins, because his Name will be
Ennobled by Defeat, who durst contend with me.
Were my known Valour question'd, yet my Blood
Without that Plea wou'd make my Title good:
My Sire was Telamon, whose Arms, employ'd
With Hercules, these Trojan Walls destroy'd;
And who before with Jason, sent from Greece,
In the first Ship brought home the Golden Fleece.
Great Telamon from Æacus derives
His Birth (th' Inquisitor of guilty Lives
In Shades below; where Sisyphus, whose Son,
This Thief is thought, rouls up the restless heavy Stone.)
Just Æacus, the King of Gods above
Begot : Thus Ajax is the third from Jove,
Nor shou'd I seek Advantage from my Line,
Unless {Achilles) it were mix'd with thine:
As next of Kin Achilles' Arms I claim;
This Fellow wou'd ingraft a Foreign Name
Upon our Stock, and the Sisyphian Seed
By Fraud, and Theft asserts his Father's Breed:

Then