Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/196

The Deeds of long descended Ancestors
Are but by grace of Imputation ours,
Theirs in Effect; but since he draws his Line
From Jove, and seems to plead a Right Divine;
From Jove, like him, I claim my Pedigree,
And am descended in the same Degree:
My Sire Laertes was Arcesius' Heir,
Arcesius was the Son of Jupiter:
No Parricide, no banish'd Man, is known
In all my Line: Let him excuse his own.
Hermes ennobles too my Mother's Side,
By both my Parents to the Gods ally'd;
But not because that on the Female Part
My Blood is better, dare I claim Desert,
Or that my Sire from Parricide is free;
But judge by Merit betwixt him, and me:
The Prize be to the best; provided yet
That Ajax for a while his Kin forget,
And his great Sire, and greater Uncle's Name,
To fortifie by them his feeble Claim:
Be Kindred, and Relation laid aside,
And Honour's Cause by Laws of Honour try'd:
For if he plead Proximity of Blood;
That empty Title is with Ease withstood.
Peleus, the Hero's Sire, more nigh than he,
And Pyrrhus, his undoubted Progeny,
Inherit first these Trophies of the Field;
To Scyros, or to Pthia, send the Shield:
And Teucer has an Uncle's Right; yet he
Waves his Pretensions, nor contends with me.
Then since the Cause on pure Desert is plac'd,
Whence shall I take my rise, what reckon last?
I not presume on ev'ry Act to dwell,
But take these few, in order as they fell.
Thetis, who knew the Fates, apply'd her Care
To keep Achilles in Disguise from War;

And