A crime of most abhorrent die
In her whose wedded bliss is young!
The violated marriage tie
Is told by every foreign tongue— 40
Since naught to hide the guilty tale
From slanderous townsmen can avail. 44
Envy is wealth's perpetual foe,
'Gainst which the humble mutter low.
Ev'n when the great Alcides came 45
To Sparta, seat of ancient fame,
Bringing destruction on the prophet maid;
He fell, who saw the wasting fire
For Helen's baneful charms aspire,
And low in dust Troy's splendid fabrics laid. 50
Orestes with his youthful head
To hospitable Strophius fled,
His aged friend, who dwelt below
Parnassus' elevated brow.
At length with valiant arm he gave 55
His mother and Ægisthus to the grave. 57
Now, friends, in devious track I stray
From the direct and beaten way;
Slave to some arbitrary gale,
That guides the pliant vessel's sail. 60
Muse, if by compact or for gain
A mercenary voice thou raise,
Exaggerate in varied strain
The subject of thy venal praise.
Let Trasydæus now inspire 65
Thy lay, or his triumphant sire,
The Pythian victor, they whose fame
Shines with a bright and glorious flame. 69
Late conquerors in th' Olympic car,
And the renown'd equestrian war, 70
With naked limbs in Pytho's race,
