The Twelve Labours of Hercules, Son of Jupiter & Alcmena

LONDON: PUBLISHED BY DIDIER AND TEBBETT, AT THE JUVENILE LIBRARY OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND ITALIAN BOOKS, AND REPOSITORY OF INSTRUCTIVE GAMES, NO. 75, ST. JAMES'S STREET. 1808. Price, Plain 1s. Coloured 1s. 6d. LONDON. Published by Didier & Tebbett, 75, S t . James' Street ; April 2, 1808.
Hercules in his Cradle Strangles two Serpents.
By Juno's hate urged on, Alcmena's Son, At sixteen years his noble toils begun. Nemæa's dreadful Lion first he sought, The savage slew & to Eurystheus brought, From his huge sides his shaggy spoils he tore, Around him threw, & e'er in triumph wore.
On Lerna's pest th' undaunted Hero rushes, With massy club her hundred heads he crushes, In vain. One crush'd, two hissing heads arise, Till good Iolas to each wound applies The burning brand. Dipt in the Hydra's gall, His arrows slightest wound is death to all.
A Stag with horns of gold and feet of brass, On Mænalus bounds o'er th'unbending grass, To Dian sacred, this he's doom'd to bring, Unhurt into the presence of the King, Forbid to wound, how take a Stag so fleet? A twelvemonth's end scarce saw the task complete.
To Erymanthus next his course is bent, To seize the Boar by incensed Dian sent, The fell destroyer bound he o'er him flings, And unto scared Eurystheus quickly brings, The trembling Tyrant shrinks aghast with dread, And in his brazen Vessel hides his coward head.
To cleanse the Augean Stables now he's sped, Where thirty years three thousand Oxen fed; The task for man too great. A river's course He turn'd, & thro' the stables urged its force, The tide resistless rolls, and in one day The gather'd filth of years is swept away.
The Lake Stymphalus by his arm was freed, From those dire birds on human flesh who feed, By Pallas' aid the dreadful race subdued, No more its banks with whitening bones are strew'd. Honour'd by all mankind he now returns, But still Eurystheus' envious hatred burns.
A furious Bull with nostrils breathing fire, To punish Minos sent by Neptune's ire, Roams wild in vengeance thro' his wide domains, And death & terror spreads o'er Crete's fair plains; But soon the bellowing beast alive he caught, And vainly struggling to Eurystheus brought.