[1] Menelaus.
[2] The author could not help letting Mars talk in a soldier-like style.
THE SIXTH BOOK OF HOMER'S ILIAD.
ARGUMENT.
When all the gods to heav'n are gone.
The Grecians make the Trojans run,
Which, by the by, is demonstration
The devil help'd the Grecian nation;
For when no heav'nly guests are there,
He plays the devil without fear.
Helenus sets his brains a-brewing,
How to prevent the Trojans' ruin;
Then orders Hector to the town,
To bid 'em pray to Pallas soon,
That she'd remove such fighting cattle
As this Tydides from the battle.
In the mean time, by hocus pocus,
This bully Diomede and Glaucus
Found that of both the great grandfather
Had drank some pots of ale together;
So made a friendship, and, to tack it,
Exchang'd each other's buff-skin jacket.
Hector then gets the bus'ness done
The conjuror had sent him on,
Makes Paris fetch his broomshaft down,
And join him at the end o' th' town;
Bestows, ere he renews the strife,
Some crumbs of comfort on his wife.