[286] Ille & nefasto te posuit die, &c.
a few Lines after he adds;
Quam pene furvæ regna Proserpinæ, Et judicantem vidimus Æacum, Sedesque descriptas piorum; & Æoliis fidibus querentem
Sappho puellis de popularibus; Et Te sonantem plenius aureo, Alcæe, plectro, dura navis, Dura fugæ mala, dura belli?
How near was I to Realms of Night? Where Minos does in Judgment sit; Where pious Shades walk o'er the Plains; Where Proserpine and Darkness reigns:
Where Sappho's warbling Measures tell By what disastrous Cause she fell: Alcæus, in sublimer Strains, Of Toils by Sea and Land complains. Oldsw.
He then expatiates into their Praises, and so concludes this elegant Ode with them. It is, indeed, just Matter of Complaint, that we have only some Fragments of both these Poets remaining, to whom we owe the Invention of the two chief Kinds of Lyric Poetry. In this loose Way of Writing, the Poet just touches upon the Subject at first propos'd, and strait diverts to another:
[287] ——Cætera fluminis Ritu feruntur, nunc medio alveo Cum pace delabentis Etruscum In mare, nunc lapides adesos Stirpesque raptas, & pecus, & domos, Volventis una, non sine montium Clamore, vicinæque silvæ; Cum fera diluvies quietos Irritat amnes.
All worldly Things, like Waters, flow, Sometimes too high, sometimes too low: Sometimes the even Current gently glides Down to the Deep, and oft with mighty Roar Bears Rocks upon its swelling Tides, Sweeps Herds and Houses from the Shore, And Trunks of Trees; the Rivers quit their Bounds, Whilst ev'ry lofty Hill, and neighb'ring Wood resounds. Oldsworth.
Nothing can describe the unbounded Nature of this Kind of Ode better than those Lines of Horace, which, at the same Time, give us a lively Instance of it. We may add, to the same Purpose, his Description of the Theban Poet;