Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/274

146 the journey, he was suddenly diverted for a while by the rumour of the Olympic games, which were at that time to be celebrated. Thither he steered his course, full of the memory of Herodotus, and others who had successfully recited in that large assembly; and pleased to imagine he should alter all Greece in their notions of wit before he left it.

Upon his arrival, he found the field in its preparation for diversion. The chariots stood for the race, carved and gilded, the horses were led in costly trappings, some practised to wrestle, some to dart the spear, (or whatever they designed to engage at) in a kind of flourish beforehand: others were looking on, to amuse themselves; and all gaily dressed, according to the custom of those places. Through these did Zoilus move forward, bald-headed, bearded to the middle, in a long sad-coloured vestment, and inflexibly stretching forth his hands filled with volumes rolled up to a vast thickness: a figure most venerably slovenly! able to demand attention upon account of its oddness. And indeed, he had no sooner fixed himself upon an eminence, but a crowd flocked about him to know what he intended. Then the critic casting his eyes on the ring, opened his volume slowly, as considering with what part he might most properly entertain his audience. It happened, that the games at Patroclus's obsequies came first into his thought; whether it was that he judged it suitable to the place, or knew that he had fallen as well upon the games themselves, as upon Homer for