Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/270

118
 * Ye home-born Deities, of Mortal Birth!

Thou Father Romulus, and Mother Earth, Goddess unmov'd! whose Guardian Arms extend O'er Thuscan Tiber's Course, and Roman Tow'rs defend; With youthful Cæsar your joint Pow'rs ingage, Nor hinder him to save the sinking Age. O! let the Blood, already spilt, atone For the past Crimes of curst Laomedon! Heav'n wants thee there, and long the Gods, we know, Have grudg'd thee, Cæsar, to the World below. Where Fraud and Rapine, Right and Wrong confound; Where impious Arms from ev'ry part resound, And monstrous Crimes in ev'ry Shape are crown'd. The peaceful Peasant to the Wars is prest; The Fields lye fallow in inglorious Rest. The Plain no Pasture to the Flock affords, The crooked Scythes are streightned into Swords: And there Euphrates her soft Off-spring Arms, And here the Rhine rebellows with Alarms: The neighb'ring Cities range on sev'ral sides, Perfidious Mars long plighted Leagues divides, And o'er the wasted World in Triumph rides. So four fierce Coursers starting to the Race, Scow'r thro' the Plain, and lengthen ev'ry Pace: Nor Reigns, nor Curbs, nor threat'ning Cries they fear, But force along the trembling Charioteer.