The Plague of Athens which happened in the Second Year of the Peloponnesian War. First described in Greek, By Thucydides; Then in Latin By Lucretius. Since attempted in English By ... Thomas Lord Bishop of Rochester [i.e. Thomas Sprat] |
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 | The Plague of Athens |  |
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The Plague of ATHENS.
1.
Unhappy Man! by Nature made to sway,And yet is every Creatures prey,
Destroy'd by those that should his power obey.
Of the whole World we call Mankind the Lords,
Flatt'ring our selves with mighty Words;
Of all things we the Monarchs are,
And so we rule, and so we dominner;
All Creatures else about us stand
Like some Prætorian Band,
To guard, to help, and to defend;
Yet they sometimes prove Enemies,
Sometimes against us rise;
Our very Guards rebel, and tyrannize.
Thousand Diseases sent by Fate,
(Unhappy Servants!) on us wait;
A thousand Treacheries within
Are laid weak Life to win,
Huge Troops of Maladies without,
(A grim, a meagre, and a dreadful rout:)
Some formal Sieges make,
And with sure slowness do our Bodies take,
Some with quick violence storm the Town,
And all in a moment down:
Some one peculiar Fort assail,
Some by general Attempts prevail.
Small Herbs, alas, can only us relieve,
And small is the Assistance they can give,
How can the fading Off-spring of the Field
Sure health and succour yied?
What strong and certain remedy?
What firm and lasting Life can ours be?
When that which makes us live doth ev'ry Winter die
2.
Nor is this all, we do not only breedWithin our selves the fatal Seed
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Head, Belly, Stomach, and root of Life the Heart,
Not only have our Autum when we must
Of our own Nature turn to Dust,
When Leaves and Fruit must fall;
But are expos'd to mighty Tempests too,
Which do at once what they would slowly do,
Which throw down Fruit and Tree of Life withal.
From ruin we in vain
Our Bodies by repair maintain,
Bodies compos'd of Stuff,
Mouldring and frail enough;
Yet from without as shell we fear
A dangerous and destructive War.
From Heaven, from Earth, from Sea, from Air.
We like the Roman Empire shoul decay,
And our own Force would melt away
By the intestine Jar
Of Elephants, which on each other prey,
The Cæsars and the Pompeys which within we bear:
Yet are (like that) in danger too
Of foreign Armies, and external Foe,
Sometimes the Gothish and the barbarous rage
Of Plague or Pestilence attends Man's Age
Which neither Force nor Arts Asswage;
Which cannot be avoided or withstood,
But drowns and over-runs with unexpected Flood.
3.
On Ethiopia, and the Southern Sands,The unfrequented Coasts, and parched Lands,
Whither the Sun too kind a heat doth send,
(The Sun, which the worst Neighbour is, and the best Friend)
Hither a mortal influence came,
A fatal and unhappy Flame,
Kindled by Heavens angry Beam.
With dreadful Frowns, the Heavens scattered here
Cruel infectious heats into the Air,
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Threatning at once a general doom,
Lavish'd out all their hate, and meant
In future Ages to be innocent,
Not to disturb the Word for many years to come.
Hold! Heavens hold! why should your sacred Fire,
Which doth to all things Life inspire,
By whose kind Beams you bring
Each year on every thing,
A new and glorious Spring,
Which doth th' Original Seed
Of all things in the Womb of Earth that breed,
With vital heat and quick'ning feed;
Why should you now that here employ,
The Earth, the Air, the Fields, the Cities to annoy?
That which it before reviv'd, why should it now destroy?
4.
Those Africk Desarts strait were double Desarts grown,The Rav'nous Beasts were left alone,
The rav'nous Beasts then first began
To pity their old Enemy Man,
And blam'd the Plague for what they would themselves have done.
Nor staid the cruel evil there,
Nor could be long confin'd unto one Air,
Plagues presently forsake
The Wilderness which they themselves do make:
Away the deadly breaths their Journey take,
Driven by a mighty Wind,
They a new Booty and fresh Forrage find,
The loaded Wind went swiftly on,
And as it past, was heard to sigh and groan.
On Egypt next it seiz'd,
Nor could but by a general Ruin be appeas'd.
Egypt in rage back on the South did look
And wondred thence should come the unhappy stroke
From whence before her fruitfulness she took.
Egypt did now curse and revile
Those very Lands from whence she has her Nile;
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Another Angel's Hand, a second Aaron's Rod.
5.
Then on it goes, and through the sacred LandIts angry Forces did command;
But God did place an Angel there,
Its violence to withstand,
And turn into another Road the putrid Air.
To Tyre it came, and there did all devour.
Though that by Seas might think it self secure:
Nor staid as the great Conquerors did,
Till it had fill'd and stopp'd the Tide,
Which did it from the shore divide,
But past the waters, and did all possss,
And quickly all was Wilderness.
Thence it did Persia over-run,
And all that sacrifice unto the Sun;
In every Limb a dreadful pain they felt,
Tortur'd with secret Coals did melt;
The Persians call'd their Sun in vain,
Their God increas'd the pain.
They look'd up to their God no more
But curse the beams they worshipped before,
And hate the very fire which once they did adore.
6.
Glutted with ruin on the East,She took her wings and down to Athens past;
Just Plague! which dost no parties take,
But Greece, as well as Persia sack.
(Like Frogs and Mice) each other slay;
Thou in thy ravenous Claws took'st both away.
Thither it came and did destroy the Town,
Whilst all his Ships and Soldiers look'd upon;
And now the Asian Plague did more
Than all the Asian Force cou'd do before.
Without the Walls the Spartan Army sate,
The Spartan Army came too late;
For now there was no farther work for Fate.
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An easie and a bootless prey;
They saw the Rampires empty stand,
The Fleet, the Walls, the Forts unmann'd
No need of cruelty or Slaughters now,
The Plague had finish'd what they came to do:
They might now unresisted enter there,
Did they not the very Air,
More than th' Athenians fear.
The Air it self to them was Wall and Bulwarks too.
7.
Unhappy Athens! it is true thou wertThe proudest work of Nature and of Art:
Learning and strength did thee compose,
As Soul and Body us:
But yet thou only thence art made
A noble nobler Prey for Fates t' invade.
Those mighty numbers that within the breath
Do only serve to make a fatter feast for Death.
Death in the most frequented places lives,
Most tribute from the Crowd receives;
And though it bears a sigh, and seems to own
A rustick Life alone,
It loves no Wilderness,
No scatter'd Villages,
But mighty populous Palaces,
The Throng, the Tumult, and the Town;
What strange unheard of Conqueror is this,
Which by the Forces that resist it doth increase!
When other Conquerors are
Oblig'd to make a slower War,
Nay sometimes for themselves may fear,
And must proceed with watchful care.
When thicker Troops of Enemies appear;
This stronger still, and more successful grows,
Down sooner all before it throws,
If greater multitudes of Men do it oppose.
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8.
The Tyrant first the Heaven did subdue,Lately the Athenians (it knew)
Themselves by wooden Walls did save,
And therefore first to them the Infection gave,
Lest they new succour thence receive.
Cruel Pyræus! now thou hast undone,
The Honour thou before hadst won:
Not all thy Merchandize.
Thy Wealth thy Treasuries,
Which from all Coasts thy Fleet supplies,
Can to attone this Crime suffice.
Next o'er the upper Town it spread,
With mad and undiscerned speed,
In every corner, every street,
Without a guide did set its feet,
And too familiar every house did greet,
Unhappy Greece of Greece! great Theseus now
Did thee a mortal injury do,
When first in Walls he did thee close,
When first he did the Cities reduce,
Houses, and Government, and Laws to use.
It had been better if thy People still
Dispersed in some FIeld or Hill,
Though salvage and undisciplin'd did dwell,
Though barbarous untame and rude,
Than by their Numbers thus to be subdu'd;
To be by their own swarms annoy'd,
And to be civiliz'd only to be destroy'd.
9.
Minerva started when she heard the noise,And dying Mens confused voice.
From Heaven in haste she came to see
What was the mighty prodige
Upon the Castle Pinacles she sate,
And dar'd not nearer flie,
Nor midst so many deaths to trust her very Deity.
With pitying look she saw at every gate
Death and Destruction wait;
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And all the immortal Powers above,
But though a Goddess now did pray,
The Heavens refus'd, and turn'd their Ear away.
She brought her Olive and her Shield,
Neither of these alass! assistance yield
She lookt upon Medusa's Face
Was angry that she was
Her self of an immortal Race,
Was angry that her Gorgon's Head
Could not strike her as well as others dead;
She sate and wept a while, and then away she fled.
10.
Now death began her Sword to whet,Not all the Cyclops sweat,
Nor Vulcan's mighty Anvils could prepare
Weapons enough for her,
No Weapon large enough but all the Air;
Men felt the heat within 'em rage,
And hop'd the Air did it asswage,
Call'd for its help but th' Air did them deceive,
And aggravate the ills it should relieve.
The Air no more was Vital now,
But did a mortal Poison grow;
The Lungs which us' to fan the Heart,
Only now serv'd to fire each part,
What should refresh, increas'd the smart.
And now their very breath,
The chiefest sign of life, turn'd the cause of death.
11.
Upon the Head first the disease,As a bold Conqueror doth seize,
Begins with Man's Metropolis,
Secur'd the Capitol, and then it knew
It cou'd at pleasure weaker parts subdue.
Blood started through each eye;
The redness of that Skie,
Foretold a Tempest nigh.
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With clotted filth and gore;
As doth a Lion's, when some innocent prey
He hath devour'd and brought away:
Hoarseness and sores the throat did fill,
And stopt the Passages of speech and life;
No room was left for groans or grief;
Too cruel and imperious ill!
Which not content to kill,
With Tyrannous and dreadful pain,
Dost take from Men the very power to complain.
12.
Then down it went into the very breast,There all the seats and shops of life possess'd,
Such noisom smells from thence did come,
As if the Stomach were a Tomb;
No food would there abide,
Or if it did, turn'd to the Enemies side,
The very Meat new Poysons to the Plague supply'd;
Next to the Hear the fires came,
The Heart did wonder what usurping flame,
What unknown furnace shou'd
On its more natural heat intrude,
Stait call'd its Spirits up but found too well,
It was too late now to rebel,
The tainted Blood its course began,
And carried death where e'er it ran,
That which before was Nature's noblest Art,
The Circulation from the Heart,
Was most destructful now,
And nature speedier did undo,
For that the sooner did impart
The Poyson and the smart,
The infectious Blood to every distant part.
13.
The Belly felt at last its Share,And all the subtile Labyrints there
Of winding Bowels did new Monsters bear.
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And oftner kill'd because it death lo long delay'd.
But if through strength and heat of Age,
The Body overcame its rage,
The Plague departed as Devil doth,
When driven by Prayers away he goeth.
If Prayers and Heaven do him controul,
And if it cannot have the Soul,
Himself out of the roof or window throws,
And will not all his labour lose.
But takes away with him par of the House:
So here the vanquish'd evil took from them
Who conquer'd it some part, some Limb;
Some lost the use of Hands or Eyes,
Some Arms, some Legs, some Thighs,
Some all their lives before forgot,
Their minds were but one darker blot;
Those various Pictures in the Head,
And all the numerous shapes were fled;
And now the ransack'd memory
Languish'd in nacked poverty,
Had lost its mighty treasury;
They pass'd the Lethe Lake, although they did not die.
14.
Whatever lesser Maladies Men had,They all gave place and vanished;
Those pretty Tyrants fled,
And at this mighty Conqueror shrunk their head.
Fevers, Agues, Palsies, Stone,
Gout, Cholick and Consumption,
And all the milder Generation,
By which Mankind is by degrees undone,
Quickly were rooted out and gone;
Men saw themselves freed from the pain,
Rejoyc'd, but all, alas, in vain.
'Twas an unhappy Remedy,
Which cur'd 'em that they might both worse and sooner die.
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15.
Physicians now could not prevail,They the first spoils to the proud Victor fall,
Nor would the Plague their knowledge trust,
But fear'd their skill, and therefore slew them first:
So Tyrants when they would confirm their yoke,
First make the chiefest Men to feel the stroke
The chiefest and the wisest heads lest they
Should soonest disobey,
Should first rebel, and others learn from them the way.
No aid of herbs or juices power.
None of Apollo's art could cure,
But help'd the Plague the speedier to devour.
Physick it self was a disease,
Physick the fatal Tortures did increase,
Prescriptions did the pains renew,
And Æsculapius to the Sick did come,
As afterwards to Rome,
In form of Serpent, brought new Poisons with him too.
16.
The Streams did wonder that so soonAs they were from their native Mountains gone,
They saw themselves drunk up, and fear
Another Xerxe's Army near.
Some cast into the Pit the Urn,
And drink it dry at its return:
Again they drew, again they drank
At first the coolness of the stream did thank,
But strait the more were scorch'd the more did burn;
And drunk with water in their drinking sank:
That Urn which now to quench their thirst they use,
Shortly their ashes shall inclose.
Others into the Chrystal Brook,
With faint and wondring eyes did look,
Saw what a ghastly shape themselves had took,
Away they would have fled, but them their Legs forsook.
Some snatc'd the Waters up,
Their hands, their mouths the cup;
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And only added to the burning store.
So have I seen on lime cold water thrown,
Strait all was to a ferment grown,
And hidden Seeds of Fire together run:
The heap was calm and temperate before,
Such as the Finger could indure;
But when the moistures it provoke,
Did rage, did swell, did smoke,
Did move and flame, and burn, and strait to ashes broke.
17.
So strong the heat, so strong the torments were,They like some mighty burthen bear
The lightest covering of Air.
All Sexes and all Ages do invade
The bounds which Nature laid,
The Laws of modesty which Nature made,
The Virgins blush not, yet uncloath'd appear,
Undress'd do run about yet never fear.
The Pain and the Disease did now
Unwillingly reduce men to
That nakedness once more,
Which perfect Health and Innocence caus'd before,
No sleep, no peace, no rest,
Their wandring and affrighted minds possess'd;
Upon their Souls and Eyes,
Hell and eternal horror lies,
Unusual Shapes and Images,
Dark Pictures and Resemblances
Of things to come, and of the World below,
O'er their distemper'd fancies go:
Sometimes they curse, sometimes they pray unto
The Gods above, the Gods beneath;
Sometimes they cruelties, and fury breath,
Not sleep, but waking now was sister unto death.
18.
Scatter'd in Field the Bodies lay,The Earth call'd to the Fowls to take their flesh away.
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Nor would their Food with their own Ruin buy
But at full meals they hunger, pine and die,
The Vultures afar off did see the Feast,
Rejoyc'd, and call'd their Friends to taste,
They rallied up their Troops in haste;
Along came mighty droves,
Forsook their young ones, and their groves,
Each one his native Mountain and his Nest;
They come, but all their Carcasses abhor,
And now avoid the dead Men more
Than weaker Birds did living Men before.
But if some bolder Fowls the flesh assay,
They were destroy'd by their own prey.
The Dog no longer bark'd at coming Guest,
Repents its being a domestick Beast,
Did to the Woods and Mountains haste
The very Owls at Athens are
But seldom seen and rare,
The Owlds depart in open day,
Rather than infected I'vy more to stay.
19.
Mountains of Bones and Carcasses,The Streets the Market-place possess,
Threatning to raise a new Acropolis.
Here lies a Mother and her Child,
The Infant suck'd as yet and smil'd,
But streight by its own food was kill'd.
There Parents hugg'd their Children last,
Here parting Lovers last embrac'd,
But yet not parting neither,
They both expir'd and went away together.
Here Prisoners in the Dungeon die,
And gain a two-fold Liberty,
They meet and thank their pains
Which them from double chains
Of Body and of Iron free.
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Which from corrupted Bodies went,
Quickly return the death they did receive,
And death to others give;
Themselves now dead the Air pollute the more,
For which they others curs'd before,
Their Bodies kill all that come near,
And even after Death they all are Murtherers here.
20.
The Friend doth hear his Friends last Cries.Parteth his grief for him, and dies,
Lives not enough to close his Eyes,
The Father at his death
Speaks his Son Heir with an infectious Breath;
In the same Hour the Son doth take
His Father's Will, and his own make.
The Servant need not here be slain,
To serve his Master in the other World again;
They languishing together lie,
Their Souls away together fly;
The Husband gaspeth and his Wife lies by,
It must be her turn next to die,
The Husband and the Wife
Too truly now are one, and live one life,
That Couple which the Gods did entertain,
Had made their Prayer here in vain;
No Fates in Death couln then divide,
They must without their Privilege together both have dy'd.
21.
There was no number now of death,The Sisters scarce stood still themselves to breath:
The Sisters now quite wearied
In cutting single Thread,
Began at once to part whole Looms,
One stroke did give whole Houses dooms;
Now dy'd the frosty hairs,
The aged and decripid years,
They fell and only begg'd of Fate,
Some few Months more, but 'twas alas too late.
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A Conquest so degenerate,
Cut off the young and lusty too;
The young were reckoning o'er
What happy days, what Joys they had in store;
But Fate e'er they had finish'd their Account, them slew
The wretched Usurer died,
And had no time to tell where he his Treasures hid:
The Merchant did behold
His Ships return with Spice and Gold;
He saw't and turn'd aside his head
Nor thank'd the Gods, but fell amidst his Riches dead.
22.
The Meetings and Assemblies cease, no moreThe People throng about the Orator,
No course of Justice did appear,
No noise of Lawyers fill'd the Ear,
The Senate cast away
The Robe of Honour, and obey
Deaths more resistless sway,
Whilst that with Dictatorian power
Doth all the great and lesser Officers devour.
No Magistrates did walk about;
No Purple aw'd the Rout,
The Common People too
A Purple of their own did shew;
And all their Bodies o'er
The ruling Colours bore
No Judge, no Legislatours sit
Since this new Draco came,
And harsher Laws did frame,
Laws that like his in Blood are writ.
The Benches and the pleading-place they leave,
About the Streets they run and rave:
The madness which great Solon did of late
But counterfeit
For the Advantage of the State,
Now his Successors do too truly imitate,
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23.
Up starts the Soldier from his bed,He though Death's Servant is not freed
Death him cashier'd, cause now his help she did not need.
He that ne'er knew before to yield,
Or to give back or leave the Field,
Would fain now from himself have fled.
He snatch'd his Sword now rusted o'er,
Dreadful and sparkling now no more,
And thus in open streets did roar:
How have I, Death, so ill deserv'd of thee,
That now thy self thou shouldst revenge on me?
Have I so many Lives on thee bestow'd?
Have I the Earth so often dy'd in Blood?
Have I to flatter thee so many slain?
And must I now thy Prey remain?
Let me at least, if I must die,
Meet in the Field some gallant Enemy.
Send Gods the Persian Troop again.
No, they're a base and degenerate train;
They by our Women may be slain,
Give me great Heavens, some manful Foes,
Let me my Death amidst some valiant Grecians chuse,
Let me survive to die at Syracuse,
Where my dear Country shall her Glory lose
For you, great Gods! into my dying mind infuse.
What miseries, what doom
Must on my Athens shortly come:
My throughts inspir'd presage
Slaughters and Battels to the coming Age;
Oh might I die upon that glorious Stage:
Oh that! but then he grasp'd his Sword, and Death concludes his Rage.
24.
Draw back, draw back thy Sword, O Fate!Lest thou repent when 'tis too late,
Lest by thy making now so great a waste,
By spending all Mankind upon one feast,
Thou Starve thy self at last:
What Men wilt thou reserve in store,
Whom in the time to come thou may'st devour,
When thou shalt have destroyed all before?
But if thou wilt not yet give o'er,
If yet thy greedy Stomach calls for more,
If more remain whom thou must kill,
And if thy Jaws are craving still,
Carry thy fury to the Sythian Coasts,
The Northern Wilderness, and eternal Frosts!
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Where Arts and Laws are strangers yet;
Where thou mayst kill, and yet the loss will not be great,
There Rage, there spread, and there infect the Air,
Murther whole Towns and Families there,
Thy worst against those Savage Nations dare,
Those whom Mankind can spare
Those whom Mankind it self doth fear;
Amidst that dreadful Night and fatal Cold,
There thou mayst walk unseen and bold,
There let thy Flames thy Empire hold.
Unto the farthest Seas, and Natures ends,
Where never Summers Sun its beams extends,
Carry thy Plagues, thy Pains, thy Hearts,
Thy raging Fires, thy torturing Sweats,
Where never ray or heat did come,
They will rejoyce at such a doom.
They'll bless thy pestilential Fire,
Though they by it expire,
They'll thank the very flames with which they do consume.
25.
Then if that Banquet will not thee suffice,Seek out new Lands where thou mayst tyrannize;
Search every Forrest, every Hill,
And all that in the hollow Mountains dwell;
Those wild and untame Troops devour,
Thereby thou wilt the rest of Men secure,
And that the rest of Men will thank thee for.
Let all those Humane Beasts be slain,
Till scarce their memory remain;
Thy self with that Ignoble slaughter fill,
'Twill be permitted thee that blood to spill,
Measure the ruder World throughout,
March all the Ocean shores about,
Only pass by and spare the British Isle.
Go on, and (what Columbus once shall do,
When days and time unto their ripeness grow)
Find out new Lands, and unknown Countries too.
Attempt those Lands which yet are hid
From all Mortality beside:
There thou mayst steal a Victory,
And none of this World hear the cry
Of those that by thy Wounds shall die;
No Greek shall know thy cruelty,
An tell it to Posterity,
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Destroy with unrelenting Hands;
Go, and the Spaniards Sword prevent;
Go, make the Spaniard innocent;
Go, and root out all Mankind there,
That when the Europian Armies shall appear,
Their Sin may be the less,
They may find all a Wilderness,
And without blood the gold and silver there possess.
26.
Nor is this all which we thee grant;Rather than thou shouldst full employment want,
We do permit in Greece thy Kingdom plant.
Ransack Lycurgus Streets throughout,
They've no defence of Walls to keep thee out.
On wanton and proud Corinth seize,
Not let her double waves thy flames appease.
Let Cyprus feel more fires than those of Love:
Let Delos which at first did give the Sun
See unknown flames in her begun,
Now let her wish she might unconstant move,
And from her place might truly prove:
Let Lemnos all thy anger feel,
And think that a new Vulcan fell,
And brought with him new Anvils, and new Hell.
Nay, at Athens too we give thee up,
All that thou find'st in Field, or Camp, or Shop,
Make havock there without controul
Of every ignorant and common Soul.
But then, kind Plague, thy Conquests stop;
Let Arts, and let the Learned there escape,
Upon Minerva's self commit no Rape;
Touch not the sacred throng,
And let Apollo's Priests be (like him) young,
Let him be healthful too, and strong.
But ah! too ravenous Plague, whilst I
Strive to keep off the misery,
The Learned too as fast as others round me die;
They from Corruption are not free,
Are mortal though they give an immortality.
27.
They turn'd their Authors o'er to tryWhat help, what Cure, what remedy
All Nature's stores against this Plage supply,
And though besids they shun'd it every where,
They searched it in their Books, and fain would meet it there.
They turn'd the Records of the ancient times;
And chiefly those that were made famous by their Crimes;
23
But found not the disease nor cure.
Nature, alas! was now surpriz'd
And all her Forces seiz'd,
Before she was how to resist advis'd:
So when the Elephants did first affright
The Romans with unusual fight,
They many Battels lose,
Before they knew their Foes,
Before they understood such dreadful Troops t'oppose.
28.
Now ev'ry different Sect agreesAgainst their common adversary the disease,
And all their little wranglings cease;
The Pythagoreans from their Precepts swerve,
No more their silence they observe,
Out of their Schools they run,
Lament, and cry, and groan;
They now desir'd their Metempsycosis;
Not only to dispute, but wish
That they might turn to beasts, or Fowls, or Fish.
If the Platonicks had been here,
They would have curs'd their Masters year,
When all things shall be as they were,
When they again the same Disease should bear:
And all the Philosophers would now,
What the great Stagyrite shall do,
Themselves into the waters headlong throw.
29.
The Stoick felt the deadly stroke,At first assault their Courage was not broke,
They call'd to all the Cobweb aid,
Of Rules and Precepts which in store they had;
They bid their Hearts stand out,
Bid them be calm and stout,
But all the strength of Precepts will not do't.
They cann't the storms of Passions now assuage.
As common Men are angry, grieve and rage.
The Gods are call'd upon in vain,
The Gods gave no release unto their pain,
The Gods to fear even for themselves began.
For now the sick unto the Temples came,
And brought more than an holy flame,
There at the Altars made their Prayer,
They sacrific'd and died there,
A Sacrifice not seen before;
That Heaven, only us'd unto the gore
24
Loaded with Priests see its own Altars too.
The Woods gave fun'ral Piles no more.
The Dead the very fire devour,
And that Almighty Conqueror over-power.
The noble and the common dust
Into each others Graves are Thrust,
No place is sacred, and no Tomb,
'Tis now a privilege to consume;
Their Ashes no distinction had;
Too truly all by Death are equal made.
The Ghosts of those great Heroes that had fled
From Athens long since banished,
Now o'er the City hover'd;
Their Anger yielded to their Love,
They left th' immortal Joys above,
So much their Athens danger did them move,
They came to pity and to aid,
But now, alas! were quite dismay'd,
When they beheld the Marbles open lay'd,
And poor Mens Bones the noble Urns invade:
Back to the blessed seats they went,
And now did thank their Banishment,
By which they were to die in foreign Countries sent.
31.
But what great Gods was worst of all,Hell forth its Magazines of Lusts did call,
Nor would it be content
With the thick Troos of Souls were thither sent;
Into the upper World it went.
Such guilt, such wickedness,
Such irreligion did increase,
That the few good which did survive,
Were angry with the Plague for suffering them to live;
More for the living than the dead did grieve,
Some robb'd the very dead,
Though sure to be infected e'er they fled,
Though in the very Air sure to be punished.
Some nor the Shrines nor the Temples spar'd
Nor Gods nor Heavens fear'd
Though such Example of their Power appear'd.
Vertue was now esteem'd and empty name,
And honesty the foolish voice of Fame;
For having past those tort'ring flames before,
They thought the punishment already o'er,
Thought Heaven no worse torments had in store;
Here having felt one Hell, the thought there was no more.
FINIS.
| The Plague of Athens | |