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Verse 1. Now pleasing Sleep, &c.] Aristotle tells us in the twenty sixth Chapter of his Art of Poetry, that this Place had been objected to by some Criticks in those Times. They thought it gave a very ill Idea of the military Discipline of the Greeks, to represent a whole Army unguarded, and all the Leaders asleep: They also pretended it was ridiculous to describe all the Gods sleeping besides Jupiter. To both these Aristotle answers, that nothing is more usual or allowable than that Figure which puts All for the greater Part. One may add with respect to the latter Criticism, that nothing could give a better Image of the Superiority of Jupiter to the other Gods (or of the supreme Being to all second Causes) than the Vigilancy here ascrib'd to him, over all Things Divine and Human.

Verse 9. Fly hence, deluding Dream.] It appears from Aristotle, Poet. cap. 26. that Homer was accus'd of Impiety, for making Jupiter the Author of a Lye in this Passage. It seems there were anciently these Words in his Speech to the Dream; Διδομεν δε οι ευχος αρεσθαι, Let us give him great Glory. (Instead of which we have in the present Copies, Τρωεσσι δε κηδε' εφηπται) but Hippias found a way to bring off Homer, only by placing the Accent on the last Syllable but one, Διδομεν, for Διδομεναι, the Infinitive for the Imperative: which amounts to no more than that he bade the Dream to Promise him great Glory. But Macrobius de somnio Scip. l. 1. c. 7. takes off this Imputation entirely, and will not allow there was any Lye in the Case. “Agamemnon (says he) was order'd by the Dream to lead out All the Forces of the Greeks (Πανσυδιη is the word) and promis'd the Victory on that Condition: Now Achilles and his Forces not being summon'd to the Assembly with the rest, that Neglect absolv'd Jupiter from his Promise.” This Remark Madam Dacier has inserted without mentioning its Author. Mr. Dacier takes notice of a Passage in the Scripture exactly parallel to this, where God is represented making use of the Malignity of his Creatures to accomplish his Judgments. 'Tis in 2 Chron.. ch. 18. V. 19, 20, 21. And the Lord said, Who will persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And there came forth a Spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a bying Spirit in the Mouth of all his Prophets, And he said, Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also: Go forth and do so. Vide Dacier upon Aristotle, cap. 26.

Verse 20. Descends and hovers o'er Atrides' Head.] The whole Action of the Dream is beautifully natural, and agreeable to Philosophy. It perches on his Head, to intimate that Part to be the Seat of the Soul: It is circumfused about him, to express that total Possession of the Senses which Fancy has during our Sleeps. It takes the Figure of the Person who was dearest to Agamemnon; as whatever we think of most when awake, is the common Object of our Dreams. And just at the Instant of its vanishing, it leaves such an Impression that the Voice seems still to sound in his Ear. No Description can be more exact or lively. Eustathius, Dacier.

Verse 33. Draw forth th'embattel'd Train, &c.] The Dream here repeats the Message of Jupiter in the same Terms that he receiv'd it. It is no less than the Father of Gods and Men who gives the Order, and to alter a word were Presumption. Homer constantly makes his Envoys observe this Practice as a Mark of Decency and respect. Madam Dacier and others have applauded this in general, and ask'd by what Authority an Embassador could alter the Terms of his Commission, since he is not greater or wiser than the Person who gave the Charge? But this is not always the Case in our Author, who not only makes use of this Conduct with respect to the Orders of a higher Power, but in regard to Equals also; as when one Goddess desires another to represent such an Affair, and she immediately takes the Words from her Mouth and repeats them, of which we have an Instance in this Book. Some Objection too may be rais'd to this manner, when Commissions are given in the utmost haste (in a Battel or the like) upon sudden Emergencies; where it seems not very natural to suppose a Man has time to get so many Words by heart as he is made to repeat exactly. In the present Instance, the Repetition is certainly graceful, tho' Zenodotus thought it not so the third time, when Agamemnon tells his Dream to the Council. I do not pretend to decide upon the Point: For tho' the Reverence of the Repetition seem'd less needful in that Place than when it was deliver'd immediately from Jupiter; yet (as Eustathius observes) it was necessary for the Assembly to know the Circumstances of this Dream, that the Truth of the Relation might be unsuspected.

Verse 93. Now valiant Chiefs, &c.] The best Commentary extant upon the first Part of this Book is in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who has given us an admirable Explication of this whole Conduct of Agamemnon in his second Treatise Περι εσχηματισμενον. He says, “This Prince had nothing so much at Heart as to draw the Greeks to a Battel, yet knew not how to proceed without Achilles, who had just retir'd from the Army; and was apprehensive that the Greeks who were displeas'd at the Departure of Achilles, might refuse Obedience to his Orders, should he absolutely command it. In this Circumstance he proposes to the Princes in Council to make a Tryal of arming the Græcians, and offers an Expedient himself; which was that he should sound their Dispositions by exhorting him to set sail for Greece, but that then the other Princes should be ready to dissuade and detain them. If any object to this Stratagem that Agamemnon's whole Scheme would be ruin'd if the Army should take him at his word (which was very probable) it is to be answer'd, that his Design lay deeper than they imagine, nor did he depend upon his Speech only for detaining them. He had some Cause to fear the Greeks had a Pique against him which they had conceal'd, and whatever it was, he judg'd it absolutely necessary to know it before he proceeded to a Battel. He therefore furnishes them with an Occasion to manifest it, and at the same time provides against any ill Effects it might have by his secret Orders to the Princes. It succeeds accordingly, and when the Troops are running to embark, they are stop'd by Ulysses and Nestor.—One may farther observe that this whole Stratagem is concerted in Nestor's Ship, as one whose Wisdom and Secrecy was most confided in. The Story of the Vision's appearing in his Shape, could not but engage him in some degree: It look'd as if Jupiter himself added Weight to his Counsels by making use of that venerable Appearance, and knew this to be the most powerful Method of recommending them to Agamemnon. It was therefore but natural for Nestor to second the Motion of the King, and by the help of his Authority it prevail'd on the other Princes.

Verse 111. As from some rocky Cleft.] This is the first Simile in Homer, and we may observe in general that he excels all Mankind in the Number, Variety, and Beauty of his Comparisons. There are scarce any in Virgil which are not translated from him, and therefore when he succeeds best in them he is to be commended but as an Improver. Scaliger seems not to have thought of this when he compares the Similes of these two Authors (as indeed they are the Places most obvious to Comparison.) The present Passage is an Instance of it, to which he opposes the following Verses in the first Æneid.

This he very much prefers to Homer's, and in particular extols the Harmony and Sweetness of the Versification above that of our Author; against which Censure we need only appeal to the Ears of the Reader.

But Scaliger was unlucky in his Choice of this particular Comparison: There is a very fine one in the sixth Æneid, V. 707. that better agrees with Homer's: And nothing is more evident than that the design of these two is very different: Homer intended to describe the Multitude of Greeks pouring out of the Ships, Virgil the Diligence and Labour of the Builders at Carthage. And Macrobius who observes this difference Sat. l. 5. c. 11. should also have found, that therefore the Similes ought not to be compar'd together. The Beauty of Homer's is not inferior to Virgil's, if we consider with what Exactness it answers to its end. It consists of three Particulars; the vast Number of the Troops is exprest in the Swarms, their tumultuous manner of issuing out of the Ships, and the perpetual Egression which seem'd without end, are imaged in the Bees pouring out of the Rock; and lastly their Dispersion over all the Shore, in their descending on the Flowers in the Vales. Spondanus was therefore mistaken when he thought the whole Application of this Comparison lay in the single word Ιλαδον, Catervatim, as Chapman has justly observ'd.

Verse 121. Fame flies before.] This assembling of the Army is full of Beauties: The lively Description of their overspreading the Field, the noble Boldness of the Figure when Fame is represented in Person shining at their Head, the universal Tumult succeeded by a solemn Silence; and lastly the graceful rising of Agamemnon, all contribute to cast a Majesty on this Part. In the Passage of the Sceptre, Homer has found an artful and poetical manner of acquainting us with the high Descent of Agamemnon, and celebrating the hereditary Right of his Family; as well as finely hinted the Original of his Power to be deriv'd from Heaven, in saying the Sceptre was first the Gift of Jupiter. It is with reference to this that in the Line where he first mentions it, he calls it Αφθιτον αιει, and accordingly it is translated in that Place.

Verse 138. And artful thus pronounc'd the Speech design'd.] The Remarks of Dionysius upon this Speech I shall give the Reader altogether, tho' they lie scatter'd in his two Discourses περι εσχηματισμενον, the second of which is in a great Degree but a Repetition of the Precepts and Examples of the first. This happen'd, I believe, from his having compos'd them at distinct Times and upon different Occasions.

“It is an exquisite Piece of Art, when you seem to aim at persuading one thing, and at the same time inforce the contrary. This kind of Rhetorick is of great use in all Occasions of Danger, and is what Homer has afforded a most powerful Example of in the Oration of Agamemnon. 'Tis a Method perfectly wonderful, and even carries in it an Appearance of Absurdity; for all that we generally esteem the Faults of Oratory, by this means become the Virtues of it. Nothing is look'd upon as a greater Error in a Rhetorician than to alledge such Arguments as either are easily answer'd, or may be retorted upon himself, the former is a weak Part, the latter a dangerous one; and Agamemnon here designedly deals in both. For it is plain that if a Man must not use weak Arguments, or such as may make against him, when he intends to persuade the Thing he says; then on the other side, when he does not intend it; he must observe the contrary Proceeding, and make what are the Faults of Oratory in general, the Excellencies of that Oration in particular, or otherwise he will contradict his own Intention and persuade the contrary to what he means. Agamemnon begins with an Argument easily answer'd, by telling them that Jupiter had promis'd to crown their Arms with Victory. For if Jupiter had promis'd this, it was a reason for the Stay in the Camp. But now (says he) Jove has deceiv'd us, and we must return with Ignominy. This is another of the same kind, for it shews what a Disgrace it is to return. What follows is of the second sort and may be turn'd against him. Jove will have it so: For which they have only Agamemnon's Word, but Jove's own Promise for the contrary. That God has overthrown many Cities, and will yet overturn many others. This was a strong Reason to stay, and put their Confidence in him. It is shameful to have it told to all Posterity that so many thousand Greeks, after a War of so long Continuance, at last return'd home baffled and unsuccessful. All this might have been said by a profest Adversary to the Cause he pleads, and indeed is the same thing Ulysses says elsewhere in Reproach of their Flight. The Conclusion evidently shews the Intent of the Speaker. Haste then, let us fly; φουγωμεν, the Word which of all others was most likely to prevail upon them to stay; the most open Term of Disgrace he could possibly have us'd: 'Tis the same which Juno makes use of to Minerva, Minerva to Ulysses, and Ulysses again to the Troops, to dissuade their Return; the same which Agamemnon himself had used to insult Achilles, and which Homer never employs but with the Mark of Cowardice and Infamy.

The same Author farther observes, “That this whole Oration has the Air of being spoken in a Passion. It begins with a Stroke of the greatest Rashness and Impatience. Jupiter has been unjust, Heaven has deceiv'd us. This renders all he shall say of the less Authority, at the same time that it conceals his own Artifice; for his Anger seems to account for the Incongruities he utters.” I could not suppress so fine a Remark, tho' it falls out of the Order of those which precede it.

Before I leave this Article, I must take notice that this Speech of Agamemnon is again put into his Mouth in the ninth Iliad, and (according to Dionysius) for the same Purpose, to detain the Army at the Siege after a Defeat; tho' it seems unartful to put the same Trick twice upon the Greeks by the same Person, and in the same Words too. We may indeed suppose the first Feint to have remain'd undiscover'd, but at best it is a Management in the Poet not very entertaining to the Readers.

Verse 155. So small their Number, &c.] This Part has a low Air in Comparison with the rest of the Speech. Scaliger calls it Tabernariam Orationem: But it is well observ'd by Madam Dacier, that the Image Agamemnon here gives of the Trojans, does not only render their Numbers contemptible in Comparison of the Greeks, but their Persons too. For it makes them appear but as a few vile Slaves fit only to serve them with Wine: To which we may add that it affords a Prospect to his Soldiers of their future State and Triumph after the Conquest of their Enemies.

This Passage gives me occasion to animadvert upon a Computation of the Number of the Trojans, which the learned Angelus Politian has offer'd at in his Preface to Homer. He thinks they were fifty thousand without the Auxiliaries, from the Conclusion of the eighth Iliad, where it is said there were a thousand funeral fires of Trojans, and fifty Men attending each of them. But that the Auxiliaries are to be admitted into that Number appears plainly from this Place: Agamemnon expresly distinguishes the native Trojans from the Aids, and reckons but one to ten Græcians, at which Estimate there could not be above ten thousand Trojans.

Verse 163.

] This, and some other Passages, are here translated correspondent to the general Air and Sense of this Speech, rather than just to the Letter. The telling them in this Place how much their Shipping was decay'd, was a Hint of their Danger in returning, as Madam Dacier has remark'd.

Verse 175. So roll the Billows, &c.] One may take notice that Homer in these two Similitudes has judiciously made choice of the two most wavering and inconstant Things in Nature, to compare with the Multitude; the Waves, and Ears of Corn. The first alludes to the Noise and Tumult of the People, in the breaking and rolling of the Billows; the second to their taking the same Course, like Corn bending one way; and both to the Easiness with which they are mov'd by every Breath.

Verse 243. To one sole Monarch.] Those Persons are under a Mistake who would make this Sentence a Praise of Absolute Monarchy. Homer speaks it only with regard to a General of an Army during the time of his Commission. Nor is Agamemnon styl'd King of Kings in any other Sense, than as the rest of the Princes had given him the supreme Authority over them in the Siege. Aristotle defines a King, Στρατηγος γαρ ην δη δικαστης ο βασιλευς, και των προς Θεους Κυριος; Leader of the War, Judge of Controversies, and President of the Ceremonies of the Gods. That he had the principal Care of religious Rites appears from many Places in Homer; and that his Power was no where absolute but in War: for we find Agamemnon insulted in the Council, but in the Army threatning Deserters with Death. He was under an Obligation to preserve the Privileges of his Country, pursuant to which Kings are called by our Author Δικασπολους, and Θεμιστοπολους, the Dispensers or Managers of Justice. And Dionysius of Halicarnassus acquaints us, that the old Græcian Kings, whether Hereditary or Elective, had a Council of their chief Men, as Homer and the most ancient Poets testify; nor was it (he adds) in those Times as in ours, when Kings have a full Liberty to do whatever they please. Dion. Hal. lib. 2. Hist.

Verse 255. Thersites only.] The Ancients have ascrib'd to Homer the first Sketch of Satyric or Comic Poetry, of which sort was his Poem call'd Margites, as Aristotle reports. Tho' that Piece be lost, this Character of Thersites may give us a Taste of his Vein in that kind. But whether ludicrous Descriptions ought to have Place in the Epic Poem, has been justly question'd: Neither Virgil nor any of the most approv'd Ancients have thought fit to admit them into their Compositions of that Nature; nor any of the best Moderns except Milton, whose Fondness for Homer might be the reason of it. However this is in its kind a very masterly Part, and our Author has shewn great Judgment in the Particulars he has chosen to compose the Picture of a pernicious Creature of Wit; the chief of which are a Desire of promoting Laughter at any rate, and a Contempt of his Superiors. And he sums up the whole very strongly, by saying that Thersites hated Achilles and Ulysses; in which, as Plutarch has remark'd in his Treatise of Envy and Hatred, he makes it the utmost Completion of an ill Character to bear a Malevolence to the best Men. What is farther observable is, that Thersites is never heard of after this his first Appearance: Such a scandalous Character is to be taken no more notice of, than just to shew that 'tis despised. Homer has observ'd the same Conduct with regard to the most deform'd and most beautiful Person of his Poem: For Nireus is thus mention'd once and no more throughout the Iliad. He places a worthless Beauty and an ill-natur'd Wit upon the same Foot, and shews that the Gifts of the Body without those of the Mind are not more despicable, than those of the Mind itself without Virtue.

Verse 275. Amidst the Glories.] 'Tis remark'd by Dionysius Halicar. in his Treatise of the Examination of Writers, that there could not be a better Artifice thought on to recal the Army to their Obedience, than this of our Author. When they were offended at their General in favour of Achilles, nothing could more weaken Achilles's Interest than to make such a Fellow as Thersites appear of his Party, whose Impertinence would give them a Disgust of thinking or acting like him. There is no surer Method to reduce generous Spirits, than to make 'em see they are pursuing the same Views with People of no Merit, and such whom they cannot forbear despising themselves. Otherwise there is nothing in this Speech but what might become the Mouth of Nestor himself, if you except a word or two. And had Nestor spoken it, the Army had certainly set sail for Greece; but because it was utter'd by a ridiculous Fellow whom they are asham'd to follow, they are reduc'd, and satisfy'd to continue the Siege.

Verse 284. The Greeks and I.] These Boasts of himself are the few Words which Dionysius objects to in the foregoing Passage. I cannot but think the grave Commentators here very much mistaken, who imagine Thersites in earnest in these Vaunts, and seriously reprove his Insolence. They seem to me manifest Strokes of Irony, which had render'd them so much the more improper in the Mouth of Nestor, who was otherwise none of the least Boasters himself. And consider'd as such they are equal to the rest of the Speech, which has an infinite deal of Spirit, Humour, and Satyr.

Verse 326. He said, and cow'ring.] The vile Figure Thersites makes here is a good Piece of Grotesque; the Pleasure express'd by the Soldiers at this Action of Ulysses (notwithstanding they are disappointed by him of their Hopes of returning) is agreeable to that generous Temper, at once honest and thoughtless, which is commonly found in military Men; to whom nothing is so odious as a Dastard, and who have not naturally the greatest Kindness for a Wit.

Verse 348. Unhappy Monarch! &c.] Quintilian speaking of the various Kinds of Oratory which may be learn'd from Homer, mentions among the greatest Instances the Speeches in this Book. Nonne vel unus liber quo missa ad Achillem legatio continetur, vel in primo inter duces illa contentio, vel dictæ in secundo sententiæ, omnes litium ac consiliorum explicat artes? Affectus quidem vel illos mites, vel hos concitatos, nemo erit tam indoctus, qui non suâ in potestate hunc autorem habuisse fateatur. It is indeed hardly possible to find any where more refin'd Turns of Policy, or more artful Touches of Oratory. We have no sooner seen Agamemnon excel in one sort, but Ulysses is to shine no less in another directly opposite to it. When the Stratagem of pretending to set sail, had met with too ready a Consent from the People, his Eloquence appears in all the Forms of Art. In his first Speech he had persuaded the Captains with Mildness, telling them the People's Glory depended upon them, and readily giving a Turn to the first Design, which had like to have been so dangerous, by representing it only as a Project of Agamemnon to discover the cowardly. In his second, he had commanded the Soldiers with Bravery, and made them know what Part they sustain'd in the War. In his third, he had rebuk'd the Seditious in the Person of Thersites, by Reproofs, Threats, and actual Chastisements. And now in this fourth, when all are gather'd together, he applies to them in Topics which equally affect them all: He raises their Hearts by putting them in mind of the Promises of Heaven, and those Prophecies of which as they had seen the Truth in the nine Years Delay, they might now expect the Accomplishment in the tenth Year's Success: which is a full Answer to what Agamemnon had said of Jupiter's deceiving them.

Dionysius observes one singular Piece of Art, in Ulysses's manner of applying himself to the People when he would insinuate any thing to the Princes, and addressing to the Princes when he would blame the People. He tells the Soldiers, they must not all pretend to be Rulers there, let there be one King, one Lord; which is manifestly a Precept design'd for the Leaders to take to themselves. In the same manner Tiberius Rhetor remarks the beginning of his last Oration to be a fine Ethopopeia or oblique Representation of the People, upon whom the Severity of the Reproach is made to fall, while he seems to render the King an Object of their Pity.

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Verse 402. Then Nestor thus.] Nothing is more observable than Homer's Conduct of this whole Incident; by what judicious and well-imagined Degrees the Army is restrain'd, and wrought up to the Desires of the General. We have given the Detail of all the Methods Ulysses proceeded in: The Activity of his Character is now to be contrasted with the Gravity of Nestor's, who covers and strengthens the other's Arguments, and constantly appears thro' the Poem a weighty Closer of Debates. The Greeks had already seen their General give way to his Authority, in the Dispute with Achilles in the former Book, and could expect no less than that their Stay should be concluded on by Agamemnon as soon as Nestor undertook that Cause. For this was all they imagin'd his Discourse aim'd at; but we shall find it had a farther Design, from Dionysius of Halicarnassus. “There are two things (says that excellent Critick) worthy of Admiration in the Speeches of Ulysses and Nestor, which are the different Designs they speak with, and the different Applauses they receive. Ulysses has the Acclamations of the Army, and Nestor the Praise of Agamemnon. One may enquire the Reason, why he extols the latter preferably to the former, when all that Nestor alledges seems only a Repetition of the same Arguments which Ulysses had given before him? It might be done in Encouragement to the old Man, in whom it might raise a Concern to find his Speech not follow'd with so general an Applause as the other's. But we are to refer the Speech of Nestor to that Part of Oratory which seems only to confirm what another has said, and yet superinduces and carries a farther Point. Ulysses and Nestor both compare the Greeks to Children for their unmanly Desire to return home; they both reproach them with the Engagements and Vows they had past, and were now about to break; they both alledge the prosperous Signs and Omens receiv'd from Heaven. Notwithstanding this, the End of their Orations is very different. Ulysses's Business was to detain the Græcians when they were upon the Point of flying; Nestor finding that Work done to his Hands, design'd to draw them instantly to Battel. This was the utmost Agamemnon had aim'd at, which Nestor's Artifice brings to pass; for while they imagine by all he says that he is only persuading them to stay, they find themselves unawares put into Order of Battel, and led under their Princes to fight.

We may next take notice of some Particulars of this Speech: Where he says they lose their time in empty Words, he hints at the Dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles: Where he speaks of those who deserted the Græcian Cause, he glances at Achilles in particular. When he represents Helen in Affliction and Tears, he removes the Odium from the Person in whose Cause they were to fight; and when he moves Agamemnon to advise with his Council, artfully prepares for a Reception of his own Advice by that modest way of proposing it. As for the Advice itself, to divide the Army into Bodies, each of which should be compos'd entirely of Men of the same Country; nothing could be better judg'd both in regard to the present Circumstance, and with an Eye to the future carrying on of the War. For the first, its immediate Effect was to take the whole Army out of its Tumult, break whatever Cabals they might have form'd together by separating them into a new Division, and cause every single Mutineer to come instantly under the View of his own proper Officer for Correction. For the second, it was to be thought the Army would be much strengthen'd by this Union: Those of different Nations who had different Aims, Interests and Friendships, could not assist each other with so much Zeal or so well concur to the same End, as when Friends aided Friends, Kinsmen their Kinsmen, &c. when each Commander had the Glory of his own Nation in view, and a greater Emulation was excited between Body and Body; as not only warring for the Honour of Greece in general, but for that of every distinct State in particular.

Verse 440. How much thy Years excel.] Every one has observ'd how glorious an Elogium of Wisdom Homer has here given, where Agamemnon so far prefers it to Valour, as to wish not for ten Ajax's or Achilles's but only for ten Nestors. For the rest of this Speech, Dionysius has summ'd it up as follows. “Agamemnon being now convinc'd the Greeks were offended at him on account of the Departure of Achilles, pacifies them by a generous Confession of his Fault, but then asserts the Character of a supreme Ruler, and with the Air of Command threatens the Disobedient.” I cannot conclude this Part of the Speeches without remarking how beautifully they rise above one another, and how they more and more awaken the Spirit of War in the Græcians. In this last there is a wonderful Fire and Vivacity, when he prepares them for the glorious Toils they were to undergo by a warm and lively Description of them. The Repetition of the Words in that Part has a Beauty, which (as well as many others of the same kind) has been lost by most Translators.

I cannot but believe Milton had this Passage in his Eye in that of his sixth Book.

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Verse 485. And Menelaus came unbid.] The Criticks have enter'd into a warm Dispute, whether Menelaus was in the right or in the wrong, in coming uninvited: Some maintaining it the Part of an Impertinent or a Fool to intrude upon another Man's Table; and others insisting upon the Privilege a Brother or a Kinsman may claim in this Case. The English Reader had not been troubled with the Translation of this Word Αυτοματος, but that Plato and Plutarch have taken notice of the Passage. The Verse following this in most Editions, Ηδεε γαρ κατα θυμον, &c. being rejected as spurious by Demetrius Phalereus, is omitted here upon his Authority.

Verse 526. The dreadful Ægis, Jove's immortal Shield.] Homer does not expresly call it a Shield in this Place, but he does in the fifth Iliad, where this Ægis is describ'd with a Sublimity that is inexpressible. The Figure of the Gorgon's Head upon it is there specify'd, which will justify the mention of the Serpents in the Translation here: The Verses are remarkably sonorous in the Original. The Image of the Goddess of Battels blazing with her immortal Shield before the Army, inspiring every Heroe, and assisting to range the Troops, is agreeable to the bold Painting of our Author. And the Encouragement of a divine Power seem'd no more than was requisite to change so totally the Dispositions of the Græcians, as to make them now more ardent for the Combate than they were before desirous of a Return. This finishes the Conquest of their Inclinations, in a manner at once wonderfully Poetical, and correspondent to the Moral which is every where spread through Homer, that nothing is entirely brought about but by the divine Assistance.

Verse 534. As on some Mountain, &c.] The Imagination of Homer was so vast and so lively, that whatsoever Objects presented themselves before him impress'd their Images so forcibly, that he pour'd them forth in Comparisons equally simple and noble; without forgetting any Circumstance which could instruct the Reader, and make him see those Objects in the same strong Light wherein he saw them himself. And in this one of the principal Beauties of Poetry consists. Homer, on the sight of the March of this numerous Army, gives us five Similes in a Breath, but all entirely different. The first regards the Splendor of their Armour, As a Fire, &c. The second the various Movements of so many thousands before they can range themselves in Battel-Array, Like the Swans, &c. The third respects their Number, As the Leaves or Flowers, &c. The fourth the Ardour with which they run to the Combate, Like the Legions of Insects, &c. And the fifth the Obedience and exact Discipline of the Troops, ranged without Confusion under their Leaders, As Flocks under their Shepherds. This Fecundity and Variety can never be enough admired. Dacier.

Verse 545. Or milk white Swans on Asius' watry Plains.] Scaliger, who is seldom just to our Author, yet confesses these Verses to be plenissima Nectaris. But he is greatly mistaken when he accuses this Simile of Impropriety, on the Supposition that a Number of Birds flying without Order are here compar'd to an Army ranged in Array of Battel. On the contrary, Homer in this expresses the Stir and Tumult the Troops were in, before they got into Order, running together from the Ships and Tents: Νεων απο, και κλισιαων. But when they are plac'd in their Ranks, he compares them to the Flocks under their Shepherds. This Distinction will plainly appear from the Detail of the five Similes in the foregoing Note.

Virgil has imitated this with great Happiness in his seventh Æneid.

Mr. Dryden in this Place has mistaken Asius for Asia, which Virgil took care to distinguish by making the first Syllable of Asius long, as of Asia short. Tho' (if we believe Madam Dacier) he was himself in an Error, both here and in the first Georgic.

For she will not allow that Ασιω can be a Patronymic Adjective, but the Genitive of a proper Name, Ασιου, which being turn'd into Ionic is Ασιεω, and by a Syncope makes Ασιω. This puts me in mind of another Criticism upon the 290th Verse of this Catalogue: 'Tis observ'd that Virgil uses Inarime for Arime, as if he had read Ειναριμοις, instead of Ειν Αριμοις. Scaliger ridicules this trivial Remark, and asks if it can be imagin'd that Virgil was ignorant of the Name of a Place so near him as Baiæ? It is indeed unlucky for good Writers, that Men who have Learning should lay a Stress upon such Trifles, and that those who have none should think it Learning to do so.

Verse 552. Or thick as Insects play.] This Simile translated literally runs thus; As the numerous Troops of Flies about a Shepherd's Cottage in the Spring, when the Milk moistens the Pails; such Numbers of Greeks stood in the Field against the Trojans, desiring their Destruction. The Lowness of this Image in Comparison with those which precede it, will naturally shock a modern Critick, and would scarce be forgiven in a Poet of these Times. The utmost a Translator can do is to heighten the Expression, so as to render the Disparity less observable: which is endeavour'd here, and in other Places. If this be done successfully the Reader is so far from being offended at a low Idea, that it raises his Surprize to find it grown great in the Poet's Hands, of which we have frequent Instances in Virgil's Georgicks. Here follows another of the same kind, in the Simile of Agamemnon to a Bull just after he has been compar'd to Jove, Mars, and Neptune. This, Eustathius tells us, was blam'd by some Criticks, and Mr. Hobbes has left it out in his Translation. The Liberty has been taken here to place the humbler Simile first, reserving the noble one as a more magnificent Close of the Description: The bare turning the Sentence removes the Objection. Milton who was a close Imitator of our Author, has often copy'd him in these humble Comparisons. He has not scrupled to insert one in the midst of that pompous Description of the Rout of the Rebel-Angels in the sixth Book, where the Son of God in all his dreadful Majesty is represented pouring his Vengeance upon them:

Verse 568. Great as the Gods.] Homer here describes the Figure and Port of Agamemnon with all imaginable Grandeur, in making him appear cloath'd with the Majesty of the greatest of the Gods; and when Plutarch (in his second Oration of the Fortune of Alexander) blamed the Comparison of a Man to three Deities at once, that Censure was not pass'd upon Homer as a Poet, but by Plutarch as a Priest. This Character of Majesty in which Agamemnon excels all the other Heroes, is preserv'd in the different Views of him throughout the Iliad. It is thus he appears on his Ship in the Catalogue, thus he shines in the Eyes of Priam in the third Book, thus again in the beginning of the thirteenth, and so in the rest.

Verse 572. Say Virgins.] It is hard to conceive any Address more solemn, any Opening to a Subject more noble and magnificent, than this Invocation of Homer before his Catalogue. That Omnipresence he gives to the Muses, their Post in the highest Heaven, their comprehensive Survey thro' the whole Extent of the Creation, are Circumstances greatly imagined. Nor is any thing more perfectly fine or exquisitely moral, than the Opposition of the extensive Knowledge of the Divinities on the one side, to the Blindness and Ignorance of Mankind on the other. The Greatness and Importance of his Subject is highly rais'd by his exalted manner of declaring the Difficulty of it, Not tho' my Lungs were Brass, &c. and by the Air he gives as if what follows were immediately inspir'd, and no less than the joint Labour of all the Muses.