It might be deem'd, on our historian's part,
Or too much negligence, or want of art,
If he forgot the vast magnificence
Of royal Thefeus, and his large expence.
He first inclos'd for lifts a level ground,
The whole circumference a mile around
The form was circular; and all without
A trench was funk, to moat the place about.
Within an amphitheatre appear'd,
Rais'd in degrees; to fixty paces rear'd:
That when a man was plac'd in one degree,
Height was allow'd for him above to fee.
Eastward was built a gate of marble white ;
The like adorn'd the western opposite.
A nobler object than this fabric was,
Rome never faw; nor of so vaft a space:
For, rich with fpoils of many a conquer'd land,
All arts and artifts Thefeus could command;
Who fold for hire, or wrought for better fame;
The mafter-painters and the carvers came.
So rofe within the compafs of the year
An age's work, a glorious theatre.
Then o'er its eastern gate was rais'd above
A temple, facred to the queen of love;
An altar ftood below: on either hand
A prieft with rofes crown'd, who held a myrtle wand. The dome of Mars was on the gate oppos'd,
And on the north a turret was inclos'd,
Within the wall of alabafter white,
And crimson coral for the queen of night,
Who takes in fylvan sports her chafte delight.
Within these oratories might you fee
Rich carvings, pourtraitures, and imagery :
Where every figure to the life express'd
The godhead's power to whom it was address'd.
In Venus' temple on the fides were seen
The broken flumbers of enamour'd men,
Prayers that even spoke, and pity feem'd to call,
And iffuing fighs that fmok'd along the wall.
Complaints, and hot defires, the lover's hell,
And scalding tears that wore a channel where they fell :
And all around where nuptial bonds, the ties,
Of love's affurance, and a train of lies,
That, made in luft, conclude in perjuries.
Beauty, and youth, and wealth, and luxury,
And fpritely hope, and short-enduring joy;
And forceries to raise th' infernal powers,
And figils fram'd in planetary hours:
Expence, and after-thought, and idle care,
And doubts of motley hue, and dark despair;
Sufpicions, and fantastical furmife,
And jealousy fuffus'd, with jaundice in her eyes,
Discolouring all the view'd, in tawny drefs'd;
Down-look'd, and with a cuckow on her fist.
Oppos'd to her, on t'other fide advance
The costly feast, the carol, and the dance,
Minstrels, and mufic, poetry, and play,
And balls by night, and tournaments by day.
All these were painted on the wall, and more:
With acts and monuments of times before:
And others added by prophetic doom,
And lovers yet unborn, and loves to come:
For there th' Idalian mount, and Citheron,
The court of Venus was in colours drawn:
Before the palace-gate, in careless dress,
fat portress Idleness :
There, by the fount, Narciffus pin'd alone;
There Samfon was; with wifer Solomon,
And all the mighty names by Love undone.
Medea's charms were there, Circean feasts,
With bowls that turn'd enamour'd youths to beasts,
Here might be feen, that beauty, wealth, and wit,
And prowess, to the power of love submit:
The spreading fnare for all mankind is laid;
And lovers all betray, and are betray'd.
The Goddess' felf fome noble hand had wrought;
Smiling the feem'd, and full of pleafing thought:
From ocean as fhe first began to rife,
And smooth'd the ruffled feas and clear'd the skies;
She trod the brine all bare below the breast,
And the green waves but ill conceal'd the rest ;
A lute fhe held; and on her head was seen
A wreath of rofes red, and myrtles green;
Her turtles fann'd the buxom air above;
And, by his mother, ftood an infant Love,
With wings unfledg'd; his eyes were banded o'er ;
His hands a bow, his back a quiver bore,
Supply'd with arrows bright and keen, a deadly store.
But in the dome of mighty Mars the red
With different figures all the fides were spread;
This temple, lefs in form, with equal grace,
Was imitative of the first in Thrace:
For that cold region was the lov'd abode,
And fovereign mansion of the warrior god.
The landscape was a forest wide and bare;
Where neither beast, nor human kind repair;
The fowl, that fcent afar, the borders fly,
And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky.
A cake of fcurf lies baking on the ground,
And prickly stubs, instead of trees, are found;
Or woods with knots and knares deform'd and old;
Headlefs the most, and hideous to behold:
A rattling tempeft through the branches went,
That stripp'd them bare, and one fole way they bent.
Heaven froze above, fevere, the clouds congeal,
And through the chryftal vault appear'd the standing hail,
Such was the face without; a mountain stood
Threatening from high, and overlook'd the wood:
Beneath the lowring brow, and on a bent,
The temple ftood of Mars armipotent:
The frame of burnish'd steel, that cast a glare
From far, and feem'd to thaw the freezing air.
A ftrait long entry to the temple led,
Blind with high walls; and horror over head:
Thence iffued fuch a blast, and hollow roar,
As threaten'd from the hinge to heave the door;
In through that door, a northern light there shone;
'Twas all it had, for windows there were none,
The gate was adamant; eternal frame!
Which, hew'd by Mars himself, from Indian quarries
The labour of a God; and all along
Tough iron plates were clench'd to make it strong.
A tun about was every pillar there;
A polish'd mirror fhone not half so clear.
There faw I how the fecret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor's thought:
And midwife Time the ripen'd plot to murder brought.
There the red anger dar'd the pallid fear ;
Next flood hypocrify, with holy leer;
Soft fmiling, and demurely looking down,
But hid the dagger underneath the gown :
Th' affaffinating wife, the houshold fiend;
And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend.
On t' other fide there ftood destruction bare;
Unpunish'd rapine, and a waste of war.
Conteft, with fharpen'd knives, in cloifters drawn,
And all with blood bespread the holy lawn.
Loud menaces were heard, and foul disgrace,
And bawling infamy, in language base;
Till fenfe was loft in found, and filence fled the place.
The flayer of himself yet faw I there,
The gore congeal'd was clotted in his hair :
half clos'd, and gaping mouth he lay, And grim, as when he breath'd his fullen foul away. In midst of all the dome, misfortune fate,
And gloomy difcontent, and fell debate,
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