BATRACHOMYOMACHIAEnt’ring the fields, first let my vows call onThe Muses’ whole quire out of HeliconInto my heart, for such a poem’s sake,As lately I did in my tables take,And put into report upon my knees.A fight so fierce, as might in all degreesFit Mars himself, and his tumultuous hand,Glorying to dart to th’ ears of every landOf all the voice-divided;[1]and to showHow bravely did both Frogs and Mice bestowIn glorious fight their forces, even the deedsDaring to imitate of Earth’s Giant Seeds.Thus then men talk’d; this seed the strife begat:The Mouse once dry, and ’scaped the dangerous cat,Drench’d in the neighbour lake her tender beard,To taste the sweetness of the wave it rear’d.The far-famed Fen-affecter, seeing him, said:“Ho, stranger! What are you, and whence, that treadThis shore of ours? Who brought you forth? ReplyWhat truth may witness, lest I find you lie.If worth fruition of my love and me,I’ll have thee home, and hospitalityOf feast and gift, good and magnificent,Bestow on thee; for all this confluentResounds my royalty; my name, the greatIn blown-up-count’nances and looks of threat,Physignathus,[2]adored of all Frogs hereAll their days’ durance, and the empire bearOf all their beings; mine own being begotBy royal Peleus,[3]mix’d in nuptial knotWith fair Hydromedusa,[4]on the boundsNear which Eridanus[5]his race resounds.And thee mine eye makes my conceit inclinedTo reckon powerful both in form and mind,A sceptre-bearer, and past others farAdvanc’d in all the fiery fights of war.Come then, thy race to my renown commend.”The Mouse made answer: “Why inquires my friend?For what so well know men and Deities,And all the wing’d affecters of the skies?Psicharpax[6]I am call’d; Troxartes’[7]seed,Surnamed the mighty-minded. She that freedMine eyes from darkness was Lichomyle,[8]King Pternotroctes’[9]daughter, showing me,Within an aged hovel, the young light,Fed me with figs and nuts, and all the heightOf varied viands. But unfold the cause,Why, ’gainst similitude’s most equal lawsObserved in friendship, thou mak’st me thy friend?Thy life the waters only help t’ extend;Mine, whatsoever men are used to eat,Takes part with them at shore; their purest cheat,Thrice boulted, kneaded, and subdued in paste,In clean round kymnels, cannot be so fastFrom my approaches kept but in I eat;Nor cheesecakes full of finest Indian wheat,That crusty-weeds[10]wear, large as ladies’ trains;Liverings,[11]white-skinn’d as ladies; nor the strains,Of press’d milk, renneted; nor collops cutFresh from the flitch; nor junkets, such as putPalates divine in appetite; nor anyOf all men’s delicates, though ne’er so manyTheir cooks devise them, who each dish see decktWith all the dainties all strange soils affect.[12]Yet am I not so sensual to flyOf fields embattled the most fiery cry,But rush out straight, and with the first in fightMix in adventure. No man with affrightCan daunt my forces, though his body beor never so immense a quantity,But making up, even to his bed, access,His fingers’ ends dare with my teeth compress,His feet taint likewise, and so soft seize bothThey shall not taste th’ impression of a tooth.Sweet sleep shall hold his own in every eyeWhere my tooth takes his tartest liberty.But two there are, that always, far and near,Extremely still control my force with fear,The Cat, and Night-hawk, who much scathe conferOn all the outrays where for food I err.Together with the straits-still-keeping trap,[13]Where lurks deceitful and set-spleen’d mishap.But most of all the Cat constrains my fear,Being ever apt t’ assault me everywhere;For by that hole that hope says I shall ’scape,At that hole ever she commits my rape.The best is yet, I eat no pot-herb grass,Nor radishes, nor coloquintidas,Nor still-green beets, nor parsley; which you makeYour dainties still, that live upon the lake.”The Frog replied: “Stranger, your boasts creep allUpon their bellies; though to our lives fallMuch more miraculous meats by lake and land,Jove tend’ring our lives with a twofold hand,Enabling us to leap ashore for food,And hide us straight in our retreatful flood.Which, if you will serve, you may prove with ease.I’ll take you on my shoulders; which fast seize,If safe arrival at my house y’ intend.”He stoop’d, and thither spritely did ascend,Clasping his golden neck, that easy seatGave to his sally; who was jocund yet,Seeing the safe harbours of the king so near,And he a swimmer so exempt from peer.But when he sunk into the purple wave,He mourn’d extremely, and did much depraveUnprofitable penitence; his hairTore by the roots up, labour’d for the airWith his feet fetch’d up to his belly close;His heart within him panted out repose,For th’ insolent plight in which his state did stand;Sigh’d bitterly, and long’d to greet the land,Forced by the dire need of his freezing fear.First, on the waters he his tail did stere,Like to a stern; then drew it like an oar,Still praying the Gods to set him safe ashore;Yet sunk he midst the red waves more and more,And laid a throat out to his utmost height;Yet in forced speech he made his peril slight,And thus his glory with his grievance strove:“Not in such choice state was the charge of loveBorne by the bull, when to the Cretan shoreHe swum Europa through the wavy roar,As this Frog ferries me, his pallid breastBravely advancing, and his verdant crest(Submitted to my seat) made my support,Through his white waters, to his royal court.”But on the sudden did apparance makeAn horrid spectacle,—a Water-snakeThrusting his freckled neck above the lake.Which seen to both, away PhysignathusDived to his deeps, as no way consciousOf whom he left to perish in his lake,But shunn’d black fate himself, and let him takeThe blackest of it; who amidst the fenSwum with his breast up, hands held up in vain,CriedPeepe, and perish’d; sunk the waters oft,And often with his sprawlings came aloft,Yet no way kept down death’s relentless force,But, full of water, made an heavy corse.Before he perish’d yet, he threaten’d thus:“Thou lurk’st not yet from heaven, Physignathus,Though yet thou hid’st here, that hast cast from thee,As from a rock, the shipwrack’d life of me,Though thou thyself no better was than I,O worst of things, at any faculty,Wrastling or race. But, for thy perfidyIn this my wrack, Jove bears a wreakful eye;And to the host of Mice thou pains shalt pay,Past all evasion.” This his life let say,And left him to the waters. Him beheldLichopinax,[14]placed in the pleasing field,Who shriek’d extremely, ran and told the Mice;Who having heard his wat’ry destinies,Pernicious anger pierced the hearts of all,And then their heralds forth they sent to callA council early, at Troxartes’ house,Sad father of this fatal shipwrack’d Mouse;Whose dead corse upwards swum along the lake,Nor yet, poor wretch, could be enforced to makeThe shore his harbour, but the mid-main Swum.When now, all haste made, with first morn did comeAll to set council; in which first rais’d headTroxartes, angry for his son, and said:“O friends, though I alone may seem to bearAll the infortune, yet may all met hereAccount it their case. But ’tis true, I amIn chief unhappy, that a triple flameOf life feel put forth, in three famous sons;The first, the chief in our confusions,The Cat, made rape of, caught without his hole:The second, Man, made with a cruel soul,Brought to his ruin with a new-found sleight,And a most wooden engine of deceit,They term a Trap, mere murth’ress of our Mice.The last, that in my love held special price,And his rare mother’s, this Physignathus(With false pretext of wafting to his house)Strangled in chief deeps of his bloody stream.Come then, haste all, and issue out on them,Our bodies deck’d in our Dædalean arms.”This said, his words thrust all up in alarms,And Mars himself, that serves the cure of war,Made all in their appropriates circular.First on each leg the green shales of a beanThey closed for boots, that sat exceeding clean;[15]The shales they broke ope, boothaling by night,And ate the beans; their jacks art exquisiteHad shown in them, being cats’ skins, everywhereQuilted with quills; their fenceful bucklers wereThe middle rounds of can’sticks; but their spearA huge long needle was, that could not bearThe brain of any but be Mars his ownMortal invention; their heads’ arming crownWas vessel to the kernel of a nut.And thus the Mice their powers in armour put.This the Frogs hearing, from the water allIssue to one place, and a council callOf wicked war; consulting what should beCause to this murmur and strange mutiny.While this was question’d, near them made his standAn herald with a sceptre in his hand,Embasichytrus[16]call’d, that fetch’d his kindFrom Tyroglyphus[17]with the mighty mind,Denouncing ill-named war in these high terms:“O Frogs! the Mice send threats to you of arms,And bid me bid ye battle and fix’d fight;Their eyes all wounded with Psicharpax’ sightFloating your waters, whom your king hath kill’d,And therefore all prepare for force of field,You that are best born whosoever held.”This said, he sever’d: his speech firing th’ earsOf all the Mice, but freez’d the Frogs with fears,Themselves conceiting guilty; whom the kingThus answer’d, rising, “Friends! I did not bringPsicharpax to his end; he, wantoningUpon our waters, practising to swim,Aped us,[18]and drown’d without my sight of him.And yet these worst of vermin accuse me,Though no way guilty. Come, consider weHow we may ruin these deceitful Mice.For my part, I give voice to this advice,As seeming fittest to direct our deeds:Our bodies decking with our arming weeds,Let all our pow’rs stand rais’d in steep’st reposeOf all our shore; that, when they charge us close,We may the helms snatch off from all so deckt,Daring our onset, and them all dejectDown to our waters; who, not knowing the sleight.To dive our soft deeps, may be strangled straight,And we triumphing may a trophy rear,Of all the Mice that we have slaughter’d here.”These words put all in arms; and mallow leavesThey drew upon their legs, for arming greaves.[19]Their curets, broad green beets; their bucklers wereGood thick-leaved cabbage, proof ’gainst any spear;Their spears sharp bulrushes, of which were allFitted with long ones; their parts capitalThey hid in subtle cockleshells from blows.And thus all arm’d, the steepest shores they choseT’ encamp themselves; where lance with lance they lined,And brandish’d bravely, each Frog full of mind.Then Jove call’d all Gods in his flaming throne,And show’d all all this preparationFor resolute war; these able soldiers,Many, and great, all shaking lengthful spears,In show like Centaurs, Or the Giants’ host.When, sweetly smiling, he inquired who, mostOf all th’ Immortals, pleased to add their aidTo Frogs or Mice; and thus to Pallas said:“O Daughter! Must not your needs aid these Mice,That, with the odours and meat sacrificeUsed in your temple, endless triumphs make,And serve you for your sacred victuals’ sake?”Pallas replied: “O Father, never IWill aid the Mice in any misery.So many mischiefs by them I have found,Eating the cotton that my distaffs crown’d,[20]My lamps still haunting to devour the oil.But that which most my mind eats, is their spoilMade of a veil, that me in much did stand,On which bestowing an elaborate hand,A fine woof working of as pure a thread;Such holes therein their petulancies fedThat, putting it to darning, when ’twas done,The darner a most dear pay stood uponFor his so dear pains, laid down instantly;Or, to forbear, exacted usury.[21]So, borrowing from my fane the weed I wove,I can by no means th’ usurous darner moveTo let me have the mantle to restore.And this is it that rubs the angry soreOf my offence took at these petulant Mice.Nor will I yield the Frogs’ wants my supplies,For their infirm minds that no confines keep;For I from war retir’d, and wanting sleep,All leap’d ashore in tumult, nor would stayTill one wink seized mine eyes, and so I laySleepless, and pain’d with headache, till first lightThe cock had crow’d up. Therefore, to the fightLet no God go assistant, lest a lanceWound whosoever offers to advance,Or wishes but their aid, that scorn all foes;Should any God’s access their spirits oppose.Sit we then pleased to see from heaven their fight.”She said, and all Gods join’d in her delight.And now both hosts to one field drew the jar,Both heralds bearing the ostents of war.And then the wine-gnats,[22]that shrill trumpets sound,Terribly rung out the encounter round;Jove thund’red; all heaven sad war’s sign resounded.And first Hypsiboas[23]Lichenor[24]wounded,Standing th’ impression of the first in fight.His lance did in his liver’s midst alight,Along his belly. Down he fell; his faceHis fall on that part sway’d, and all the graceOf his soft hair fil’d with disgraceful dust.Then Troglodytes[25]his thick javelin thrustIn Pelion’s[26]bosom, bearing him to ground,Whom sad death seiz’d; his soul flew through his wound.Seutlæus[27]next Embasichytros slew,His heart through-thrusting. Then Artophagus[28]threwHis lance at Polyphon,[29]and struck him quiteThrough his mid-belly; down he fell upright,And from his fair limbs took his soul her flight.Limnocharis,[30]beholding PolyphonThus done to death, did, with as round a stoneAs that the mill turns, Troglodytes wound,Near his mid-neck, ere he his onset found;Whose eyes sad darkness seiz’d. Lichenor[31]castA flying dart off, and his aim so placedUpon Limnocharis; that sure he thought[32]The wound he wish’d him; nor untruly wroughtThe dire success, for through his liver flewThe fatal lance; which when Crambophagus[33]knew,Down the deep waves near shore he, diving, fled;But fled not fate so; the stern enemy fedDeath with his life in diving; never moreThe air he drew in; his vermilion goreStain’d all the waters, and along the shoreHe laid extended; his fat entrails lay(By his small guts’ impulsion) breaking wayOut at his wound. Limnisius[34]near the shoreDestroy’d Tyroglyphus. Which frighted soreThe soul of Calaminth,[35]seeing coming on,For wreak, Pternoglyphus;[36]who got him goneWith large leaps to the lake, his target thrownInto the waters. Hydrocharis[37]slewKing Pternophagus,[38]at whose throat he threwA huge stone, strook it high, and beat his brainOut at his nostrils. Earth blush’d with the stainHis blood made on her bosom. For next prise,Lichopinax to death did sacrificeBorboroccetes’[39]faultless faculties;His lance enforced it; darkness closed his eyes.On which when Prassophagus[40]cast his look,Cnissodioctes[41]by the heels he took,Dragg’d him to fen from off his native ground,Then seized his throat, and soused him till he drown’dBut now Psicharpax wreaks his fellows’ deaths,And in the bosom of Pelusius[42]sheaths,In centre of his liver, his bright lance.He fell before the author of the chance;His soul to hell fled. Which Pelobates[43]Taking sad note of, wreakfully did seizeHis hand’s gripe full of mud, and all besmear’dHis forehead with it so, that scarce appear’dThe light to him. Which certainly incensedHis fiery spleen; who with his wreak dispensedNo point of time, but rear’d with his strong handA stone so massy it oppress’d the land,And hurl’d it at him; when below the kneeIt strook his right leg so impetuouslyIt piecemeal brake it; he the dust did seize,Upwards everted. But Craugasides[44]Revenged his death, and at his enemyDischarged a dart that did his point implyIn his mid-belly. All the sharp-pil’d spearGot after in, and did before it bearHis universal entrails to the earth,Soon as his swoln hand gave his jav’lin birth.Sitophagus,[45]beholding the sad sight,Set on the shore, went halting from the fight,Vex’d with his wounds extremely; and, to makeWay from extreme fate, leap’d into the lake.Troxartes strook, in th’ instep’s upper part,Physignathus; who (privy to the smartHis wound imparted) with his utmost hasteLeap’d to the lake, and fled. Troxartes castHis eye upon the foe that fell before,And, seeing him half-liv’d, long’d again to goreHis gutless bosom; and, to kill him quite,Ran fiercely at him. Which Prassseus’[46]sightTook instant note of, and the first in fightThrust desp’rate way through, casting his keen lanceOff at Troxartes; whose shield turn’d th’ advanceThe sharp head made, and check’d the mortal chance.Amongst the Mice fought an egregiousYoung springall, and a close-encount’ring Mouse,Pure Artepibulus’s[47]dear descent;A prince that Mars himself show’d where he went.(Call’d Meridarpax,[48]) of so huge a might,That only he still domineer’d in fightOf all the Mouse-host. He advancing closeUp to the lake, past all the rest aroseIn glorious object, and made vaunt that heCame to depopulate all the progenyOf Frogs, affected with the lance of war.And certainly he had put on as farAs he advanced his vaunt, he was endu’dWith so unmatch’d a force and fortitude,Had not the Father both of Gods and menInstantly known it, and the Frogs, even thenGiven up to ruin, rescued with remorse.Who, his head moving, thus began discourse:“No mean amaze affects me, to beholdPrince Meridarpax rage so uncontroll’d,In thirst of Frog-blood, all along the lake.Come therefore still, and all addression make,Despatching Pallas, with tumultuous Mars,Down to the field, to make him leave the wars,How potently soever he be said[49]Where he attempts once to uphold his head.”Mars answer’d: “O Jove, neither She nor I,With both our aids, can keep depopulacyFrom off the Frogs! And therefore arm we all,Even thy lance letting brandish to his callFrom off the field, that from the field withdrewThe Titanois, the Titanois that slew,Though most exempt from match of all earth’s Seeds,So great and so inaccessible deedsIt hath proclaim’d to men; bound hand and footThe vast Enceladus; and rac’d by th’ rootThe race of upland Giants.” This speech past,Saturnius a smoking lightning castAmongst the armies, thund’ring then so sore,That with a rapting circumflex he boreAll huge heaven over. But the terrible ireOf his dart, sent abroad, all wrapt in fire,(Which certainly his very finger was)Amazed both Mice and Frogs. Yet soon let passWas all this by the Mice, who much the moreBurn’d in desire t’ exterminate the storeOf all those lance-loved soldiers. Which had been,If from Olympus Jove’s eye had not seenThe Frogs with pity, and with instant speedSent them assistants. Who, ere any heedWas given to their approach, came crawling onWith anvils on their backs, that, beat upon[50]Never so much, are never wearied yet;Crook-paw’d, and wrested on with foul cloven feet,Tongues in their mouths,[51]brick-back’d, all over bone,Broad shoulder’d, whence a ruddy yellow shone,Distorted, and small-thigh’d; had eyes that sawOut at their bosoms; twice four feet did drawAbout their bodies; strong-neck’d, whence did riseTwo heads; nor could to any hand be prise;They call them lobsters; that ate from the MiceTheir tails, their feet, and hands, and wrested allTheir lances from them, so that cold appallThe wretches put in rout, past all return.And now the Fount of Light forbore to burnAbove the earth; when, which men’s laws commend,Our battle in one day took absolute end.THE END OF HOMER’S BATTLE OF FROGS AND MICE.[1]Intendingmen:being divided from all other creatures by the voice;μέροψ,being a periphrasis, signifyingvoce divisus,ofμείρω (μείρομαι) divido,andὅψ, ὁπός, vox.[2]Φυσίγναθος, Genas et buccas inflans.[3]Πηλεύς, qui ex luto nascitur.[4]‘ϒδρομέδουνα. Aquarum regina.[5]The river Po, in Italy.[6]Ψιχάρπαξ.Gather-crum, or ravish-crum,[7]Shear-crust.[8]Lick-mill.[9]Bacon-flitch-devourer, or gnawer.[10]Τανύπεπλος. Extenso et prourisso peploamictus.A metaphor taken from ladies’ veils, or trains, and therefore their names are here added.[11]῞Ηπατα λευκοχίτωνα.Livering puddings white-skinn’d.[12]Παντοδαποι̑σιν.Whose common exposition is onlyvariis,when it properly signifiesex omni solo.[13]Στονόεσσαν,ofστενός, angutstus.[14]Lickdish.[15]Ευ͒ τ᾽ ἀσκήσαντες, ab ἀσκέω, elaboratè concinno.[16]Enter-pot, or search-pot.[17]Cheese-miner.Qui caseum rodendo cavat.[18]Μιμούμενος.Aping, or imitating us.[19]Boots of war.[20]Στέμματα, Lanas, eo quod colus cingant seu coronent.Which our learned sect translate eating the crowns that Pallas wore.[21]Τόκος. Partus, et id quod partu edidit mater. Metap. hic appellatur fænus quod ex usurâ ad nos redit.[22]Κώνωψ. Culex vinarius.[23]Loud-mouth.[24]Kitchen-vessel licker.[25]Hole-dweller.Qui foramina subit.[26]Mud-born.[27]Beet-devourer.[28]The great bread eater.[29]Πολύφωνον.The great-noise-maker, shrill or big-voiced.[30]The lake-lover.[31]Qui lambit culinaria vasa.[32]Τιτύσκομαι intentissime dirigo ut certum ictum inferam.[33]The cabbage-eater.[34]Paludis incola.Lake-liver.[35]Qui in calaminthâ, herbâ palustri, habitat.[36]Bacon-eater.[37]Qui aquis delectatur.[38]Collop-devourer.[39]Mud-sleeper.[40]Leek or scallion lover.[41]Kitchen-smell haunter, or hunter.[42]Fenstalk.[43]Qui per lutum it.[44]Vociferator.[45]Eat-corn.[46]Scallion-devourer.[47]Bread-betrayer.[48]Scrap, or broken-meat-eater.[49]Κρατερός, validus seu potens in retineudo.[50]Νωτάκμονες. Incudes ferentes,or anvil-backed.῞Ακμων. Incus, dicta per syncopen quasi nullis ictibus fatigetur.[51]Ψαλίδοστομος. Forcipem in ore habens.
Ent’ring the fields, first let my vows call onThe Muses’ whole quire out of HeliconInto my heart, for such a poem’s sake,As lately I did in my tables take,And put into report upon my knees.A fight so fierce, as might in all degreesFit Mars himself, and his tumultuous hand,Glorying to dart to th’ ears of every landOf all the voice-divided;[1]and to showHow bravely did both Frogs and Mice bestowIn glorious fight their forces, even the deedsDaring to imitate of Earth’s Giant Seeds.Thus then men talk’d; this seed the strife begat:The Mouse once dry, and ’scaped the dangerous cat,Drench’d in the neighbour lake her tender beard,To taste the sweetness of the wave it rear’d.The far-famed Fen-affecter, seeing him, said:“Ho, stranger! What are you, and whence, that treadThis shore of ours? Who brought you forth? ReplyWhat truth may witness, lest I find you lie.If worth fruition of my love and me,I’ll have thee home, and hospitalityOf feast and gift, good and magnificent,Bestow on thee; for all this confluentResounds my royalty; my name, the greatIn blown-up-count’nances and looks of threat,Physignathus,[2]adored of all Frogs hereAll their days’ durance, and the empire bearOf all their beings; mine own being begotBy royal Peleus,[3]mix’d in nuptial knotWith fair Hydromedusa,[4]on the boundsNear which Eridanus[5]his race resounds.And thee mine eye makes my conceit inclinedTo reckon powerful both in form and mind,A sceptre-bearer, and past others farAdvanc’d in all the fiery fights of war.Come then, thy race to my renown commend.”The Mouse made answer: “Why inquires my friend?For what so well know men and Deities,And all the wing’d affecters of the skies?Psicharpax[6]I am call’d; Troxartes’[7]seed,Surnamed the mighty-minded. She that freedMine eyes from darkness was Lichomyle,[8]King Pternotroctes’[9]daughter, showing me,Within an aged hovel, the young light,Fed me with figs and nuts, and all the heightOf varied viands. But unfold the cause,Why, ’gainst similitude’s most equal lawsObserved in friendship, thou mak’st me thy friend?Thy life the waters only help t’ extend;Mine, whatsoever men are used to eat,Takes part with them at shore; their purest cheat,Thrice boulted, kneaded, and subdued in paste,In clean round kymnels, cannot be so fastFrom my approaches kept but in I eat;Nor cheesecakes full of finest Indian wheat,That crusty-weeds[10]wear, large as ladies’ trains;Liverings,[11]white-skinn’d as ladies; nor the strains,Of press’d milk, renneted; nor collops cutFresh from the flitch; nor junkets, such as putPalates divine in appetite; nor anyOf all men’s delicates, though ne’er so manyTheir cooks devise them, who each dish see decktWith all the dainties all strange soils affect.[12]Yet am I not so sensual to flyOf fields embattled the most fiery cry,But rush out straight, and with the first in fightMix in adventure. No man with affrightCan daunt my forces, though his body beor never so immense a quantity,But making up, even to his bed, access,His fingers’ ends dare with my teeth compress,His feet taint likewise, and so soft seize bothThey shall not taste th’ impression of a tooth.Sweet sleep shall hold his own in every eyeWhere my tooth takes his tartest liberty.But two there are, that always, far and near,Extremely still control my force with fear,The Cat, and Night-hawk, who much scathe conferOn all the outrays where for food I err.Together with the straits-still-keeping trap,[13]Where lurks deceitful and set-spleen’d mishap.But most of all the Cat constrains my fear,Being ever apt t’ assault me everywhere;For by that hole that hope says I shall ’scape,At that hole ever she commits my rape.The best is yet, I eat no pot-herb grass,Nor radishes, nor coloquintidas,Nor still-green beets, nor parsley; which you makeYour dainties still, that live upon the lake.”The Frog replied: “Stranger, your boasts creep allUpon their bellies; though to our lives fallMuch more miraculous meats by lake and land,Jove tend’ring our lives with a twofold hand,Enabling us to leap ashore for food,And hide us straight in our retreatful flood.Which, if you will serve, you may prove with ease.I’ll take you on my shoulders; which fast seize,If safe arrival at my house y’ intend.”He stoop’d, and thither spritely did ascend,Clasping his golden neck, that easy seatGave to his sally; who was jocund yet,Seeing the safe harbours of the king so near,And he a swimmer so exempt from peer.But when he sunk into the purple wave,He mourn’d extremely, and did much depraveUnprofitable penitence; his hairTore by the roots up, labour’d for the airWith his feet fetch’d up to his belly close;His heart within him panted out repose,For th’ insolent plight in which his state did stand;Sigh’d bitterly, and long’d to greet the land,Forced by the dire need of his freezing fear.First, on the waters he his tail did stere,Like to a stern; then drew it like an oar,Still praying the Gods to set him safe ashore;Yet sunk he midst the red waves more and more,And laid a throat out to his utmost height;Yet in forced speech he made his peril slight,And thus his glory with his grievance strove:“Not in such choice state was the charge of loveBorne by the bull, when to the Cretan shoreHe swum Europa through the wavy roar,As this Frog ferries me, his pallid breastBravely advancing, and his verdant crest(Submitted to my seat) made my support,Through his white waters, to his royal court.”But on the sudden did apparance makeAn horrid spectacle,—a Water-snakeThrusting his freckled neck above the lake.Which seen to both, away PhysignathusDived to his deeps, as no way consciousOf whom he left to perish in his lake,But shunn’d black fate himself, and let him takeThe blackest of it; who amidst the fenSwum with his breast up, hands held up in vain,CriedPeepe, and perish’d; sunk the waters oft,And often with his sprawlings came aloft,Yet no way kept down death’s relentless force,But, full of water, made an heavy corse.Before he perish’d yet, he threaten’d thus:“Thou lurk’st not yet from heaven, Physignathus,Though yet thou hid’st here, that hast cast from thee,As from a rock, the shipwrack’d life of me,Though thou thyself no better was than I,O worst of things, at any faculty,Wrastling or race. But, for thy perfidyIn this my wrack, Jove bears a wreakful eye;And to the host of Mice thou pains shalt pay,Past all evasion.” This his life let say,And left him to the waters. Him beheldLichopinax,[14]placed in the pleasing field,Who shriek’d extremely, ran and told the Mice;Who having heard his wat’ry destinies,Pernicious anger pierced the hearts of all,And then their heralds forth they sent to callA council early, at Troxartes’ house,Sad father of this fatal shipwrack’d Mouse;Whose dead corse upwards swum along the lake,Nor yet, poor wretch, could be enforced to makeThe shore his harbour, but the mid-main Swum.When now, all haste made, with first morn did comeAll to set council; in which first rais’d headTroxartes, angry for his son, and said:“O friends, though I alone may seem to bearAll the infortune, yet may all met hereAccount it their case. But ’tis true, I amIn chief unhappy, that a triple flameOf life feel put forth, in three famous sons;The first, the chief in our confusions,The Cat, made rape of, caught without his hole:The second, Man, made with a cruel soul,Brought to his ruin with a new-found sleight,And a most wooden engine of deceit,They term a Trap, mere murth’ress of our Mice.The last, that in my love held special price,And his rare mother’s, this Physignathus(With false pretext of wafting to his house)Strangled in chief deeps of his bloody stream.Come then, haste all, and issue out on them,Our bodies deck’d in our Dædalean arms.”This said, his words thrust all up in alarms,And Mars himself, that serves the cure of war,Made all in their appropriates circular.First on each leg the green shales of a beanThey closed for boots, that sat exceeding clean;[15]The shales they broke ope, boothaling by night,And ate the beans; their jacks art exquisiteHad shown in them, being cats’ skins, everywhereQuilted with quills; their fenceful bucklers wereThe middle rounds of can’sticks; but their spearA huge long needle was, that could not bearThe brain of any but be Mars his ownMortal invention; their heads’ arming crownWas vessel to the kernel of a nut.And thus the Mice their powers in armour put.This the Frogs hearing, from the water allIssue to one place, and a council callOf wicked war; consulting what should beCause to this murmur and strange mutiny.While this was question’d, near them made his standAn herald with a sceptre in his hand,Embasichytrus[16]call’d, that fetch’d his kindFrom Tyroglyphus[17]with the mighty mind,Denouncing ill-named war in these high terms:“O Frogs! the Mice send threats to you of arms,And bid me bid ye battle and fix’d fight;Their eyes all wounded with Psicharpax’ sightFloating your waters, whom your king hath kill’d,And therefore all prepare for force of field,You that are best born whosoever held.”This said, he sever’d: his speech firing th’ earsOf all the Mice, but freez’d the Frogs with fears,Themselves conceiting guilty; whom the kingThus answer’d, rising, “Friends! I did not bringPsicharpax to his end; he, wantoningUpon our waters, practising to swim,Aped us,[18]and drown’d without my sight of him.And yet these worst of vermin accuse me,Though no way guilty. Come, consider weHow we may ruin these deceitful Mice.For my part, I give voice to this advice,As seeming fittest to direct our deeds:Our bodies decking with our arming weeds,Let all our pow’rs stand rais’d in steep’st reposeOf all our shore; that, when they charge us close,We may the helms snatch off from all so deckt,Daring our onset, and them all dejectDown to our waters; who, not knowing the sleight.To dive our soft deeps, may be strangled straight,And we triumphing may a trophy rear,Of all the Mice that we have slaughter’d here.”These words put all in arms; and mallow leavesThey drew upon their legs, for arming greaves.[19]Their curets, broad green beets; their bucklers wereGood thick-leaved cabbage, proof ’gainst any spear;Their spears sharp bulrushes, of which were allFitted with long ones; their parts capitalThey hid in subtle cockleshells from blows.And thus all arm’d, the steepest shores they choseT’ encamp themselves; where lance with lance they lined,And brandish’d bravely, each Frog full of mind.Then Jove call’d all Gods in his flaming throne,And show’d all all this preparationFor resolute war; these able soldiers,Many, and great, all shaking lengthful spears,In show like Centaurs, Or the Giants’ host.When, sweetly smiling, he inquired who, mostOf all th’ Immortals, pleased to add their aidTo Frogs or Mice; and thus to Pallas said:“O Daughter! Must not your needs aid these Mice,That, with the odours and meat sacrificeUsed in your temple, endless triumphs make,And serve you for your sacred victuals’ sake?”Pallas replied: “O Father, never IWill aid the Mice in any misery.So many mischiefs by them I have found,Eating the cotton that my distaffs crown’d,[20]My lamps still haunting to devour the oil.But that which most my mind eats, is their spoilMade of a veil, that me in much did stand,On which bestowing an elaborate hand,A fine woof working of as pure a thread;Such holes therein their petulancies fedThat, putting it to darning, when ’twas done,The darner a most dear pay stood uponFor his so dear pains, laid down instantly;Or, to forbear, exacted usury.[21]So, borrowing from my fane the weed I wove,I can by no means th’ usurous darner moveTo let me have the mantle to restore.And this is it that rubs the angry soreOf my offence took at these petulant Mice.Nor will I yield the Frogs’ wants my supplies,For their infirm minds that no confines keep;For I from war retir’d, and wanting sleep,All leap’d ashore in tumult, nor would stayTill one wink seized mine eyes, and so I laySleepless, and pain’d with headache, till first lightThe cock had crow’d up. Therefore, to the fightLet no God go assistant, lest a lanceWound whosoever offers to advance,Or wishes but their aid, that scorn all foes;Should any God’s access their spirits oppose.Sit we then pleased to see from heaven their fight.”She said, and all Gods join’d in her delight.And now both hosts to one field drew the jar,Both heralds bearing the ostents of war.And then the wine-gnats,[22]that shrill trumpets sound,Terribly rung out the encounter round;Jove thund’red; all heaven sad war’s sign resounded.And first Hypsiboas[23]Lichenor[24]wounded,Standing th’ impression of the first in fight.His lance did in his liver’s midst alight,Along his belly. Down he fell; his faceHis fall on that part sway’d, and all the graceOf his soft hair fil’d with disgraceful dust.Then Troglodytes[25]his thick javelin thrustIn Pelion’s[26]bosom, bearing him to ground,Whom sad death seiz’d; his soul flew through his wound.Seutlæus[27]next Embasichytros slew,His heart through-thrusting. Then Artophagus[28]threwHis lance at Polyphon,[29]and struck him quiteThrough his mid-belly; down he fell upright,And from his fair limbs took his soul her flight.Limnocharis,[30]beholding PolyphonThus done to death, did, with as round a stoneAs that the mill turns, Troglodytes wound,Near his mid-neck, ere he his onset found;Whose eyes sad darkness seiz’d. Lichenor[31]castA flying dart off, and his aim so placedUpon Limnocharis; that sure he thought[32]The wound he wish’d him; nor untruly wroughtThe dire success, for through his liver flewThe fatal lance; which when Crambophagus[33]knew,Down the deep waves near shore he, diving, fled;But fled not fate so; the stern enemy fedDeath with his life in diving; never moreThe air he drew in; his vermilion goreStain’d all the waters, and along the shoreHe laid extended; his fat entrails lay(By his small guts’ impulsion) breaking wayOut at his wound. Limnisius[34]near the shoreDestroy’d Tyroglyphus. Which frighted soreThe soul of Calaminth,[35]seeing coming on,For wreak, Pternoglyphus;[36]who got him goneWith large leaps to the lake, his target thrownInto the waters. Hydrocharis[37]slewKing Pternophagus,[38]at whose throat he threwA huge stone, strook it high, and beat his brainOut at his nostrils. Earth blush’d with the stainHis blood made on her bosom. For next prise,Lichopinax to death did sacrificeBorboroccetes’[39]faultless faculties;His lance enforced it; darkness closed his eyes.On which when Prassophagus[40]cast his look,Cnissodioctes[41]by the heels he took,Dragg’d him to fen from off his native ground,Then seized his throat, and soused him till he drown’dBut now Psicharpax wreaks his fellows’ deaths,And in the bosom of Pelusius[42]sheaths,In centre of his liver, his bright lance.He fell before the author of the chance;His soul to hell fled. Which Pelobates[43]Taking sad note of, wreakfully did seizeHis hand’s gripe full of mud, and all besmear’dHis forehead with it so, that scarce appear’dThe light to him. Which certainly incensedHis fiery spleen; who with his wreak dispensedNo point of time, but rear’d with his strong handA stone so massy it oppress’d the land,And hurl’d it at him; when below the kneeIt strook his right leg so impetuouslyIt piecemeal brake it; he the dust did seize,Upwards everted. But Craugasides[44]Revenged his death, and at his enemyDischarged a dart that did his point implyIn his mid-belly. All the sharp-pil’d spearGot after in, and did before it bearHis universal entrails to the earth,Soon as his swoln hand gave his jav’lin birth.Sitophagus,[45]beholding the sad sight,Set on the shore, went halting from the fight,Vex’d with his wounds extremely; and, to makeWay from extreme fate, leap’d into the lake.Troxartes strook, in th’ instep’s upper part,Physignathus; who (privy to the smartHis wound imparted) with his utmost hasteLeap’d to the lake, and fled. Troxartes castHis eye upon the foe that fell before,And, seeing him half-liv’d, long’d again to goreHis gutless bosom; and, to kill him quite,Ran fiercely at him. Which Prassseus’[46]sightTook instant note of, and the first in fightThrust desp’rate way through, casting his keen lanceOff at Troxartes; whose shield turn’d th’ advanceThe sharp head made, and check’d the mortal chance.Amongst the Mice fought an egregiousYoung springall, and a close-encount’ring Mouse,Pure Artepibulus’s[47]dear descent;A prince that Mars himself show’d where he went.(Call’d Meridarpax,[48]) of so huge a might,That only he still domineer’d in fightOf all the Mouse-host. He advancing closeUp to the lake, past all the rest aroseIn glorious object, and made vaunt that heCame to depopulate all the progenyOf Frogs, affected with the lance of war.And certainly he had put on as farAs he advanced his vaunt, he was endu’dWith so unmatch’d a force and fortitude,Had not the Father both of Gods and menInstantly known it, and the Frogs, even thenGiven up to ruin, rescued with remorse.Who, his head moving, thus began discourse:“No mean amaze affects me, to beholdPrince Meridarpax rage so uncontroll’d,In thirst of Frog-blood, all along the lake.Come therefore still, and all addression make,Despatching Pallas, with tumultuous Mars,Down to the field, to make him leave the wars,How potently soever he be said[49]Where he attempts once to uphold his head.”Mars answer’d: “O Jove, neither She nor I,With both our aids, can keep depopulacyFrom off the Frogs! And therefore arm we all,Even thy lance letting brandish to his callFrom off the field, that from the field withdrewThe Titanois, the Titanois that slew,Though most exempt from match of all earth’s Seeds,So great and so inaccessible deedsIt hath proclaim’d to men; bound hand and footThe vast Enceladus; and rac’d by th’ rootThe race of upland Giants.” This speech past,Saturnius a smoking lightning castAmongst the armies, thund’ring then so sore,That with a rapting circumflex he boreAll huge heaven over. But the terrible ireOf his dart, sent abroad, all wrapt in fire,(Which certainly his very finger was)Amazed both Mice and Frogs. Yet soon let passWas all this by the Mice, who much the moreBurn’d in desire t’ exterminate the storeOf all those lance-loved soldiers. Which had been,If from Olympus Jove’s eye had not seenThe Frogs with pity, and with instant speedSent them assistants. Who, ere any heedWas given to their approach, came crawling onWith anvils on their backs, that, beat upon[50]Never so much, are never wearied yet;Crook-paw’d, and wrested on with foul cloven feet,Tongues in their mouths,[51]brick-back’d, all over bone,Broad shoulder’d, whence a ruddy yellow shone,Distorted, and small-thigh’d; had eyes that sawOut at their bosoms; twice four feet did drawAbout their bodies; strong-neck’d, whence did riseTwo heads; nor could to any hand be prise;They call them lobsters; that ate from the MiceTheir tails, their feet, and hands, and wrested allTheir lances from them, so that cold appallThe wretches put in rout, past all return.And now the Fount of Light forbore to burnAbove the earth; when, which men’s laws commend,Our battle in one day took absolute end.
[1]Intendingmen:being divided from all other creatures by the voice;μέροψ,being a periphrasis, signifyingvoce divisus,ofμείρω (μείρομαι) divido,andὅψ, ὁπός, vox.
[2]Φυσίγναθος, Genas et buccas inflans.
[3]Πηλεύς, qui ex luto nascitur.
[4]‘ϒδρομέδουνα. Aquarum regina.
[5]The river Po, in Italy.
[6]Ψιχάρπαξ.Gather-crum, or ravish-crum,
[7]Shear-crust.
[8]Lick-mill.
[9]Bacon-flitch-devourer, or gnawer.
[10]Τανύπεπλος. Extenso et prourisso peploamictus.A metaphor taken from ladies’ veils, or trains, and therefore their names are here added.
[11]῞Ηπατα λευκοχίτωνα.Livering puddings white-skinn’d.
[12]Παντοδαποι̑σιν.Whose common exposition is onlyvariis,when it properly signifiesex omni solo.
[13]Στονόεσσαν,ofστενός, angutstus.
[14]Lickdish.
[15]Ευ͒ τ᾽ ἀσκήσαντες, ab ἀσκέω, elaboratè concinno.
[16]Enter-pot, or search-pot.
[17]Cheese-miner.Qui caseum rodendo cavat.
[18]Μιμούμενος.Aping, or imitating us.
[19]Boots of war.
[20]Στέμματα, Lanas, eo quod colus cingant seu coronent.Which our learned sect translate eating the crowns that Pallas wore.
[21]Τόκος. Partus, et id quod partu edidit mater. Metap. hic appellatur fænus quod ex usurâ ad nos redit.
[22]Κώνωψ. Culex vinarius.
[23]Loud-mouth.
[24]Kitchen-vessel licker.
[25]Hole-dweller.Qui foramina subit.
[26]Mud-born.
[27]Beet-devourer.
[28]The great bread eater.
[29]Πολύφωνον.The great-noise-maker, shrill or big-voiced.
[30]The lake-lover.
[31]Qui lambit culinaria vasa.
[32]Τιτύσκομαι intentissime dirigo ut certum ictum inferam.
[33]The cabbage-eater.
[34]Paludis incola.Lake-liver.
[35]Qui in calaminthâ, herbâ palustri, habitat.
[36]Bacon-eater.
[37]Qui aquis delectatur.
[38]Collop-devourer.
[39]Mud-sleeper.
[40]Leek or scallion lover.
[41]Kitchen-smell haunter, or hunter.
[42]Fenstalk.
[43]Qui per lutum it.
[44]Vociferator.
[45]Eat-corn.
[46]Scallion-devourer.
[47]Bread-betrayer.
[48]Scrap, or broken-meat-eater.
[49]Κρατερός, validus seu potens in retineudo.
[50]Νωτάκμονες. Incudes ferentes,or anvil-backed.῞Ακμων. Incus, dicta per syncopen quasi nullis ictibus fatigetur.
[51]Ψαλίδοστομος. Forcipem in ore habens.