And do you (for it is in your power) extricate me from this phrensy, O thou, that art neither defiled by family meanness, nor, like an old sorceress, art skilful to disperse the ashes of poor people, after they have been nine days interred. You have a hospitable breast and unpolluted hands; and your womb is a fruitful one; and whenever you bring forth, you spring up with unabated vigour. CANIDIA'S ANSWER. WHY do you pour forth your entreaties to ears that are obstinately shut up against them? the wintry .ocean, with its briny tempests, does not lash rocks more deaf to the cries of the naked mariners. What, shall you, without being made an example of, deride the Cotyttian* mysteries sacred to unrestrained love, which were divulged by you? and shall you, assuming the office of Pontiff, with regard to my Esquilian incantations, fill the city with my name, unpunished? What will it avail me to have enriched the Pelignian Sorceresses with my charms, and to have prepared poison of more expedition than others, if a slower fate awaits you than is agreeable, to my wishes? an irksome life shall be protracted by you, wretch as you are, only for this purpose, that you may perpetually be able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the sire of the perfidious Pelops, always in want of that plenteous banquet which is always before him, wishes for respite! Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes for rest: Sisyphus * Cotytto, or Cotys, was the goddess of impurity. : wishes to place the stone upon the summit of the mountain but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you, in hopes of relief, shall desire at one time to leap down from a high tower; at another to lay open your breast with the Noric sword; and, grieving with your tedious indisposition, shall tie nooses about your neck in vain. For I at that time will ride on your odious shoulders; and the whole earth shall acknowledge my unexampled power. What! shall I, who can give motion to waxen images, (as you yourself, inquisitive as you are, were convinced of,) and snatch the moon from heaven by my incantations, I, who can raise the dead after they are burned, and duly prepare the portion of love, shall I bewail the successless event of my art having no efficacy upon you? THIRD CONCERT. TO APOLLO AND DIANA. Prayers for the safety of the empire and emperor. CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS. PHEBUS, and thou, Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious ornaments of the heavens, O ever-worthy of adoration, and ever adored, bestow what we pray for at this sacred season; at which the Sybilline verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths should sing a hymn to the Deities, to whom the seven hills of Rome are acceptable. CHORUS OF YOUTHS. O genial sun, who in your splendid car draw forth and obscure the day, and who arise another and the same; may it never be in your power to behold any thing more glorious than the city of Rome. CHORUS OF VIRGINS. O Ilithyia, who art of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the matrons in labour; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or Genitalis. O Goddess, multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of the senate, in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the matrimonial law about to teem with a new race! games, CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS. That the stated revolution of a hundred and ten years may bring back the hymns and the three times by bright daylight resorted to in crowds, and as often in the welcome night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in having predicted what is now established, and what the settled order of things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past. Let the earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a sheafy crown: may both salubrious rains, and Jupiter's pure air cherish the young brood. CHORUS OF YOUTHS. Apollo, mild and gentle with your sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant youths. CHORUS OF VIRGINS. O moon, thou horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. * Ilithyia, Lucina, and Genytellis, other names for Diana. CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS. If Rome be your work, and the Trojan troops arrived on the Tuscan shore, the part commanded by your oracles to change their homes and city by a successful navigation; for whom the pious Æneas, surviving his country, secured a free passage, without damage, through the burning Troy, about to give them more ample possessions than those that were left behind: O, ye Deities, grant to the tractable youth probity of manners; to old age, ye Deities, grant a pleasing retirement; to the Roman people in general, wealth and a numerous progeny, and every kind of glory. And may that prince, the illustrious issue of Anchises and Venus, who this day worships you with offerings of white bulls, reign superior to the warring enemy, but merciful to the prostrate. Now the Parthian, by sea and land, dreads our powerful forces, and the Roman axes: now the Scythians beg to know our commands, and the Indians, but lately so arrogant. Now truth, and peace, and honour, and ancient modesty, and neglected virtue, dare to return, and happy plenty appears, with her horn full to the brim. CHORUS OF YOUTHS. Phoebus, the god of augury, and conspicuous for his shining bow, and dear to the nine muses, who, by his salutary art, soothes the wearied limbs of the human body: if he, propitious, surveys his own Palatine, may he prolong the Roman affairs, and the happy state of Italy, to another lustrum, and to a still improving age. CHORUS OF VIRGINS. And may Diana, who possesses mount Aventine and Algidus, regard the prayers of the Quindecemviri, and lend a gracious ear to the supplication of the youths. CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS. We, the choir, that were taught to sing the praises of Phoebus and Diana, bear home with us a good and certain hope, that Jupiter, and all the other gods, perceive and attend to these our supplications. |