A servant added to his absent lord);

His task it was the wheaten loaves to lay,

And from the banquet take the bowls away.

And now the rage of hunger was repress’d,

And each betakes him to his couch to rest.


Now came the night, and darkness cover’d o’er

The face of things; the winds began to roar;

The driving storm the watery west-wind pours,

And Jove descends in deluges of showers.

Studious of rest and warmth, Ulysses lies,

Foreseeing from the first the storm would rise

In mere necessity of coat and cloak,

With artful preface to his host he spoke:

“Hear me, my friends! who this good banquet grace;

’Tis sweet to play the fool in time and place,

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,

Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile,

The grave in merry measures frisk about,

And many a long-repented word bring out.

Since to be talkative I now commence,

Let wit cast off the sullen yoke of sense.

Once I was strong (would Heaven restore those days!)

And with my betters claim’d a share of praise.

Ulysses, Menelaus, led forth a band,

And join’d me with them (’twas their own command);

A deathful ambush for the foe to lay,

Beneath Troy walls by night we took our way:

There, clad in arms, along the marshes spread,

We made the osier-fringed bank our bed.

Full soon the inclemency of heaven I feel,

Nor had these shoulders covering, but of steel.

Sharp blew the north; snow whitening all the fields

Froze with the blast, and gathering glazed our shields.

There all but I, well fenced with cloak and vest,

Lay cover’d by their ample shields at rest.

Fool that I was! I left behind my own,

The skill of weather and of winds unknown,

And trusted to my coat and shield alone!

When now was wasted more than half the night,

And the stars faded at approaching light,

Sudden I jogg’d Ulysses, who was laid

Fast by my side, and shivering thus I said:


“‘Here longer in this field I cannot lie;