You share the pleasure, then in bounty share

To worth in misery a reverence pay,

And with a generous hand reward his stay;

For since kind heaven with wealth our realm has bless’d,

Give it to heaven by aiding the distress’d.”


Then sage Echeneus, whose grave reverend brow

The hand of time had silvered o’er with snow,

Mature in wisdom rose: “Your words (he cries)

Demand obedience, for your words are wise.

But let our king direct the glorious way

To generous acts; our part is to obey.”


“While life informs these limbs (the king replied),

Well to deserve, be all my cares employed:

But here this night the royal guest detain,

Till the sun flames along the ethereal plain.

Be it my task to send with ample stores

The stranger from our hospitable shores:

Tread you my steps! ’Tis mine to lead the race,

The first in glory, as the first in place.”


To whom the prince: “This night with joy I stay

O monarch great in virtue as in sway!

If thou the circling year my stay control,

To raise a bounty noble as thy soul;

The circling year I wait, with ampler stores

And fitter pomp to hail my native shores:

Then by my realms due homage would be paid;

For wealthy kings are loyally obeyed!”


“O king! for such thou art, and sure thy blood

Through veins (he cried) of royal fathers flow’d:

Unlike those vagrants who on falsehood live,

Skill’d in smooth tales, and artful to deceive;

Thy better soul abhors the liar’s part,

Wise is thy voice, and noble is thy heart.

Thy words like music every breast control,

Steal through the ear, and win upon the soul;

Soft, as some song divine, thy story flows,

Nor better could the Muse record thy woes.


“But say, upon the dark and dismal coast,

Saw’st thou the worthies of the Grecian host?

The godlike leaders who, in battle slain,

Fell before Troy, and nobly press’d the plain?

And lo! a length of night behind remains,

The evening stars still mount the ethereal plains.