( 2 )
Hard Argument for mortal Bard I sing
The Sport tumultuous of Revenger Mars.[1]
5 How Mice renown'd with Frogs a War maintain'd
For Fame, for Vengeance, and for Empire strove
While each side sternly sought, yet neither gain'd
The hard-fought field; Mean-time sky-ruling Jove[2]
In equal Ballance[3] pois'd their Fortunes long;
10 Dire Arms, and Wounds, and Deaths shall fill th' advent'rous Song.
The Sport tumultuous of Revenger Mars.[1]
5 How Mice renown'd with Frogs a War maintain'd
For Fame, for Vengeance, and for Empire strove
While each side sternly sought, yet neither gain'd
The hard-fought field; Mean-time sky-ruling Jove[2]
In equal Ballance[3] pois'd their Fortunes long;
10 Dire Arms, and Wounds, and Deaths shall fill th' advent'rous Song.
II.
'Scap'd from Grimalkin's cruel rending claws
A thirsty Mouse sought the refreshing Flood;
His whiskers, downy Beard, and weary Paws
With liquid sweet delighted he bedew'd;
'Scap'd from Grimalkin's cruel rending claws
A thirsty Mouse sought the refreshing Flood;
His whiskers, downy Beard, and weary Paws
With liquid sweet delighted he bedew'd;
- ↑ v.4. Mars.] As the Invocation is address'd to the Gods, so the Proposition mentions them, and the Narration is full of them, and they occasion the Marvellous in Epic. Bossu.
- ↑ v.8. Jove.] He has as much to do in the Commonwealth of Æsop, as the States of Homer, witness his appointing Kings over the Frogs. Id.
- ↑ v.9. Ballance.] Æschylus wrote a Tragedy upon Jupiter's Scales, and Virgil copied them.
Him
