"The Crowne of all Homers Worckes, Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs & Mise. His Hymn's and Epigrams. Translated according to ye Originall. By George Chapm London, Printed by Iohn Bill, his Maiesties Printer." The Hymns of THE OCCASION OF THIS IMPOSED CROWN. FTER this not only Prime of Poets, but Philosophers, had written his two great oems of Iliads and Odysses; which (for their first lights borne before all learning) ere worthily called the Sun and Moon of the Earth; (finding no compensation), he nit, in contempt of men, this ridiculous poem of Vermin, giving them nobility of birth, alorous elocution not inferior to his heroes. At which the Gods themselves put in maze, called councils about their assistance of either army, and the justice of their uarrels, even to the mounting of Jove's artillery against them, and discharge of his ree-forked flashes; and all for the drowning of a mouse. After which slight and ly recreative touch, he betook him seriously to the honour of the Gods; in Hymns sounding all their peculiar titles, jurisdiction, and dignities; which he illustrates at parts, as he had been continually conversant amongst them; and whatsoever thentic Poesy he omitted in the episodes contained in his Iliads and Odysses, he mprehends and concludes in his Hymns and Epigrams. All his observance and nour of the Gods, rather moved their envies against him, than their rewards, or spects of his endeavours. And so like a man verecundi ingenii (which he witnesseth himself) he lived unhonoured and needy till his death; yet notwithstanding all en's servile and manacled miseries, to his most absolute and never-equalled merit; , even bursten profusion to imposture and impiety, hear our ever-the-same intranced, d never-sleeping Master of the Muses, to his last accent, incomparably singing. BATRACHOMYOMACHIA. STERING the fields, first let my vows call | In glorious fight their forces, even the on le Muses' whole quire out of Helicon hand, deeds beard, orying to dart to th ears of every To taste the sweetness of the wave it land all the voice-divided; and' to show ow bravely did both Frogs and Mice bestow rear'd. bear Of all their beings. Mine own being begot By royal Peleus, mix'd in nuptial knot With fair Hydromedusa,3 on the bounds Near which Eridanus his race resounds. And thee mine eye makes my conceit inclined To reckon powerful both in form and mind, A sceptre-bearer, and past others far Advanced 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 I am call'd; Troxartes' seed, Surnamed the Mighty-minded. She that freed Mine eyes from darkness was Lichomyle," King Pternotroctes's daughter, showing Extremely still, control my force with fe (The Cat, and Night-hawk), who mu scathe confer On all the outrays where for food I err. Together with the straits-still-keepi trap,4 Where lurks deceitful and set-spleet mishap. fer But most of all the Cat constrains my Being ever apt t' assault me everywhere For by that hole that hope says I sh '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 make Your dainties still, that live upon the lake." The Frog replied: "Stranger, your boasts creep all Upon their bellies; though to our lives fall Much more miraculous meats, by lake and land; ove tendering our lives with a twofold hand, Enabling us to leap ashore for food, And hide us straight in our retreatful flood. Vhich, if your will serve, you may prove with ease. Il take you on my shoulders; which fast seize, safe arrival at my house y' intend." He stoop'd, and thither spritely did ascend, lasping his golden neck, that easy seat ave to his sally; who was jocund yet, eeing the safe harbours of the king so near, nd he a swimmer so exempt from peer. ut when he sunk into the purple wave, le mourn'd extremely, and did much deprave nprofitable penitence; his hair ore by the roots up, labour'd for the air, With his feet fetch'd up to his belly close; lis heart within him panted out repose, or th' insolent plight in which his state did stand; igh'd bitterly, and long'd to greet the land, But on the sudden did apparance make He swum Europa through the wavy rore, court." VOL. II. " Though yet thou hidest here, that hast cast from thee, As from a rock, the shipwrack'd life of me. Wrastling or race. But, for thy perfidy Past all evasion." This his life let say, Who having heard his watery destinies, Pernicious anger pierced the hearts of all, And then their heralds forth they sent to call All the infortune, yet may all met here Account it their case. But 'tis true, I am In chief unhappy, that a triple flame 1 Lickdish. T |