With torches. The attendant women watch’d
And fed those fires by turns, to whom, himself,
Their unknown Sov’reign thus his speech address’d.
Ulysses! to the inner-courts retire,
And to your virtuous Queen, that following there
Your sev’ral tasks, spinning and combing wool,
Ye may amuse her; I, meantime, for these
Will furnish light, and should they chuse to stay
Till golden morn appear, they shall not tire
My patience aught, for I can much endure.
But one, Melantho with the blooming cheeks,
Rebuked him rudely. Dolius was her sire,
But by Penelope she had been reared
With care maternal, and in infant years
Supplied with many a toy; yet even she
Felt not her mistress’ sorrows in her heart,
But, of Eurymachus enamour’d, oft
His lewd embraces met; she, with sharp speech
Reproachful, to Ulysses thus replied.
Who neither wilt to the smith’s forge retire
For sleep, nor to the public portico,
But here remaining, with audacious prate
Disturb’st this num’rous company, restrain’d
By no respect or fear; either thou art
With wine intoxicated, or, perchance,
Art always fool, and therefore babblest now.
Say, art thou drunk with joy that thou hast foiled
The beggar Irus? Tremble, lest a man
Stronger than Irus suddenly arise,
Who on thy temples pelting thee with blows
Far heavier than his, shall drive thee hence
With many a bruise, and foul with thy own blood.
Snarler! Telemachus shall be inform’d
This moment of thy eloquent harangue,
That he may hew thee for it, limb from limb.
Into the house, but each with falt’ring knees
Through dread, for they believ’d his threats sincere.
He, then illumin’d by the triple blaze,
Watch’d close the lights, busy from hearth to heart,
But in his soul, meantime, far other thoughts
Revolved, tremendous, not conceived in vain.
Laertes’ son) permitted to abstain
From heart-corroding bitterness of speech
Those suitors proud, of whom Eurymachus,
Offspring of Polybus, while thus he jeer’d
Ulysses, set the others in a roar.
I shall promulge my thought. This man, methinks,
Not unconducted by the Gods, hath reach’d
Ulysses’ mansion, for to me the light
Of yonder torches altogether seems
His own, an emanation from his head,
Which not the smallest growth of hair obscures.
Himself accosted next. Art thou disposed
To serve me, friend! would I afford thee hire,
A labourer at my farm? thou shalt not want
Sufficient wages; thou may’st there collect
Stones for my fences, and may’st plant my oaks,
For which I would supply thee all the year
With food, and cloaths, and sandals for thy feet.
But thou hast learn’d less creditable arts,
Nor hast a will to work, preferring much
By beggary from others to extort
Wherewith to feed thy never-sated maw.
Forbear, Eurymachus; for were we match’d
In work against each other, thou and I,
Mowing in spring-time, when the days are long,
I with my well-bent sickle in my hand,
Thou arm’d with one as keen, for trial sake
Of our ability to toil unfed
Till night, grass still sufficing for the proof.—
Or if, again, it were our task to drive
Yoked oxen of the noblest breed, sleek-hair’d,
Big- limb’d, both batten’d to the full with grass,
Their age and aptitude for work the same
Not soon to be fatigued, and were the field
In size four acres, with a glebe through which
The share might smoothly slide, then should’st thou see
How strait my furrow should be cut and true.—
Or should Saturnian Jove this day excite
Here, battle, or elsewhere, and were I arm’d
With two bright spears and with a shield, and bore
A brazen casque well-fitted to my brows,
Me, then, thou should’st perceive mingling in fight
Amid the foremost Chiefs, nor with the crime
Of idle beggary should’st upbraid me more.
But thou art much a railer, one whose heart
Pity moves not, and seem’st a mighty man
And valiant to thyself, only because
Thou herd’st with few, and those of little worth.
But should Ulysses come, at his own isle
Again arrived, wide as these portals are,
To thee, at once, too narrow they should seem
To shoot thee forth with speed enough abroad.
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