The Odysseys of Homer, together with the shorter poems · Homer
ANOTHER ARGUMENT
But these same idle courses Thou art so prompt in that thou wilt not work, But forage up and down, and beg, and lurk In ev’ry house whose roofs hold any will To feed such fellows. That thy gut may fill, Gives end to all thy being.” He replied: “I wish, at any work we two were tried, In height of spring-time, when heav’n’s lights are long, I a good crook’d scythe that were sharp and strong, You such another, where the grass grew deep, Up by day-break, and both our labours keep Up till slow darkness eas’d the labouring light, Fasting all day, and not a crumb till night; We then should prove our either workmanship. Or if, again, beeves, that the goad or whip Were apt t’ obey before a tearing plow, Big lusty beasts, alike in bulk and brow, Alike in labour, and alike in strength, Our task four acres, to be till’d in length Of one sole day; again: then you should try If the dull glebe before the plow should fly, Or I a long stitch could bear clean and even.
Or lastly, if the Guide of earth and heaven Should stir stern war up, either here or there, And that at this day I had double spear, And shield, and steel casque fitting for my brows; At this work likewise, ’midst the foremost blows, Your eyes should note me, and get little cause To twit me with my belly’s sole applause. But you affect t’ affect with injury, Your mind ungentle, seem in valour high, Because ’gainst few, and those not of the best, Your conversation hath been still profest. But if Ulysses, landed on his earth, And enter’d on the true right of his birth, Should come and front ye, straight his ample gates Your feet would hold too narrow for your fates.” He frown’d, rag’d, call’d him wretch, and vow’d To be his death, since he durst prove so proud Amongst so many, to tell him so home What he affected; ask’d, if overcome With wine he were, or, as his minion said, Talk’d still so idly, and were palsiéd In his mind’s instruments, or was proud because He gat from Irus off with such applause? With all which, snatching up a stool, he threw; When old Ulysses to the knees withdrew Of the Dulichian lord, Amphinomus, As if he fear’d him.
His dart missing thus His aged object, and his page’s hand (A boy that waited on his cup’s command, Now holding of an ewer to him) he smit, Down fell the sounding ewer, and after it The guiltless page lay sprawling in the dust, And crying out. When all the Wooers thrust A tumult up amongst them, wishing all The rogue had perish’d in some hospital, Before his life there stirr’d such uproars up, And with rude speeches spice their pleasures’ cup. And all this for a beggar to fulfill A filthy proverb: _Good still yields to ill._ The prince cried out on them, to let the bad Obscure the good so; told them they were mad, Abus’d their banquet, and affirm’d some God Tried mast’ries with them; bade them take their load Of food and wine, sit up, or fall to bed At their free pleasures; and since he gave head To all their freedoms, why should they mistake Their own rich humours for a beggar’s sake? All bit their lips to be so taken down, And taught the course that should have been their own, Admir’d the prince; and said he bravely spoke.
But Nisus’ son then struck the equal stroke, And said: “O friends, let no man here disdain To put up equal speeches, nor maintain With serious words an humour, nor with stroke A stranger in another’s house provoke, Nor touch the meanest servant, but confine All these dissentions in a bowl of wine; Which fill us, cup-bearer, that, having done Our nightly sacrifice, we may atone Our pow’rs with sleep, resigning first the guest Up to the prince, that holds all interest In his disposure here; the house being his In just descent, and all the faculties.” This all approv’d; when noble Mulius, Herald-in-chief to lord Amphinomus, The wine distributed with rev’rend grace To ev’ry Wooer; when the Gods giv’n place; With service fit; they serv’d themselves, and took Their parting cups, till, when they all had shook The angry humour off, they bent to rest, And ev’ry Wooer to sev’ral roofs addrest. THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH BOOK OF HOMER’S ODYSSEYS. Ulysses and his son eschew Offending of the Wooers’ view With any armour. His birth’s seat, Ulysses tells his Queen, is Crete, Euryclea the truth yet found, Discover’d by a scar-heal’d wound, Which in Parnassus’ tops a boar, Struck by him in his chace, did gore.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.