Cho. Haste, haste to meet them, and as they advance, 'Twixt every dance,

Let us interpret their prophetic trance.

Here they fetched out the MASQUERS [i. e. the AUGURS,] and came before them with the torch-bearers along the stage, singing this full

SONG.

Apol. Which way, and whence the lightning flew, Or how it burned, bright and blue,

Design and figure by your lights:

Then forth, and shew the several flights
Your birds have made, or what the wing,
Or voice in augury doth bring.

Which hand the crow cried on, how high
The vulture, or the hern did fly ;

nitido.

Lituum (qui erat baculus incurvus, augurale signum) manu tenebat augur. Eo cali regiones designabat, et metas inter quas contineri debebant auguria: et hæ vocabantur templa: unde contemplatio dicta est consideratio, et meditatio rerum sacrarum, ut dextrum sinistrumque latus observaret: in impetrato sibi ipse regiones definiebat; in oblato manum suam respexit lævam aut dextram. Regiones ab oriente in occasum terminabat limite decumano, et cardine ex transverso signo metato, quo oculi ferrent quam longissime. Antica in ortum vergebat; Postica regio à tergo ad occasum: dextra ad meridiem: sinistra ad septentrionem. Observationes fiebant augure sedente, capite velato, toga duplici augurali candida amicto, à media nocte ad mediam diem, crescente non deficiente die. Neque captabantur auguria post mensem Julium, propterea quod aves redderentur imbeciliores et morbidæ, pullique eorum essent imperfecti.

℗ Augurandi scientia opvoμavleía dicta; divinatio per aves. Aves aut oscines, aut præpetes; oscines, quæ ore, præpetes, quæ volatu augurium significant. Pulli tripudio. Aves auspicatæ, et præpetes, aquila, vultur, sanqualis seu ossifraga, triarches, sive buteo, immussulus, accipiter, cygnus, columba; oscines, cornix, corvus, anser, ciconia, ardea, noctua; inauspicatæ, milvus, parra, nycticorax, striges, hirundo, picus, &c.

What wing the swan made, and the dove,
The stork, and which did get above:
Shew all the birds of food or prey,
But pass by the unlucky jay,

The night-crow, swallow, or the kite,
Let these have neither right,

Chor. Nor part,

In this night's art.

Here the TORCH-BEARERS danced.

After which the AUGURS laid by their staves, and danced their entry; which done, Apollo and the rest interpreted the Augury.

Apol. The signs are lucky all, and right,
There hath not been a voice, or flight,

Of ill presage

Lin. The bird that brings

Her augury alone to kings,

The dove, hath flown.

Orph. And to thy peace,

Fortunes and the Fates increase.

Bran. Minerva's hernshaw, and her owl,
Do both proclaim, thou shalt control
The course of things.

¶ Habebant dextra et læva omina; antica et postica; orientalia et occidentalia. Græci, cum se ad septentrionem obverterent, ortum ad dextram habuere. Romani meridiem in auspicando cum tuerentur, ortum ad lævam habuere. Itaque sinistræ partes eadem sunt Romanis quæ Græcis dextræ ad ortum. Sinistra igitur illis meliora, dextra pejora: Græcis contrà. Sinistra, pertinentia ad ortum: salutaria, quia ortus lucis index et auctor. Dextra, quia spectant occasum, tristia.

• Columbæ auguria non nisi regibus dant; quia nunquam singulæ volant: sicut rex nunquam solus incedit. Nuntiæ pacis.

Ardea et ardeola, rerum arduarum auspicium. Minervæ sacra. Apud Homer. Iliad, x. dežíw Epwdiós.

Idm. As now they be

With tumult carried

Apol. And live free

From hatred, faction, or the fear

To blast the olive thou dost wear.

Cho. More is behind, which these do long to show, And what the gods to so great virtue owe.

Here the Main Dance.

Cho. Still, still the auspice is so good,*
We wish it were but understood;
It even puts Apollo

To all his strengths of art, to follow
The flights, and to divine

What's meant by every sign.

Thou canst not less be than the charge
Of every deity;

That thus art left here to enlarge,

And shield their piety!

Thy neighbours at thy fortune long havegaz'd;
But at thy wisdom all do stand amaz'd,
And wish to be

O'ercome, or governed by thee!

Safety itself so sides thee where thou go'st,
And Fate still offers what thou covet'st most.

2 Auspicium, ab ave specienda. Paul. Nam quod nos cum præpositione dicimus aspicio, apud veteres sine præpositione spicio di

cebutur

u

Signa quæ sese offerent, erant multifaria: nam si objiceretur avis aliqua, considerabatur quo volatu ferretur, an obliquo vel prono, vel supino motu corporis; quo flecteret, contorqueret, aut contraheret membra; qua in parte se occultaret; an ad dextram vel sinistram canerent oscines, &c.

Here the REVELS.

After which, Apollo went up to the King, and

SUNG.

Apol. Do not expect to hear of all
Your good at once, lest it forestal
A sweetness would be new:

Some things the Fates would have conceal'd,
From us the gods, lest being reveal'd,

Our powers shall envy you.

It is enough your people learn

The reverence of your peace,

As well as strangers do discern

The glories, by th' increase;
And that the princely augur here, your son,'
Do by his father's lights his courses run.

Cho. Him shall you see triumphing over all,
Both foes and vices: and your young and tall
Nephews, his sons, grow up in your embraces,
To give this island princes in long races.

* Romulus augur fuit, et Numa, et reliqui reges Romani, sicut ante eos Turnus, Rhamnetes, et alii. Lacedæmonii suis regibus augurem assessorem dabant. Cilices, Lycii, Cares, Arabes, in summa veneratione habuerunt auguria.

9 And that the princely augur here.] It appears from p. 441, that Charles led the Dance, at the head of the Augurs.

Your young and tall nephews, his sons.] i. e. Nepotes, grandchildren.

WHAL.

It appears a little singular that the learned Prideaux should be unacquainted with this acceptation of the word, which is common to all our old writers. He apologizes for reading "son and grandson,” (Isaiah xiv. 22,) instead of "son and nephew," with the translators of the Bible; who, as he afterwards shews, elsewhere translate the same word (neked) grandson." There is no doubt of it: the only difficulty lay in the commen

66

Here the heaven opened, and Jove, with the Senate of the Gods, was discovered, while APOLLO returned to his seat, and ascending,

SUNG.

Apol.

Jove.

Apol.
Jove.

See, heaven expecteth my return,
The forked fire begins to burn,
Jove beckons me to come.

Though Phabus be the god of arts,
He must not take on him all parts;
But leave his father some.

My arts are only to obey.

And mine to sway.

Jove is that one, whom first, midst, last, you call,
The power that governs, and conserveth all;
Earth, sea, and air, are subject to our check,
And fate with heaven, moving at our beck.
Till Jove it ratify

It is no augury,

Though utter'd by the mouth of Destiny. Apol. Dear father, give the sign, and seal it then.

The EARTH riseth.

It is the suit of Earth and men.

Jove. What do these mortals crave without our wrong?

Earth, with the rest. That Jove will lend us this our sovereign long;

Jove.

Let our grand-children, and not we
His want or absence ever see.

Your wish is blest,

tator's not observing that with them nephew and grandson were perfectly synonymous; though the former term was used also for a brother or sister's son. Connec. vol. i. P. 125.

y Vide Orpheum in hym. de omnip. Jovis.