This fad fhort epitaph fhall speak my doom,
And fix my mournful ftory on my tomb,
This monument did falfe Demophoon build,
With the cold afhes of his mistress fill'd;
He was the caufe, and hers the hand that kill’d.
The ARGUMEN T.
Danaus, king of Argos, had by Jeveral wives fifty daughters, his brother Egyptus as many fons. Danaus, refusing to marry his daughters to his brother's fons, was at laft compell d by an army. In revenge, ke commands his daughters each to murder her bufband on the wedding night: All obey'd but Hypermneftra, who affifted her husband Linus to escape; for which being afterwards imprisoned and put in irens, She writes this epiftle.
O that dear brother who alone furvives,
Of fifty, late, whofe love betray'd their lives,
Writes fhe that fuffers in her lord's defence:
Unhappy wife, whofe crime's her innocence!
For faving him I love, I'm guilty call'd :
Had I been truly fo, I'd been extoll'd.
Let me be guilty ftill, fince this they fay
Is guilt, 1 glory thus to disobey.
Torments nor death fhall draw me to repent:
Though against me they ufe that inftrument
From which I fav'd a husband's dearer life,
And with one fword kill Linus and his wife ;.
Yet will I ne'er repent for being true,
Or blush t' have lov'd: That let my fifters do.
Such fhame, and fuch repentance is their due.
C 4
I'm feiz'd with terror, while I but relate,
And fhun remembrance of a crime I hate!
The frightful memory of that dire night.
Enervates fo my hand I scarce can write.
Howe'er I'll
try. With
ceremony gay
About the fet of night, and rife of day,
The wicked fifters were in triumph led,
And I among 'em, to the nuptial bed.
The marriage lights, as fun'ral lamps appear,
And threat'ning omens meet us every where.
Hymen they call: Hymen neglects their cries:
Nay Juno too from her own Argos flies.
Now come the Bridegrooms, high with wine, to find
Something with us, more lov'd than wine, behind.
Full of impatient love, careless and brave,
They feize the bed, not feeing there a grave.
What follow'd, fhame forbids me to exprefs;
But who fo ignorant as not to guess?
Now their tir'd fenfes they to fleep commit,
A fleep as ftill as death; ah, too like it!
'Twas then, methought, I heard their groans that dy'd.
Alas! 'twas more than thought! I, terrify'd,
Lay trembling, cold, and without power to move
In that dear bed, which you had made me love.
While you in the foft bonds of fleep lay fast,
Charm'd with the joys of love, then newly paft:
Fearing to difobey, I rife at last.
Witnefs, fweet heav'ns, how tender was the ftrife,
Betwixt the name of daughter and of wife.
Thrice o'er your breaft, which did fo lately join
In fuch an ecftacy of love to mine,
I rais'd the pointed steel to pierce that part;
But ah! th' attempt ftruck nearer to my heart.
My foul divided thus, thefe words, among
A thoufand fighs, fell foftly from my tongue.
Doft thou not heed a father's awful will ?
• Doft thou not fear his pow'r ? on then and kill.
• How can I kill, when I confider who?
⚫ Can I think death? against a lover too?
• What has my sex with blood and arms to do ?
Fy, thou art now by love to fhame betray'd;
Thy fifter-brides by this have all obey'd;
• With shame their courage and their duty fee:
• If not a daughter, yet a fifter be.
No, I will never ftrike: If one muft die,
Linus fhall live, and my death his fupply.
• What has he done, or I, what greater ill ?
• For him to die, and I much worse, to kill ?
Were he as guilty as my father wou'd
• Present him, why muft i be ftain`d with blood?
Poniards and fwords ill with my fex agree:
• Soft looks, and fighs of love, our weapons
As I lamented thus, the tears apace
Dropt from my pitying eyes, on thy lov'd face.
While you, with kind and am'rous dreams poffeft,
Threw carelefly your dear arm o'er my break,
There thinking to repeat joys lately known,
Your hand upon my fword was almost thrown.
'Iwas time to call; no longer I forbore,
Dreading the day's approach, my father's more.
Wake, Linus, wake, I cy'd; O quickly wake,
Or fleep for ever here! Th' alarm you take,
Start up; ask twenty queftions in one breath:
To all I anfwer thus -delay is death;
Fly while 'tis dark, and 'fcape eternal night.
While it was dark you made a happy flight:
I ftay'd to meet the terrors of the light.
With day my father comes, the dead to view;
And finds the dismal fum one short by you.
Enrag'd to fee his treachery betray'd,
By his command, I'm thus in fetters laid.
Is this reward due to my love from fate?
Ah, wretched flame! paffion unfortunate ?
Since Io fuffer'd under Juno's rage,
Nothing that rival'd goddefs can affwage.
Th' unhappy mistress of the mighty Jove,
Chang'd to a cow, a form unapt for love,
Views in her father's ftreams her head's array,
Sees her own horns, and frighted, ftarts away.
When fhe'd complain, fhe lows; and equal fears
From her new felf furprise her eyes
and ears.
In vain to lose the frightful fhape she tries,
For Io follows ftill, where Io flies.
In vain fhe wanders over lands and feas :
Can fhe find cure whofe felf is the difeafe?
Sadly fevere the change in her appear'd,
Whose beauty Jove has lov'd, and Juno fear'd:
Grafs and the fprings her food and drink supply :
Her only lodging's the unfheltring fky.
What need I urge antiquity? my fate
Is a fresh inftance of the Goddefs' hate.
A double ftock of tears by me are spilt,
Both for my brothers death, and fifters guilt.
Yet, as if that were small, these chains arrive,
'Caufe I, alone, am guiltless, you alive.
But, my dear lord, if any thought you have,
Or of the love, or of the life I gave:
If any memory with you does last,
Or of the pleafures, or the dangers past,
Now, Linus, now fome help to her afford,
Who wants the liberty fhe gave her lord.
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