Pygmaeo-Gerano-Machia: The Battle of the Pygmies and Cranes
From the Latin of Addison.
The pygmy-people, and the feather’d train,
Mingling in mortal combat on the plain,
I sing. Ye Muses, favour my designs,
Lead on my squadrons, and arrange the lines;
The flashing swords and fluttering wings display,
And long bills nibbling in the bloody fray;
Cranes darting with disdain on tiny foes,
Conflicting birds and men, and war’s unnumber’d woes.
The wars and woes of heroes six feet long
Have oft resounded in Pierian song.
Who has not heard of Colcho’s golden fleece,
And Argo mann’d with all the flower of Greece?
Of Thebes’ fell brethren, Theseus stern of face,
And Peleus’ son unrivall’d in the race,
Eneas founder of the Roman line,
And William glorious on the banks of Boyne?
Who has not learn’d to weep at Pompey’s woes,
And over Blackmore’s Epic page to doze?
’Tis I, who dare attempt unusual strains,
Of hosts unsung, and unfrequented plains;
The small shrill trump, and chiefs of little size,
And armies rushing down the darken’d skies.
Where India reddens to the early dawn,
Winds a deep vale from vulgar eyes withdrawn:
Bosom’d in groves the lowly region lies,
And rocky mountains round the border rise.
Here, till the doom of Fate its fall decreed,
The empire flourish’d of the pygmy-breed;
Here Industry perform’d, and Genius plann’d,
And busy multitudes o’erspread the land.
But now to these lone bounds if pilgrim stray,
Tempting through craggy cliffs the desperate way,
He finds the puny mansion fallen to earth,
Its godlings mouldering on th’ abandon’d hearth;
And starts, where small white bones are spread around,
‘Or little footsteps lightly print the ground;’
While the proud crane her nest securely builds,
Chattering amid the desolated fields.
But different fates befel her hostile rage,
While reign’d, invincible through many an age,
The dreaded Pygmy; roused by war’s alarms
Forth rush’d the madding Mannikin to arms.
Fierce to the field of death the hero flies:
The faint crane fluttering flaps the ground, and dies;
And by the victor borne (o’erwhelming load!)
With bloody bill loose-dangling marks the road.
And oft the wily dwarf in ambush lay,
And often made the callow young his prey;
With slaughter’d victims heap’d his board, and smiled
T’avenge the parent’s trespass on the child.
Oft where his feather’d foe had rear’d her nest,
And laid her eggs and household gods to rest,
Burning for blood, in terrible array,
The eighteen-inch militia burst their way;
All went to wreck; the infant foeman fell,
When scarce his chirping bill had broke the shell.
Loud uproar hence, and rage of arms arose,
And the fell rancour, of encountering foes;
Hence dwarfs and cranes one general havock whelms,
And Death’s grim visage scares the pygmy-realms.
Not half so furious blazed the warlike fire
Of Mice, high theme of the Meonian lyre;
When bold to battle march’d th’ accoutre’d frogs,
And the deep tumult thunder’d through the bogs.
Pierced by the javelin bulrush on the shore,
Here, agonizing, roll’d the mouse in gore;
And there the frog (a scene full sad to see!)
Shorn of one leg, slow sprawl’d along the three:
He vaults no more with vigorous hopes on high,
But mourns in hoarsest croaks his destiny.
And now the day of wo drew on apace,
A day of wo to all the pygmy race,
When dwarfs were doom’d (but penitence was vain)
To rue each broken egg and chicken slain.
For roused to vengeance by repeated wrong,
From distant climes the long-bill’d regions throng;
From Strymon’s lake, Cayster’s plashy meads,
And fens of Scythia green with rustling reeds;
From where the Danube winds through many a land,
And Mareotis laves th’ Egyptian strand,
To rendezvous they waft on eager wing,
And wait assembled the returning spring.
Meanwhile they trim their plumes for length of flight,
Whet their keen beaks, and twisting claws, for fight;
Each crane the pygmy power in thought o’erturns,
And every bosom for the battle burns.
When genial gales the frozen air unbind,
The screaming legions wheel, and mount the wind.
Far in the sky they form their long array,
And land and ocean stretch’d immense survey
Deep deep beneath; and, triumphing in pride,
With clouds and winds commix’d, innumerous ride;
’Tis wild obstreperous clanguor all, and heaven
Whirls in tempestuous undulation driven.
Nor less th’ alarm that shook the world below,
Where march’d in pomp of war th’ embattled foe;
Where mannikins with haughty step advance,
And grasp the shield, and couch the quivering lance;
To right and left the lengthening lines they form,
And rank’d in deep array await the storm.
High in the midst the chieftain-dwarf was seen,
Of giant stature, and imperial mien.
Full twenty inches tall he strode along,
And view’d with lofty eye the wondering throng;
And, while with many a scar his visage frown’d,
Bared his broad bosom, rough with many a wound
Of beaks, and claws, disclosing to their sight
The glorious meed of high heroic might.
For with insatiate vengeance, he pursued,
And never ending hate, the feathery brood;
Unhappy they, confiding in the length
Of horny beak, or talon’s crooked strength,
Who durst abide his rage; the blade descends,
And from the panting trunk the pinion rends.
Laid low in dust the pinion waves no more,
The trunk disfigured stiffens in its gore.
What hosts of heroes fell beneath his force!
What heaps of chicken carnage mark’d his course!
How oft, O Strymon, thy lone banks along,
Did wailing echo waft the funeral song.
And now from far the mingling clamours rise,
Loud and more loud rebounding through the skies.
From skirt to skirt of heaven, with stormy sway,
A cloud rolls on, and darkens all the day.
Near and more near descends the dreadful shade,
And now in battalions array display’d,
On sounding wings, and screaming in their ire,
The cranes rush onward, and the fight require.
The pygmy warrior’s eye with fearless glare
The host thick swarming o’er the burthen’d air:
Thick swarming now, but to their native land
Doom’d to return a scanty straggling band. -
When sudden, darting down the depth of heaven,
Fierce on th’ expecting foe the cranes are driven.
The kindling phrenzy every bosom warms,
The region echoes to the crash of arms:
Loose feathers from the encountering armies fly,
And in careering whirlwinds mount the sky.
To breathe from toil upsprings the panting crane,
Then with fresh vigour downwards darts again.
Success in equal balance hovering hangs.
Here, on the sharp spear, mad with mortal pangs,
The bird transfix’d in bloody vortex whirls,
Yet fierce in death the threatening talon curls;
There, while the life-blood bubbles from his wound,
With little feet the pygmy beats the ground;
Deep from his breast the short short sob he draws,
And dying curses the keen pointed claws.
Trembles the thundering field thick cover’d o’er
With falchions, mangled wings, and streaming gore,
And Pygmy arms, and beaks of ample size,
And here a claw, and there a finger lies.
Encompass’d round with heaps of slaughter’d foes,
All grim in blood the pygmy champion glows,
And on th’ assailing host impetuous springs,
Careless of nibbling bills, and flapping wings;
And midst the tumult whereso’er he turns,
The battle with redoubled fury burns;
From every side th’ avenging cranes amain
Throng, to o’erwhelm this terror of the plain.
When suddenly (for such the will of Jove)
A fowl enormous, sousing from above,
The gallant chieftain clutch’d, and, soaring high,
(Sad chance of battle!) bore him p the sky.
The cranes pursue, and clustering in a ring,
Chatter triumphant round the captive king.
But ah! what pangs each pygmy bosom wrung,
When, now to cranes a prey on talons hung,
High in the clouds they saw their helpless lord,
His wriggling form still lessening as he soar’d.
Lo yet again with unabated rage
In mortal strife the mingling hosts engage.
The crane, with darted bill assaults the foe,
Hovering; then wheels aloft to scape the blow:
The dwarf in anguish aims the vengeful wound;
But whirls in empty air the falchion round.
Such was the scene, when midst the loud alarms
Sublime th’ eternal Thunderer rose in arms.
When Briareus, by mad ambition driven,
Heaved Pelion huge, and hurl’d it high at heaven.
Jove roll’d redoubling thunders from on high,
Mountains and bolts encounter’d in the sky;
Till one stupendous ruin whelm’d the crew,
Their vast limbs weltering wide in brimstone blue.
But now at length the pygmy legions yield,
And wing’d with terror fly the fatal field.
They raise a weak and melancholy wail,
All in distraction scattering o’er the vale.
Prone on their routed rear the cranes descend;
Their bills bite furious, and their talons rend:
With unrelenting ire they urge the chase,
Sworn to exterminate the hated race.
’Twas thus the Pygmy Name, once great in war,
For spoils of conquer’d cranes renown’d afar,
Perish’d. For, by the dread decree of Heaven,
Short is the date earthly grandeur is given,
And vain are all attempts to roam beyond
Where Fate has fix’d the everlasting bound.
Fallen are the trophies of Assyrian power,
And Persia’s proud dominion is no more;
Yea, though to both superior far in fame,
Thine empire, Latium, is an empty name.
And now with lofty chiefs of ancient time,
The pygmy heroes roam th’ Elysian clime.
Or, if belief to matron-tales be due,
Full oft, in the belated shepherd’s view,
Their frisking forms, in gentle green array’d,
Gambol secure amid the moonlight glade.
Secure, for no alarming cranes molest,
And all their woes in log oblivion rest;
Down the deep dale, and narrow winding way,
They foot it featly, ranged in ringlets gay:
’Tis joy and frolic all, where’er they rove,
And Fairy-people is the name they love.
