LVII.
“The marrow of the lion and the bear
“Didst thou for this thine early banquet make,
“And, trained by me, by cliff or cavern-lair,
“Strangle with infant hands the crested snake;
“Their claws from tiger and from panther tear,
“And tusks from living boar in tangled brake[30],
“That, bred in such a school, in thee should I
“Alcina’s Atys or Adonis spy?
LVIII.
“Is this the hope that stars, observed by me,
“Signs in conjunction, sacred fibres, bred;
“With what beside of dream or augury,
“And all those lots I but too deeply read,
“Which, while yet hanging at the breast, of thee,
“When these thy years should be accomplished, said,
“Thy feats should so be bruited far and near,
“Thou justly should be deemed without a peer?
LIX.
“This does, in truth, a fair beginning show;
“A seed which, we may hope, will soon conceive
“A Julius, Alexander, Scipio.
“Who thee Alcina’s bondsman could believe;
“And (far the world the shameful fact might know)
“That all should, manifest to sight, perceive
“Upon thy neck and arms the servile chains,
“Wherewith she at her will her captive trains?
