PRIAM PETITIONING ACHILLES FOR THE BODY OF HECTOR. Unseen by these, the king his entry made; And prostrate now before Achilles laid, Sudden (a venerable sight!) appears; Embraced his knees, and bathed his hand in tears; As when a wretch (who, conscious of his crime, Ah think, thou favour'd of the powers divine 1 His trembling limbs, his helpless person, see! In all my equal, but in misery! Yet now, perhaps, some turn of human fate Expels him helpless from his peaceful state; Think, from some powerful foe thou see'st him fly, And beg protection with a feeble cry. Yet still one comfort in his soul may rise; The first of men in sovereign misery. Thus forced to kneel, thus grovelling to embrace The scourge and ruin of my realm and race: Suppliant my children's murderer to implore, And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore !-Homer's Iliad, Book 24. In this picture Mr. West has fully verified the remark of Mr. Pope, that "this interview between Priam and Achilles would furnish an admirable subject for a Painter." It is indeed one of the most affecting of the many pathetic incidents of the Iliad, and is one of those master-keys of Homer's enchanting poetry with which he unlocks the tenderest emotions of the heart. Priam had entered the inner tent of Achilles unseen by the attendants, and prostrating himself before the hero, embraced his knees, kissed his hands, and commenced a petition which softened the vindictive soul of Achilles into pity for the miseries of the aged monarch, who was reduced thus lowly to sue his enemy, and to kiss "those terrible, murderous hands that had robbed him of so many sons,—that had slain his subjects, and ruined his family and kingdom." One of the finest touches of Shakspeare's genius is where he makes Lady Macbeth recoil from her intention of murdering Duncan, in consequence of the feelings of parental love and reverence which flashed on her flinty heart, from recognizing in Duncan a likeness to her father: Had he not resembled So Homer, like a keen investigator of the human character, makes Priam effectually touch on this tender chord of the heart in commencing and concluding his address to Achilles, by reminding him of his father. The Painter has expressed, to the extent that the pencil is competent to pourtray, this humiliating and pathetic imploring of an aged father for a favour from his greatest enemy. To indicate the object of this petition, Mr. West has made Priam point to his slain son, who is not, however, introduced by the poet in this scene. In the poem it would have been at least superfluous; but as a Picture cannot, like Poetry, explain its subject by a detail of circumstances, but does it by the silent language of forms, and a glance or two of the eye, the Painter has judiciously indulged the license of introducing a new object, as materially assisting to the elucidation of his subject. The surprise that Achilles so forcibly expresses, in common with his attendants, at the sudden and venerable appearance of the Trojan Prince, is admirably associated with his peculiar characteristic of fierceness, a characteristic so strong, that even when he relented into compassion at the mournful suit of Priam, he could not avoid a sally of anger at the latter's slightly extending his petition beyond the circumstance of the restoration of his son's body. This momentary anger of Achilles, at such a time, evinces the exquisite judgment of Homer in sustaining uniformity of character even in the midst of circumstances most adverse to its continuance. R. H. |