Now all undrest the shining goddess stood, When young Acteon, wilder'd in the wood, To the cool grot by his hard fate betray'd, The fountains fill'd with naked nymphs furvey'd, The frighted virgins fhriek'd at the surprise (The forest echo'd with their piercing cries). Then in a huddle round their goddess preft: She, proudly eminent above the rest, With blushes glow'd ; fuch blushes as adorn The ruddy welkin, or the purple morn: And though the crowdiug nymphs her body hide, Half backward fhrunk, and view'd him from afide. Surpris'd, at first she would have fnatch'd her bow, But fees the circling waters round her flow; These in the hollow of her hand fhe took, And dash'd them in his face, while thus fhe spoke : "Tell, if thou canft, the wondrous fight disclos'd; "A goddess naked to thy view expos'd"

This faid, the man begun to dilappear By flow degrees, and ended in a deer. A rising horn on either brow he wears, And stretches out his neck, and pricks his ears; Rough is his fkin, with fudden hairs o'er-grown, His bofom pants with fears before unknown. Transform'd at length, he flies away in hafte, And wonders why he flies away so fast But as by chance, within a neighbouring brook, He saw his branching horns and alter'd look, Wretched Acteon! in a doleful tone He try'd to speak, but only gave a groan; And as he wept, within the watery glass He faw the big round drops, with filent pace, Run trickling down a favage hairy face. What should he do? Or seek his old abodes, Or herd among the deer, and fculk in woods? Here shame diffuades him, there his fear prevails, And each by turns his aching heart affails.

As he thus ponders, he behind him spies His opening hounds, and now he hears their cries: A generous pack, or to maintain the chace, Or fnuff the vapour from the scented grafs.

He bounded off with fear, and swiftly ran
O'er craggy mountains, and the flowery plain;
Through brakes and thickets forc'd his way and
Alew

Through many a ring, where once he did purfue.
In vain he oft endeavour'd to proclaim
His new misfortune, and to tell his name;
Nor voice nor words the brutal tongue fupplies;
From fhouting men, and horns, and dogs, he flies,
Deafen'd and stunn'd with their promifcuous
cries.

When now the fleetest of the pack, that preft
Clofe at his heels, and fprung before the rest,
Had faften'd on him, straight another pair
Hung on his wounded haunch, and held him there,
Till all the pack came up, and every hound
Tore the fad huntfman grovelling on the ground,
Who now appear'd but one continued wound.
With dropping tears his bitter fate he moans,
And fills the mountain with his dying groans.
His fervants with a piteous look he spies,
And turns about his fupplicating eyes.
His fervants, ignorant of what had chanc'd,
With cager hafte and joyful fhouts advanc'd,
VOL. VII.

And call'd their lord Acteon to the game;
He shook his head in answer to the name;
He heard, but wifh'd he had indeed been gone,
Or only to have stood a looker-on.

But, to his grief, he finds himself too near,
And feels his ravenous dogs with fury tear
Their wretched mafter panting in a deer.

THE BIRTH OF BACCHUS.

ACTEON's fufferings, and Diana's rage,

id all the th ughts of men and gods engage; Some call'd the evils, which Diana wrought, Too great, and difproportion'd to the fault; Other, again esteem'd Actæon's woes Fit for a virgin goddess to impofe. The hearers into different parts divide, And reafons are produc'd on either side.

Juno alone, of all that heard the news, Nor would condemn the goddess, nor excuse: She heeded not the justice of the deed, But joy'd to fee the race of Cadmus bieed; For ftill fhe kept Europa in her mind, And, for her fake, detefted all her kind. Befides, to aggravate her hate, she heard How Semele, to Jove's embrace preferr'd, Was now grown big with an immortal load, And carry'd in her womb a future god, Thus terribly incens'd, the goddess broke To fudden fury, and abruptly spoke :

tr

"Are my reproaches of fo small a force? "'Tis time I then purfue another course : "It is decreed the guilty wretch shall die, "If I'm indeed the mistress of the fky; "If rightly styl'd among the powers above "The wife and fifter of the thundering Jove "(And none can sure a fifter's right deny); "It is decreed the guilty wretch shall die. "She boasts an honour I can hardly claim;

Pregnant the rises to a mother's name; "While proud and vain fhe triumphs in her Jove, "And fhows the glorious tokens of his love: "But if I'm still the mistress of the skies, "By her own lover the fond beauty dies.” This faid, defcending in a yellow cloud, Before the gates of Semele the stood.

Old Beroë's decrepit shape she wears,
Her wrinkled vifage, and her hoary hairs;
Whilft in her trembling gait fhe totters on,
And learns to tattle in the nurfe's tone.
The goddess, thus difguis'd in age, beguil'd
With pleasing stories her false fofter-child.
Much did she talk of love, and when the came
To mention to the nymph her lover's name,
Fetching a figh, and holding down her head,

'Tis well," fays fhe, "if all be true that's faid. "But trust me, child, I'm much inclin'd to fear "Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter. "Many an honeft well defigning maid "Has been by these pretended gods betray'd. "But if he be indeed the thundering Jove,

"Bid him, when next he courts the rites of love,

"Defcend triumphant from th' ethereal fky, "In all the pomp of his divinity;

cr

Encompass'd round by those celestial charms, "With which he fills th' immortal Juno's arms. "Th' unwary nymph, enfnar'd with what she faid,

Defir'd of Jove, when next he fought her bed, To grant a certain gift which fhe would choose; "Fear not," replied the god, "that I'll refufe "Whate'er you aik: may Styx confirm my voice, "Choose what you will, and you fhall have your " choice." [my arms "Then," fays the nymph," when next you seek "May you defcend in thofe celeftial charins "With which your Juno's bosom you inflame, "And fill with tranfport heaven's immortal "dame."

[voice: The god furpris'd would fain have ftopp'd her But he had fworn, and fhe had made her cho.

To keep his promife, he afcends, and fhrouds
His awful brow in whirlwinds and in clouds;
Whilft all around, in terrible array,
His thunders rattle, and his lightnings play.
And yet, the dazzling luftre to abate,
He fet not out in all his pomp and fiate,
Clad in the mildeft lightning of the skies,
And arm'd with thunder of the smallest size:
Not thofe huge bolts, by which the giants flain
Lay overthrown on the Phlegrean plain.
Twas of a leffer mold, and lighter weight;
They call it thunder of a fecond rate,
For the rough Cyclops, who by Jove's command
Temper'd the bolt, and turn'd it to his hand,
Work'd up lefs flame and fury in its make,
And quench'd it fooner in the standing lake.
Thus dreadfully adorn'd, with horror bright,
Th' illuftrious god, defcending from his height,
Came rufhing on her in a form of light.

The mortal dame, too feeble to engage
The lightning's flashes and the thunder's rage,
Confum'd amidst the glories fhe defir'd,
And in the terrible embrace expir'd.

But, to prefete his offspring from the tomb,
Jove took him foking from the blafted womb;
And, if on ancient tales we may rely,
Inclos'd th' abortive infant in his thigh.
Here, when the babe had all his time fulfill'd,
Ino first took him for her fofter-child;
Įno
Then the Nifeans, in their dark abode,
Nurs'd fecretly, with milk, the thriving god.

Juno the truth of what was said deny'd;
Tirefias therefore must the caufe decide;
For he the pleasure of each sex had try'd.

It happen'd once, within a fhady wood, Two twisted snakes he in conjunction view'd; When with his ftaff their flimy folds he broke, And loft his manhood at the fatal ftroke. But, after seven revolving years, he view'd The self-fame ferpents in the self-same wood; "And if," fays he, fuch virtue in you lie, "That he who dares your flimy folds untie "Muft change his kind, a fecond stroke I'll “try."

Again he ftruck the fnakes, and flood again
New-lex'd, and straight recover'd into man.
Him therefore both the Deities create
The fovereign umpire in their grand debate :
And he declar'd for Jove: when Juno, fir'd,
More than fo trivial an affair requir'd,
Depriv'd him, in her fury, of his fight,
And left him groping round in fudden night.
But Jove (for fo it is in heaven decreed,
That no one god repeal another's deed)
Irradiates all his foul with inward light,
And with the prophet's art relieves the want of
fight.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ECHO. FAM'D far and near for knowing things to come, From him th' inquiring nations fought their doom;

The fair Liriope his answers try'd,
And first th' unerring prophet justify'd;
This nymph the god Cephifus had abus'd,
With all his winding waters circumfus'd,
And on the Nereid got a lovely boy,
Whom the soft maids ev'n then beheld with joy.
The tender dame, folicitous to know
Whether her child fhould reach old age or no,
Confults the fage Tirefias, who replies,
"If e'er he knows himself, he furely dies."
Long-liv'd the dubious mother in fuspense,
Till time unriddled all the prophet's fenfe,

Narciffus now his fixteenth year began,
Just turn'd of boy, and on the verge of man;
Many a friend the blooming youth caress'd,
Many a lovefick maid her flame confefs'd.
Such was his pride, in vain the friend carefs'd,
The lovefick maid in vain her flame confefs'd.

Once, in the woods, as he purfu'd the chace,
The babbling Echo had defcry'd his face;
She, who in others' words her filence breaks,
Nor fpeaks herself but when another fpeaks.
Echo was then a maid, of speech bereft,
Of wonted fpeech; for though her voice was left,
Juno a curfe did on her tongue impofe,

To fport with every fentence in the clofe.

Full often, when the goddess might have caught

Jove and her rivals in the very fault,

This nymph with fubtle ftories would delay

Her coming, till the lovers flipp'd away.

The goddess found out the deceit in time,
And then the cry'd, "That tongue, for this thy

❝ crime,

"Which could so many fubtle tales produce,
"Shall be hereafter but of little use.'
Hence 'tis fhe prattles in a fainter tone,
With mimic founds, and accents not her own.
This lovefick virgin, over-joy'd to find
The boy alone, ftill follow'd him behind;
When glowing warmly at her near approach,
As fulphur blazes at the taper's touch,
She long'd her hidden paffion to reveal,
And tell her pains, but had not words to tell :
She can't begin, but waits for the rebound,
To catch his voice, and to return the found.

The nymph, when nothing could Narciffus move,
Still dafh'd with blushes for her flighted love,
Liv'd in the fhady covert of the woods,
In folitary caves and dark abodes ;
Where pining wander'd the rejected fair,
Till, harafs'd out, and worn away with care,
The founding skeleton, of blood bereft,
Befides her bones and voice had nothing left.
Her bones are petrify'd, her voice is found
In vaults, where still it doubles every found.

Rhamnufia pity'd the neglected fair,
And with juft vengeance anfwer'd to her prayer.
There ftands a fountain in a darkfome wood,
Nor ftain'd with falling leaves nor rising mud;
Untroubled by the breath of winds it refts,
Unfully'd by the touch of men or beafts;
High bowers of fhady trees above it grow,
And rifing grafs and cheerful greens below.
Pleas'd with the form and coolness of the place,
And over-heated by the morning chace,
Narciffus on the graffy verdure lies:
But whilft within the cryftal fount he tries
To quench his heat, he feels new heats arise.
For, as his own bright image he furvey'd,
He fell in love with the fantastic fhade;
And o'er the fair refemblance hung unmov'd,
Nor knew, fond youth! it was himself he lov'd.
The well-turn'd neck and shoulders he defcrics,
The fpacious forehead, and the sparkling eyes;
The hands that Bacchus might not fcorn to fhow,
And hair that round Apollo's head might flow,
With all the purple youthfulness of face,
That gently blushes in the watery glass.
By his own flames confum'd, the lover lies,
And gives himself the wound by which he dies.
To the cold water oft he joins his lips,
Oft catching at the beauteous fhade he dips
His arms, as often from himself he flips.
Nor knows he who it is his arms pursue
With eager clafps, but loves he knows not who,

Mindless of fleep, and negligent of food; Still view'd his face, and languifh'd as he view'd.

At length he rais'd his head, and thus began To vent his griefs, and tell the woods his pain; "You trees," fays he," and thou furrounding grove,

"Who oft have been the kindly fcenes of love, "Tell me, if e'er within your shades did lie "A youth fo tortur'd, fo perplex'd as I !

" I who before me fee the charming fair, "Whilft there he ftands, and yet he ftands not "there:

"In such a maze of love my thoughts are loft; "And yet no bulwark town, nor diftant coast, "Preferves the beauteous youth from being feen, "No mountains rife, nor oceans flow between. "A fhallow water hinders my embrace; "And yet the lovely mimic wears a face "That kindly fmiles, and when I bend to join "My lips to his, he fondly bends to mine. "Hear, gentle youth, and pity my complaint, "Come from thy well, thou fair inhabitant.

3

My charms an eafy conquest have obtained "O'er other hearts, by thee alone disdain'd. "But why fhould I despair? I'm fure he burns "With equal flames, and languishes by turns. "Whene'er I stoop, he offers at a kifs: "And when my arms I ftretch, he stretches his. "His eyes with pleasure on my face he keeps, "He fmiles ny fmiles, and when I weep he

weeps.

"Whene'er I speak, his moving lips appear "To utter fomething which I cannot hear,

"Ah wretched me! I now begin too late "To find out all the long perplex'd deceit; "It is myfelf I love, myself I fee; "The gay delufion is a part of me. "I kindle up the fires by which I burn, "And my own beauties from the well return. "Whom should I court? How utter my coniplaint?

"Enjoyment but produces my restraint, "And too much plenty makes me die for want. "How gladly would I from myself remove! “And at a distance set the thing I love.

My breaft is warm'd with such unusual fire, "I wish him abfent whom I moft defire. [nigh; "And now I faint with grief; my fate draws "In all the pride of blooming youth I die. "Death will the forrows of my heart relieve. "O might the visionary youth furvive, "I should with joy my latest breath refign! "But, oh! I see his fate involv'd in mine.' This faid, the weeping youth again return'ð To the clear fountain, where again he burn'd; ·

The captive views him with undaunted eyes, And, arm'd with inward innocence, replies: "From high Meonia's rocky hores I came, "Of poor defcent, Acates is my name : "My fire was meanly born; no oxen plough'd "His fruitful fields, nor in his paftures low'd. "His whole eftate within the waters lay; "With lines and hooks he caught the finny prey ; "His art was all his livelihood; which he "Thus with his dying lips bequeath'd to me : "In ftreams, my boy, and rivers, take thy chance; "There fwims, faid he, thy whole inheritance.

"Long did I live on this poor legacy, "Till, tir'd with rocks, and my own native sky, "To arts of navigation I inclin'd; "Obferv'd the turns and changes of the wind: "Learn'd the fit havens, and began to note "The ftormy Hyades, the rainy Goat, "The bright Taygete, and the fhining Bears, "With all the failors catalogue of stars.

ર

"Once, as by chance for Delos I defign'd, " My vessel, driv'n by a strong gust of wind, "Moor'd in a Chian creek: afhore I went, "And all the following night in Chios spent. "When morning rofe, I fent my mates to bring Supplies of water from a neighbouring spring, "Whilft I the motion of the winds explor'd; "Then fummon'd in my crew, and went aboard. Opheltes heard my fummons, and with joy Brought to the fhore a foft and lovely boy, "With more than female sweetness in his look, "Whom ftraggling in the neighbouring fields he "took.

"With fumes of wine the little captive glows, "And nods with fleep, and ftaggers as he goes. "I view'd him nicely, and began to trace "Each heavenly feature, each immortal grace, "And faw divinity in all his face.

"I know not who, faid I, this god fhould be; "But that he is a god I plainly see : "And thou, whoe'er thou art, excufe the force "These men have us'd, and oh befriend our

" course !

Pray not for us, the nimble Dictys cry'd; "Dictys, that could the main top-mast bestride,

And down the ropes with active vigour flide.'S "To the fame purpose old Epopeus fpoke, "Who overlook'd the oars, and tim'd the stroke ; "The fame the pilot, and the fame the rest; "Such impious avarice their fouls poffeft.

Nay, heaven forbid that I should bear away "Within my veffel fo divine a prey, "Said I; and stood to hinder their intent: "When Lycabas, a wretch for murder fent "From Tuscany, to fuffer banishment, "With his clench'd fift had ftruck me over

"board,

"Had not my hands in falling grafp'd a cord. "His bafe confederates the fact approve; "When Bacchus (for 'twas he) began to move, "Wak'd by the noise and clamours which they "rais'd; [gaz'd: "And fhook his drowfy limbs, and round him What means this noife? he cries; am I betray'd? Ah whither, whither muft I be convey'd ?

"Fear not, faid Proteus, child, but tell us where "You wish to land, and truft our friendly care. "To Naxos then direct your course, says he; "Naxos a hofpitable port fhall be "To each of you, a joyful home to me.

By every god that rules the fea or sky, "The perjur'd villains promife to comply, "And bid me haften to unmoor the ship. "With eager joy I launch into the deep; "And, heedlefs of the fraud, for Naxos ftand: "They whisper oft, and beckon with the hand. "And give me figns all anxious for their prey, "To tack about, and fteer another way. "Then let fome other to my post succeed, "Said I, I'm guiltlefs of fo foul a deed. "What, fays Ethalion, must the ship's whole

"And from the deck the rising waves furvey'd, "And seem'd to weep, and as he wept he said; "And do you thus my eafy faith beguile? "Thus do you bear me to my native ifle? "Will fuch a multitude of men employ "Their strength against a weak defencelefs boy?

"In vain did I the godlike youth deplore, "The more I begg'd, they thwarted me the more. "And now, by all the gods in heaven that hear "This folemn oath, by Bacchus' felf, I swear, "The mighty miracle that did enfue,

Although it feems beyond belief, is true. "The veffel, fix'd and rooted in the flood, "Unmov'd by all the beating billows ftoed. "In vain the mariners would plough the main "With fails unfurl'd, and strike their oars in vain; "Around their oars a twining ivy cleaves,

"And climbs the maft, and hides the cords in "leaves:

"The fails are cover'd with a cheerful green,
"And berries in the fruitful canvas feen.
"Amidst the waves a fudden forest rears
"Its verdant head, and a new fpring appears.

"The god we now behold with open eyes; "A herd of spotted panthers round him lies "In glaring forms; the grapy clusters spread "On his fair brows, and dangle on his head. "And whilft he frowns, and brandishes his fpear,

My mates, furpriz'd with madness or with fear, "Leap'd over-board; first perjur'd Madon found Rough fcales and fins his stiffening fides fur

"round:

"Ah what, cries one, has thus transform'd thy "look?

Straight his own mouth grew wider as he spoke: "And now himself he views with like furprise. "Still at his oar th' induftrious Libys plies; "But, as he plies, each bufy arm shrinks in, "And by degrees is fashion'd to a fin. "Another, as he catches at a cord, "Miffes his arms, and, tumbling over-board, "With his broad fins and forky tail he laves "The rifing furge, and flounces in he waves.