Her taper fingers, and her panting breaft;
He praises all he fees, and for the reft
Believes the beauties yet unfeen are best.
Swift as the wind, the damfel fled away,
Nor did for these alluring speeches stay:
Stay, nymph, he cry'd, I follow, not a foe:
Thus from the Lion trips the trembling Doe;
Thus from the Wolfthe frighten'd Lamb removes,
And from pursuing Falcons fearful Doves;
Thou fhunn'ft a God, and fhunn'ft a God, that loves.
Ah left fome thorn fhould pierce thy tender foot,
Or thou should'st fall in flying my pursuit!
To sharp uneven ways thy fteps decline;
Abate thy fpeed, and I will bate of mine.
Yet think from whom thou doft fo rafhly fly;
Nor bafely born, nor fhepherd's fwain am I.
Perhaps thou know'ft not my superior state;
And from that ignorance proceeds thy hate.
Me Claros, Delphos, Tenedos obey;
These hands the Patareian scepter sway.
The king of Gods begot me: what shall be,
Or is, or ever was, in fate, I fee.
Mine is th' invention of the charming lyre;
Sweet notes, and heav'nly numbers I infpire.
Sure is my bow, unerring is my dart;
But ah! more deadly his, who pierc'd my heart.
Med'cine is mine, what herbs and fimples grow
In fields and forefts, all their pow'rs I know;
And am the great physician call'd below.
Alas, that fields and forefts can afford
No remedies to heal their love-fick lord!
To cure the pains of love, no plant avails;
And his own phyfic the physician fails.
She heard not half, fo furioufly fhe flies,
And on her ear th' imperfect accent dies.
Fear gave her wings; and as fhe fled, the wind
Increafing spread her flowing hair behind;
And left her legs and thighs expos'd to view;
Which made the God more eager to pursue.
The God was young, and was too hotly bent
To lose his time in empty compliment:
But led by love, and fir'd by such a sight,
Impetuously purfu'd his near delight.
As when th'impatient greyhound, flipt from far, Bounds o'er the glebe, to course the fearful hare, She in her speed does all her fafety lay; And he with double speed pursues the prey; O'er-runs her at the fitting turn, and licks
His chaps in vain, and blows the flix:
She fcapes, and for the neighb'ring covert strives,
And gaining shelter doubts if yet fhe lives:
If little things with great we may compare,
Such was the God, and fuch the flying fair:
She, urg'd by fear, her feet did swiftly move,
But he more swiftly who was urg'd by love. ·
He gathers ground upon her in the chace:
Now breathes upon her hair, with nearer pace;
And juft is faft'ning on the wifh'd embrace.
The nymph grew pale, and in a mortal fright,
Spent with the labor of fo long a flight;
And now defpairing caft a mournful look,
Upon the ftreams of her paternal brook:
Oh help the cry'd, in this extremest need,
If Water-Gods are Deities indeed:
Gape, earth, and this unhappy wretch intomb:
Or change my form whence all my forrows come.
Scarce had fhe finish'd, when her feet the found
Benumb'd with cold, and faften'd to the ground,
A filmy rind about her body grows,
Her hair to leaves, her arms extend to boughs: The nymph is all into a laurel
The fmoothness of her skin remains alone.
Yet Phoebus loves her fill, and, cafting round
Her bole, his arms, fome little warmth he found,
The tree still panted in th' unfinish'd part,
Not wholly vegetive, and heav'd her heart.
He fix'd his lips upon the trembling rind;
It fwerv'd afide, and his embrace declin'd.
To whom the God: Because thou canst not be
My mistress, I espouse thee for my tree :
Be thou the prize of honor and renown;
The deathlefs
and the poem, crown.
Thou shalt the Roman feftivals adorn,
And, after poets, be by victors worn.
Thou shalt returning Cæfar's triumph grace;
shall in a long proceffion pafs:
Wreath'd on the post before his palace wait;
And be the facred guardian of the gate :
Secure from thunder, and unharm'd by Jove,
Unfading as th' immortal pow'rs above:
And as the locks of Phoebus are unshorn,
So fhall perpetual green thy boughs adorn.
The grateful tree was pleas'd with what he said,
And shook the shady honors of her head.
The TRANSFORMATION of IO into an HEIFER.
An ancient foreft in Theffalia grows; Which Tempe's pleafant valley does inclose:
Thro this the rapid Peneus takes his courfe;
From Pindus rolling with impetuous force:
Mifts from the river's mighty fall arise;
And deadly damps inclofe the cloudy skies:
Perpetual fogs are hanging o'er the wood;
And founds of waters deaf the neighbourhood,
Deep, in a rocky cave, he makes abode;
A manfion proper for a mourning God.
Here he gives audience; iffuing out decrees
To rivers, his dependent Deities.
On this occafion hither they refort,
their homage, and to make their court, All doubtful, whether to congratulate His daughter's honor, or lament her fate. Sperchæus, crown'd with poplar, first appears; Then old Apidanus came crown'd with years; Enipeus turbulent, Amphryfos tame;
And as laft with lagging waters came.
Then of his kindred brcoks a num'rous throng
Condole his lofs, and bring their urns along.
Not one was wanting of the watry train,
That fill'd his flood, or mingled with the main,
But Inachus, who, in his cave alone,
Wept not another's loffes, but his own;
For his dear lo, whether ftray'd, or dead,
To him uncertain, doubtful tears he fhed,
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