The Propatides, for their impudent behaviour, being turned into fione by Venus, Pygmalion, prince of Cyprus, detefled all women for their fake, and refolved never to marry. He falls in love with a ftatue of his own making, which is changed into a maid, whom he marries. One of his defcendants is Cinyras, the father of Myrrha: the daughter incestuously loves her own father; for which he is changed into a tree which bears her name. These two stories immediately follow each other, and are admirably well connected.
Ygmalion loathing their lafcivious life,
Abhorr'd all womankind, but most a wife: So fingle chose to live, and shunn'd to wed, Well pleased to want a confort of his bed: Yet fearing idlenefs, the nurse of ill, In fculpture exercis'd his happy fkill; And carv'd in iv'ry fuch a maid, so fair, As nature could not with his art compare,
Were fhe to work; but in her own defence,
Muft take her pattern here, and copy hence.
Pleas'd with his idol, he commends, admires,
Adores; and laft, the thing ador'd defires.
A very virgin in her face was feen,
And, had she mov'd,`a living maid had been; One wou'd have thought the cou'd have stirr'd; but ftrove
With modefty, and was afham'd to move.
Art, hid with art, fo well perform'd the cheat,
It caught the carver with his own deceit ;
He knows 'tis madness, yet he must adore,
And ftill the more he knows it, loves the more:
The flesh, or what fo feems, he touches oft,
Which feels fo fmooth, that he believes it foft.
Fir'd with this thought, at once he ftrain'd the
breaft,
And on the lips a burning kifs imprefs'd.
'Tis true, the harden'd breast refifts the gripe,
And the cold lips return a kifs unripe:
But when retiring back, he look'd again,
To think it iv'ry was a thought too mean;
So wou'd believe fhe kifs'd, and courting more,
Again embrac'd her naked body o'er ;
And ftraining hard the ftatue, was afraid
His hands had made a dint, and hurt the maid:
Explor'd her, limb by limb, and fear'd to find
So rude a gripe had left a livid mark behind:
With flatt'ry now he seeks her mind to move,
And now with gifts, the pow'rful bribes of love:
He furnishes her clofet firft; and fills
The crowded fhelves with rarities of fhells;
Adds Orient pearls, which from the conchs he drew,
And all the sparkling ftones of various hue:
And parrots, imitating human tongue,
And finging-birds in filver cages hung;
And ev'ry fragrant flower, and od'rous green,
Were forted well, with lumps of amber laid
between :
Rich, fashionable robes her perfon deck,
Pendents her ears, and pearls adorn her neck:
Her taper'd fingers too with rings are grac'd,
And an embroider'd zone furrounds her flender
Thus like a queen array'd, fo richly drefs'd,
Beauteous fhe shew'd, but naked fhew'd the best.
Then from the floor, he rais'd a royal bed,
With cov'rings of Sidonian purple spread :
The folemn rites perform'd he calls her bride,
With blandifhments invites her to his fide,
And as fhe were with vital fenfe poffefs'd,
Her head did on a plumy pillow rest.
The feast of Venus came, a folemn day, To which the Cypriots due devotion pay; With gilded horns the milk-white heifers led, Slaughter'd before the facred altars, bled: Pygmalion offering, first approach'd the shrine, And then with prayers implor'd the pow'rs divine: Almighty Gods, if all we mortals want,
If all we can require, be yours to grant ;
Make this fair ftatue mine, he wou'd have said, But chang'd his words for fhame, and only pray'd, Give me the likeness of my iv'ry maid.
The golden Goddefs, prefent at the
Well knew he meant th' inanimated fair,
And gave the fign of granting his defire;
For thrice in chearful flames afcends the fire.
The youth, returning to his mistress, hies,
And impudent in hope, with ardent eyes,
And beating breaft, by the dear ftatue lies.
He kiffes her white lips, renews the bliss,
And looks and thinks they redden at the kifs:
He thought them warm before; nor longer stays,
But next his hand on her hard bofom lays :
Hard as it was, beginning to relent,
It seem'd the breaft beneath his fingers bent;
He felt again, his fingers made a print,
'Twas flesh, but flesh fo firm, it rofe against the dint.
The pleafing task he fails not to renew ;
Soft, and more foft at ev'ry touch it grew;
Like pliant wax, when chafing hands reduce
The former mass to form, and frame to use.
He would believe, but yet is ftill in pain,
And tries his argument of fenfe again,
Preffes the pulfe, and feels the leaping vein,
Convinc'd, o'erjoy'd, his ftudied thanks and praise,
To her who made the miracle, he
pays : Then lips to lips he join'd; now freed from fear, He found the favour of the kifs fincere:
At this the waken'd image op'd her
And view'd at once the light and lover, with furprise.
The Goddess present at the match she made,
So blefs'd the bed, fuch fruitfulness convey'd,
That ere ten moons had sharpen'd either horn,
To crown their blifs, a lovely boy was born
Paphos his name, who, grown to manhood, wall'd
The city Paphos, from the founder call'd.
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