pass:

The pride and joy of fair Arcadia's plains;
Belov'd by deities, ador'd by swains:
Syrinx her name; by Sylvans oft pursued,
As oft she did the lustful gods delude;
The rural and the woodland pow'rs dis-
dain'd;

With Cynthia hunted, and her rites maintain'd.

Like Phoebe clad, even Phoebe's self she seems,

So tall, so straight, such well-proportion'd limbs:

The nicest eye did no distinction know, But that the goddess bore a golden bow: Distinguish'd thus, the sight she cheated

too.

960

Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold and pale; And all his hundred eyes, with all their light,

1000

Are clos'd at once in one perpetual night. These Juno takes, that they no more may

fail,

And spreads them in her peacock's gaudy tail.

Impatient to revenge her injur'd bed, She wreaks her anger on her rival's head; With furies frights her from her native home,

repose,

Or death at least, to finish all her woes. 1019 Jove heard her vows, and with a flatt'ring look,

In her behalf to jealous Juno spoke.

He cast his arms about her neck, and said:
"Dame, rest secure; no more thy nuptial bed
This nymph shall violate; by Styx I swear,
And every oath that binds the Thunderer."
The goddess was appeas'd; and at the word
Was Io to her former shape restor❜d.
The rugged hair began to fall away;
The sweetness of her eyes did only stay,
Tho' not so large; her crooked horns de-

1050

His haughty looks, and his assuming air, The son of Isis could no longer bear: "Thou tak'st thy mother's word too far," said he,

"And hast usurp'd thy boasted pedigree. Go, base pretender to a borrow'd name! Thus tax'd, he blush'd with anger, and with shame;

But shame repress'd his rage: the daunted youth

Soon seeks his mother, and enquires the truth.
"Mother," said he, "this infamy was thrown
By Epaphus on you, and me your son.
He spoke in public, told it to my face;
Nor durst I vindicate the dire disgrace: 1060
Ev'n I, the bold, the sensible of wrong,
Restrain❜d by shame, was fore'd to hold my
tongue.

To hear an open slander is a curse;
But not to find an answer, is a worse.
If I am heav'n-begot, assert your son
By some sure sign; and make my father
known,

To right my honor, and redeem your

He longs the world beneath him to survey; To guide the chariot, and to give the day: From Meroe's burning sands he bends his

course,

Nor less in India feels his father's force; His travel urging, till he came in sight, And saw the palace by the purple light.

THE FABLE OF IPHIS AND IANTHE

FROM THE NINTH BOOK OF THE METAMORPHOSES

THE fame of this, perhaps, thro' Crete had flown;

But Crete had newer wonders of her own, In Iphis chang'd; for near the Gnossian bounds,

(As loud report the miracle resounds,) At Phæstus dwelt a man of honest blood, But meanly born, and not so rich as good; Esteem'd and lov'd by all the neighborhood:

Who to his wife, before the time assign'd For childbirth came, thus bluntly spoke his mind:

"If Heav'n," said Lygdus, "will vouchsafe to hear,

ΤΟ

When slumb'ring, in the latter shades of night,

Before th' approaches of returning light, 30 She saw, or thought she saw, before her bed, A glorious train, and Isis at their head: Her moony horns were on her forehead plac'd,

And yellow sheaves her shining temples grac'd:

A miter, for a crown, she wore on high;
The dog and dappled bull were waiting by;
Osiris, sought along the banks of Nile;
The silent god; the sacred crocodile;
And, last, a long procession moving on,
With timbrels, that assist the lab'ring

With joy the woman wakes, and leaves her

bed;

Devoutly lifts her spotless hands on high, 50 And prays the pow'rs their gift to ratify. Now grinding pains proceed to bearing

throes,

Till its own weight the burden did disclose. 'T was of the beauteous kind, and brought

to light

With secrecy, to shun the father's sight. Th' indulgent mother did her care employ, And pass'd it on her husband for a boy. The nurse was conscious of the fact alone; The father paid his vows as for a son;

And call'd him Iphis, by a common name 60 Which either sex with equal right may claim.

Iphis his grandsire was; the wife was pleas'd,

Of half the fraud by fortune's favor eas'd: The doubtful name was us'd without deceit, And truth was cover'd with a pious cheat. The habit shew'd a boy, the beauteous face With manly fierceness mingled female

grace.

Her passion was extravagantly new,
But mine is much the madder of the two.
To things impossible she was not bent,
But found the means to compass her intent.
To cheat his eyes she took a different shape;
Yet still she gain'd a lover, and a leap.
Should all the wit of all the world conspire,
Should Dædalus assist my wild desire,
What art can make me able to enjoy,
Or what can change Ianthe to a boy?
Extinguish then thy passion, hopeless maid,
And recollect thy reason for thy aid.
Know what thou art, and love as maidens
ought,

120

And drive these golden wishes from thy thought.

Thou canst not hope thy fond desires to gain;

Where hope is wanting, wishes are in vain. "And yet no guards against our joys con

spire;

No jealous husband hinders our desire:
My parents are propitious to my wish,
And she herself consenting to the bliss. 130
All things concur to prosper our design;
All things to prosper any love but mine.
And yet I never can enjoy the fair;

'Tis past the pow'r of Heav'n to grant my pray'r.

Heav'n has been kind, as far as Heav'n can be;
Our parents with our own desires agree;
But Nature, stronger than the gods above,
Refuses her assistance to my love;
She sets the bar that causes all my pain:
One gift refus'd makes all their bounty vain.
And now the happy day is just at hand, 141
To bind our hearts in Hymen's holy band
Our hearts, but not our bodies: thus, accurst,
In midst of water I complain of thirst.
Why com'st thou, Juno, to these barren rites,
To bless a bed defrauded of delights?
Or why should Hymen lift his torch on high,
To see two brides in cold embraces lie?"
Thus love-sick Iphis her vain passion

sight;

170

Reveal'd I saw thee, by thy own fair light:
I saw thee in my dream, as now I see,
With all thy marks of awful majesty,
The glorious train that compass'd thee
around;

And heard the hollow timbrel's holy sound.
Thy words I noted, which I still retain;
Let not thy sacred oracles be vain.
That Iphis lives, that I myself am free
From shame and punishment, I owe to thee.
On thy protection all our hopes depend: 180
Thy counsel sav'd us, let thy pow'r defend."
Her tears pursued her words, and, while
she spoke,

The goddess nodded, and her altar shook:
The temple doors, as with a blast of wind,
Were heard to clap; the lunar horns that
bind

The brows of Isis cast a blaze around; The trembling timbrel made a murm'ring sound.

Some hopes these happy omens did impart; Forth went the mother with a beating heart,

From Faunus and the nymph Symethis born,

Was both his parents' pleasure; but to me
Was all that love could make a lover be.
The gods our minds in mutual bands did
join;

I was his only joy, as he was mine.
Now sixteen summers the sweet youth had

seen,

And doubtful down began to shade his chin;

When Polyphemus first disturb'd our joy,
And lov'd me fiercely, as I lov'd the boy. 10
Ask not which passion in my soul was
high'r,

My last aversion, or my first desire:
Nor this the greater was, nor that the less;
Both were alike, for both were in excess.
Thee, Venus, thee, both heav'n and earth
obey;

Immense thy pow'r, and boundless is thy

sway.

The Cyclops, who defied th' ethereal throne, And thought no thunder louder than his

own;

The terror of the woods, and wilder far Than wolves in plains, or bears in forests

Th' inhuman host, who made his bloody feasts