SHE faid, and for her loft Galanthis fighs,
When the fair Confort of her fon replies. Since you a fervant's ravish'd form bemoan, And kindly figh for forrows not your own, Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate A nearer woe, a fifter's ftranger fate. No nymph of all chalia could compare For beauteous form with Dryope the fair, Her tender mother's only hope and pride, (Myfelf the offspring of a fecond bride.) This Nymph comprefs'd by him who rules the day, Whom Delphi and the Delian ifle obey, Andræmon lov'd; and, blefs'd in all thofe charms That pleas'd a God, fucceeded to her arms.
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A lake there was, with fhelving banks around, 15 Whofe verdant fummit fragrant myrtles crown'd. Thefe fhades, unknowing of the fates, fhe fought, And to the Naiads flow'ry garlands brought; Her finiling babe (a pleafing charge) fhe preft Within her arms, and nourish'd at her breaft.
NOTES.
DRYOPS.] Upon occafion of the death of Hercules, his mother Alemena recounts her misfortunes to Iole, who answers with a relation of those of her own family, in particular the trans formations of her fifter Dryope, which is the fubject of the ensuing
fable.
Porɛ.
Haud procul a stagno, Tyrios imitata colores,
In fpem baccarum florebat aquatica lotos.
Carpferat hinc Dryope, quos oblectamina nato
Porrigeret, flores: et idem factura videbar
Namque aderam. vidi guttas e flore cruentas
Decidere; et tremulo ramos horrore moveri.
Scilicet, ut referunt tardi nunc denique agreftes,
Lotis in hanc Nymphe, fugiens obfcœna Priapi,
Contulerat verfos, fervato nomine, vultus.
Nefcierat foror hoc; quæ cum perterrita retro
Ire, et adoratis vellet difcedere Nymphis,
Hæferunt radice pedes. convellere pugnat:
Nec quidquam, nifi fumma, movet. fuccrefcit ab imo,
Totaque paulatim lentus premit inguina cortex.
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Ut vidit, conata manu laniare capillos,
Fronde manum implevit, frondes caput omne tenebant.
At puer Amphiffos (namque hoc avus Eurytus illi
Addiderat nomen) materna rigefcere fentit
Ubera nec fequitur ducentem lacteus humor.
Not diftant far a watry Lotos grows,
The fpring was new, and all the verdant boughs
Adorn'd with bloffoms promis'd fruits that vie
In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye :
Of these fhe crop'd to pleafe her infant fon,
And I myself the fame rafh act had done:
But lo! I faw, (as near her fide I ftood,)
The violated bloffoms drop with blood;
Upon the tree I caft a frightful look;
The trembling tree with fudden horror fhook.
Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true)
As from Priapus' lawless luft fhe flew,
Forfook her form; and fixing here became
A flow'ry plant, which ftill preferves her name.
This change unknown, aftonish'd at the fight,
My trembling fifter ftrove to urge her flight:
And first the pardon of the nymphs implor'd
And thofe offended fylvan pow'rs ador'd:
But when she backward would have fled, she found
Her ftiff'ning feet were rooted in the ground:
In vain to free her faften'd feet fhe ftrove,
And, as she struggles, only moves above;
She feels th' encroaching bark around her grow
By quick degrees, and cover all below:
Surpriz'd at this, her trembling hand fhe heaves 45
To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves:
Where late was hair the fhooting leaves are seen
To rife, and fhade her with a fudden green,
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Spectatrix aderam fati crudelis: opemque
Non poteram tibi ferre, foror: quantumque valebam,
Crefcentem truncum ramofque amplexa, morabar :
Et (fateor) volui fub eodem cortice condi.
Ecce vir Andræmon, genitorque miferrimus, adfunt;
Et quærunt Dryopen: Dryopen quærentibus illis
Oftendi loton, tepido dant ofcula ligno;
Adfufique fuæ radicibus arboris hærent.
Nil nisi jam faciem, quod non foret arbor, habebas,
Cara foror. lacrymæ verso de corpore factis
Irrorant foliis ac, dum licet, oraque præftant
Vocis iter, tales effundit in aëra queftus;
Si
qua fides miferis, hoc me per numina juro Non meruiffe nefas. patior fine crimine pœnam.
NOTES.
VER. 67. If to the wretched] This tranflation is faulty. To clear herself from the imputation of falling under this judgment of heaven, by any crime of her's, fhe bears witnefs to the behaviour of her husband and father, equally at least with her own; but why that introduction, "Si qua fides," believe me? And by what
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figure
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The child Amphiffus, to her bofom preft,
Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast,
And found the fprings, that ne'er 'till then deny'd
Their milky moisture, on a fudden dry'd.
I faw, unhappy! what I now relate,
And stood the helpless witness of thy fate,
Embrac'd thy boughs, thy rising bark delay'd,
There wish'd to grow, and mingle fhade with fhade.
Behold Andræmon and th' unhappy fire
Appear, and for their Dryope enquire:
A fpringing tree for Dryope they find,
And print warm kiffes on the panting rind.
Proftrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And clofe embrace as to the roots they grew.
The face was all that now remain'd of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev'ry leaf diftills a trickling tear,
And strait a voice, while yet a voice remains,
Thus through the trembling boughs in fighs complains.
If to the wretched any faith be giv'n,
I swear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n,
NOTES.
figure is mutual innocence put for mutual harmony? Nothing is more common in verse than to use the first plural for the fingular: "Patior fine crimine, & viximus innocua," is but one and the fame perfon; a teftimony of her own innocence, but not of the mutual concord between her relations. BOWYER
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