Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

Old Baucis look'd where old Philemon stood,
And saw his lengthen'd arms a sprouting wood :
New roots their fasten'd feet begin to bind,
Their bodies stiffen in a rising rind ;

Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,
They give and take, at once their last adieu.
At once, "farewell, O faithful spouse!" they said;
At once the' incroaching rinds their closing lips
Ev'n yet, an ancient Tyanæan shows

[invade.

A spreading oak, that near a linden grows;
The neighbourhood confirm the prodigy,
Grave men, not vain of tongue, or like to lie.
I saw myself the garlands on their boughs,
And tablets hung for gifts of granted vows;
And offering fresher up, with pious pray'r,
"The good," said I," are God's peculiar care,
And such as honour heav'n, shall heavenly honour
share".

CONTINUED BY VERNON.

THE CHANGES OF PROTEUS.

He ceas'd in his relation to proceed, Whilst all admir'd the author, and the deed; But Theseus most, inquisitive to know From gods what wondrous alterations grow. Whom thus the Calydonian stream address'd, Rais'd high to speak, the couch his elbow press'd : < Some, when transform'd, fix in the lasting change; Some, with more right, through various figures range. Proteus, thus large thy privilege was found, Thou inmate of the seas, which earth surround. Sometimes a blooming youth you grac'd the shore; Oft a fierce lion, or a furious boar:

With glistering spires now seem'd an hissing snake, The bold would tremble in his hands to take: With horns assum'd a bull; sometimes you prov'd A tree by roots, a stone by weight unmov'd : Sometimes two wavering contraries became, Flow'd down in water, or aspir'd in flame.

THE STORY OF ERISICHTHON.

In various shapes thus to deceive the eyes, Without a settled stint of her disguise, Rash Erisichtton's daughter had the pow'r, And brought it to Autolycus in dow'r. Her atheist sire the slighted gods defied, And ritual honours to their shrines denied. As fame reports, his hand an ax sustain❜d, Which Ceres' consecrated grove profan'd; Which durst the venerable gloom invade, And violate with light the awful shade. An ancient oak in the dark centre stood, The covert's glory, and itself a wood : Garlands embrac'd its shaft, and from the boughs Hung tablets, monuments of prosperous vows. In the cool dusk its unpierc'd verdure spread, The Dryads oft their hallow'd dances led; And oft, when round their guaging arms they cast, Full fifteen ells it measur'd in the waist; In height all under-standards did surpass, As they aspir'd above the humbler grass. These motives, which would gentler minds restrain, Could not make Triope's bold son abstain : He sternly charg'd his slaves, with strict decree, To fell with gashing steel the sacred tree. But whilst they, lingering, his commands delay'd, He snatch'd an ax, and thus blaspheming said :

Was this no oak, nor Ceres' favourite care,
But Ceres' self, this arm, unaw'd, should dare
Its leafy honours in the dust to spread,
And level with the earth its airy head.'
He spoke, and as he pois'd a slanting stroke,
Sighs heav'd, and tremblings shook the frighted oak ;
Its leaves look'd sickly, pale its acorns grew,
And its long branches sweat a chilly dew:
But when his impious hand a wound bestow'd,
Blood from the mangled bark in currents flow'd.
When a devoted bull of mighty size,

A sinning nation's grand atonement dies;
With such a plenty from the spouting veins,
A crimson stream the turfy altars stains.

The wonder all amaz'd; yet one more bold,
The fact dissuading, strove his ax to hold.
But the Thessalian, obstinately bent,
Too proud to change, too harden'd to repent,
On his kind monitor his eyes, which burn'd
With rage, and with his eyes his weapon turn'd;
Take the reward,' says he,' of pious dread :'
Then with a blow lop'd off his parted head.
No longer check'd, the wretch his crime pursued,
Doubled his strokes, and sacrilege renew'd;
When from the groaning trunk a voice was heard
A Dryad I, by Ceres' love prefer'd,
Within the circle of this clasping rind
Coëval grew, and now in ruin join'd;
But instant, vengeance shall thy sin pursue,
And death is cheer'd with this prophetic view.'
At last the oak with cords enforc'd to bow,
Strain'd from the top, and sap'd with wounds below,
The humbler wood, partaker of its fate,

Crush'd with its fall, and shiver'd with its weight.

The grove destroy'd, the sister Dryads moan, Griev'd at its loss, and frighted at their own; Straight, suppliants for revenge, to Ceres go, In sable weeds, expressive of their woe.

The beauteous goddess with a graceful air Bow'd in consent, and nodded to their pray'r. The awful motion shook the fruitful ground, And wav'd the fields with golden harvests crown'd. Soon she contriv'd in her projecting mind A plague severe, and piteous in its kind

(If plagues for crimes of such presumptuous height Could pity in the softest breast create),

With pinching want, and hunger's keenest smart,
To tear his vitals, and corrode his heart.
But since her near approach by fate's denied
To Famine, and broad climes their powers divide,
A nymph, the mountain's ranger, she address'd,
And, thus resolv'd, her high commands express'd :

THE DESCRIPTION OF FAMINE.

'Where frozen Scythia's utmost bound is plac'd, A desert lies, a melancholy waste:

In yellow crops there nature never smil❜d,
No fruitful tree to shade the barren wild.
There sluggish cold its icy station makes,
There paleness, frights, and aguish trembling
Of pining Famine this the fated seat, [shakes.
To whom my orders in these words repeat:
Bid her this miscreant with her sharpest pains
Chastise, and sheathe herself into his veins;
Be unsubdued by plenty's baffled store,
Reject my empire, and defeat my pow'r:
And lest the distance, and the tedious way,
Should with the toil and long fatigue dismay,

Ascend my chariot, and, convey'd on high,
Guide the rein'd dragons through the parting sky.
The nymph, accepting of the granted car,
Sprung to the seat, and posted through the air;
Nor stop'd till she to a bleak mountain came
Of wondrous height, and Caucasus its name;
There in a stony field the fiend she found, [ground.
Herbs gnawing, and roots scratching from the
Her elf-lock hair in matted tresses grew,

Sunk were her eyes, and pale her ghastly hue,
Wan were her lips, and foul with clammy glue.
Her throat was fur'd, her guts appear'd within
With snaky crawlings through her parchment skin:
Her jutting hips seem'd starting from their place,
And for a belly was a belly's space.

Her dugs hung dangling from her craggy spine,
Loose to her breast, and fasten'd to her chine.
Her joints protuberant by leanness grown,
Consumption sunk the flesh, and rais'd the bone.
Her kuees' large orbits bunch'd to monstrous size,
And ancles to undue proportion rise.

This plague the nymph, not daring to draw near,
At distance hail'd, and greeted from afar :
And though she told her charge without delay,
Though her arrival late, and short her stay,
She felt keen Famine, or she seem'd to feel,
Invade her blood, and on her vitals steal.
She turn'd from the infection to remove,
And back to Thessaly the serpents drove.

The fiend obey'd the goddess's command, (Though their effects in opposition stand) She cut her way, supported by the wind, And reach'd the mansion by the nymph assign'd:

« FöregåendeFortsätt »