Then reach'd her midwife-hand, to speed the throes, And spoke the powerful spells that babes to birth disclose. The bark divides, the living load to free, The ready nymphs receive the crying child, And wash him in the tears the parent plant distill'd. They swathed him with their scarfs; beneath him spread The ground with herbs; with roses raised his head. * Adonis. CEYX AND ALCYONE. OUT OF THE TENTH BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. CONNECTION OF THIS FABLE WITH THE FORMER. Ceyx, the son of Lucifer, (the Morning Star,) and King of Trachin, in Thessaly, was married to Alcyone, daughter to Eolus, god of the winds. Both the husband and the wife loved each other with an entire affection. Doedalion, the elder brother of Ceyx, whom he succeeded, having been turned into a falcon by Apollo, and Chione, Daedalion's daughter, slain by Diana, Ceyx prepares a ship to sail to Claros, there to consult the oracle of Apollo, and (as Ovid seems to intimate) to inquire how the anger of the Gods might be atoned. THESE prodigies affect the pious prince; Avoiding Delphos, his more famed abode; Her faded cheeks are changed to boxen hue, Whither, ah whither is thy kindness gone! But if not fears, or reasons will prevail, Go not without thy wife, but let me bear These reasons mov'd her starlike husband's heart, But still he held his purpose to depart; For as he loved her equal to his life, He would not to the seas expose his wife; Nor could be wrought his voyage to refrain, But sought by arguments to sooth her pain: Nor these avail'd; at length he lights on one, With which so difficult a cause he won My love, so short an absence cease to fear, For, by my father's holy flame I swear, Before two moons their orb with light adorn, If heaven allow me life, I will return. This promise of so short a stay prevails; He soon equips the ship, supplies the sails, And gives the word to launch; she trembling views This pomp of death, and parting tears renews; Last with a kiss, she took a long farewell, Sigh'd, with a sad presage, and swooning fell. While Ceyx seeks delays, the lusty crew, Raised on their banks, their oars in order drew To their broad breasts, the ship with fury flew. The queen, recover'd, rears her humid eyes, And first her husband on the poop espies, Shaking his hand at distance on the main; She took the sign, and shook her hand again. Still as the ground recedes, retracts her view With sharpen'd sight, till she no longer knew The much-loved face: that comfort lost, supplies With less, and with the galley feeds her eyes; The galley borne from view by rising gales, The sea grew white, the rolling waves from far, Like heralds, first denounce the watery war. This seen, the master soon began to cry, Strike, strike the topsail; let the main sheet fly, And furl your sails.-The winds repel the sound, And in the speaker's mouth the speech is drown'd. Yet of their own accord, as danger taught, Each in his way, officiously they wrought; Some stow their oars, or stop the leaky sides; Another, bolder yet, the yard bestrides, And folds the sails; a fourth, with labour, laves The intruding seas, and waves ejects on waves. In this confusion while their work they ply, The winds augment the winter of the sky, And wage intestine wars; the suffering seas Are toss'd, and mingled as their tyrants please. The master would command, but, in despair Of safety, stands amazed with stupid care, Nor what to bid, or what forbid, he knows, The ungovern'd tempest to such fury grows. |