Cinyras and Myrrha,
Out of the Tenth Book of
There needs no Connection of this Story with the Former; for the Beginning of This immediately follows the End of the Laft: The Reader is only to take notice, that Orpheus, who relates both, was by Birth a Thracian; and his Country far diftant from Cyprus where Myrrha was born, and from Arabia whither he fled. You will fee the Reason of this Note, foon after the first Lines of this Fable.
iOR him alone produc'd the fruitful
But Cinyras, who like his Sire had
A happy Prince, had he not been a Sire.
Daughters and Fathers from my Song retire;
I fing of Horror; and, could I prevail, '
You shou'd not hear, or not believe my Tale.
Yet if the Pleasure of my Song be such,
That you will hear, and credit me too much,
Attentive liften to the laft Event,
And with the Sin believe the Punishment:
Since Nature cou'd behold fo dire a Crime,
I gratulate at least my Native Clime,
That fuch a Land, which fuch a Monster bore,
So far is distant from our Thracian Shore.
Let Araby extol her happy Coaft,
Her Cinamon, and fweet Amomum boast,
Her fragrant Flow'rs, her Trees with precious? Tears,
Her fecond Harvefts, and her double Years; > How can the Land be call'd fo blefs'd that
Nor all her od❜rous Tears can cleanse her Crime,
Her Plant alone deforms the happy Clime:
Cupid denies to have inflam'd thy Heart,
Difowns thy Love, and vindicates his Dart:
Some Fury gave thee those infernal Pains,
And shot her venom'd Vipers in thy Veins.
To hate thy Sire, had merited a Curse;
But fuch an impious Love deserv'd a worse.
The Neighb'ring Monarchs, by thy Beauty led,
Contend in Crowds, ambitious of thy Bed:
The World is at thy Choice; except but one,
Except but him, thou canst not chufe, alone.
She knew it too, the miferable Maid,
Ere impious Love her better Thoughts betray'd,
And thus within her fecret Soul fhe faid :
Ah Myrrha! whither wou'd thy Wishes tend?
Ye Gods, ye facred Laws, my Soul defend
From fuch a Crime, as all Mankind deteft,
And never lodg'd before in Human Breast!
But is it Sin? Or makes my Mind alone
Th' imagin'd Sin? For Nature makes it none.
What Tyrant then these envious Laws began,
Made not for any other Beast, but Man!
The Father-Bull his Daughter may bestride,
The Horse may make his Mother-Mare a Bride;
What Piety forbids the lufty Ram,
Or more falacious Goat, to rut their Dam?
The Hen is free to wed the Chick the bore,
And make a Husband, whom she hatch'd before.
All Creatures elfe are of a happier Kind,
Whom nor ill-natur'd Laws from Pleasure bind,
Nor Thoughts of Sin disturb their Peace of Mind.,
But Man, a Slave of his own making lives;
The Fool denies himself what Nature gives:
Too bufie Senates, with an Over-care
To make us better than our Kind can bear,
Havé dafh'd a Spice of Envy in the Laws,
And ftraining up too high, have fpoil'd the Caufe.
Yet fome wife Nations break their cruel Chains,
And own no Laws, but those which Love ordains:
Where happy Daughters with their Sires are join'd,
And Piety is doubly paid in Kind.
O that I had been born in fuch a Clime,
Not here, where 'tis the Country makes the Crime! But whither wou'd my impious Fancy stray? Hence Hopes, and ye forbidden Thoughts away!
His Worth deserves to kindle
But with the Love, that Daughters bear to Sires.
Then had not Cinyras my Father been,
What hinder'd Myrrha's Hopes to be his Queen?
But the Perverseness of my Fate is fuch,
That he's not mine, because he's mine too much:
Our Kindred-Blood debars a better Tie;
He might be nearer, were he not so nigh.
Eyes and their Objects never must unite,
Some Distance is requir'd to help the Sight:
Fain wou'd I travel to fome Foreign Shore,
Never to fee my Native Country more,
So might I to my self my self restore;
So might my Mind thefe impious Thoughts remove,
And ceafing to behold, might cease to love.
But stay I must, to feed my famifh'd Sight,
To talk, to kiss; and more, if more I might:
More, impious Maid! What more canft thou
defign,
To make a monftrous Mixture in thy Line,
And break all Statutes Human and Divine?
Canft thou be call'd (to fave thy wretched Life)
Thy Mother's Rival, and thy Father's Wife?
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