Flew off to heav'n: The hag with eyes askew
Look'd up, and mutter'd curfes as she flew ;
For fore the fretted, and began to grieve
At the fuccefs which she herself must give.
Then takes her staff, hung round with wreaths of thorn
And fails along, in a black whirlwind born,
O'er fields and flow'ry meadows: where the fteers
Her baneful course, a mighty blast appears,
Mildews and blights; the meadows are defac'd,
The fields, the flow'rs, and the whole year laid waste :
On mortals next, and peopled towns she falls,
And breathes a burning plague among their walls.
When Athens the beheld, for arts renown'd,
With peace made happy, and with plenty crown'd,
Scarce could the hideous fiend from tears forbear,
To find out nothing that deferv'd a tear.
'Th' apartment now she enter'd, where at reft
Aglauros lay, with gentle fleep oppreft.
To execute Minerva's dire command,
She strok'd the virgin with her canker'd hand,
Then prickly thorns into her breast convey'd,
That ftung to madness the devoted maid :
Her fubtle venom ftill improves the smart,
Frets in the blood, and fefters in the heart.
To make the work more fure, a scene she drew, And plac'd before the dreaming virgin's view
Her fifter's marriage, and her glorious fate;
Th' imaginary bride appears in ftate;
The bridegroom with unwonted beauty glows;
For Envy magnifies whate'er fhe shows..
Full of the dream, Aglauros pin'd away
In tears all night, in darkness all the day ;
Confum'd like ice, that just begins to run,
When feebly fmitten by the distant fun;
Or like unwholfome weeds, that fet on fire
Are flowly wafted, and in smoke expire.
Given up to envy (for in every thought
The thorns, the venom, and the vifion wrought)
Oft did fhe call on death, as oft decreed,
Rather than fee her fifter's with fucceed,
To tell her awful father what had paft:
At length before the door herself she cast ;
And, fitting on the ground with fullen pride,
A paffage to the love-fick God deny'd.
The God carefs'd, and for admiffion pray'd,
And footh'd in fofteft words th' envenom'd maid.
In vain he footh'd; "Begone! the maid replies,
"Or here I keep my feat, and never rise.
"Then keep thy feat, for ever," cries the God,!
And touch'd the door, wide opening to his rod..
Fain would she rife, and stop him, but the found
Her trunk too heavy to forfake the ground;
Her joints are all benum'd, her hands are pale,
As when a cancer in the body feeds,
And gradual death, from limb to limb proceeds;
So does the chilness to each vital part
Spread by degrees, and creeps into her heart;
"Till hard❜ning every where, and speechless grown,
She fits unmov'd, and freezes to a stone.
But ftill her envious hue and fullen mien
Are in the fedentary figure seen.
When now the God his fury had allay'd,
And taken vengeance of the stubborn maid,.
From where the bright Athenian turrets rife
He mounts aloft, and re-afcends the skies.
Jove faw him enter the fublime abodes,
And, as he mix'd among the croud of Gods,
Beckon❜d him out, and drew him from the reft
And in foft whispers thus his will expreft.
"My trufty Hermes, by whofe ready aid
"Thy fire's commands are thro" the world convey'd, Refume thy wings, exert their utmost force, "And to the walls of Sidon speed thy course;
"There find a herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
"The neighbouring hill, and drive 'em to the fhore."
Thus fpoke the God, concealing his intent..
The trusty Hermes on his meffage went,
And found the herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
A neighb'ring hill, and drove 'em to the shore;
Where the King's daughter with a lovely train
Of fellow-nymphs, was fporting on the plain..
The dignity of empire laid aside,
(For love but ill agrees with kingly pride.)
The ruler of the skies, the thund'ring God,
Who shakes the world's foundations with a nod,
Among a herd of lowing heifers ran,
Frisk'd in a bull, and bellow'd o'er the plain.
Large rolls of fat about his shoulders clung,
And from his neck the double dewlap hung.
His skin was whiter than the fnow that lies
Unfully'd by the breath of fouthern skies;
Small fhining horns on his curl'd forehead ftand,.
As turn'd and polish'd by the workman's hand;
His eye-balls roll'd, not formidably bright,
But gaz'd and languifh'd with a gentle light.
His every look was peaceful, and expreft
The foftness of the lover in the beast.
Agenor's royal daughter, as she play'd,
Among the fields, the milk-white bull survey'd
And view'd his fpotlefs body with delight,
And at a distance kept him in her fight.
At length fhe pluck'd the rising flow'rs, and fed
The gentle beast, and fondly ftrok'd his head.
He stood well-pleas'd to touch the charming fair,
But hardly could confine his pleasure there.
And now he wantons o'er the neighb'ring ftrand,
Now rolls his body on the yellow fand;
And now, perceiving all her fears decay'd,
Comes toffing forward to the royal maid;
Gives her his breaft to ftroke, and downward turns
His grifly brow, and gently stoops his horns.
In flow'ry wreaths the royal virgin dreft
His bending horns, and kindly clapt his breaft.
'Till now grown wanton, and devoid of fear,
Not knowing that she preft the thunderer,
She plac'd herself upon his back, and rode
O'er fields and meadows, feated on the God.
He gently march'd along, and by degrees
Left the dry meadow, and approach'd the feas;
Where now he dips his hoofs, and wets his thighs,
Now plunges in, and carries off the prize.
The frighted nymph looks backward on the fhore,
And hears the tumbling billows round her roar ;.
But flill fhe holds him faft: one hand is born
Upon his back; the other grafps a horn:
|