Metamorphoses
Ovid
Ovid. The XV bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis. Golding, Arthur, translator. London: W. Seres (printer), 1567.
- Apollo after this revenge from Tmolus tooke his flyght:
- And sweeping through the ayre, did on the selfsame syde alvght
- Of Hellespontus, in the Realme of king Laomedon.
- There stoode uppon the right syde of Sigaeum, and uppon
- The left of Rhetye cliffe that tyme, an Altar buylt of old
- To Jove that heereth all mennes woordes. Heere Phebus did behold
- The foresayd king Laomedon beginning for to lay
- Foundation of the walles of Troy: which woork from day to day
- Went hard and slowly forward, and requyrd no little charge,
- Then he togither with the God that rules the surges large,
- Did put themselves in shape of men, and bargaynd with the king
- Of Phrygia for a summe of gold his woork to end to bring.
- Now when the woork was done, the king theyr wages them denayd,
- And falsly faaste them downe with othes it was not as they sayd.
- Thou shalt not mock us unrevendgd (quoth Neptune). And anon
- He caused all the surges of the sea to rush uppon
- The shore of covetous Troy, and made the countrye like the deepe.
- The goodes of all the husbandmen away he quight did sweepe,
- And overwhelmd theyr feeldes with waves. And thinking this too small
- A pennance for the falsehod, he demaunded therwithall
- His daughter for a monster of the Sea. Whom beeing bound
- Untoo a rocke, stout Hercules delivering saufe and sound,
- Requyrd his steeds which were the hyre for which he did compound.
- And when that of so great desert the king denyde the hyre.
- The twyce forsworne false towne of Troy he sacked in his ire.
- And Telamon in honour of his service did enjoy.
- The Lady Hesion, daughter of the covetous king of Troy.
- For Peleus had already got a Goddesse to his wife,
- And lived unto both theyr joyes a right renowmed lyfe.
- And sure he was not prowder of his graundsyre, than of thee
- That wert become his fathrinlaw. For many mo than hee
- Have had the hap of mighty Jove the nephewes for to bee.
- But never was it heeretofore the chaunce of any one
- To have a Goddesse to his wyfe, save only his alone.
- For unto watry Thetis thus old Protew did foretell:
- Go marry: thou shalt beare a sonne whose dooings shall excell
- His fathers farre in feates of armes, and greater he shall bee
- In honour, high renowme, and fame, than ever erst was hee.
- This caused Jove the watry bed of Thetis to forbeare
- Although his hart were more than warme with love of her, for feare
- The world sum other greater thing than Jove himself should breede,
- And willd the sonne of Aeacus this Peleus to succeede
- In that which he himself would faine have done, and for to take
- The Lady of the sea in armes a mother her to make.
- There is a bay of Thessaly that bendeth lyke a boawe.
- The sydes shoote foorth, where if the sea of any depth did flowe
- It were a haven. Scarcely dooth the water hyde the sand.
- It hath a shore so firme, that if a man theron doo stand,
- No print of foote remaynes behynd: it hindreth not ones pace,
- Ne covered is with hovering reeke. Adjoyning to this place,
- There is a grove of Myrtletrees with frute of dowle colour,
- And in the midds thereof a Cave. I can not tell you whither
- That nature or the art of man were maker of the same.
- It seemed rather made by arte. Oft Thetis hither came
- Starke naked, ryding bravely on a brydled Dolphins backe.
- There Peleus as shee lay asleepe uppon her often bracke.
- And forbycause that at her handes entreatance nothing winnes,
- He folding her about the necke with both his armes, beginnes
- To offer force. And surely if shee had not falne to wyles
- And shifted oftentymes her shape, he had obteind erewhyles.
- But shee became sumtymes a bird: he hilld her like a bird.
- Anon shee was a massye log: but Peleus never stird
- A whit for that. Then thirdly shee of speckled Tyger tooke
- The ugly shape: for feare of whose most feerce and cruell looke,
- His armes he from her body twicht. And at his going thence,
- In honour of the watry Goddes he burned frankincence,
- And powred wyne uppon the sea, with fat of neate and sheepe:
- Untill the prophet that dooth dwell within Carpathian deepe,
- Sayd thus: Thou sonne of Aeacus, thy wish thou sure shalt have
- Alonely when shee lyes asleepe within her pleasant Cave,
- Cast grinnes to trappe her unbewares: hold fast with snarling knot:
- And though shee fayne a hundreth shapes, deceyve thee let her not.
- But sticke unto't what ere it bee, untill the tyme that shee
- Returneth to the native shape shee erst was woont to bee.
- When Protew thus had sed, within the sea he duckt his head,
- And suffred on his latter woordes the water for to spred.
- The lyghtsum Titan downeward drew, and with declyning chayre
- Approched to the westerne sea, when Neryes daughter fayre
- Returning from the sea, resorts to her accustomd cowch.
- And Peleus scarcely had begon hir naked limbes to towch,
- But that shee chaungd from shape to shape, untill at length shee found
- Herself surprysd. Then stretching out her armes with sighes profound,
- She sayd: Thou overcommest mee, and not without the ayd
- Of God. And then she, Thetis like, appeerd in shape of mayd.
- The noble prince imbracing her obteynd her at his will,
- To both theyr joyes, and with the great Achylles did her fill.
- A happye wyght was Peleus in his wyfe: a happy wyght
- Was Peleus also in his sonne. And if yee him acquight
- Of murthring Phocus, happy him in all things count yee myght.
- But giltye of his brothers blood, and bannisht for the same
- From bothe his fathers house and Realme, to Trachin sad he came.
- The sonne of lyghtsum Lucifer, king Ceyx (who in face
- Exprest the lively beawtye of his fathers heavenly grace,)
- Without all violent rigor and sharpe executions reignd
- In Trachin. He right sad that tyme unlike himself, remaynd
- Yit moorning for his brothers chaunce transformed late before.
- When Peleus thither came, with care and travayle tyred sore,
- He left his cattell and his sheepe (whereof he brought great store)
- Behynd him in a shady vale not farre from Trachin towne,
- And with a little companye himself went thither downe.
- Assoone as leave to come to Court was graunted him, he bare
- A braunche of Olyf in his hand, and humbly did declare
- His name and lynage. Onely of his crime no woord hee spake,
- But of his flyght another cause pretensedly did make:
- Desyring leave within his towne or countrye to abyde.
- The king of Trachin gently thus to him ageine replyde:
- Our bownty to the meanest sort (O Peleus) dooth extend:
- Wee are not woont the desolate our countrye to forfend.
- And though I bee of nature most inclyned good to doo:
- Thyne owne renowme, thy graundsyre Jove are forcements thereunto.
- Misspend no longer tyme in sute. I gladly doo agree
- To graunt thee what thou wilt desyre. Theis things that thou doost see
- I would thou should account them as thyne owne, such as they bee
- I would they better were. With that he weeped. Peleus and
- His freends desyred of his greef the cause to understand.
- He answerd thus: Perchaunce yee think this bird that lives by pray
- And putts all other birds in feare had wings and fethers ay.
- He was a man. And as he was right feerce in feats of armes,
- And stout and readye bothe to wreake and also offer harmes:
- So was he of a constant mynd. Daedalion men him hyght.
- Our father was that noble starre that brings the morning bryght,
- And in the welkin last of all gives place to Phebus lyght.
- My study was to maynteine peace, in peace was my delyght,
- And for to keepe mee true to her to whom my fayth is plyght.
- My brother had felicite in warre and bloody fyght.
- His prowesse and his force which now dooth chase in cruell flyght
- The Dooves of Thisbye since his shape was altred thus anew,
- Ryght puyssant Princes and theyr Realmes did heeretofore subdew.
- He had a chyld calld Chyone, whom nature did endew
- With beawtye so, that when to age of fowreteene yeeres shee grew,
- A thousand Princes liking her did for hir favour sew.
- By fortune as bryght Phebus and the sonne of Lady May
- Came t'one from Delphos, toother from mount Cyllen, by the way
- They saw her bothe at once, and bothe at once were tane in love.
- Apollo till the tyme of nyght differd his sute to move.
- But Hermes could not beare delay. He stroked on the face
- The mayden with his charmed rod which hath the powre to chace
- And bring in sleepe: the touch whereof did cast her in so dead
- A sleepe, that Hermes by and by his purpose of her sped.
- As soone as nyght with twinckling starres the welkin had beesprent,
- Apollo in an old wyves shape to Chyon clocely went,
- And tooke the pleasure which the sonne of Maya had forehent.
- Now when shee full her tyme had gone, shee bare by Mercurye
- A sonne that hyght Awtolychus, who provde a wyly pye,
- And such a fellow as in theft and filching had no peere.
- He was his fathers owne sonne right: he could mennes eyes so bleere,
- As for to make the black things whyghlt, and whyght things black appeere.
- And by Apollo (for shee bare a payre) was borne his brother
- Philammon, who in musick arte excelled farre all other,
- As well in singing as in play. But what avayled it
- To beare such twinnes, and of two Goddes in favour to have sit?
- And that shee to her father had a stowt and valeant knight,
- Or that her graundsyre was the sonne of Jove that God of might?
- Dooth glorie hurt to any folk? It surely hurted her.
- For standing in her owne conceyt shee did herself prefer
- Before Diana, and dispraysd her face, who there with all
- Inflaamd with wrath, sayd: Well, with deedes we better please her shall.
- Immediatly shee bent her bowe, and let an arrow go,
- Which strake her through the toong, whose spight deserved
- wounding so.
- Her toong wext dumb, her speech gan fayle that erst was over ryfe,
- And as shee stryved for to speake, away went blood and lyfe.
- How wretched was I then, O God? how strake it to my hart?
- What woordes of comfort did I speake to ease my brothers smart?
- To which he gave his eare as much as dooth the stony rocke
- To hideous roring of the waves that doo against it knocke.
- There was no measure nor none ende in making of his mone,
- Nor in bewayling comfortlesse his daughter that was gone.
- But when he sawe her bodye burne, fowre tymes with all his myght
- He russhed foorth to thrust himself amid the fyre in spyght.
- Fowre tymes hee beeing thence repulst, did put himself to flyght.
- And ran mee wheras was no way, as dooth a Bullocke when
- A hornet stings him in the necke. Mee thought hee was as then
- More wyghter farre than any man. Yee would have thought his feete
- Had had sum wings. So fled he quyght from all, and being fleete
- Through eagernesse to dye, he gat to mount Parnasos knappe
- And there Apollo pitying him and rewing his missehappe,
- When as Daedalion from the cliffe himself had headlong floong,
- Transformd him to a bird, and on the soodaine as hee hung
- Did give him wings, and bowwing beake, and hooked talants keene,
- And eeke a courage full as feerce as ever it had beene.
- And furthermore a greater strength he lent him therwithall,
- Than one would thinke conveyd myght bee within a roome so small.
- And now in shape of Gossehawke hee to none indifferent is,
- But wreakes his teene on all birds. And bycause him selfe ere this
- Did feele the force of sorrowes sting within his wounded hart,
- Hee maketh others oftentymes to sorrow and to smart.
- As Caeyx of his brothers chaunce this wondrous story seth,
- Commes ronning thither all in haste and almost out of breth
- Anaetor the Phocayan who was Pelyes herdman. Hee
- Sayd: Pelye Pelye, I doo bring sad tydings unto thee.
- Declare it man (quoth Peleus) what ever that it bee.
- King Ceyx at his fearefull woordes did stand in dowtfull stowne.
- This noonetyde (quoth the herdman) Iche did drive your cattell downe
- To zea, and zum a them did zit uppon the yellow zand
- And looked on the large mayne poole of water neere at hand.
- Zum roayled zoftly up and downe, and zum a them did zwim
- And bare their jolly horned heades aboove the water trim.
- A Church stondes neere the zea not deckt with gold nor marble stone
- But made of wood, and hid with trees that dreeping hang theron.
- A visherman that zat and dryde hiz netts uppo the zhore
- Did tell'z that Nereus and his Nymphes did haunt the place of yore,
- And how that thay beene Goddes a zea. There butts a plot vorgrowne
- With zallow trees uppon the zame, the which is overblowne
- With tydes, and is a marsh. From thence a woolf, an orped wyght,
- With hideous noyse of rustling made the groundes neere hand afryght.
- Anon he commes mee buskling out bezmeared all his chappes
- With blood daubaken and with vome as veerce as thunder clappes.
- Hiz eyen did glaster red as vyre, and though he raged zore
- Vor vamin and vor madnesse bothe, yit raged he much more
- In madnesse. Vor hee cared not his hunger vor to zlake,
- Or i'the death of oxen twoo or three an end to make.
- But wounded all the herd and made a havocke of them all,
- And zum of us too, in devence did happen vor to vail,
- In daunger of his deadly chappes, and lost our lyves. The zhore
- And zea is staynd with blood, and all the ven is on a rore.
- Delay breedes losse. The cace denyes now dowting vor to stond,
- Whyle owght remaynes let all of us take weapon in our hond.
- Let's arme our zelves, and let uz altogither on him vall.
- The herdman hilld his peace. The losse movde Peleus not at all.
- But calling his offence to mynde, he thought that Neryes daughter,
- The chyldlesse Ladye Psamathe, determynd with that slaughter
- To keepe an Obit to her sonne whom hee before had killd.
- Immediatly uppon this newes the king of Trachin willd
- His men to arme them, and to take their weapons in theyr hand,
- And he addrest himself to bee the leader of the band.
- His wyfe, Alcyone, by the noyse admonisht of the same,
- In dressing of her head, before shee had it brought in frame,
- Cast downe her heare, and ronning foorth caught Ceyx fast about
- The necke, desyring him with teares to send his folk without
- Himself, and in the lyfe of him to save the lyves of twayne.
- O Princesse, cease your godly feare (quoth Peleus then agayne).
- Your offer dooth deserve great thanks. I mynd not warre to make
- Ageinst straunge monsters. I as now another way must take.
- The seagods must bee pacifyde. There was a Castle hye,
- And in the same a lofty towre whose toppe dooth face the skye,
- A joyfull mark for maryners to guyde theyr vessells by.
- To this same Turret up they went, and there with syghes behilld
- The Oxen lying every where stark dead uppon the feelde
- And eeke the cruell stroygood with his bluddy mouth and heare.
- Then Peleus stretching foorth his handes to Seaward, prayd in feare
- To watrish Psamath that she would her sore displeasure stay,
- And help him. She no whit relents to that that he did pray.
- But Thetis for hir husband made such earnest sute, that shee
- Obteynd his pardon. For anon the woolfe (who would not bee
- Revoked from the slaughter for the sweetenesse of the blood)
- Persisted sharpe and eager still, untill that as he stood
- Fast byghting on a Bullocks necke, shee turnd him intoo stone
- As well in substance as in hew, the name of woolf alone
- Reserved. For although in shape hee seemed still yit one,
- The verry colour of the stone beewrayd him to bee none,
- And that he was not to bee feard. How be it froward fate
- Permitts not Peleus in that land to have a setled state.
- He wandreth like an outlaw to the Magnets. There at last
- Acastus the Thessalien purgd him of his murther past.
- In this meane tyme the Trachine king sore vexed in his thought
- With signes that both before and since his brothers death were wrought,
- For counsell at the sacret Spelles (which are but toyes to foode
- Fond fancyes, and not counsellers in perill to doo goode)
- Did make him reedy to the God of Claros for to go.
- For heathenish Phorbas and the folk of Phlegia had as tho
- The way to Delphos stopt, that none could travell to or fro.
- But ere he on his journey went, he made his faythfull make
- Alcyone preevye to the thing. Immediatly theyr strake
- A chilnesse to her verry bones, and pale was all her face
- Like box and downe her heavy cheekes the teares did gush apace.
- Three times about to speake, three times shee washt her face with teares,
- And stinting oft with sobbes, shee thus complayned in his eares:
- What fault of myne, husband deere, hath turnd thy hart fro mee?
- Where is that care of mee that erst was woont to bee in thee?
- And canst thou having left thy deere Alcyone merrye bee?
- Doo journeyes long delyght thee now? dooth now myne absence please
- Thee better then my presence dooth? Think I that thou at ease
- Shalt go by land? Shall I have cause but onely for to moorne?
- And not to bee afrayd? And shall my care of thy returne
- Bee voyd of feare? No no. The sea mee sore afrayd dooth make.
- To think uppon the sea dooth cause my flesh for feare to quake.
- I sawe the broken ribbes of shippes alate uppon the shore.
- And oft on Tumbes I reade theyr names whose bodyes long before
- The sea had swallowed. Let not fond vayne hope seduce thy mynd,
- That Aeolus is thy fathrinlaw who holdes the boystous wynd
- In prison, and can calme the seas at pleasure. When the wynds
- Are once let looce uppon the sea, no order then them bynds.
- Then neyther land hathe priviledge, nor sea exemption fynds.
- Yea even the clowdes of heaven they vex, and with theyr meeting stout
- Enforce the fyre with hideous noyse to brust in flashes out.
- The more that I doo know them, (for ryght well I know theyr powre,
- And saw them oft a little wench within my fathers bowre)
- So much the more I think them to bee feard. But if thy will
- By no intreatance may bee turnd at home to tarry still,
- But that thou needes wilt go: then mee, deere husband, with thee take.
- So shall the sea us equally togither tosse and shake.
- So woorser than I feele I shall bee certeine not to feare.
- So shall we whatsoever happes togitherjoyntly beare.
- So shall wee on the broad mayne sea togither joyntly sayle.
- Theis woordes and teares wherewith the imp of Aeolus did assayle
- Her husbond borne of heavenly race, did make his hart relent.
- (For he lovd her no lesse than shee lovd him.) But fully bent
- He seemed, neyther for to leave the journey which he ment
- To take by sea, nor yit to give Alcyone leave as tho
- Companion of his perlous course by water for to go.
- He many woordes of comfort spake her feare away to chace.
- But nought hee could perswade therein to make her like the cace.
- This last asswagement of her greef he added in the end,
- Which was the onely thing that made her loving hart to bend:
- All taryance will assuredly seeme over long to mee.
- And by my fathers blasing beames I make my vow to thee
- That at the furthest ere the tyme (if God therto agree)
- The moone doo fill her circle twyce, ageine I will heere bee.
- When in sum hope of his returne this promis had her set,
- He willd a shippe immediatly from harbrough to bee fet,
- And throughly rigged for to bee, that neyther maast, nor sayle,
- Nor tackling, no nor other thing should apperteyning fayle.
- Which when Alcyone did behold, as one whoose hart misgave
- The happes at hand, shee quaakt ageine, and teares out gusshing drave.
- And streyning Ceyx in her armes with pale and piteous looke,
- Poore wretched soule, her last farewell at length shee sadly tooke,
- And swounded flat uppon the ground. Anon the watermen
- (As Ceyx sought delayes and was in dowt to turne agen)
- Set hand to Ores, of which there were two rowes on eyther syde,
- And all at once with equall stroke the swelling sea devyde.
- Shee lifting up her watrye eyes behilld her husband stand
- Uppon the hatches making signes by beckening with his hand:
- And shee made signes to him ageine. And after that the land
- Was farre removed from the shippe, and that the sight began
- To bee unable to discerne the face of any man,
- As long as ere shee could shee lookt uppon the rowing keele.
- And when shee could no longer tyme for distance ken it weele,
- Shee looked still uppon the sayles that flasked with the wynd
- Uppon the maast. And when shee could the sayles no longer fynd,
- She gate her to her empty bed with sad and sorye hart,
- And layd her downe. The chamber did renew afresh her smart,
- And of her bed did bring to mynd the deere departed part.
- From harbrough now they quyght were gone: and now a plasant gale
- Did blowe. The mayster made his men theyr Ores asyde to hale,
- And hoysed up the toppesayle on the hyghest of the maast,
- And clapt on all his other sayles bycause no wind should waast.
- Scarce full t'one half, (or sure not much above) the shippe had ronne
- Uppon the sea and every way the land did farre them shonne,
- When toward night the wallowing waves began to waxen whyght,
- And eeke the heady easterne wynd did blow with greater myght,
- Anon the Mayster cryed: Strike the toppesayle, let the mayne
- Sheate flye and fardle it to the yard. Thus spake he, but in vayne,
- For why so hideous was the storme uppon the soodeine brayd,
- That not a man was able there to heere what other sayd.
- And lowd the sea with meeting waves extreemely raging rores.
- Yit fell they to it of them selves. Sum haalde asyde the Ores:
- Sum fensed in the Gallyes sydes, sum downe the sayleclothes rend:
- Sum pump the water out, and sea to sea ageine doo send.
- Another hales the sayleyards downe. And whyle they did eche thing
- Disorderly, the storme increast, and from eche quarter fling
- The wyndes with deadly foode, and bownce the raging waves togither.
- The Pilot being sore dismayd sayth playne, he knowes not whither
- To wend himself, nor what to doo or bid, nor in what state
- Things stood. So huge the mischeef was, and did so overmate
- All arte. For why of ratling ropes, of crying men and boyes,
- Of flusshing waves and thundring ayre, confused was the noyse.
- The surges mounting up aloft did seeme to mate the skye,
- And with theyr sprinckling for to wet the clowdes that hang on hye.
- One whyle the sea, when iirom the brink it raysd the yellow sand,
- Was like in colour to the same. Another whyle did stand
- A colour on it blacker than the Lake of Styx. Anon
- It lyeth playne and loomethwhyght with seething froth thereon.
- And with the sea the Trachin shippe ay alteration tooke.
- One whyle as from a mountaynes toppe it seemed downe to looke
- To vallyes and the depth of hell. Another whyle beset
- With swelling surges round about which neere above it met,
- It looked from the bottom of the whoorlepoole up aloft
- As if it were from hell to heaven. A hideous flusshing oft
- The waves did make in beating full against the Gallyes syde.
- The Gallye being striken gave as great a sownd that tyde
- As did sumtyme the Battellramb of steele, or now the Gonne
- In making battrye to a towre. And as feerce Lyons ronne
- Full brist with all theyr force ageinst the armed men that stand
- In order bent to keepe them off with weapons in theyr hand,
- Even so as often as the waves by force of wynd did rave,
- So oft uppon the netting of the shippe they maynely drave,
- And mounted farre above the same. Anon off fell the hoopes:
- And having washt the pitch away, the sea made open loopes
- To let the deadly water in. Behold the clowdes did melt,
- And showers large came pooring downe. The seamen that them felt
- Myght thinke that all the heaven had falne uppon them that same tyme,
- And that the swelling sea likewyse above the heaven would clyme.
- The sayles were throughly wet with showers, and with the heavenly raine
- Was mixt the waters of the sea. No lyghts at all remayne
- Of sunne, or moone, or starres in heaven. The darknesse of the nyght
- Augmented with the dreadfull storme, takes dowble powre and myght.
- Howbee't the flasshing lyghtnings oft doo put the same to flyght,
- And with theyr glauncing now and then do give a soodeine lyght.
- The lightnings setts the waves on fyre. Above the netting skippe
- The waves, and with a violent force doo lyght within the shippe.
- And as a souldyer stowter than the rest of all his band
- That oft assayles a citie walles defended well by hand,
- At length atteines his hope, and for to purchace prayse withall
- Alone among a thousand men getts up uppon the wall:
- So when the loftye waves had long the Gallyes sydes assayd,
- At length the tenth wave rysing up with huger force and brayd,
- Did never cease assaulting of the weery shippe, till that
- Uppon the hatches lyke a fo victoriously it gat.
- A part thereof did still as yit assault the shippe without,
- And part had gotten in. The men all trembling ran about,
- As in a Citie commes to passe, when of the enmyes sum
- Dig downe the walles without, and sum already in are come.
- All arte and conning was to seeke. Theyr harts and stomacks fayle:
- And looke, how many surges came theyr vessell to assayle,
- So many deathes did seeme to charge and breake uppon them all.
- One weepes: another stands amazde: the third them blist dooth call
- Whom buryall dooth remayne. To God another makes his vow,
- And holding up his handes to heaven the which hee sees not now,
- Dooth pray in vayne for help. The thought of this man is uppon
- His brother and his parents whom he cleerely hath forgone.
- Another calles his house and wyfe and children unto mynd,
- And every man in generall the things he left behynd.
- Alcyone moveth Ceyx hart. In Ceyx mouth is none
- But onely one Alcyone. And though shee were alone
- The wyght that he desyred most, yit was he verry glad
- Shee was not there. To Trachin ward to looke desyre he had,
- And homeward fayne he would have turnd his eyes which never more
- Should see the land. But then he knew not which way was the shore,
- Nor where he was. The raging sea did rowle about so fast:
- And all the heaven with clowds as black as pitch was over cast,
- That never nyght was halfe so dark. There came a flaw at last,
- That with his violence brake the maste, and strake the sterne away.
- A billowe proudly pranking up as vaunting of his pray
- By conquest gotten, walloweth hole and breaketh not asunder,
- Beholding with a lofty looke the waters woorking under.
- And looke, as if a man should from the places where they growe
- Rend downe the mountaynes, Athe and Pind, and whole them overthrowe
- Into the open sea: so soft the Billowe tumbling downe,
- With weyght and violent stroke did sink and in the bottom drowne
- The Gallye. And the moste of them that were within the same
- Went downe therwith and never up to open aier came,
- But dyed strangled in the gulf. Another sort againe
- Caught peeces of the broken shippe. The king himself was fayne
- A shiver of the sunken shippe in that same hand to hold,
- In which hee erst a royall mace had hilld of yellow gold.
- His father and his fathrinlawe he calles uppon (alas
- In vayne.) But cheefly in his mouth his wife Alcyone was.
- In hart was shee: in toong was shee: he wisshed that his corse
- To land where shee myght take it up the surges myght enforce:
- And that by her most loving handes he might be layd in grave.
- In swimming still (as often as the surges leave him gave
- To ope his lippes) he harped still upon Alcyones name,
- And when he drowned in the waves he muttred still the same.
- Behold, even full uppon the wave a flake of water blacke
- Did breake, and underneathe the sea the head of Ceyx stracke.
- That nyght the lyghtsum Lucifer for sorrowe was so dim,
- As scarcely could a man discerne or thinke it to bee him.
- And forasmuch as out of heaven he might not steppe asyde,
- With thick and darksum clowds that nyght his countnance he did hyde.
- Alcyone of so great mischaunce not knowing aught as yit,
- Did keepe a reckening of the nyghts that in the whyle did flit,
- And hasted garments both for him and for herself likewyse,
- To weare at his homecomming which shee vaynely did surmyse.
- To all the Goddes devoutly shee did offer frankincence:
- But most above them all the Church of Juno shee did sence.
- And for her husband (who as then was none) shee kneeld before
- The Altar, wisshing health and soone arrivall at the shore,
- And that none other woman myght before her be preferd.
- Of all her prayers this one peece effectually was heard.
- For Juno could not fynd in hart intreated for to bee
- For him that was already dead. But to th'entent that shee
- From dame Alcyones deadly hands might keepe her Altars free,
- Shee sayd: Most faythfull messenger of my commaundments, O
- Thou Raynebowe, to the slugguish house of Slomber swiftly go.
- And bid him send a Dreame in shape of Ceyx to his wyfe
- Alcyone, for to shew her playne the losing of his lyfe.
- Dame Iris takes her pall wherein a thousand colours were
- And bowwing lyke a stringed bow upon the dowdy sphere,
- Immediatly descended to the drowzye house of Sleepe
- Whose Court the clowdes continually doo clocely overdreepe.
- Among the darke Cimmerians is a hollow mountaine found
- And in the hill a Cave that farre dooth ronne within the ground,
- The Chamber and the dwelling place where slouthfull sleepe dooth cowch.
- The lyght of Phebus golden beames this place can never towch.
- A foggye mist with dimnesse mixt streames upwarde from the ground,
- And glimmering twylyght evermore within the same is found.
- No watchfull bird with barbed bill, and combed crowne dooth call
- The morning foorth with crowing out. There is no noyse at all
- Of waking dogge, nor gagling goose more waker than the hound
- To hinder sleepe. Of beast ne wyld ne tame there is no sound.
- No bowghes are stird with blastes of wynd, no noyse of tatling toong
- Of man or woman ever yit within that bower roong.
- Dumb quiet dwelleth there. Yit from the Roches foote dooth go
- The ryver of forgetfulnesse, which ronneth trickling so
- Uppon the little pebble stones which in the channell lye,
- That unto sleepe a great deale more it dooth provoke thereby.
- Before the entry of the Cave, there growes of Poppye store,
- With seeded heades, and other weedes innumerable more,
- Out of the milkye jewce of which the night dooth gather sleepes,
- And over all the shadowed earth with dankish deawe them dreepes.
- Bycause the craking hindges of the doore no noyse should make,
- There is no doore in all the house, nor porter at the gate.
- Amid the Cave, of Ebonye a bedsted standeth hye,
- And on the same a bed of downe with keeverings blacke dooth lye:
- In which the drowzye God of sleepe his lither limbes dooth rest.
- About him, forging sundrye shapes as many dreames lye prest
- As eares of come doo stand in feeldes in harvest tyme, or leaves
- Doo grow on trees, or sea to shore of sandye cinder heaves.
- As soone as Iris came within this house, and with her hand
- Had put asyde the dazeling dreames that in her way did stand,
- The brightnesse of her robe through all the sacred house did shine.
- The God of sleepe scarce able for to rayse his heavy eyen,
- A three or fowre tymes at the least did fall ageine to rest,
- And with his nodding head did knocke his chinne ageinst his brest.
- At length he shaking of himselfe, uppon his elbowe leande.
- And though he knew for what shee came: he askt her what shee meand.
- O sleepe (quoth shee,) the rest of things, O gentlest of the Goddes,
- Sweete sleepe, the peace of mynd, with whom crookt care is aye at oddes:
- Which cherrishest mennes weery limbes appalld with toling sore,
- And makest them as fresh to woork and lustye as beefore,
- Commaund a dreame that in theyr kyndes can every thing expresse,
- To Trachine, Hercles towne, himself this instant to addresse.
- And let him lively counterfet to Queene Alcyonea
- The image of her husband who is drowned in the sea
- By shipwrecke. Juno willeth so. Her message beeing told,
- Dame Iris went her way. Shee could her eyes no longer hold
- From sleepe. But when shee felt it come shee fled that instant tyme,
- And by the boawe that brought her downe to heaven ageine did clyme.
- Among a thousand sonnes and mo that father slomber had
- He calld up Morph, the feyner of mannes shape, a craftye lad.
- None other could so conningly expresse mans verrye face,
- His gesture and his sound of voyce, and manner of his pace,
- Togither with his woonted weede, and woonted phrase of talk.
- But this same Morphye onely in the shape of man dooth walk.
- There is another who the shapes of beast or bird dooth take,
- Or else appeereth unto men in likenesse of a snake.
- The Goddes doo call him Icilos, and mortall folke him name
- Phobetor. There is also yit a third who from theis same
- Woorkes diversly, and Phantasos he highteth. Into streames
- This turnes himself, and into stones, and earth, and timber beames,
- And into every other thing that wanteth life. Theis three,
- Great kings and Capteines in the night are woonted for to see.
- The meaner and inferiour sort of others haunted bee.
- Sir Slomber overpast the rest, and of the brothers all
- To doo dame Iris message he did only Morphye call.
- Which doone he waxing luskish, streyght layd downe his drowzy head
- And softly shroonk his layzye limbes within his sluggish bed.
- Away flew Morphye through the aire: no flickring made his wings:
- And came anon to Trachine. There his fethers off he flings,
- And in the shape of Ceyx standes before Alcyones bed,
- Pale, wan, stark naakt, and like a man that was but lately deade.
- His berde seemd wet, and of his head the heare was dropping drye,
- And leaning on her bed, with teares he seemed thus to cry:
- Most wretched woman, knowest thou thy loving Ceyx now
- Or is my face by death disformd? behold mee well, and thow
- Shalt know mee. For thy husband, thou thy husbandes Ghost shalt see.
- No good thy prayers and thy vowes have done at all to mee.
- For I am dead. In vayne of my returne no reckning make.
- The dowdy sowth amid the sea our shippe did tardy take,
- And tossing it with violent blastes asunder did it shake.
- And floodes have filld my mouth which calld in vayne uppon thy name.
- No persone whom thou mayst misdeeme brings tydings of the same.
- Thou hearest not thereof by false report of flying fame.
- But I myself: I presently my shipwrecke to thee showe.
- Aryse therefore and wofull teares uppon thy spouse bestowe.
- Put moorning rayment on, and let mee not to Limbo go
- Unmoorned for. In shewing of this shipwrecke Morphye so
- Did feyne the voyce of Ceyx, that shee could none other deeme,
- But that it should bee his in deede. Moreover he did seeme
- To weepe in earnest: and his handes the verry gesture had
- Of Ceyx. Queene Alcyone did grone, and beeing sad
- Did stirre her armes, and thrust them foorth his body to embrace.
- In stead whereof shee caught but ayre. The teares ran downe her face.
- Shee cryed, Tarry: whither flyste? togither let us go.
- And all this whyle she was asleepe. Both with her crying so,
- And flayghted with the image of her husbands gastly spryght,
- She started up: and sought about if fynd him there shee myght.
- (For why her Groomes awaking with the shreeke had brought a light.)
- And when shee no where could him fynd, shee gan her face to smyght,
- And tare her nyghtclothes from her brest, and strake it feercely, and
- Not passing to unty her heare shee rent it with her hand.
- And when her nurce of this her greef desyrde to understand
- The cause: Alcyone is undoone, undoone and cast away
- With Ceyx her deare spouse (shee sayd). Leave comforting I pray.
- By shipwrecke he is perrisht: I have seene him: and I knew
- His handes. When in departing I to hold him did pursew
- I caught a Ghost: but such a Ghost as well discerne I myght
- To bee my husbands. Nathelesse he had not to my syght
- His woonted countenance, neyther did his visage shyne so bryght,
- As heeretofore it had beene woont. I saw him, wretched wyght,
- Starke naked, pale, and with his heare still wet: even verry heere
- I saw him stand. With that shee lookes if any print appeere
- Of footing where as he did stand uppon the floore behynd.
- This this is it that I did feare in farre forecasting mynd,
- When flying mee I thee desyrde thou shouldst not trust the wynd.
- But syth thou wentest to thy death, I would that I had gone
- With thee. Ah meete, it meete had beene thou shouldst not go alone
- Without mee. So it should have come to passe that neyther I
- Had overlived thee, nor yit beene forced twice to dye.
- Already, absent in the waves now tossed have I bee.
- Already have I perrished. And yit the sea hath thee
- Without mee. But the cruelnesse were greater farre of mee
- Than of the sea, if after thy decease I still would strive
- In sorrow and in anguish still to pyne away alive.
- But neyther will I strive in care to lengthen still my lyfe,
- Nor (wretched wyght) abandon thee: but like a faythfull wyfe
- At leastwyse now will come as thy companion. And the herse
- Shall joyne us, though not in the selfsame coffin: yit in verse.
- Although in tumb the bones of us togither may not couch,
- Yit in a graven Epitaph my name thy name shall touch.
- Her sorrow would not suffer her to utter any more.
- Shee sobd and syghde at every woord, untill her hart was sore.
- The morning came, and out shee went ryght pensif to the shore
- To that same place in which shee tooke her leave of him before.
- Whyle there shee musing stood, and sayd: He kissed mee even heere,
- Heere weyed hee his Anchors up, heere loosd he from the peere.
- And whyle shee calld to mynd the things there marked with her eyes:
- In looking on the open sea, a great way off shee spyes
- A certaine thing much like a corse come hovering on the wave.
- At first shee dowted what it was. As tyde it neerer drave,
- Although it were a good way off, yit did it plainely showe
- To bee a corce. And though that whose it was shee did not knowe,
- Yit forbycause it seemd a wrecke, her hart therat did ryse:
- And as it had sum straunger beene, with water in her eyes
- She sayd: Alas poore wretch who ere thou art, alas for her
- That is thy wyfe, if any bee. And as the waves did stirre,
- The body floted neerer land: the which the more that shee
- Behilld, the lesse began in her of stayed wit to bee.
- Anon it did arrive on shore. Then plainely shee did see
- And know it, that it was her feere. Shee shreeked, It is hee.
- And therewithall her face, her heare, and garments shee did teare,
- And unto Ceyx stretching out her trembling handes with feare,
- Sayd: cumst thou home in such a plyght to mee, O husband deere?
- Returnst in such a wretched plyght? There was a certeine peere
- That buylded was by hand, of waves the first assaults to breake,
- And at the havons mouth to cause the tyde to enter weake.
- Shee lept thereon. (A wonder sure it was shee could doo so)
- Shee flew, and with her newgrowen winges did beate the ayre as tho.
- And on the waves a wretched bird shee whisked to and fro.
- And with her crocking neb then growen to slender bill and round,
- Like one that wayld and moorned still shee made a moaning sound.
- Howbee't as soone as she did touch his dumb and bloodlesse flesh,
- And had embraast his loved limbes with winges made new and fresh,
- And with her hardened neb had kist him coldly, though in vayne,
- Folk dowt if Ceyx feeling it to rayse his head did strayne,
- Or whither that the waves did lift it up. But surely hee
- It felt: and through compassion of the Goddes both hee and shee
- Were turnd to birdes. The love of them eeke subject to their fate,
- Continued after: neyther did the faythfull bond abate
- Of wedlocke in them beeing birdes: but standes in stedfast state.
- They treade, and lay, and bring foorth yoong and now the Alcyon sitts
- In wintertime uppon her nest, which on the water flitts
- A sevennyght. During all which tyme the sea is calme and still,
- And every man may to and fro sayle saufly at his will,
- For Aeolus for his offsprings sake the windes at home dooth keepe,
- And will not let them go abroade for troubling of the deepe.
- An auncient father seeing them aabout the brode sea fly,
- Did prayse theyr love for lasting to the end so stedfastly.
- His neyghbour or the selfsame man made answer (such is chaunce):
- Even this fowle also whom thou seest uppon the surges glaunce
- With spindle shanks, (he poynted to the wydegoawld Cormorant)
- Before that he became a bird, of royall race might vaunt.
- And if thou covet lineally his pedegree to seeke,
- His Auncetors were Ilus, and Assaracus, and eeke
- Fayre Ganymed who Jupiter did ravish as his joy,
- Laomedon and Priamus the last that reygnd in Troy.
- Stout Hectors brother was this man. And had he not in pryme
- Of lusty youth beene tane away, his deedes perchaunce in tyme
- Had purchaast him as great a name as Hector, though that hee
- Of Dymants daughter Hecuba had fortune borne to bee.
- For Aesacus reported is begotten to have beene
- By scape, in shady Ida on a mayden fayre and sheene
- Whose name was Alyxothoe, a poore mans daughter that
- With spade and mattocke for himselfe and his a living gat.
- This Aesacus the Citie hates, and gorgious Court dooth shonne,
- And in the unambicious feeldes and woods alone dooth wonne.
- He seeldoom haunts the towne of Troy, yit having not a rude
- And blockish wit, nor such a hart as could not be subdewd
- By love, he spyde Eperie (whom oft he had pursewd
- Through all the woodes) then sitting on her father Cebrius brim
- A drying of her heare ageinst the sonne, which hanged trim
- Uppon her back. As soone as that the Nymph was ware of him,
- She fled as when the grisild woolf dooth scare the fearefull hynd
- Or when the Fawcon farre from brookes a Mallard happes to fynd.
- The Trojane knyght ronnes after her, and beeing swift through love,
- Purseweth her whom feare dooth force apace her feete to move.
- Behold an Adder lurking in the grasse there as shee fled,
- Did byght her foote with hooked tooth, and in her bodye spred
- His venim. Shee did cease her flyght and soodein fell downe dead.
- Her lover being past his witts her carkesse did embrace,
- And cryde: Alas it irketh mee, it irkes mee of this chace.
- But this I feard not. Neyther was the gaine of that I willd
- Woorth halfe so much. Now two of us thee (wretched soule) have killd.
- The wound was given thee by the snake, the cause was given by mee.
- The wickedder of both am I: who for to comfort thee
- Will make thee satisfaction with my death. With that at last
- Downe from a rocke (the which the waves had undermynde) he cast
- Himself into the sea. Howbee't dame Tethys pitying him,
- Receyvd him softly, and as he uppon the waves did swim,
- Shee covered him with fethers. And though fayne he would have dyde,
- Shee would not let him. Wroth was he that death was him denyde,
- And that his soule compelld should bee ageinst his will to byde
- Within his wretched body still, from which it would depart,
- And that he was constreynd to live perforce ageinst his hart.
- And as he on his shoulders now had newly taken wings,
- He mounted up, and downe uppon the sea his boddye dings.
- His fethers would not let him sinke. In rage he dyveth downe,
- And despratly he strives himself continually to drowne.
- His love did make him leane, long leggs: long neck dooth still remayne.
- His head is from his shoulders farre: of Sea he is most fayne.
- And for he underneath the waves delyghteth for to drive
- A name according thereunto the Latins doo him give.