He bounded off with fear, and swiftly ran O'er craggy mountains and the flow'ry plain;
Thro' brakes and thickets forc'd his way, and flew
Thro' many a ring, where once he did pursue.
In vain he oft' endeavour'd to proclaim
His new misfortune, and to tell his name;
Nor voice nor words the brutal tongue fupplies;
From frouting men, and horns, and dogs, he flies,
Deafen'd and stunn'd with their promifcuous cries.
When now the fleeteft of the pack, that prefs'd 285.
Close at his heels, and sprung before the rest,
Had fasten'd on him, straight another pair
Hang on his wounded haunch, and held him there,
Till all the pack came up, and ev'ry hound 289
Tore the fad huntfman grov'lling on the ground,
Who now appear'd but one continu'd wound.
With dropping tears his bitter fate he moans,
And fills the mountain with his dying groans.
His fervants with a piteous look he spies,
And turns about his fupplicating eyes.
His fervants, ignorant of what had chanc'd,
With eager haste and joyful shouts advanc'd,
And call'd their lord Acteon to the game;
He shook his head in answer to the name:
He heard, but wish'd he had indeed been gone, 3co
Or only to have stood a looker-on:
But, to his grief, he finds himself too near,
And feels his rav'nous dogs with fury tear
Their wretched master panting in a deer.
ACTEON'S fufferings and Diana's rage
Did all the thoughts of men and gods engage:
Some call'd the evils which Diana wrought
Too great, and disproportion'd to the fault;
Others, again, esteem'd Actæon's woes
Fit for a virgin goddess to impofe :
The hearers into different parts divide,
And reasons are produced on either fide.
Juno alone, of all that heard the news,
Nor would condemn the goddess nor excuse:
She heeded not the justice of the deed,
But joy'd to fee the race of Cadmus bleed;
For still he kept Europa in her mind,
And for her fake detefted all her kind.
Besides, to aggravate her hate, she heard
How Semele, to Jove's embrace preferr'd,
Was now grown big with an immortal load,
And carry'd in her womb a future god.
Thus terribly incens'd, the goddess broke
To fudden fury, and abruptly spoke.
"Are my reproaches of fo fmall a force?
" 'Tis time I then purfue another course :
"It is decreed the guilty wretch shall die,
"If I'm indeed the mistress of the sky;
"If rightly styl'd among the pow'rs above
"The wife and sister of the thund'ring Jove,
"(And none can sure a sister's right deny) "It is decreed the guilty wretch shall die. "She boasts an honour I can hardly claim; "Pregnant she rises to a mother's name;
"While proud and vain she triumphs in her Jove, "And fhows the glorious tokens of his love; "But if I'm still the mistress of the skies, "By her own lover the fond beauty dies.” This faid, defcending in a yellow cloud,
Before the gates of Semelè she stood.
Old Beroë's decrepit shape she wears,
Her wrinkled vifage, and her hoary hairs,
Whilft in her trembling gait fhe totters on,
And learns to tattle in the nurse's tone.
The goddess, thus disguis'd in age, beguil'd
With pleasing stories her falfe fofterchild.
Much did the talk of love, and when the came To mention to the nymph her lover's name, Fetching a figh, and holding down her head, "'Tis well," fays fhe," if all be true that's faid; 350 "But trust me, child, I'm much inclin❜d to fear "Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter.
“Many an honest well-designing maid
"Has been by these pretended gods betray'd;
"But if he be indeed the thund'ring Jove,
"Bid him, when next he courts the rites of love,
"Descend triumphant from th' ethereal sky,
In all the pomp of his divinity,
"Encompass'd round by thofe celestial charms "With which he fills th' immortal Juno's arms."360
Th' unwary nymph, enfnar'd with what she said, Defir'd of Jove, when next he fought her bed, To grant a certain gift which she would chufe; "Fear not," reply'd the god," that I'll refuse 364 "Whate'er you ask: may Styx confirm my voice : "Chufe what you will, and you shall have your "choice."
"Then," fays the nymph, "when next you seek my "May you descend in those celestial charms [arms, "With which your Juno's bofom you inflame, 369 "And fill with transport heav'n's immortal dame." The god, furpris'd, would fain have stopp'd her voice; But he had fworn, and the had made her choice.
To keep his promise he afcends, and fhrouds
His awful brow in whirlwinds and in clouds,
Whilft all around, in terrible array,
His thunders rattle, and his lightnings play:
And yet, the dazzling luftre to abate,
He fet not out in all his pomp and state,
Clad in the mildest lightning of the skies,
And arm'd with thunder of the smallest fize;
Not thofe huge bolts, by which the giants flain
Lay overthrown on the Phlegrean plain :
'Twas of a leffer mould, and lighter weight;
They call it thunder of a fecond rate :
For the rough Cyclops, who by Jove's command 385
Temper'd the bolt, and turn'd it to his hand,
Work'd up lefs flame and fury in its make,
And quench'd it sooner in the standing lake.
Thus dreadfully adorn'd, with horror bright,
Th' illuftrious god, defcending from his height,
Came rushing on her in a storm of light.
The mortal dame, too feeble to engage
The lightning's flashes and the thunder's rage,
Confum'd amidst the glories fhe defir'd,
And in the terrible embrace expir'd.
But, to preserve his offspring from the tomb,
Jove took him fmoking from the blasted womb;
And, if on ancient tales we may rely,
Inclos'd th' abortive infant in his thigh:
Here when the babe had all his time fulfill'd,
Ino first took him for her fofterchild,
Then the Nifeans, in their dark abode,
Nurs'd fecretly with milk the thriving god.
The transformation of Tirefias.
'Twas now, while these transactions pafs'd on earth, And Bacchus thus procur'd a second birth, When Jove, difpos'd to lay aside the weight Of public empire and the cares of state, As to his queen in nectar bowls he quaff'd, "In troth," fays he, (and as he spoke he laugh'd) "The fense of pleafure in the male is far "More dull and dead than what you females share."
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