|
| |
Salmacis
and Hermaphroditus
|
|
His haire was bushie, but it was
not long,
The Nymphs had done his tresses
mighty wrong:
For as it grew, they puld away
his haire,
And made abilliments of gold to
weare.
His eyes were Cupids: for
vntill his birth,
Cupid had eyes, and liu'd
vpon the earth,
Till on a day, when the great Queene
of loue
Was by her white doues drawn fro
heauen aboue,
Vnto the top of the Idalian hill,
To see how well the Nymphs their
charge fulfill,
And whether they had done the goddesse
right,
In nursing of her sweet Hermaphrodite:
VVhom when she saw, although complete
& full,
Yet she complaynd, his eyes were
somewhat dull:
And therefore, more the wanton
boy to grace,
She puld the sparkling eyes from
Cupids face,
Fayning a cause to take away his
sight,
Because the Ape would sometimes
shoot for spight.
But Venus set those eyes
in such a place,
As grac't those cleare eyes with
a clearer face.
For his white hand each goddesse
did him woo:
For it was whiter then the driuen
snow:
His legge was straighter then the
thigh of Ioue:
And he farre fairer then the god
of loue.
When first this wel-shapt boy,
beauties chiefe king,
Had seene the labour of the fifteenth
spring,
How curiously it paynted all the
earth,
He 'gan to trauaile from his place
of birth,
Leauing the stately hils where
he was nurst,
And where the Nymphs had brought
him vp at first: |
|
|
| © Twilight
Pictures,
September
2000. This text is freely available for educational, non-profit uses
only. Please report any errors or suggestions to
Drew Whitehead. |
|
