|
| |
Salmacis
and Hermaphroditus
|
|
Might well become her, and what
comely feature
Might be best fitting so diuine
a creature,
Her skinne was with a thinne vaile
ouerthrowne,
Through which her naked beauty
clearely shone.
She vs'd in this light rayment
as she was,
To spread her body on the dewy
grasse:
Sometimes by her owne fountaine
as she walkes,
She nips the flowres from off
the fertile stalkes,
And with a garland of the sweating
vine,
Sometimes she doth her beauteous
front in-twine:
But she was gathring flowres with
her white hand,
When she beheld Hermaphroditus
stand
By her cleare fountaine, wondring
at the sight,
That there was any brooke could
be so bright:
For this was the bright riuer
where the boy
Did dye himselfe, that he could
not enioy
Himselfe in pleasure, nor could
taste the blisses
Of his owne melting and delicious
kisses.
Here did she see him, and by Venus
law,
She did desire to haue him as
she saw:
But the fayre Nymph had neuer seene
the place,
Where the boy was, nor his inchanting
face,
But by an vncouth accident of
loue
Betwixt great Phoebus and
the sonne of Ioue,
Light-headed Bacchus: for
vpon a day,
As the boy-god was keeping on his
way
Bearing his Vine leaues and his
Iuie bands,
To Naxos, where his house
and temple stands,
He saw the Nymph; and seeing,
he did stay,
And threw his leaues and Iuie
bands away, |
|
|
| © Twilight
Pictures,
September
2000. This text is freely available for educational, non-profit uses
only. Please report any errors or suggestions to
Drew Whitehead. |
|
