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Salmacis
and Hermaphroditus
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She should be borne so beauteous
from her mother,
But to reflect her beauty on another:
Then with a sweet kisse cast thy
beames on mee,
And Ile reflect them backe againe
on thee.
At Naxos stands my Temple and
my Shrine,
Where I do presse the lusty swelling
Vine,
There with greene Iuie shall
thy head be bound,
And with the red Grape be incircled
round;
There shall Silenus
sing vnto thy praise,
His drunken reeling songs and
tickling layes.
Come hither, gentle Nymph. Here
blusht the maid,
And faine she would haue gone,
but yet she staid.
Bacchus perceiu'd he
had o'recome the lasse,
And downe he throwes her in
the dewy grasse,
And kist the helplesse Nymph
vpon the ground,
And would haue stray'd beyond that
lawful boud.
This saw bright Phoebus:
for his glittering eye
Sees all that lies below the
starry skye;
And for an old affection that
he bore
Vnto this louely Nymph long
time before,
(For he would ofttimes in his circle
stand,
To sport himselfe vpon her
snowy hand)
He kept her from the sweets
of Bacchus bed,
And 'gainst her wil he sau'd
her maiden-head.
Bacchus perceiuing this,
apace did hie
Vnto the Palace of swift Mercury:
But he did find him farre below
his birth,
Drinking with theeues and catch-poles
on the earth;
And they were drinking what
they stole to day,
In consultation for to morrowes
prey. |
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| © Twilight
Pictures,
September
2000. This text is freely available for educational, non-profit uses
only. Please report any errors or suggestions to
Drew Whitehead. |
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