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Salmacis
and Hermaphroditus
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Whose pleasant coolenesse when
the boy did feele,
He thrust his foote downe lower
to the heele:
O'recome with whose sweet noyse,
he did begin
To strip his soft clothes from
his tender skin,
When strait the scorching Sun wept
teares of brine,
Because he durst not touch him
with his shine,
For feare of spoyling that same
Iu'ry skin,
Whose whitenesse he so much delighted
in;
And then the Moone, mother of mortall
ease,
Would fayne haue come from the
Antipodes,
To haue beheld him naked as he
stood,
Ready to leape into the siluer
flood;
But might not: for the lawes of
heauen deny,
To shew mens secrets to a womans
eye:
And therefore was her sad and gloomy
light
Confin'd vnto the secret-keeping
night.
When beauteous Salmacis
awhile had gaz'd
Vpon his naked corps, she stood
amaz'd,
And both her sparkling eyes burnt
in her face,
Like the bright Sunne reflected
in a glasse:
Scarce can she stay from running
to the boy,
Scarce can she now deferre her
hoped ioy;
So fast her youthfull bloud playes
in her vaynes,
That almost mad, she scarce her
selfe contaynes.
When young Hermaphroditus
as he stands,
Clapping his white side with his
hollow hands,
Leapt liuely from the land, whereon
he stood,
Into the mayne part of the cristall
flood.
Like Iu'ry then his snowy body
was,
Or a white Lilly in a cristall
glasse. |
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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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