Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 1602 Quarto

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Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

895

Yet still the boy regardlesse what she sayd,
Struggled apace to ouerswimme the mayd.
Which when the Nymph perceiu'd, she 'gan to say,
Struggle thou mayst, but neuer get away.
So graunt, iust gods, that neuer day may see

900

The separation twixt this boy and mee.
The gods did heare her pray'r and feele her woe;
And in one body they began to grow.
She felt his youthfull bloud in euery vaine;
And he felt hers warme his cold brest againe.

905

And euer since was womans loue so blest,
That it will draw bloud from the strongest brest.
Nor man nor mayd now could they be esteem'd:
Neither, and either, might they well be deem'd,
When the young boy Hermaphroditus sayd,

910

VVith the set voyce of neither man nor mayd,
Swift Mercury, thou author of my life,
And thou my mother Vulcans louely wife,
Let your poore offsprings latest breath be blest,
In but obtayning this his last request,

915

Grant that who e're heated by Phoebus beames,
Shall come to coole him in these siluer streames,
May neuermore a manly shape retaine,
But halfe a virgine may returne againe.
His parents hark'ned to his last request,

920

And with that great power they the fountaine blest.
And since that time who in that fountaine swimmes,
A mayden smoothnesse seyzeth halfe his limmes.

FINIS.

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