To hang her, meteor-like, 'twixt heaven and earth,
And bind her hand and foot with golden cords,
As once I did for harming Hercules!
GAN. Might I but see that pretty sport a-foot,
Oh, how would I with Helen's brother laugh,
And bring the gods to wonder at the game!
Sweet Jupiter, if e'er I pleas'd thine eye,
Or seemed fair, wall'd-in with eagle's wings, A
Grace my immortal beauty with this boon,
And I will spend my time in thy bright arms of
JUP. What is't, sweet wag, I should deny thy
youth? diy of tas
si bek rÌ
Whose face reflects such pleasure to mine eyes,
As I, exhal'd with thy fire-darting beams,
Have oft driven back the horses of the Night,
Whenas they would have hal'd thee from
my sight.
Sit on my knee, and call for thy content,
Control proud Fate, and cut the thread of Time:
Why, are not all the gods at thy command,
And heaven and earth the bounds of thy delight?
Vulcan shall dance to make thee laughing-sport,
And my nine daughters sing when thou art sad;
From Juno's bird I'll pluck her spotted pride, ip!
To make thee fans wherewith to cool thy face;
And Venus' swans shall shed their silver down, A
To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed and de
Hermes no more shall shew
shew the world his wings,
with eagle's wings] This expression is well illus
wall's picture (in the National Gallery) of the rape
If that thy fancy in his feathers dwell,
But, as this one, I'll tear them all from him,
[Plucks a feather from HERMES' wings. Do thou but say, "their colour pleaseth me." Hold here, my little love; these linked gems,
My Juno ware upon her marriage-day,
Put thou about thy neck, my own sweet heart,
And trick thy arms and shoulders with
my GAN. I would have † a jewel for mine ear, And a fine brooch to put in my hat, And then I'll hug with you an hundred times. JUP. And shalts have, Ganymede, if thou wilt be my love.
VEN. Ay, this is it; you can sit toying there,
And playing with that female wanton boy,
Whiles my Æneas wanders on the seas,
And rests a prey to every billow's pride.
Juno, false Juno, in her chariot's pomp,
Drawn through the heavens by steeds of Boreas'
brood,
Made Hebe to direct her airy wheels
Into the windy country of the clouds;
Where, finding Æolus entrench'd with storms,
And guarded with a thousand grisly ghosts,
She humbly did beseech him for our bane,
my theft] i. e. these jewels which I stole from Juno. thave] Qy." have too"?
in] The modern editors print (as probably the poet wrote) ** into."
$ shalt] Old ed. "shall."
And charg'd him drown my son with all his train.
Then 'gan the winds break ope their brazen doors,
And all Æolia to be up in arms:
Poor Troy must now be sack'd upon the sea,
And Neptune's waves be envious men of war;
Epeus' horse, to Etna's hill transform'd,
Prepared stands to wrack their wooden walls;
And Æolus, like Agamemnon, sounds
The surges, his fierce soldiers, to the spoil:
See how the night, Ulysses-like, comes forth,
And intercepts the day, as Dolon erst!
Aye, me! the stars suppris'd,* like Rhesus' steeds,
Are drawn by darkness forth Astræus' tents.+
What shall I do to save thee, my sweet boy?
Whenas the waves do threat our crystal world,
And Proteus, raising hills of floods on high,
Intends, ere long, to sport him in the sky.
False Jupiter, reward'st thou virtue so?
What, is not piety exempt from woe?
Then die, Æneas, in thine innocence,
suppris'd] i. e. overcome, overpowered. So in The Tra gedie of Antonie, translated from the French of Garnier by the Countess of Pembroke ;
"Can not by them [i. e. the charms of Cleopatra] Octauius
be suppriz'd?"
The original of which is,
"Ne pourra par eux estre Octaue combatu?"
+ Astræus' tents] Astræus was the father of the primeval
Αστραίου -, ὃν ῥα τέ φασιν
*Αστρων ἀρχαίων πατέρ ̓ ἔμμεναι.
Whenas] i. e. When.
Since that religion hath no recompense. do bat
JUP. Content thee, Cytherea, in thy care,
Since thy Eneas' wandering fate is firm, F. i
Whose weary limbs shall shortly make repose
In those fair walls I promis'd him of yore,
But, first, in blood must his good fortune bud,
Before he be the lord of Turnus town, not bee
Or force her smile that hitherto hath frown'd: Fu
Three winters
s shall be with the Rutiles
swar ques
And, in the end, subdue them with his sword; f
And full three summers likewise shall he waste
In managing those fierce barbarian minds;
Which once perform'd, poor Troy, so long suppress'd,
From forth her ashes shall advance her head, u
And flourish once again, that erst
But bright Ascanius, beauty's better work,
Who with the sun divides one ra
radiant shape, n
Shall build his throne amidst those starry towers
That earth-born Atlas, groaning, underprops:
No bounds, but heaven, shall bound his empery,
Whose azur'd gates, enchasèd with his name,
Shall make the Morning haste her grey úprise,
To feed her eyes with his engraven fame.
Thus, in stout Hector's race, three hundred years
The Roman sceptre royal shall remain,
Till that a princess-priest, conceiv'd by Mars,'
conceiv'd] i. e, become pregnant. (So in the fourth line of the next speech but two, "the heavens, conceiv'd with hell-born clouds.") Got a tó
"Donec regina sacerdos 69%DÅ
Marte gravis geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem.”
Shall yield to dignity a double birth,
Who will eternish Troy in their attempts.
VEN. How may I credit these thy flattering terms,
When yet both sea and sands beset their ships,
And Phœbus, as in Stygian pools, refrains
To taint his tresses in the Tyrrhene main +?
Jup. I will take order for that presently.—
Hermes, awake! and haste to Neptune's realm,
Whereas the wind-god, warring now with fate,
Beseige[s] th'offspring of our kingly loins:
Charge him from me to turn his stormy powers,
And fetter them in Vulcan's sturdy brass,
That durst thus proudly wrong our kinsman's peace.
[Exit HERMES.
Venus, farewell: thy son shall be our care.—
Come, Ganymede, we must about this gear.
[Exeunt JUPITER and GANYMEDE§.
(Here the modern editors print,
"Till that a princess, priest-conceiv'd by Mars"!!)
+ To taint his tresses in the Tyrrhene main] Here, I believe, taint does not mean-stain, sully, but is equivalent to-dip, bathe. In Sylvester's Du Bartas we meet with nearly as violent an expression;
"In Rhines fair streams to rinse his amber tresses."
The Colonies, p. 129, ed. 1641;
where the original French has merely,
"Va dans les eaux du Rhin ses blonds cheueux lauant.” Whereas] i. e. where.
§ Exeunt Jupiter and Ganymede.] On their going out, we are to suppose that the scene is changed to a wood on the sea-shore. In the third act we find ;
"En. Stout friend Achates, dost thou know this wood? Ach. As I remember, here you shot the deer
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