So may no frost, when early buds appear, Destroy the promise of the youthful year; Nor winds, when first your florid orchard blows, Shake the light blosioms from their blasted boughs! This when the various God had urg'd in vain, He ftrait assum'd his native form again; Such, and fo bright an aspect now he bears, As when thro' clouds th' emerging fun appears, And thence exerting his refulgent ray, Dispels the darkness, and reveals the day. Force he prepar'd, but check'd the rafh defign; For when, appearing in a form divine, The Nymph furveys him, and beholds the grace Of charming features, and a youthful face; It her soft breast consenting paffions move, And the warm maid confefs'd a mutual love.
Sic tibi nec vernum nafcentia frigus adurat Poma: nec excutiant rapidi florentia venti.
Hæc ubi nequicquam formas Deus aptus in omnes,
Edidit; in juvenem rediit, & anilia demit Instrumenta fibi: talisque adparuit illi, Qualis ubi oppofitos nitidissima solis imago Evicit nubes, nullâque obstante reluxit. Vimque parat, fed vi non eft opus: inque figura Capta Dei Nympha est, & mutua vulnera fentit.
Upon occafion of the death of Hercules, his mother Alcmena recounts her misfortunes to Iole, who answers with a relation of those of her own family, in particular the transformation of her fister Dryope, which is the subject of the ensuing Fable.
HE said, and for her loft Galanthis fighs, When the fair Confort of her fon replies. Since you a fervant's ravish'd form bemoan, And kindly figh for forrows not your own;
IXIT: &, admonitu veteris commota miniftræ, Ingemuit; quam fic nurus eft adfata gementem:
Te tamen, ó genetrix, alienæ à fanguine veftro Rapta movet facies. Quid fi tibi mira fororis
Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate A nearer woe, a Sister's stranger fate. No Nymph of all Oechalia could compare For beauteous form with Dryope the fair, Her tender mother's only hope and pride, (My felf the offspring of a second bride.) This Nymph compress'd by him who rules the day, Whom Delphi and the Delian isle obey, Andræmon lov'd; and bless'd in all those charms That pleas'd a God, succeeded to her arms.
A lake there was, with shelving banks around, 15 Whose verdant summit fragrant myrtles crown'd. These shades, unknowing of the fates, she sought, And to the Naiads flow'ry garlands brought; Her smiling babe (a pleasing charge) she prest Within her arms, and nourish'd at her breaft.
Fata meæ referam? quamquam lacrymæque dolorque Impediunt, prohibentque loqui. Fuit unica matri (Me pater ex aliâ genuit) notiffima formå Oechalidum Dryope: quem virginitate carentem, Vimque Dei passam Delphos Delonque tenentis, Excipit Andræmon; & habetur conjuge felix. Eft lacus, acclivis devexo margine formam Litoris efficiens: fummum myrteta coronant. Venerat huc Dryope fatorum nefcia, quoque Indignere magis, Nymphis latura coronas. Inque finu puerum, qui nondum impleverat annum, Dulce ferebat onus: tepidique ope lactis alebat.
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