His fervants with a piteous look he spies,
And turns about his fupplicating eyes..
His fervants, ignorant of what had chanc'd,
With eager haste and joyful fhouts advanc'd,
And call'd their Lord Acteon to the game;
He fhook his head in anfwer to the name;
He heard, but wish'd he had indeed been gone,
Or only to have ftood a looker on.
But, to his grief, he finds himself too near,
And feels his rav'nous dogs with fury tear
Their wretched mafter panting in a deer.
The Birth of BACCHUS.
Acteon's fufferings, and Diana's rage, Did all the thoughts of men and gods engage; Some call'd the evils, which Diana wrought, Too great, and difproportion'd to the fault; Others again esteem'd Acteon's woes Fit for a virgin goddess to impose. The hearers into different parts divide, And reafons are produc'd on either side.
Juno alone, of all that heard the news, Nor would condemn the goddess, nor excuse: She heeded not the juftice of the deed,
But joy'd to fee the race of Cadmus bleed;
For ftill he kept Europa in her mind,
And, for her fake, detefted all her kind.
Befides, to aggravate her hate, fhe heard
How Semele, to Jove's embrace preferr'd,
Was now grown big with an immortal load,
And carry'd in her womb a future God.
Thus terribly incens'd, the goddess broke
To fudden fury, and abruptly spoke.
"Are my reproaches of fo finall a force?
""Tis time I then pursue another course :
"It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die,
"If I'm indeed the mistress of the sky;
If rightly ftil'd among the pow'rs above "The wife and fifter of the thund'ring Jove,.
(And none can fure a fifter's right deny)
"It is decreed the guilty wretch shall die.
"She boafts an honour I can hardly claim;
"Pregnant fhe rifes to a mother's name;
While proud and vain fhe triumphs in her Jove,
"And fhows the glorious tokens of his love:
"But if I'm ftill the miftrefs of the fkies,
By her own lover the fond beauty dies." This faid, defcending in a yellow cloud, Before the gates of Semele fhe ftood.
Old Beror's decrepit shape she wears, Her wrinkled vifage, and her hoary hairs;
Whilst in her trembling gate fhe totters on,
And learns to tattle in the nurse's tone.
The goddess, thus difguis'd in age, beguil'd
With pleasing stories her false foster-child.
Much did fhe talk of love, and when she came
To mention to the nymph her lover's name,
Fetching a figh, and holding down her head,
"'Tis well, fays she, if all be true that's faid.
"But trust me, child, I'm much inclin'd to fear
"Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter..
"Many an honeft well defigning maid,
"Has been by thefe pretended gods betray'd.
"But if he be indeed the thund'ring Jove,
"Bid him, when next he courts the rites of love,
"Defcend triumphant from th' ethereal sky,
"In all the pomp of his divinity;
Encompafs'd round by thofe celeftial charms, "With which he fills th' immortal Juno's arms."
Th' unwary nymph, enfnar'd with what she said, Defir'd to Jove, when next he fought her bed, To grant a certain gift which she would choose; "Fear not, replied the God, that I'll refuse "Whate'er you afk: May Styx confirm my voice,, "Choose what you will, and you thall have your choice. "Then, fays the nymph, when next you feek my arms, "May you defcend in those celeftial charms
"With which your Juno's bofom you inflame,
"And fill with transport heaven's immortal dame."
The God furpris'd would fain have stopp'd her voice:
But he had fworn, and fhe had made her choice.
To keep his promife he afcends, and shrouds
His awful brow in whirlwinds and in clouds;
Whilst all around, in terrible array,
His thunders rattle, and his light'nings play.
And yet, the dazzling luftre to abate,
He fet not out in all his pomp and state,
Clad in the mildeft light'ning of the skies,
And arm'd with thunder of the smallest size:
Not thofe huge bolts by which the giants flain
Lay overthrown on the Phlegrean plain.
'Twas of a leffer mold, and lighter weight;
They call it thunder of a fecond rate,
For the rough Cyclops, who by Jove's command
Temper'd the bolt, and turn'd it to his hand,
Work'd up lefs flame and fury in its make,
And quench'd it fooner in the standing lake.
Thus dreadfully adorn'd, with horror bright,
Th' illuftrious God, defcending from his height,
Came rushing on her in a storm of light.
The mortal dame, too feeble to engage
The lightening's flashes and the thunder's rage,
Confum'd amidst the glories she defir'd,
And in the terrible embrace expir'd.
But, to preserve his offspring from the tomb,
Jove took him fmoking froin the blatted womb;;
And, if on ancient tales we may rely,
Inclos'd th' abortive infant in his thigh.
Here, when the babe had all his time fulfill'd,
Ino firft took him for her fofter-child;
Then the Nifeans, in their dark abode,
Nurs'd fecretly with milk the thriving God.
The Transformation of TIRES IA S.
'Twas now, while these transactions past on earth, And Bacchus thus procur'd a second birth, When Jove, difpos'd to lay afide the weight Of public empire, and the cares of state; As to his Queen in nectar bowls he quaff'd, "In troth, fays he, (and as he spoke he laugh'd,) "The fenfe of pleasure in the male is far
"More dull and dead, than what you females fhare."
Juno the truth of what was faid deny'd ;
Tirefias therefore must the cause decide;
For he the pleasure of each sex had try'd.
It happen'd once, within a fhady wood,
Two twisted fnakes he in conjunction view'd;
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