Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/27

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PREFACE.
ix

to be almost the same, tho' the Nature of the Poems be very different.

Cervus erat formâ præstanti, & cornibus ingens,
Tyrreidæ pueri, quem matris ab ubere raptum
Nutribant, Tyrrheusque pater, cui regia parens
Armenta, & latè custodia credita campi.
Assuetum imperiis soror omni Sylvia curâ
Mollibus intexens ornabat cornua sertis:
Pectebatque ferum, puroque in fonte lavabat.
Ille manûm patiens, mensæque assuetus herili
Errabat sylvis ——Æn. B. 7. l. 483.

The Image which Ovid gives of the Favourite Stag slain accidentally by Cyparissus, seems not of less Dignity.

Ingens cervus erat, latéque patentibus altas
Ipse suo capiti præbebat cornibus umbras:
Cornua fulgebant auro, demissaque in armos
Pendebant tereti gemmata monilia collo.
Bulla super frontem parvis argentea loris
Vincta movebatur: parilique ex ære nitebant
Auribus in geminis circum cava tempora bacca.
Isque metu vacuus, naturalique pavore
Deposito, celebrare domos, mulcendaque colla
Quamlibet ignotis manibus præbere solebat.

Gra-