A HYMNE TO HERMES.
71
I know (for all your fayning) y'are still wroth,
About your Oxen; and suspect my Troth.
O Iupiter: I wish the generall Race
Of all Earths Oxen, rooted from her face.
I steale your Oxen? I againe, professe
That neither, I, haue stolne them; nor can ghesse
Who else should steale them. What strange Beasts are these
Your so-lou'd Oxen? I must say (to please
Your humor thus farr) that euen My few Hoowres
Haue heard their fame. But be the sentence yours
Of the Debate betwixt us; Or to Ioue
(For more indifferencie) the Cause remoue.
Thus when the Solitude-affecting God,
And the Latonian seede, had laid abroad;
All things betwixt them; (though not yet agreed;
Yet, might I speake) Apollo did proceede
Nothing uniustly, to charge Mercurie
With stealing of the Cows, he does denie.
But his Profession was, with filed speach,
And Crafts faire Complements, to ouerreach
All; And euen Phœbus. Who because he knew
His Trade of subtletie; He still at view
Hunted his Foe, through all the sandie waie
Up to Olympus. Nor would let him straie
From out his sight; but kept behinde him still.
And now they reacht, the Odoriferous Hill
Of high Olympus, to their Father Ioue,
To Arbitrate the Cause, in which they stroue.
About your Oxen; and suspect my Troth.
O Iupiter: I wish the generall Race
Of all Earths Oxen, rooted from her face.
I steale your Oxen? I againe, professe
That neither, I, haue stolne them; nor can ghesse
Who else should steale them. What strange Beasts are these
Your so-lou'd Oxen? I must say (to please
Your humor thus farr) that euen My few Hoowres
Haue heard their fame. But be the sentence yours
Of the Debate betwixt us; Or to Ioue
(For more indifferencie) the Cause remoue.
Thus when the Solitude-affecting God,
And the Latonian seede, had laid abroad;
All things betwixt them; (though not yet agreed;
Yet, might I speake) Apollo did proceede
Nothing uniustly, to charge Mercurie
With stealing of the Cows, he does denie.
But his Profession was, with filed speach,
And Crafts faire Complements, to ouerreach
All; And euen Phœbus. Who because he knew
His Trade of subtletie; He still at view
Hunted his Foe, through all the sandie waie
Up to Olympus. Nor would let him straie
From out his sight; but kept behinde him still.
And now they reacht, the Odoriferous Hill
Of high Olympus, to their Father Ioue,
To Arbitrate the Cause, in which they stroue.
