Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/103

These Juno takes, that they no more may fail,
And spreads them in her Peacock's gaudy Tail.
⁠Impatient to revenge her injur'd Bed,
She wreaks her Anger on her Rival's Head;
With Furies frights her from her Native Home;
And drives her gadding, round the World to roam:
Nor ceas'd her Madness, and her Flight, before
She touch'd the Limits of the Pharian Shore.
At length, arriving on the Banks of Nile,
Weary'd with Length of Ways, and worn with toil,
She laid her down; and leaning on her Knees,
Invok'd the Cause of all her Miseries:
And cast her languishing Regards above,
For Help from Heav'n, and her ungrateful Jove.
She sigh'd, she wept, she low'd; 'twas all she cou'd;
And with Unkindness seem'd to tax the God.
Last, with an humble Pray'r, she beg'd Repose,
Or Death at least, to finish all her Woes.
Jove heard her Vows, and with a flatt'ring look,
In her Behalf to jealous Juno spoke.
He cast his Arms about her Neck, and said,
Dame, rest secure; no more thy Nuptial Bed
This Nymph shall violate; by Styx I swear,
And every Oath that binds the Thunderer.
The Goddess was appeas'd; and at the Word
Was Io to her former Shape restor'd.
The rugged Hair began to fall away;
The Sweetness of her Eyes did only stay,
Tho' not so large: her crooked Horns decrease;
The Wideness of her Jaws and Nostrils cease:
Her Hoofs to Hands return, in little Space:
The five long taper Fingers take their Place,
And nothing of the Heyfer now is seen,
Beside the native Whiteness of the Skin.
Erected on her Feet she walks again;
And Two the Duty of the Four sustain.