Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/269

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Book 6.
Ovid's Metamorphoses.
187

And you, my Philomel, let it suffice,
To know your Sister's banish'd from my Eyes;
If any Sense of Duty sways your Mind,
Let me from you the shortest Absence find.
He wept; then kiss'd his Child; and while he speaks,
The Tears fall gently down his aged Cheeks.
Next, as a Pledge of Fealty, he demands,
And, with a solemn Charge, conjoyns their Hands;
Then to his Daughter, and his Grandson sends,
And by their Mouth a Blessing recommends;
While, in a Voice with dire Forebodings broke,
Sobbing, and faint, the last Farewel was spoke.
Now Philomela, scarce receiv'd on Board,
And in the royal gilded Bark secur'd,
Beheld the Dashes of the bending Oar,
The ruffled Sea, and the receding Shore;
When strait (his Joy impatient of Disguise)
We've gain'd our Point, the rough Barbarian cries;
Now I possess the dear, the blissful Hour,
And ev'ry Wish subjected to my Pow'r.
Transports of Lust his vicious Thoughts employ,
And he forbears, with Pain, th' expected Joy.
His gloting Eyes incessantly survey'd
The Virgin Beauties of the lovely Maid:
As when the bold rapacious Bird of Jove,
With crooked Talons stooping from above,
Has snatcht, and carry'd to his lofty Nest
A Captive Hare, with cruel Gripes opprest;
Secure, with fix'd, and unrelenting Eyes,
He sits, and views the helpless, trembling Prize.
Their Vessels now had made th' intended Land,
And all with Joy descend upon the Strand;
When the false Tyrant seiz'd the Princely Maid,
And to a Lodge in distant Woods convey'd;
Pale, sinking, and distress'd with jealous Fears,
And asking for her Sister all in Tears.

The