"Stay, filly bird, th' ill-natur'd task refuse," "The charge obey'd, perch'd on a neighbouring tree. "The fifters Pandrofos and Hersè keep "The ftrict command; Aglauros needs would peep, "And faw the monftrous infant in a fright, "And call'd her fifters to the hideous fight: "A boy's foft fhape did to the waist prevail, "But the boy ended in a dragon's tail. "I told the ftern Minerva all that país'd, "But, for my pains, difcarded and difgrac'd, "The frowning goddess drove me from her fight, "And for her favourite chofe the bird of night. "Be then no tell-tale; for I think my wrong "Enough to teach a bird to hold her tongue. "But you, perhaps, may think I was remov'd, "As never by the heavenly maid belov'd ; "But I was lov'd; afk Pallas if I lie; "Though Pallas hate me now, she won't deny; K "For I, whom in a feather'd fhape you view, "Sunk in the fand, but fkimm'd along the fhore; "On her inceftuous life I need not dwell } "That "That, conscious of her shame, avoids the light, And found him out, and told the fatal truth The god was wroth; the colour left his look, Down fell the wounded nymph, and fadly groan'd, The god diffolves in pity at her death; He hates the bird that made her falfehood known, K 2 } With With fighs and groans her obfequies he kept, But, left his offspring fhould her fate partake, And bid him prate in his white plumes no more. OCYRRHÖE TRANSFORM'D TO A MARE. OLD Chiron took the babe with fecret joy, Proud of the charge of the celeftial boy, His daughter too, whom on the fandy shore, The nymph Chariclo to the centaur bore, With hair difhevel'd on her fhoulders, came To fee the child, Ocyrrhöe was her name; She knew her father's art, and could rehearse The depths of prophecy in founding verfe. Once, as the facred infant fhe furvey'd, The god was kindled in the raving maid, And thus the utter'd her prophetic tale; "Hail, great physician of the world, all hail; "Hail, mighty infant, who in years to come "Shall heal the nations, and defraud the tomb; "Swift be thy growth! thy triumphs unconfin'd! "Make kingdoms thicker, and increase mankind. "Thy daring art fhall animate the dead, "And draw the thunder on thy guilty head: "Then "Then shalt thou die; but from the dark abode "Rife up victorious, and be twice a god. "And thou, my fire, not deftin'd by thy birth "To turn to duft, and mix with common earth, "How wilt thou tofs, and rave, and long to die, "And quit thy claim to immortality; "When thou shalt feel, inrag'd with inward pains, "The Hydra's venom rankling in thy veins ? "The gods in pity shall contract thy date; "And give thee over to the power of fate." Thus, entering into deftiny, the maid "The fecrets of offended Jove betray'd: More had she still to fay; but now appears Opprefs'd with fobs and fighs, and drown'd in tears. "My voice, fays fhe, is gone, my language fails; "Through every limb my kindred shape prevails; "Why did the god this fatal gift impart, "And with prophetic raptures fwell my heart? "What new defires are these? I long to pace "O'er flowery meadows, and to feed on grafs; "I haften to a brute, a maid no more; "But why, alas! am I transform'd all o'er ? "My fire does half a human shape retain, "And in his upper parts preferves the man." วร Her tongue no more distinct complaints affords, But in fhrill accents and mif-fhapen words Pours forth fuch hideous wailings, as declare The human form confounded in the mare : Till by degrees, accomplish'd in the beaft, She neigh'd outright, and all the fteed expreft. |