Force he prepar'd, but check'd the rash design;
For when, appearing in a form divine,
The nymph furveys him, and beholds the grace
Of charming features, and a youthful face,
In her foft breaft confenting paffions move,
And the warm maid confefs'd a mutual love.
Upon occafion of the death of Hercules, his mother Alcmena recounts her misfortunes to Iole, who answers with a relation of those of her own family, in particular the transformation of her fifter Dryope, which is the subject of the enfuing Fable.
HE faid, and for her loft Galanthis fighs,
When the fair Confort of her fon replies.
Since you a fervant's ravish'd form bemoan,
And kindly figh for forrows not your own;
Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate
A nearer woe, a fifter's ftranger fate.
No nymph of all Oechalia could compare
For beauteous form with Dryope the fair,
Her tender mother's only hope and pride,
(My felf the offspring of a fecond bride.)
This nymph compress'd by him who rules the day,
Whom Delphi and the Delian ifle obey,
Andramon lov'd; and blefs'd in all thofe charms
That pleas'd a God, fucceeded to her arms.
A Lake there was, with fhelving banks around, Whose verdant fummit fragrant myrtles crown'd. Those shades, unknowing of the fates, she sought, And to the Naiads flow'ry garlands brought, Her fmiling babe (a pleasing charge) she prest Within her arms, and nourifh'd at her breaft. Not distant far a watry Lotos grows;
The spring was new, and all the verdant boughs
Adorn'd with bloffoms, promis'd fruits that vie
In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye.
Of these she crop'd, to please her infant fon;
And I my felf the fame rafh act had done,
But lo! I faw, (as near her fide I ftood)
The violated bloffoms drop with blood;
Upon the tree I cast a frightful look ;
The trembling tree with fudden horror shook.
Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true)
As from Priapus' lawless luft fhe flew,
Forfook her form; and fixing here, became
A flow'ry plant, which still preserves her name.
This change unknown, astonish'd at the fight
My trembling fifter ftrove to urge her flight,
Yet first the pardon of the nymphs implor'd,
And thofe offended fylvan pow'rs ador'd:
But when the backward wou'd have fled, fhe found
Her ftiff'ning feet were rooted in the ground:
In vain to free her faften'd feet she strove,
And as she struggles, only moves above;
She feels th' encroaching bark around her grow
By flow degrees, and covers all below:
Surpriz❜d at this, her trembling hand she heaves
To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves ;
Where late was hair, the fhooting leaves are feen
To rife, and fhade her with a fudden green.
The child Amphifus, to her bofom prest,
Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast,
And found the springs that ne'er till then deny’d
Their milky moisture, on a fudden dry’d.
I faw, unhappy! what I now relate,
And ftood the helpless witness of thy fate;
Embrac'd thy boughs, the rifing bark delay'd,
There wifh'd to grow, and mingle fhade with fhade.
Behold, Andramon and th' unhappy Sire
Appear, and for their Dryope enquire;
A fpringing tree for Dryope they find,
And print warm kiffes on the panting rind,
Proftrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And clofe embrac'd, as to the roots they grew.
The face was all that now remain'd of thee;
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree:
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev'ry leaf distills a trickling tear,
And strait a voice, while yet a voice remains,
Thus thro' the trembling boughs in fighs complains. If to the wretched any faith be giv❜n,
I swear by all th'unpitying pow'rs of heav'n, qa
No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred,
In mutual innocence our lives we led
If this be falfe, let thefe new greens decay,
Let founding axes lop my limbs away, vM
And crackling flames on all my honours prey.
|