THE RAPE OF Proserpina.  
Translated out of CLAUDIAN in Latin, into English Verse: By LEONARD DIGGES, Gent.  
Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus  
Interpres—  HOR. de Art. Poet.  printer's or publisher's device 
LONDON, Printed by G. P. for Edward Blount, and are to be sold, at his shop in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Bear. 1617.   

To HIS MUCH HONOURED VIRTUOUS SISTER, the Lady PALMER, wife to Sir ANTHONY PALMER, Knight of the Bath: Her Brother L. D. wisheth increase of all true Felicity, etc.  
MY dear Sister, the Dedication of this Poem can belong to none more fitly, then to yourself; since (next under God) your care of me in a desperate sickness, made me live to finish it. It is a Translation, and therefore far short of the Original, the rather because mine:) A Work not so pleasing for Ladies (being in itself lofty, and harsh in the translation.) It was intended to you, as a Pattern for a piece of Needlework (I knew you were about;) for which purpose; I persuade myself, no Poetical Author will with more variety furnish you, than Claudian: howsoever he or I fail▪ yet this first labour may seem as an earnest-penny of my affection, and to tell you, that all true happiness in this life, and eternal in the next, is wished unto you▪  
By your Brother and friend, obliged ever to serve you, L. D.   

To the READER.  
GEntle Reader, I present to thy view the three first books of Claudian ꝰ, de raptu Proserpinae in English Verse: a work (how pleasing it may prove, I know not) since of my Author, Scaliger saith, he was materia ignobiliore oppressus, but addidit de ingenio quantum defuit materiae, which wit, the Translators harshness of style may (haply) have diminished. The Reader will find many faults; one I willingly here prevent, which is, that Ceres is described in the first book to be drawn by six Dragons, contrary to all Poets, that allow her but two: This and some few other errors I impute unto the hastiness of the Press, which the ingenious Reader will pardon, especially if the main work give that light (that I hope for) to the Original.  Farewell. 
L. D.   

THE RAPE OF PROSERPINA.  

The Historical Sense or meaning of the Story.  
WHen men for their fins, like other creatures, were forced to ordinary food: the bread which they ate of (as Eusebius and Suidas mention) was of Acorns: and Plutarch writes, that after the Flood it was of the same. At that time, Siculus reigned King of Sicily, whose wife (named Ceres) a woman of a singular apprehension (to try a Conclusion) took some of the wild Wheat, which groweth naturally so in that Country, and sowed seeds of the same, and was careful to till them: these in their due time produced of that Grain in great abundance, which she caused to be moulded into a paste, and (finding the sweetness of it) still sowed more and more, till she attained to the perfection of Tillage; (with which she instructed all her Islanders) so that the Sicilians were the first Husbandmen in the world, and taught other Nations, till such time as Wheat became the general nourisher of all men.  
The commodity the Sicilians reaped hereby, and the multitudes of such as applied themselves to Tillage, were the causes of the divisions of lands (touching which, Ceres made sundry laws) some of which remain even at this day with us: and for this cause the blind Gentiles adored her as a goddess, and consecrated that Island of Sicily unto her, as to the inventresse of Harvest.  
It happened that this Ceres had a daughter, called Proserpina; who, for her exceeding beauty was affected by Orion King of Epirus and the Molossians, and by him stolen away in the absence of her Mother Ceres: who when she returned, and found that her daughter was thus gone (ignorant of the Ravisher) went ranging up and down the world to find her, and in her progress she sowed all the Fields with Wheat as she went, till such time as she found Orion out.  
This Story gave matter to Poets, to feign, that Pluto stole away Proserpina from Sicilia, in her mother's absence (who missing her at her return) sought her thorough the world, till she had found her with two blazing lights: and knowing that she was in hell with Pluto, requested of jupiter, that she might remain with her one half of the year upon Earth, and the other with her Husband Pluto.   

The Natural Sense of the Story.  
BY the person of Ceres is signified Tillage. By Proserpina, the seeds which are sowed, by Pluto, the earth that receives them.  
By the diligence that Ceres used in searching her daughter, is shown the care that Husbandmen ought to have in the tilling and sowing their grounds, and reaping of their Harvest.  
By the six Months that Proserpina remained in Hell, are understood, the six, in which the seed is under ground, before the ears appear; and by the other six that she is with her Mother, is set down, when the corn is ripe, and in possession of the Husbandman.  
By the blazing lights, with which Ceres seeks her daughter, is meant the vigilancy of the Husbandman in providing for the increase of his harvest.  
By the lights themselves, are signified the instruments of Husbandry, without which the Corn could hardly be reaped.   

The Allegorical Sense.  
BY Pluto and his sudden resolution of marrying and warring against gods, is noted, the nature and disposition of the insolent rich man, who blinded with ease and plenty, desireth immoderately all that his Concupiscence leads him unto.  
By the Destinies that strive to divert Pluto from his purpose, is seen the force of heavenly power above human.  
mercury's, being sent Ambassador to jupiter, declares how necessary it is that persons of a lively capacity and mature judgement, be sent to take up strife and jars betwixt Princes.  
By jupiters' decree to give Proserpina for wife to Pluto, is shown the Divine Providence, that disposeth better of things for us, than we ourselves can wish.  
By Proserpina left alone in her mother's absence at her work, is noted the good education of Children, to which mothers are bound, that are honest and careful.  
By Ceres leaving her alone, and Pluto's stealing her away, is put (as an example): That Mothers ought not to be so careless of their children, as to expose them to so great a hazard of their honours.  
By Venus' Executioneresse of Ioues will, and Diana and Pallas her Companions, is signified: that love is a divine connexion and bond, ordained from God, if the proceeding in the same be with simplicity and pureness of meaning.    


THE RAPE OF PROSERPINA.  
The Argument of the First Book  
Pluto e 〈…〉 would ma●●y, threatens war  
'Gainst jupiter, the Fates prevent their jar:  
Swift Mercury Ambassador is sent  
To heaun, to tell the gods of this event.  
jove, Ceres' daughter doth resolve to give  
His brother, and the means doth thus contrive;  
Whilst Ceres absent is in Phrygia,  
Venus must egg abroad Proserpina:  
Down she descends the Virgin chaste to see,  
Diana, Pallas, bear her company.  
MY lofty Muse is full, and bids me sing  
The robbery of Hell's infernal king,  
Grim Pluto; and the Car of Taenarus,  
That whilom with portentionsominous  
And giddy hurry, through the blasted air,  
Presagd the Rape of Proserpina the fair,  
Ioues daughter, and the marriges event:  
Profaner ears be you from hence exempt.  
And now the fury of a Spirit Divine,  
Expell's all human fear from this of mine:  
Apollo breathes in me, Phoebus inspires  
My brain, my quill with his most sacred fires.  
Now, now (me thinks) I on a sudden see,  
The Shrine of each immortal deity,  
Shake in its quivering seat (unused to move)  
And the Celestial rays (that from above  
Disperse their glimmering light) forerunners are,  
Of Pluto's journey and sad Ceres' care.  
The noise (that in the earth's deep womb doth sound)  
I hear, and Athens Temple so renowned,  
For her King Cecraps painfully doth groan,  
(Doubling shrill Echoes to the City's moan:)  
And Ceres loved Eleusis tapers blaze  
With flaring lights which to the skies they raise:  
Triptolem's snakes their bloody crests aloft  
Vpstretch, and with confused murmur soft,  
Glide their spot-painted bodies here and there,  
At which Spectators tremble, themselves fear:  
They hiss, and with strange accent to my Verse  
Hasten the Tragic song that I rehearse.  
The threefold Hecate appears in sight,  
And lazy Bacchus (madding) doth affright  
The eyes of mortals with his shiu'ring lance  
Of wreathed Vines, and in a drunken dance  
(Loading his Temples with an Ivy crown,  
Whose weight keeps his unwieldy body down)  
Knits to his neck a Parthian Tyger's paws,  
And skin (that from his shoulder down he draws)  
You gods (on whom Avernus wandering souls,  
And multitudes of wights black Styx enrols)  
Attend, and such as of their worldly crimes,  
In burning Phlegeton bewail the times.  
You gods, you fathers, show; declare to me  
The secrets of earth's vast concavity;  
Your governments reveal, and mysteries  
Of all those great and powerful deities.  
Tell me, since Love so low would never bend  
His shafts, what fire could Pluto thus incend?  
As snatching off from earth this Proserpina,  
He makes her his eternal Concubine:  
Yet comforts her (that in the Tyrant's power,  
Laments) by giving Lethe for her dower.  
Tell me, did Ceres her grieved mother know  
Before, what should succeed? or if not so,  
When she was lost, in her distracted mind,  
Where could she hope her Proserpina to find?  
That (longing for good news) she makes a vow,  
The barren earth with fairest wheat to sow.  
Long since, the dismal Prince of Erebus  
(Through wrath and fury grown outrageous)  
To see that he (a god) and young, alone,  
Must lead a solitary life in moan,  
Wanting a mate, that days, months, years retire  
And pass (regardless of his quenchless fire)  
Impatient of delays and full of jar,  
He summons all the supreme gods to war;  
Disdaining they above should note his want,  
Of happy marriage to be ignorant.  
Red lips, fair eyes, sweet looks, soft cherishing  
Confused embraces, limbs proportioning,  
To their proportion all strange delight,  
Two souls combined in one, which make one white:  
Like ivy (twining) ivory neck, that one,  
One body, which one common breath alone,  
Gives life unto: this one, and yet not one  
For (lovers) each hath a Companion:  
So two, when as two bodies striving move  
In Cuptds lists (made one by mutual love.)  
These two, that one and all as motives are,  
Egging stern Pluto to ambitious war:  
The name of father, and proud hope of sons,  
(Each) a forerunner of new strife becomes:  
Forthwith the Monsters of infemall deep,  
Rank out their squadrons, and good order keep.  
The ugly Fiends conjured by Pluto's wrath,  
'Gainst highest jupiter take solemn oath;  
And menacing the gods in sad array  
Of battle, hell's black banners they display  
Before heavens walls, and discord first appears  
(Clad all in ruth:) in arms of steel she bears  
The portrait of her name, and next to her  
Imperious Famine rageth, and base fear  
(Placed as a Scout, or as a Runagate,  
Against the foe to annoy them, cankered hate,  
Despairful sorrow, rashness out of breath  
March last (led in the rear by conquering death.  
'Gainst thundering jove, the pallid Furies three  
Combine themselves, and bold Tisiphone  
That 'bout her head those curled Snakes doth twine  
With spiny fist, that of combustions pine  
A firebrand brandisheth, whose boding light  
Compassion moves, and meager looks affright  
Of her, the sad beholder: begins to sound  
Through all the Camp, and 'mongst the helhounds round,  
A soft retreat (at whose well-known voice)  
The pale faced Monsters couch, and hush their noise.  
The Elements, whose equal qualities  
For many an Age in peace could sympathize,  
Scarce now contain, but into discord turn,  
And fain to their old Chaos would return:  
Proud Titan's offspring hope at length to see  
Their gives knocked off, and former liberty:  
That (breaking up hell's dung'ons) once again,  
Punish they may the Author of their shame.  
Pluto, Aegaeons' fancy now can please,  
That long hath lain cubbed up in little ease,  
And losing strait the Giants hundred hands,  
(Armed to obey the threatening Gods commands)  
He musters up his seu'nteene brothers more  
Unto a second Combat (for before  
They plotted had 'gainst heaven) and now they long  
Ioues thunder to retort the gods among.  
When soon the reverend Destinies that see  
Stern wars approach, and hell's infantry  
Range into battle, with stout puissance,  
And fearful march 'gainst heavens gates advance:  
So many horrid fiends that likely were  
To put the gods, and all Ioues host in fear:  
And (doubting lest the terror of this fight,  
The Orbs Celestial endanger might)  
e'en in the heat and danger of the rout  
They gently tread, and place the Camp throughout;  
And providently thus themselves intrude  
With modest threats, to tame the multitude:  
Then prostrate 'fore the valiant General,  
With bended knees and humble looks they fall;  
(Spreading their aged Cheeks and frontes severe,  
With dangling tresses of their snowy hair.)  
Their hands they join, those hands that spun the thread  
Of many living, many thousans dead;  
Those hands they join, to whose high soueraign'ty,  
The World, and all things breathing Vassals be:  
First, Lachesis, the eldest of the three,  
And most austere, divides in modesty  
The hoary threads, which (for she nasty keeps)  
Uncombed, they thwart and hide her wrinkled cheeks:  
In her own name, and sisters both, she greets  
Black Pluto, and to mitigate his threats  
'Gainst jove, first weeps: then wiping her sad eyes,  
With fainting voice she to him gently cries,  
And thus begins. Thou mighty king (saith she)  
Great Ruler of our vast obscurity,  
Thou (to whose sacred judgement) the least wight  
That groans in darkness, and hell's horrid night  
Is subject; thou, whom loyal Fates have served  
So long and from thy precepts never swerved,  
With web and spindle; thou that first giv'st breath  
To all things living, thou, whom life and death,  
Equally wait on; thou, to whom the sage  
Fleet time, what ruins he in every age  
Collects, doth give; and unto thee the state  
Of present things doth likewise consecrate:  
And lastly thou, by whom, the Souls condemned  
Have second being, torture without end.  
Seek not (great Prince) to have thine honour stained  
(By breach of sacred laws we first ordained:)  
Cause thy robustious troops retire, and cease  
T'incense them further 'gainst high heavens peace  
Desist from hostile arms (impiety)  
Of making brother gods thine enemy;  
But if thou needs wilt venture, be no more  
A power Divine, but some wild savage Boar:  
Must Giant race enjoy a second light,  
And once again outbrave in Martial fight  
Th'unconquered gods? Fie Pluto: do not thus  
Attempt a War so sacrilegious,  
And headlong cast thy Majesty, forbear;  
(If Marri'ge be the cause; or if thou fear  
Lest jove deny thee issue) mildly prove  
Great jupiter: first let him hear thy love.  
Pluto hears Lachesis: and though his rage  
Were such, as her fair speech could scarce assuage;  
Yet when the lofty love struck god, might see,  
The Sisters both to her soft prayers agree;  
The blood that riseth in each black swollen vain,  
He tempereth: the Furies strait proclaim  
His altered purpose, cu'ry Fiend that droops  
To see this change, they lash, and force hell's troops  
Retire, thus was this fatal enterprise,  
Dismissed, and Pluto calmed by Destinies.  
So blust'ring Boreas (when with roaring gust,  
And whirlwind armed) he first doth lay the dust,  
Then with a sudden and tempestuous blast,  
(Enraged) he fain upon earth's face would cast;  
Thick storms of hail e'en at the instant, when  
With full swollen cheeks he breaks his loathed den,  
And (scouring the vast Seas) would cause their floods  
Arise (to drown the fields and neighbouring woods:)  
e'en then the milder Aeolus restrains  
His force, and keeps him fettered in strong chains.  
Pluto commands that subtle Mercury  
Jove's son (being summoned to appear from high)  
Approach his presence, and from thence be sent  
To tell the gods his uncles discontent:  
The winged messenger without delay  
(Swifter than thought) through the dull air makes way,  
And with his coloured hat, and charming rod  
Forthwith appears before th'infernal god;  
Who, in the darkest Vault of all, sat (placed  
Upon a black rude throne:) so meanly graced  
With sceptre course; only his visage stout,  
The horror of his Majesty set out:  
Over his head hangs up a dismal Cloud,  
Which serves for cloth of state, and now aloud  
'Twixt rage and grief he groans, and fain would speak,  
When, at first accent of his words (that break  
Through hearer's ears) at their first hideous sound,  
The royal palace and moist chambers round  
All shake again; and at the fearful note  
The triple Porter stops his howling throat:  
The three sad rivers at th'unusual voice  
Affrighted stand, and stop their murmuring noise,  
All hell was silent; but their king exceeds,  
And to his yelling Embassy proceeds.  
Ioues high-born brood, Cylenian Mercury:  
Old Atlas' Nephew, common deity  
To heaven and hell: thou, that hast passage free  
Through both the Poles, and equal liberty;  
Thou, that of all the gods both high and low,  
The mysteries and strict commerce dost know:  
Fly hence, with speedy wing cut through the wind,  
To thy ungrateful Sirethus speak our mind,  
What right hast thou, or what priority,  
(Cruelest of all thy brothers) over me?  
Say, Fortune blind with an unequal hand,  
(To me denying) gave thee heavens command?  
Yet are these temples honoured with a crown,  
As well as thine, nor can thy pride beat down  
Our glory; though we want the light, thou shalt  
Perceive our strength, when I thy walls assault:  
Think'st thou the Cyclop's handiwork I fear;  
Or those vain claps that mock the yielding air?  
Cast down thy darts of thunder, let them strike  
Affrighted mortals, we are far unlike  
To such; Know, jupiter, I keep my vow,  
And to revenge my griefs, am sure (though slow)  
Was't not enough? I than repined not  
At Fates, that first to my accursed lot  
Gave this third kingdom, and deprived quite,  
(Though satisfied) I never sought for light:  
Nor wished bright Phoebus might descend so far  
As my sad palace, or the morning star  
Lighten these vaults; when unto thee the seven,  
(That make Charles-wayne twinkle in spangled heaven)  
And millions more thy glorious state adorn:  
Poor I, that all in darkness sit forlorn  
(Discomfortably mournful) no glad sight  
Enjoy, but waste in a perpetual night,  
Where are no comforts to the eye or ear,  
Nothing but noise, and notes of ghastly fear,  
For what harmonious music hath hell's king?  
Where ghosts keep howling time, whilst scriech-owles sing:  
Yet thou that see'st me bare of all relief,  
(The more to aggravate my sullen grief)  
Forbid'st me Nuptial rites; thus jove repines  
At Pluto's wishes, when his Concubines  
Are numberless; the Sea-god happier is,  
(Though less in power then I) and hath more bliss,  
That when the raging billows he alleys,  
Fair Amphitrite with her Neptune plays  
And he (entangled in her soft embrace)  
Forgets the use of his three-forked mace.  
When thou in midst of Titan's scorching heat,  
With labour of thy thunderclaps dost sweat  
To cool the parched earth, with moist drops of rain,  
And (weary of thy toil turn'st back again)  
Incestuous juno sits in longing state  
With open lap her Lord to recreate:  
Latona, Ceres, Themis: (each of which  
Sufficient were) but all of these, every  
Thee, with the name of father, and thy seat  
Keep still with hopeful successors repleace:  
Thus thou, in lustful riot (varying)  
liv'st at thine ease, whilst I (thy brother king)  
In darkest dungeon (like a slain) am void  
Of those delights, with which thou most art cloyed:  
And thus my prime of youth doth fade, and pride  
Of issue, fails; (by wanting aloved Bride)  
But come revenge, awake dull patience,  
(Suffice long pardon for so just offence)  
By all the shades of night, by all the Ghosts  
That hover o'er black Styx, by all the hosts  
Of dreadful horror, mischief vengeance dire,  
If jupiter deny this last desire;  
The walls of Tartarus shall open wide  
(Through whose breach) the souls that there abide  
(Condemned to endless ruth) shall sally out,  
And hast thy downfall with confused rout:  
('mongst whom) old Saturn once again shall free  
The golden age from her captivity.  
(This said) the Tyrant ceased, and to his ire  
Gave respite. Mercury (like nimble fire)  
Mean while ascends up to the highest Sphere,  
And tells his message to great jupiter.  
The god, unto this unexpected news  
Gave strict attention, and forthwith 'gins muse  
In his divine breast, what would be th' event  
Of such a marri'ge, who would be content  
(Of all the goddesses) to lose the light  
In lieu she may be queen of lasting night,  
And (like a judge revolving many a doubt,  
At length resolved) his sentence thus breaks out,  
One only child the goddess Ceres had  
One daughter, which doth make her mother glad:  
For though Lucina blessed her with no more,  
Yet is she happy in this first she bore.  
This serves for many, and the want supplies,  
That second birth her barren womb denies.  
This (as her dearest darling and delight)  
She often hugs, still tends, and from her sight  
She never let's her part; so Heifer young  
Or first years Calf, (that other beasts among  
Scarce presseth the soft grass with wanton tread,  
Nor horned Moons, yet peep from curled head:)  
The lowing Dam (that it by chance doth miss)  
(Finding) doth give it many a licking kiss.  
The Virgin fair was grown now ripe and near  
To Hymen's rites, a chaste and shamefast fear  
Breeds in her breast new flames: now she desires  
(One while) to marry; then again loves fires  
Despitefully she quencheth; thus, her mind  
e'en in a moment, makes her cursed and kind;  
To love, and not to like; which mystery  
Is caused by fear, that bears the mastery  
Over her will (her will that oft doth call  
Her passions up) but fear strait lays them all:  
Now store of suitors throng and each begins ply  
Old Ceres, for her daughter (cunningly)  
Two great Competitors, with equal strife  
Contend, to have the lovely Maid to wife:  
Mars with his shield, Apollo with his bow  
And shafts, their greatnesses alike both show.  
Both offer a round earnest for their loves;  
Yet neither's suit the yellow Ceres moves:  
Nor though proud juno and Latona too  
Speak for their sons and (severally woe)  
Would she consent: but (as a mother kind  
In her own thoughts) and with fond passion blind:  
(Unwitting future rape) her too too dear,  
She sought to hide from those she least might fear.  
And thus (descending from Olympus' high,  
With her fair Proserpina) both secretly  
At fruitful Scicile arrive; and there,  
The careful mother in a jealous fear,  
Views the rich Island, and the Sea that round  
Doth ring-like compass, and its fertile ground,  
Sprinkle; th'unknowing goddess strait conceives  
The place for purpose fitting, and so leaves  
Her daughter to its charge: thus neither she,  
Nor it, soresawe th'ensuing prodigy.  
Sicilia once the Continent did touch,  
And made a part of Italy, till, such  
Was the Seas rage, and Nereus' swelling pride,  
As did the firm land sever and divide:  
He with his subtle art, and puissance stout  
The confines broke, and cut those mountains out,  
Which, to the little land did there remain,  
Contiguous were; now (parted from the main)  
He baths them with his waves, yet men may see  
'Twixt both the Lands a known affinity.  
The Promontories that are seen from far,  
Pachinus high, and Lilibeum are  
On which the waves that (braving play) let flee  
Their force, and make continual battery:  
Pachinus shows unto th' Ionian Sea  
His lofty head; the top of Lylibe  
Looks to the Libyan Coast, from whence (in vain)  
The waves drives through his arms, which (as a rain  
And bridle serve t'abate and curb their pride  
And roaring noise;) when Thetis to abide  
Disdaineth there, and from the Thuscane shore,  
Her waves upon Pelorus beat much more.  
These Promontories three, at first the Isle  
(Sicilia now) Trinacria did style:  
In midst of which Aetna of old renown  
(For burning rocks) so high his flaming crown  
Lifts; that the Promontories (which before  
Did Giants seem) like Dwarves his height adore:  
Aetna, true witness of Briareus  
His folly, and of bold Enceladus  
The Tomb and bonfire; where, he lives in death,  
And spits forth fire with brimstone-pois'ning breath:  
The mountains load, there, keeps him prisoner fast,  
That when the weighty burden off to cast  
He (groaning) strives, and to his utmost strains  
To quit his rebel neck from yoke and pains:  
The poor Inhabitants he maketh fear  
(By often shaking) lest some Earthquake there  
Should root the Islands up, and so, her towers,  
And walls, the violence of Seas devours:  
This mountains top, is only to the eye  
Of mortals subject; so you may descry  
The smoke and flames, but never hath it yet  
Been trampled on by any human feet:  
With stately Groves and Trees, the lower part  
Is decked, that ne'er were planted there by Art;  
The upper, commonly with misty fog  
Stains the Sunbeams, and days clear light doth clog  
With pitchy Clouds, which (lasting until night)  
Ascend the Firmament, and days clear light  
Convert to darkness; still the flames increase  
Is nourished (though the mountains self decrease.)  
In midst of boiling heat, the snow doth fall  
Upon the top, and never melts at all:  
It snows upon the Mountain, and that heat  
Which burneth there (albeit ne'er so great)  
The snow it ne'er offends, whose inward cold  
Condenseth it, and if dissolve some should,  
(By reason of hot vapours that arise)  
Yet most upon the top congealed is,  
Or never lower falls: but that which breeds  
The greatest admiration, and exceeds  
All common wonder, is the noise within  
The hollow Cliffs, that doth never linne  
Its raging, whether caused by the wind,  
That stopped in Aetna's bowels fain would find  
A passage out, and cannot, till it break  
With speedy motion through some open creak  
Of the torn rocks, till when, it rumbles there;  
Or else the greedy Sea, whose arms do tear  
The mountains bosom, and the brackish waves  
Mingling with fires in those hot sulf'rous caves  
Within, and wanting means to sally thence,  
Add matter to the broiling violence  
And noise; uncertain whether of the twain  
It is, but one may be the reason plain.  
Divinest Ceres now most confident  
Of the sure Island (to whose charge she lent  
And left her dearest pledge) without all fear  
Or least suspicion of her danger near,  
To Phrigia posteth, and amain doth high  
To her torn foundress mother Cybele.  
By six fierce Dragons, that (tail wheeling round  
With writhed limbs) her chariot lift from ground,  
She carried is, and snatched into the air,  
From whence her speedy flight (they swift) prepare,  
And, breaking through the clouds, that give them way,  
Them leave behind; and (posting) lead away  
With giddy gallop, the free rains they bear  
Upon their lofty crests (bemoistned were  
With foamy froth) which on their golden scales  
They cast, and doubly spot their winged sails:  
One while the middle Region they divide,  
And soar aloft; then suddenly they slide  
Down to the earth, and slacking of their flight,  
The Chariot's golden wheels they cover (white)  
With hoary dust: their Mistress (as she goes)  
Her bounty casts, and plenteously bestows  
O'er all the fields: the very tract and path  
(Made by her wheels) sufficient plenty hath  
Of ripened ears; which (as she passeth on)  
Cloth all the fields and ways they run upon  
With golden habit. Thus behind her quite  
Aetna she leaves, and th'Island out of sight,  
Till (looking back with her presaging eyes,  
And moistened cheeks) the palace she espies  
Where she her daughter left; then with fresh tears  
She doubles her prognosticating fears  
(As doubtful of the fatal accident)  
And thus the hard mishap would fain prevent  
(By courting the fair Island) Dearest Earth,  
Blessed Soil (saith she) farewell: my first, last birth,  
I leave unto thy charge; look well to her,  
Be thou her guardian safe, since I prefer  
Thee before other places: as thy care  
Shall speed, the mindful Ceres will not spare  
For thy reward: be sure of this before,  
The cruel Spade shall never wound thee more;  
Nor rugged Clown (when he thy fields will sow)  
Shall once, with crooked tooth of delving plough,  
Tear up thy fruitful entrails; thou shalt make  
Glad husbandmen to wonder, and forsake  
The use of toiling Oxen, and sharp Goad,  
When (of their own accord) thy fields shall load  
Their Barns; and (for thy seasonable fruit)  
Their storehouse, neighbouring lands shall thee salute.  
This said, her Dragon's haste, and she arrives  
Upon Mount Ida, where Cybete lives:  
Her Temple, there, with marble statue stands,  
(That worshipped is by many upreared hands,  
Covered with thickest boughs of blazing Pine)  
That seldom subject is to storms or wind:  
The furious Air doth seldom lash, or beat  
This consecrated Tree to goddess great;  
But (gently whistling 'mongst the leaves) it bears  
And forms soft music to the hearer's ears:  
Within the Temple, nought but dancing is  
To Bacchus, and confused melodies  
Of men, that (with their howling consorts round  
Of squeaking Pipes and rustic Tabors sound)  
Shake Ida's top; the holy shrines within  
The Temple groan (moved with the noise and din:)  
At sight of Ceres all grows hushed and still,  
The bawling Choir, the Drum and Trumpets shrill  
Desist; the Corybantes cease to wave  
Their glittering blades, the Lion's fierce and brave  
Are tamed, and their gentleness is such,  
As they their shaggy manes to every touch  
Submit; the longing Ceres enters in,  
And by the mother of the gods within  
She welcomed is, that at first entering place  
Bows down her Towrs to do the goddess grace.  
jove from his supreme throne of majesty  
This passage views, and his most strict decree  
To Venus loved reveals, to thee, I will,  
(Saith he) o Cytherea show my will  
And heavenly pleasure: know, I am resolved  
That my firm purpose long ago revolved  
In hidden thoughts, do now itself declare,  
Be now fulfilled, that Ceres' daughter fair  
Be given to hell's black king; for Destinies  
Do so command, and Themis prophecies  
Have thus foretold: the time invites to this,  
Her careless mother far off wandering is;  
Go then, and to Sicilia take thy flight,  
That (when bright Sol, the mournful rob of night  
Displays, and clads the fields in gorgeous ray)  
Entice thou mayst the maid, to sport and play  
In Flora's walks; that (when thy skill is tried,  
Pluto may seize upon his lovely Bride:  
Unfitting 'twere (since all the gods, and me  
Thou burnest) the lowerkingdomes should be free.  
No, no; let fell Erynnis feel thy flame,  
And Acheron acknowledge the great name  
Of Venus; she gave ear, and (having heard  
Her father's mind) to journey strait prepared:  
Pallas and she (that with the horne-bent bow,  
Arcadian Maenalus affrights) both go  
(Together) with their sister, for so jove  
Commanded had; they out of filial love  
Their Sire obey, and (taking solemn leave  
Of all the gods) them of their sight bereave.  
Look how a Comet (seldom seen) appears  
To vulgar eyes, and fills men with strange fears:  
When (streaming o'er the world with bloody light)  
It bodes unto the people's gazing sight  
Some rare event: (as death of Monarch great,  
Or rage of sickness sprung from dogdays heat:)  
That, to the trembling Mariner (at hand)  
Threatens huge storms, plagues, famine to the land;  
So show'd the airy track this troup divine  
Had made (amazing with its glorious shine.)  
At length, they Ceres palace had espied  
And glorious lust're of its top descried,  
And pinnacles; that (as they nearer drew)  
The goodly frame they might at leisure view:  
(A wondrous work) erected first of all  
By the black labouring Cyclop's; the high wall  
Of hard and strongest Thracian Ir'n was made,  
The massy posts that sustained and staid  
The weighty building up, of steel: and wrought  
The rest was, with the Metal thither brought  
By those industrious Chalybes; who found  
The first use of it underneath the ground.  
Never was great Pyracmon busied more,  
Or toiling Sterops sweat so much before,  
As ('bout this curious work:) never (till then)  
So (puffing, breathless) Vulcan's journeymen  
Knock on their battered Anvils sparkling steel,  
(Held by the crooked biting tongues) that feel  
Their hammers load: never was huger flame  
Raised from the weary Furnace, then that same  
Which, from the softened mass of metal thence  
Arose; nor bellows, with more violence  
Breathed on the burning Forge. Behold you might  
From far, the gates (shining with yu'ry) white,  
The top and battlements that outwardly  
Appeared, with silver and black Ebony  
Chequered; the solid beams the roof uphold  
Within, of brass; and pillars of pure gold?  
Here lovely Proserpina, with melting tone,  
Sat, to her dying honour (all alone)  
Warbling a swanlike farewell: for, she meant  
With work in hand, and needle, to present  
Unto her Mother (whom she longs to see  
And still expects) her painful industry  
Drawn out in curious sampler; and so thought,  
(In vain) to frame a rob of it (being wrought:)  
There she her father's kingdom first began  
In lively colours to paint out; and than  
Four Elements (each in their order placed)  
With cunning hand she flourished, and so graced  
The pattern with her skill, you could not know  
Whether the fire were burning there or no:  
Somewhat beneath (in region clear and fair)  
She figured had the fresh and lively air,  
And next, the water, where she often makes  
A period to her handiwork; and takes  
Fresh silk to thread her needle, for she here  
Had much ado to make the Sea appear  
In all his forms; the waves she to the life  
Describes, and set out their tumultuous strife:  
The waters were with purple wrought, the shore  
With Emeralds and Pearls all shadowed o'er;  
Behold you might the sedge and greenish weed  
Float from the Rocks (as if they there did breed  
Where she had placed them) with such Art conceived,  
That wary Pilots well might be deceived  
In viewing them; then forth a different skein  
Of silk she sorts, and fresh to work again  
Begins, those sands, the brackish waters drink:  
Those sands, so like; that lookers on would think  
They heard the Seas hoarse murmur: last of all,  
To th' earth she comes, yet (for th' original  
Was but a dull piece, and gross element)  
Less labour in describing that she spent:  
Only some green and yellow would bestow  
Upon the fields and flowers that in them grow:  
And (for vartety) amongst the rest,  
That of Narcissus story she expressed;  
Where (opposite) the new transformed Rose,  
The thorne-pricked goddess love to Adonis shows.  
(These Elements thus finished to her mind)  
Five different Zones, each in a several kind  
And quality she notes, a crimson thread  
The middle wove (flaming all fiery red  
Inhabitable) on both sides of that  
She placed the other two, more temperate:  
The two most cold (as needless to be drawn)  
She prettily thus figured in the Lawn  
Wherein she worked; (a space there left) and so  
The Samplers white alone expressed their snow.  
Next to her uncles palace she descends,  
(Proportioning his Furies, Fates and Fiends;  
But here she stopped: for (looking on her work,  
As if some ominous event did lurk  
Under these dismal Pictures) from her eyes  
Tears (forming pearls) dropped on the Destinies:  
And (weary of that sad task) she began  
To sort new colours to the Ocean;  
Whose Crystal winding streams, she there drew out  
Upon the utmost border of her clout.  
But suddenly the hinges of her door,  
With creaking noise were turned, and her before  
The goddesses she spies, so all in haste  
Th' imperfect work and rob she from her cast;  
With maiden blush and fearful modesty,  
Upon her silver cheeks a scarlet dye  
She spread; unlike to this, the Lydian Dame  
With Tyrian purple spots her yu'rie frame;  
Now Phoebus dived into the west, and night  
With lazy Car, and dullness doth invite  
The world to rest; whilst Pluto warned by jove  
His journey plot's, and conquest of his love.  
And lo, th'unseen Commandress, secretly,  
Of fearful waggon; to her axle-tree,  
The harnessed thongs, and coupled horses ties  
Horses, that, on the filth and scum which rise  
From bottom of Cocytus, feed: that graze  
In fields of Erebus and hell's black lays,  
When (drunk with Let he) up into the world  
Oblivion from their frothy mouths is hurled.  
Orphnaeus (shaking his unruly head)  
And Aethon (swift as flight) together tread  
And (trampling in th'infernal entry) beat  
Each fire struck flint from its unpaved sear:  
Nicteus, with his staring main, the best  
Of Stygian brood, with brave Alaster dressed  
And ready harnessed; both together stand  
And (reared on end) Allecto's stern command.  
With scornful neighing mock: (full of disdain)  
The coal black four, scarcely themselves contain  
Within hell gates (mad) on their master's prize  
Which he expects, upon the morn's uprise.  
Finis Libri Primi.   

THE RAPE OF PROSERPINA.  
The Argument of the Second Book.  
Proserpina suspectless of her woes  
With Venus, Pallas, and Diana goes  
To Aetna, on whose skirts the morning hours  
They spend, and crown their temples with his flowers:  
Pluto his prey doth snatch; the goddesses  
Pallas and Diana, follow to release  
Their Sister: jove his cloudy son defends,  
That with loud triumph down to bell descends.  
BY this, the sable vail of night, from far  
Vnsprad; and Phoebus in his golden Car,  
Pricks on the fiery Steeds, that force their way  
And make new breach thorough th' Ionian Sea,  
Whilst (day yet masked in night) his flaring beams,  
Play with the waves, and mock the blue gods streams,  
About this morn peep moment, the lost maid  
Lost, for she now by Venus was betrayed,  
(Unmindful of her mother's strict command)  
For who can stricter Destinies withstand?  
Boldly awakes, forgets all fear or doubt,  
And to the dewy fields she sallies out;  
Out went she, but no sooner tripped o'er  
The humble threshold, when her creaking door,  
With turned hinge thrice squeaked; as if it meant  
To warn her from the desperate attempt.  
Thrice it presaged, thrice (guilty of her fate)  
The neighbouring Aetna groaned: but ah, too late!  
For headlong will of woman, now, in her,  
Rebellion nourished 'gainst juster fear.  
Out went she, and with her the sisters three,  
Those goddesses, that bore her company;  
First jocund Venus hugged with her deceit,  
Glad, that the hour for which she long did wait  
Drew near; but giaddest that her powerful skill  
Could draw the powers infernal to her will.  
The smooth-combed locks, that (on her golden head  
She wears) part (like two skeines) and as in thread  
Entangled, some crumples up: so she  
Some longer wore, some crisped and curled Bee;  
In a rich purple mantle was she clad,  
O'er which, a belt (her sweeting husband had  
Framed in his Forge) she cast, which kept it on,  
Buckled ther'to with a rich Orient stone:  
Next Venus marched Licoeus beauteous queen:  
She (whom th' Arcadian Swains full oft have seen  
Fell their wild Boars; and she) whose stately lance  
pandion's Towrs protects, who doth advance  
The City's Trophies: this, in strife and jar  
Bestirs herself (best pleased with bloody war.  
The other (a bold huntress) loves to fright  
The wildest beasts that tremble at her sight.  
Carved on a golden Helmet, Pallas bore  
Huge Typhon's picture, (whom she long before  
Slew in Ioues quarrel:) Typhon's upper part  
Is dead, the lower living; so in part  
He lives, part dies, that monstrous bulk of his,  
Half man, half serpent, upward, downward is  
In her right hand a mighty spear she wields,  
That towers up to the sky, no wood that yields  
A tree so tall; and in her left hand, graced  
With dazzling shield was ugly Gorgon placed,  
Crowned with a head of snakes, whose visage grim  
And kill look, she with a vail keeps in.  
Diana appears in a more mild aspect,  
More lovely, and in every respect  
So like her brother, that each silver ray,  
(Upon her glorious head) shined it (by day)  
Were Phoebus' self: whose light, whose eminence  
She bore (Sex only breeding difference)  
Her azure plump veined arms discovered bare,  
And careless locks played with the gentle air.  
Th'unbended bow now gave her sinews rest,  
And at her back the shafts in quiver rest:  
A short loose garment that she (fastened) wears  
With double girt, scarce from her knee appears;  
On whose light ground (unmatched to behold)  
The wandering Delos floats in seas of gold:  
With these, the joy of Ceres, her dear child,  
But soon, near grief, keeps equal pace in field,  
Equal in limbs and honour, and might seem  
Either of both; for every one would deem  
He saw a goddess, and would think her so,  
Bore she but Pallas shield, or Phoebus' bow:  
Her gathered garment fastened with a knot  
By smoothest jasper was; and she was not  
Inferior to the Sisters nor their skill,  
For she could cozen Nature's self (at will)  
With art, which never happ'lier was shown,  
Then in the rare bestowing of her comb,  
On those two golden fleeces, that adorn  
Her wel-shaped head; where they so e'en were worn  
That not the finest thread in loom of Lawn  
Agreed, or could more equally be drawn:  
Th'Imagery in silks so lively wrought  
On her loose rob, might please the very thought  
Of nice beholders; who, when they should see  
These pictures, and would judge them but to be,  
Inanimate dead trunks, might Proserpina  
Prick them but tongues, they'd speak and be divine.  
The bults she worked were of a goddess breed,  
(Resembling Sun and Moon Hyperions seed)  
But in their shapes she fashioned different quite,  
These two great Captains of Aurora ' and Night:  
Such, as when Thetis (they but tender, young,  
Short breathed Infants) with a Nurse-like song  
Rocked sleep into their cradles, and doth take  
To her warm lap those sucklings when they wake;  
Titan, thus weak: (in his minority)  
Dim lighted, and not clambered up so high  
(As now) with mounting wing; in which first age  
Men feign him mild, and free from scorching rage:  
Thus, feeble Titan, at his Dams right side  
Lay panting; and as often as he cried,  
(For wantonness) so ever and anon  
It sobb's, and spits a gentle fire, upon  
The loving Mother; who to still and rest,  
Turns to his sister her left side and breast:  
From whence, and at her Crystal dug, she drinks  
That milke-sweet liquor, whilst her Sire bethinks  
Him of the younglings: and the pretty Moon  
Views in the Mother's arm, unto her soon;  
He (sporting) calls, the wayward babe, that shows  
With one eye turned upward, that it knows  
Nought but the dug and Thetis, all else scorns,  
Mocks him (kind father) with her little horns.  
In such great pomp, glittering attire, she went:  
The Naides (on both sides of her) bend  
In friendly troup, to wait and bear her train,  
Compass her round, each strove to be most fain.  
Those Nymphs Crymnisus, which thy fountain clear  
And thine Pantagia (whose swift course doth bear,  
And headlong roll down rocks:) do famous make  
That River too from whence Gela doth take  
The City's name, and they (slow Camarine)  
Which in those fenny shallow lakes of thine  
Are nourished; those that in Crystal brook,  
And streams of Arethusa, all forsook  
Their loved homes; and to make full the feast  
Alpheus sends his Nymphs, and 'mongst the rest  
That there attend in grateful company,  
None did excel the fairest Cyane.  
So amazons in a triumphant band  
With sloped shields march through the foeman's land:  
When manlike brave Hyppolita, with spoil  
(From Arcton hill, laden with goods and toil)  
Retires her snowy troops; then, when they sweat  
In blood of yellow Scythians, or beat,  
And break with sharpest axe the tougher Ice  
That stops the current of swift Tanais:  
So, the Moeonian Nymphs are wont to rise  
From Hermus, when their used solemnities  
They give to Bacchus, on whose festival  
Each, severally, and then, together, all  
Upon their father's gold swollen banks run mad,  
Frisking about: the aged river (glad)  
Sits in his den, and as their want he views  
Water in plenty from moist urn renews;  
No sooner had flow'r-bearing Aetna spied,  
And from his hereby top far off descried  
The sacred people; when mild Zephyrus  
He forceth with entreats, and urgeth thus:  
Thou grateful (wished for father) of the Spring,  
That'bout my meadows (with lascivious wing)  
Fliest, and there reign'st, that with perpetual blast  
Bedew'st the ground, mak'st it with freshness last:  
Look yonder, look upon those Nymphs that play  
('Mongst whom) the thunderers plants to sport this day,  
Deign midst my walks; be thou propitious,  
Be present with thy odoriferous  
Sweet flowers, now to their fullness blow them forth,  
Ripen the blossoms and those sprouts of worth,  
That fertile Hybla may at length confess  
(But envy) that her fuitfulnesse is less.  
What ever scents the dry Arabia  
Breathes from her spices on the morning grey;  
What odours flattering sense Hydaspes sends  
From far; what ere the rare bird (that extends  
Her flight to swarthy Indians (there can find  
That (though she want a mate) can raise her kind  
From her own death and ashes, and renews  
Past years with youth: sweet Zephyrus infuse  
The sum and all into these veins, and blow  
With fullest cheeks: cherish these fields, that so  
I may deserve the touch divine, and pure  
Of goddess finger; and so far allure  
Those heavenly powers, they may be covetous  
To wear our flowery garlands on their brows:  
Here Aetna stopped, when strait the West-wind threw  
Shaked (from his madid wings) a Nectar new  
On the dry turfs, and joins the clefted-earth,  
Begets in it a second fruitful birth:  
Where e'er he flies a Spring of April showers  
Follows; the ground swells up with herbs and flowers,  
Which with their load (the moisture quickly spent)  
Bend down again, and (fading) lose their scent.  
This place he clotheth with the bloud-bright Rose,  
That, with young Hyacinthus, there bestows  
The purple-painted (near black) Violet.  
What belt on Parthian King was ever set  
In richer gems? what more variety  
In fleeces spotted with Assyrian die?  
The Bird of juno in his greatest pride,  
Shows but dull eyes (with these fair colours tried:)  
Not so (when waterish winter doth begin)  
The Rainbow crowns him with oft varying,  
When streaking the pale Sun with redder fire  
The moistened track, through clouds dispersed shows clear:  
The place exceeds the flowers: for a plain  
Here crooking swells; there, seems to rise again  
In hillocks soft, till, farther it becomes  
A hill, where from a lively punice runs  
A bubbling Spring, which grows into a Brook,  
From which its moisture the dewed grass doth suck;  
For (as the Snake-like stream winds in and out)  
It snares the herbs and flowers round about:  
The Woods cool leaves here serve for summer's shade,  
(By whose thick boughs Winter's cold frost's allayed)  
Where grows the Fir, the hard strong Cherrie-tree  
For ships, for bows (in war) that fittest be:  
Ioues loved Oak, young, and in vigorous heat,  
The old, with luscious honey combs replete:  
The mournful Cypress covering sepulchre,  
And bay presaging Laurel tree grew there:  
The thicke-topt, spreading, crisped Box, (whose weight)  
Doth make it wave, and totter from its height:  
The Serpent-like slow Ivy, and the Elm  
Laced with the Vine, makes it with Grapes o'erwhelm.  
A Lake which the Sicilians, Pergus name,  
Was near at hand; and to adorn the same,  
A row of well-placed trees begird it round,  
Whose silent water (free from noise or sound)  
Looks pale, and suffers the beholder's eyes  
(Unhurt) to search the bottoms secrecies.  
The train being here arrived they joy and sport  
To see the flowery Country, to exhort,  
Thus, Cytherea, them begins: Come, come,  
Sisters, and gather till the morning Sun  
Dry the airs sweat, whilst yet my Lucifer  
(Mounted on dewy Courser) every where  
Waters the yellow fields: so, having spoke,  
She first began to pluck a flower, first took  
The badge of her old grief, than each doth strive  
And fall to work; as when of Bees a Hive  
Snatches the sweets of Hybla's Time; or when  
Their Leaders with an Army (as 'mongst men)  
Remove their waxen tents: or, when they creep  
From hollow Beech's womb, and (swarming) sweep  
The dusty air; when (swollen with their cropped store)  
(Buzzing) they seem to grumble yet for more.  
So they made havoc of the flowers, and spoil  
Of all their glory, in a moment's toil.  
The Lily to the darker Violet  
One weaves; another in her breast doth set  
The soft-sweet Marjoram; a third must go  
Starre-deckt with Roses; this in differing show  
Pranks up herself with Privet white, and thee  
They gather, and thy weeping Tragedy  
(Poor Hyacinth) renew; nor do they spare  
Narcissus (both of you now branches rare  
Of the fresh spring, and in your lives, the joys  
Of Nature, two most excellent sweet boys)  
Thee the tiles error struck, but thee, thine own;  
When in the fountain that self-love was known:  
Apollo, with sad brow thy loss laments;  
At thine Cephissus broken reed relents:  
Proserpina, more greedy than the rest  
(Most hot upon the spoil) culls out the best,  
And stuffs her Osier baskets full; that smile  
To see their Mistress the poor fields beguile  
Of their rich habit; she with garlands crowns  
Her temples (ignorant of fate) that frowns  
Upon the wreath she wears (prophetical  
Swiftly foreruning the black Nuptial)  
The warlike Goddess, her right hand, that scours  
The lusty troops, that tears down walls and towers,  
Gives to an easier task; lays by her spear  
Her glistering shield (unused such toys to bear)  
She teacheth now the garland to embrace,  
Her steele-topped helmet sweetest garlands grace:  
Nor she, that in Parthenian Mountains seeks  
With sure nosed senters after chase, dislikes  
The sport, but her licentious locks keeps down,  
And bridles them with a fair garland crown:  
Whilst thus the scattered Virgins pull the flowers,  
Behold a noise began bellow, as if two towers  
(Falling) had rushed together, or some Town  
From its foundations firm had been cast down,  
The cause none guessed, but Paphos' goddess: she  
Was preinstructed in the mystery,  
And had this double passion at her choice  
To fear with them, but inwardly rejoice:  
And now the rector of the damned, below;  
Through secret windings bustles to and fro,  
To find a way to earth: first doth he fetch  
A compass here and there; then makes a breach  
Aloft; his foggy Coursers trample on  
Enceladus, that with their weight doth groan,  
(The giants huge vast limbs cut by their wheels)  
Adds to the former torments that he feels;  
And labouring, with a double yoke, in pain:  
(For he bears Dis and Aetna now) would fain  
Find ease; the weary Serpents (clinging) stay  
Their axle-tree, the horses force their way,  
And scud along (too swift for them too slack)  
Their fiery wheels slide from his sulphurous back.  
And as the close besieger, by degrees  
Steals on his mewed up foe, that nought foresees,  
Whilst he (by a laborious countermine  
And secret) the mocked walls doth undermine;  
Whose strength and stricter guard none now protect,  
(The Conqueror's entering, where they lest expect)  
Like to these earthborn men. Saturn's third heir  
Contrives a passage up to the World's air  
His brother's Orb, and gives his Steeds free rain  
Searcheth through every corner: but (in vain)  
No gate appears, huge heaps of rokces and stones  
Damn up his passage every where; not once  
Discou'ring light, as purposely to keep  
The god close prisoner in that dungeon deep;  
But he (enraged) brooked no delays, and strait  
Advanced his beamy sceptre, with whose weight  
He breaks the Rocks; tears the resisting ground,  
The blow caused all Sicilia's Caves resound,  
And Rivers roar; th'adjacent Islands shake,  
Amazed Vulcan sudden flight doth take,  
(Leaving his forge) the trembling Cyclop's hide  
Their fearful heads, and cast Ioues bolts aside;  
The poor cold dweller on steep Apennine,  
And frozen passengers, that slowly climb  
The hoary Alps, amazed stand, and doubt  
Of some new broil 'twixt jove and Giant rout:  
Those that (along thy streams) with naked limb  
Perpetual trophy bearing Tiber, swim,  
And those that to thy current famous Po  
Launch out their little barks, heard that great blow:  
So when (on lower Plains of Thessaly)  
A standing pool (by rocky Mountains high  
Enclosed) denies unto the marish ground  
Tillage; and pasture to the meadows drowned;  
Till angry Neptune with his Tridents pikes,  
Pierceth high Ossa, and cold Olympus strikes;  
Whose wounded sides open a passage wide,  
At which th'imprisoned waters (loosened) slide,  
The Floods unto the Sea, and drier land  
Restored are, unto the Husbandman.  
No sooner was Earth's knotty vail undone  
(By Pluto) when Trinacria begun  
To spread her large and opening womb; and now  
A sudden fright, upon the pallid brow  
Of heaven appears; the stars unused to stray  
From their first course, seek an uncertain way:  
The two celestial Bears that shone so bright  
In the forbidden Sea dash their dim light.  
Lazy Boötes fear doth headlong cast,  
Orion trembles, Atlas stands aghast  
At hell's jades neighing, whose breath, misty steams  
Obscure heavens face, and Phoebus' golden beams;  
His radiant brightness in the beasts doth breed  
A sudden terror, for they use to feed  
Perpetually in darkness: now by fits,  
Betwixt their teeth they catch the champed bits,  
And (winding sidelong) their Coach beam would turn  
Backward to hell, and Chaos to return.  
But when they once the Tarry whip perceive  
Lash their black buttocks, quickly than they leave  
Their strife; and (forced to the new light) depart  
Swifter than winter flood, or Parthian dart:  
The violence of Southern storms is slow  
To their quick pace, that nimblest thoughts outgo:  
The reins grow hot with their rank blood, and breath  
From furnace of their nostrils sends pale death  
Into the purer air: their froth, upon  
Th'untrodden sands leaves strong infection.  
The Nymphs all fled, save Proserpina; (who caught  
And snatched into the Chariot) besought  
The goddesses with screaking loud for aid;  
Pallas that views her (how she was betrayed)  
Discovers Gorgon's visage; Delta too  
To her relief hastens the horne-bent bow:  
Nor give they way unto their Uncle, for  
joint Charity incites them to this war,  
Virginity in them and Proserpina  
(Alike) exasperates the fault and crime  
Of the bold ravisher; he keeps his way  
(Fearless:) as when the Lion makes a prey  
On some young steer the beauty of the stall  
And herd, when with his paws besmeared all  
In blood, he dives into the naked breast  
Until his ravenous hunger there suppressed,  
Quarters out more, at length his appetite  
Quite slaked (with staring gaze that would affright)  
He careless stands, shaking his knotted main  
(As if the Herdsmans' threats he did disdain.)  
Thou ruler of the sluggish Orb, thou worst  
(Quoth Pallas) of thy brothers; thou accursed:  
What Furies with their whips and brands profane  
Have moved thee? that (thy kingdom left in vain)  
Thou dar'st pollute the earth: Away, begun:  
Chuse'mongst thy Dirae a Companion  
Worthy thy bed; thy brother's kingdom leave  
And do not others of their lot bereave:  
Back to thy night, why minglest thou the dead  
To livers? why (a stranger) dost thou tread  
Upon our Globe? She thus exclaims, and wounds  
The horn-hoofed steeds (making them keep their bounds  
With her opposed shield) they stop, and she  
With upreared lance was ready to let flee  
Against the Chariot, had not heavens King  
(In sign of Truce) bowed his red thundering Wing  
(Acknowledging his son) and from above  
The gaping Clouds, doth Hymen reapprove  
Th' eternal Knot; and with their blazing light,  
His flames, are witnesses to Pluto's right:  
The Goddesses forbore, Cynthia her Bow  
Vnbends, but adds these words unto her woe.  
Be mindful (ah farewell) the just respect  
Of father, hath denied us to protect  
Thy person, nor can we in arms withstand  
Him, that inflicts on us his dread command:  
Thy Sire is bend against thee, thou must go  
Unto those silent people (there below;)  
(Alas poor Virgin) and shalt never see  
Thy sisters more, nor equal company.  
What fate? what fortune from above thee bears  
(Dooming the stars unto perpetual tears)  
No more my Nets shall 'bout Parthenian Cave  
Be spread, no more will I my Quiver have;  
And now securely may the wilder Boar  
Foam, and the raging Lion freely roar:  
Taygetus and Arcadia shall bewail  
Thee; when my hunting them begins to fail,  
Sad Cynthus-will bemoan thy destiny,  
And Delfo's Oracle must silent be:  
Whilst thus she mourns, the woeful Proserpina  
(Her loose hair scattered to the Southern wind)  
(In swift▪ drawn Chariot wring her soft hands  
On sorrow-beaten breast) these vain demands  
power's against heaven: why? ah why (quoth she)  
Didd'st thou not (father) cast thy darts at me  
By hands of Cyclops made? and not expel  
Thy daughter hence in dismal shades to dwell?  
No love of father? could no pity move  
What fault of mine hath thus incensed great jove?  
When Phlegra raged in sudden tumults, I  
No Banner waved 'gainst their enemy,  
The gods; nor then by strength of mine at all  
Did frosty ' Olympus on cold Ossa fall:  
What mischief have I practised? of what fault  
Made guilty? am I banished to hell's Vault,  
vast opening jaws? happy, oh happy they,  
Whom other Ravishers have made their prey,  
And borne with them! at least in their annoy  
The common light, the Sunshine such enjoy:  
But I; Heaven, Earth, Virginity must leave,  
The Stygian king doth me of shame bereave:  
Oh ill loved flowers, mocked Parents counsels ill,  
Sad trial learned (too late) of Venus' skill!  
My dearest Mother, whether Lydian song  
In Vale of Ida, thee detain thus long:  
Or, whether thou to Dyndimus be'st gone  
To bloody sacrifice, there (looking on  
Cybel's mad Priests, that with their drawn swords roam  
About those hills:) make haste and quickly come  
To my relief: secure my frantic grief,  
Hold in the loose rains of this cruel thief.  
He at these words, and seemly mourning grew,  
A stronger melting passion to renew;  
And with his sooty garment dries her tears  
(Tempering with mildest voice her causeless fears:)  
Cease, sweetest Proserpina, to vex thy mind  
With vain laments, a husband thou shalt find  
Worthy thy love; know, we are Saturn's son,  
That over all things bear dominion:  
Nor think that thou the gladsome day hast lost,  
Since we of stars and purer light may boast;  
When thou th' Elysian brightness shalt admire,  
And happy souls free from tormenting fire,  
Where the more precious golden age doth keep  
(In an eternal quiet lulled asleep:)  
Where Zephyrus, fair flowers of richest worth  
Breathes out (such as thy Aetna ne'er brought forth)  
Where in the shady Groves a rich tree grows,  
Whose arched boughs the golden Apple shows,  
That consecreate I to thee, and will make  
A happy lasting Autumn for thy sake:  
What e'er the liquid air, what Aeolus  
Contains (my lovely queen shall be for us,  
Earth, Seas and Rivers, all that in them live,  
To thy commands shall their obeisance give,  
The rich-clad purple kings shall humbly fall  
Before thy throne (mixed with the poor) for all  
Death equals; thou the guilty and unjust  
Shalt judge, with them, the Innocent and Just,  
Those shall bewail their crimes, these shall be blest  
By thee, and sent into eternal rest:  
The Destinies upon thy will shall wait,  
And what thou orderest be held for fate  
immovable: (this said) they now drew near  
Hell gates, he entered with unusual cheer.  
Like shaken leaves in sapless Autumn cast,  
From trees to earth, by furious Southern blast,  
Or rainy drops in a thick Cloud or sand,  
By broken waves cast up into the land:  
The damned souls in thronging multitude,  
To view their queen, boldly themselves intrude:  
At entrance of his Lords great Phlegeton  
Ariseth, and from boiling streams, upon  
His bristled beard casts moisture, and that face  
All on a flame: the Fiends, each to his place  
And several office them address; some choose  
To set the Chariot up, whilst others lose  
Th'unharnessed couples (turning them to graze  
On their known pastures, black Cocytus lays:  
Part deck the Palace with rich tapistry  
(Set out with curious wrought Imagery:)  
Part dressed the windows with fresh flowers; within,  
The Nuptial bed, others with Cou'rings trim:  
Th' Elysian Matrons round begirt their queen  
In a chaste troup (whose tender sorrow seen  
By sweet words eased) they order her loose hair,  
And hide with flaming vail the shamefaced fair  
The Region pale and bleak, wan ghosts now free,  
Doc frolic in triumphant jollity;  
(Dark silence interrupted) loud they sing,  
And horrid peals with noise (undaunted) ring  
Hell's groans now ceased, and (filth of ugly night  
Dispersed) she's rarified with purer light:  
Minos no more casts lots, the souls condemned  
Of their dilated pains now find an end;  
No lash resounds; Ixion from his wheel  
Is loosened, and (refreshed) doth comfort feel:  
Poor Tantalus the envious water sips,  
And tastes the fruit erst mocked his thirsty lips:  
Tytius' vast limbs are raised from the ground,  
(Where he nine Acres covered) and unbound,  
(The ravenous Vulture from his panting breast  
Dissolved) laments (as a forbidden guest:)  
The Furies now forgetful of their rage,  
With softest notes, their strict revenge assuage,  
Huge goblets they prepare, and drink a fill  
Of wine, in which their monstrous locks they swil;  
To the Cerastes power carouses deep,  
(Whilst with new light still burning fresh they keep  
The festival spent Torches:) now, you take  
A safer flight over avernus Lake  
(Than erst) you birds; (still wont to sacrifice  
Yourselves to vapours thick that thence arise.)  
(Amsanctus current swift now stopped) the noise  
Ceased, boiling Acheron began loud rejoice,  
That his hot waves (turned to a fountain) run  
Cool streams of milk; which, they had never done  
Till now; And now Cocytus flourishing  
(All clad in Ivy) offers to hell's king  
A standing Pool, and of Lyaeus' store,  
Of sacred liquor. Atropos forbore  
(In sign of triumph now) with cruel hand  
Life's thread to cut: at Pluto's dire command  
Death stops his progress, now no tears are spent,  
Nor Kindred, Kindred's Funerals lament:  
The Sea man escapes all storms; the Soldier, he  
Securely fights (from shot and sharp pike free;)  
Free from contagion healthy Cities are,  
Free from the plagues of famine, sickness, war:  
Old Charon crowned with reedsbetwixt each shore  
Keeps singing time with stroke of idle Oar:  
The Evening Hesperus (descending) fled  
To th'orbs below: now to her Nuptial bed  
The Virgin's brought, starre-painted night looks on  
As (witness) to the marriage: she, upon  
Them both showers happy blessings to ensue  
From this eternal union, and a crew  
Of blessed Elysian Saints thus sweetly sing,  
Presaging notes to their fair Queen and King.  
Our Mother juno, and of thundering jove  
(Thou Son in law, and brother) may all love  
Beget soft rest unto you both; and knit  
Those mutual necks in your embraces fit.  
A prosperous race grows toward now; and glad  
Nature expects more gods: oh may you add  
New deities, new powers to hell's affairs,  
Make Ceres' Grandam to your wished heirs.  
Finis Libri Secundi.   

THE RAPE OF PROSERPINA.  
The Argument of the Third Book.  
jove calls a Synod of the gods, reveals  
His will: each of them, secretly, concealcs  
The rape, from Ceres unto Phrigia gone,  
She dreams, returneth home (her loss being known)  
'Gainst gods sh'exclaimes (enraged) the world about  
Searcheth with lights her daughter to find out.  
Whilst hell thus triumphs, jupiter above  
Commands Thaumantis (girt with clouds to move,  
And summon up the powers of earth and seas,  
(Clad all in red) she downward slides, with ease,  
On Zephyr's wings; the gods, the Sea Nymphs all,  
And rivers, from their humid dens doth call:  
('Twixt fear and doubt they rouse themselves) but muse  
What new occasion, or what sudden news  
Disturbs their quiet rest; and (being come  
To heavens star-chamber) each their proper room  
And place provided have, with order fit;  
In the first rank the gods Celestial sit:  
And in the second, the Sea powers are placed,  
Calm Nereus, and aged Phorcus, graced  
With comely hoariness; (next these, biformed  
Glaucus was set, and Proteus (untransformed)  
In his own shape: the ancient and great  
Rivers were honoured with a several seat;  
But thousand lesser Brooks (as was most meet  
For youth) like common rout stood on their feet:  
The Water-nymphs, each, to her liquid Sire  
Leans, and dumb gazing Fawns, heavens stars admire.  
Then the grave father from Olympus' high  
Thus spoke, and breathed forth this mystery:  
At length, the care of man's affairs, again  
Solicits me, which, since the lazy reign  
Of idle Saturn long neglected were;  
When we perceived how men secure from fear,  
Lay steeped and buried in my father's sloth,  
Then to give further sufferance we were loath:  
But (willing to reform the same in part)  
Spurred up invention, and gave reins to Art:  
Then were we pleased that th' untilled field  
(Less liberal) less store of Grain should yield:  
That honey in the woods more scarce should grow,  
And wine no more from swelling Fountains flow:  
Not that we envious were, or basely prone  
To poisonous malice; but, when overgrown  
We plenty saw, and easeful riot, blind  
The light of reason, to dissuade mankind  
We willing were, dull spirits to revive:  
That each man might by his own labour live,  
That, sharp necessity should then produce  
And bring forth arts (to be brought up by use.)  
But Nature urgeth us (with sad complaint)  
To ease poor man (for such a burden faint)  
And (having to my charge the Tyrant laid)  
With former golden age doth us upbraid;  
She calls jove, Miser, says; that she is frank,  
exclaims, that we, the fields with thistles rank  
And to grow barren, suffer: that the year  
Doth fruitless pass.  
That she, (who unto mortals long did vow  
Herself Kind mother) is turned Stepdame now▪  
And thus proceeds: what boots it, wretched man  
To have a soul (from heaven infused) that can  
Discourse and reason, and his lofty head  
Lift up; if he like beasts a life must lead,  
(wandering with them in the wild woods, to get  
The fruit of Swinish acorns for his meat?  
Is this (saith she) to live? with such distaste  
The common mother urged, that we; at last  
Contented were, she thus much should obtain,  
That from Chaonian food her sons abstain;  
To which effect, we solemnly decree:  
That, Ceres, of her daughter's Destiny  
Witless (who now with her cursed Dam remains,  
Lashing th' Idean Lions o'er those Plains)  
With wailful mourning search the world throughout,  
Till (having in th' end of her pledge found out)  
In sign of her new joy (for old grief passed)  
Huge heaps of harvest she may from her cast,  
From golden Car, and spread ripe ears of corn  
Upon the fields by her blue Dragons borne.  
But list, you gods; if any here reveal  
The rape of Proserpina; or not conceal  
The Ravisher from Ceres, I protest  
A general ruin to the peace and rest  
Of things; (be he a son, or sister she,  
Or wife of mine, or that dear daughter be  
That from my brainpan boasts her birth) shall feel  
The stroke of thunder and revengeful steel  
Of Gorgon's fury: and though she must live,  
(For deities die not) yet shall she grieve  
To have been borne of heaven, and wish for death.  
Like punishment my vengeance shall unsheath  
On any of you (Rivers) that withstand  
The secrecy of this my strict command:  
(By me first wounded) him, my son in law  
Repunish shall; this for a sacred law  
Established stand: (this said) and past for fate,  
The stars were shaked, and seat whereon he sat.  
And now the apparitions of black night,  
And fearful mischief Ceres do affright:  
Who (absent from this Synod, and secure)  
To her still thought could sweetest rest procure;  
But now each moment doth ingeminate  
Her doubtful fears, and ugly night (as fate)  
Whispers the sad mishap of Proserpina,  
Who, (in each dream of hers) seems to decline  
More from her pristine being; every sleep  
Of Ceres, her vexed soul in cares doth steep.  
So still she groans in night, and when day comes,  
Cold wonderment her stupid sense benumbs,  
Till next night's fantasies, in which; a dart,  
One while (her seemeth) to her daughter's heart  
Fastened appears; and (as a horrid sight)  
She loathes her garment changed from chastest white:  
The trees that in her walks she long did know  
Barren, now fresh (she thinks) and fruitful grow:  
But one (amongst them all) she liked best,  
Whose shamefaced leaves served for a shade in rest  
To Proserpina: the bay tree that, she sees  
Cut from the root, and by strange cruelties  
Of art, the boughs lopped off; boughs, that abowd  
In freshness, now lie withered on the ground,  
And (as she thought) of this great wickedness  
inquiring, woeful Dryads express  
The lamentable Story; here (say they)  
The raging Fiends have made a bloody Fray  
With hellish axe; and laid the dust along  
Thy laurel green, fresh feeling of its wrong.  
At length, all circumstances, all disguise  
Unmasked, poor Ceres her ill fortune spies  
In her own child, that now herself appears  
Her own forc't-messenger, wet-visage, clears  
All wavering doubts, which (when the goddess wakes)  
She puts away, and on her, new grief takes;  
For Proserpina appeared, as if she seemed  
Shut in close prison, and her mother deemed  
Her fettered with strong shackles, not as she  
Was left by her in fruitful Stcilie;  
Nor (as the goddesses her found, when they  
In Aetna's rosy valleys her astray  
Did lead, but now; those locks she might behold  
(Whilom surprissing ambar and fair gold  
In brightness) squalid black, the sparkling light  
Fire of her eyes, extinguished is by night,  
A night of sorrow, and that blushing red  
Upon her cheek (exhausted with cold) grown dead.  
The Rubies, of her well graced lips quite spent,  
And limbs, than snow erst whiter, with the scent  
And colour of hell's pitch, defiled, to view  
Of Ceres, were so strange, she scarce her knew:  
Yet, seeing her so changed: goods! what a sight  
Is here (saith she?) what bitter woeful plight?  
What fault? what punishments are these? what face?  
What macerated monster of disgrace  
Is this? (she adds:) who thus hath power (she cries)  
Hath power thus much on us to tyrannize?  
Why bearest thou these bonds, this chain, unfit  
For wild beasts? Do thy soft arms merit it?  
Art thou (quoth she) my child, or dream I, art mine?  
When the vexed Image of poor Proserpina  
Replied with terror: Mother, oh, thou blind  
Mother; oh thou to thy lost child unkind  
Couldst thou (more cruel than the Lions) whom  
Thou keptest in awe, so long thy coming home  
Defer; and me that was thine only dear,  
So long forget, was I despised? then hear  
A doleful truth, that name of Proserpina  
So sweet to thee; so loved, so only thine,  
Only that name remains: for, see, behold  
What punishment, what bonds do me enfold:  
But (cruel) thou in uproar with a song  
Through Phrygian Cities hurri'st, and of wrong  
To me art witless; yet, if mother's breast  
Have not quite lest thee: if thou yet, it blessed  
And holy Ceres bearest the name, let me  
Beg one boon at thy hands (my liberty:)  
Carry me up again, but if too late  
I strive 'gainst jove, and my prefixed fate:  
If back I never must return; yet thou,  
At least, with comfortable visit now  
Come see me: thus she spoke, and going about  
To stretch her hands, she could not hold them out,  
(So clogged with yr'ns) that (as she vanished) shook:  
(At which noise) Ceres fearfully awoke,  
Glad, that the vision had no truer proved,  
But sorry for the want of her beloved;  
Up strait she gets in a distracted mood,  
And to Cybele doth her griefs unload:  
No longer (sacred Parent) can I stay  
In Phrygian ground; the care calls me away  
Of dearest child, she's yet a Girl and young,  
Knows not the danger of a flattering tongue:  
Her tender years unto all hazard yet  
Do her expose, nor do those buildings great  
And trusty, of the Cyclops, me assure:  
Each blast of fame, doth make me less secure  
Of safety (lest she to the gods reveal  
My secret house) nor can the Isle conceal  
My daughters being there (it being a place  
So famous) and withal th'apparent blaze  
Of Aetna, and Enceladus deep groans  
Cannot be hid, nor silenced his moans.  
My boding dreams in sundry uncouth forms  
Presage, and every dream sends fresh alar'mes  
Of doubts unto me, my Prophetic thought  
Still threatens, and hath still upon me wrought.  
As often as the crown of golden ears  
Falls from my head of't self, up get my fears  
As oft, and stir the blood that on my breast  
Stands in a sweat, whilst I (perplexed) no rest  
Can take: then on a sudden do arise  
Two streams, that break from my unwilling eyes,  
My rebel hand doth beat my trembling heart,  
When I would touch my pipe (it seems) all Art  
And sweetness fails; that nothing doth remain  
But the dead sound, and (being in this vain)  
My Tymbrel's strokes, nought but sad sounds forth send;  
All things (I fear) my griefs to come portend:  
Delay is dangerous, such words (replies  
Cybele) may they frustrate mount the skies;  
Jove's not so slack: but (to her latest end)  
With thunder, will be ready to defend  
His pledge; but thou thy journey onward haste,  
And back return, when thy false fear's ore'past:  
Ceres takes leave, the Temple leaves, and set  
Upon her Chariot) thinks the Dragons yet  
Are dull and lazy, with her lash that rings  
In th'air, belabours their alternate wings:  
towered Sicily she drives amain, and scant  
O'er Ida, but despairs, suspects her want.  
As a poor bird (of tender young bereft,  
Who to some tree or lower hedge were left,  
Whilst she prepared them food; ever from whence  
Her flight she takes, a kind of troubled sense,  
Tender remorse she hath: first, lest the wind  
Her nest blow down; next, lest she empty find  
The same (to men or Snakes a prey) so she,  
So Ceres, when she saw the custody  
fail, and the watch-folke of her house all gone,  
The posts broke up, hinges cast down, upon  
Her out-roomes desolate; with such a sight  
And unexpected change, all in a fright  
Her clothes she rend, and from her soft hair tears  
The sprigs and it; this madness dried her tears,  
Nor had she breath to speak; but having spent  
With trembling, all her spirits (as she went  
Forward) the first step was a stumble still,  
Yet on she goes, and with a madding will  
Wanders about, to view these empty rooms:  
(As she from one into another comes)  
On a disordered frame at length she lights,  
The worker well she knew, but poorly slights  
Th'imperfect piece, for (the divine work, spied)  
She found, that the bold Spider had supplied  
With sacrilegious web, that empty space:  
Yet she nor wept, nor grieved; but kissed the place  
And cloth unfinished, upon those threads  
She spends her dumb complaints, and thinks she reads  
Her daughter, on those faces: every toy  
About the scattered rooms, doth she enjoy  
And hug for Proserpina: now the chaste couch  
And forlorn bed invites her to approach,  
Which sluttishly (unmade) seems to complain  
For want of the soft weight it did sustain.  
Amazed she stands, (struck dumb, in such distress  
Like a poor Swain, or simple Shepherdess,  
(Whose flock, whilst she was far from their relief  
To Afrique Lions rage, or cunning thief,  
Exposed) too late can she return, and calls  
The beasts (in vain) within their hurdle walls;  
So Ceres: and in th'utmost room she spied  
Electra, Nurse unto her child, a tried  
Servant of hers; and of the Ocean  
The most known ancient Nymph (from whence she came.  
Like Ceres' self, in goodness; this was she  
That Proserpina from tender infancy  
Bore at her breast; and, till she went alone,  
Was used for sport, Ioues thigh to set her on.  
This her Companion was, her Guard select,  
Whom (next her Mother) she would most respect.  
When her thus Ceres found, robbed of her trust,  
With hoary locks now scattered in the dust,  
(After a volley of loud sighs) the reins  
To grief she loosens, and breathes out her pains:  
What sack is this (said she?) And are we given  
A prey to Titan's host? Reigns jove in Heaven?  
(The thunderer living) who durst be so bold?  
Who durst commit this outrage, uncontrolled?  
Typheous, Alcyoneus, have these  
Broke from the Mountains, given their yoakt-necks ease?  
Or hath my neighbour Aetna, Enceladus  
Freed? Or my household gods, Briareus  
And seat destroyed? Ah, where art thou (my Dear)  
Those handmaids that attended on thee, where?  
Where, where is Cyane? what violence,  
My chanting Sirens, hath removed you hence?  
Is this your faith? is this your loyalty,  
To keep another's Pledge from danger free?  
The poor Nurse trembled, and her grief gave place  
To stronger fear; not to have seen the face  
Of woeful Ceres, she would gladly'haue died:  
Senseless, amazed, a while she doth abide,  
(As loath the doubtful mischief to disclose)  
Until at length, dispensing with her woes  
And passions, thus she spoke: I would the mad  
And raging Army of the Giants had  
Been actors in this mischief; common things  
Do less affect us, sorrow that most wrings  
Is that which by our nearest friends is sought,  
And such is thine, for goddesses have wrought,  
Conspired thy ruin, nay (which least of all  
Thou migh'tst suspect) sisters, did cause our fall:  
The treacherous gods and wounds here behold  
Ofenui'ous kindred, that their bloods have sold.  
Phlegra 'gainst heaven was ne'er so furious,  
As heaven 'gainst thee (all unpropitious)  
Thy house a happy quiet did possess,  
While the chaste Virgin never would express  
A thought of gadding, or scarce once bestow  
Her dainty foot (one only step to go  
Over the threshold) neither durst she make  
A sally to the fields, fresh air to take.  
So strict she was to thy commands, so bend  
To herloued work: at which (though tired and spent)  
All the delight and solace she desired  
Was, from her Siren's songs and notes admired.  
I was her bosom friend, she would impart  
To me, the joys or sorrows of her heart;  
I was her bedfellow, and to each sport  
(As a companion should I still resort:)  
Thus passed we fairly on, till Venus came  
Drawn hither (doubtful) by what blast of fame;  
And that she might the less suspected be,  
Phoebe and Pallas are her company:  
With cunning smiles, and feigned embraces soft  
She often hugs thy daughter, and as oft  
The name of sister iterates; complains,  
On her hard Mother: that so much restrains  
Her, from wished liberty; and thinks it strange  
That thou abroad so far from home couldst range,  
And leave her in this solitary place;  
far from her father's kingdom, that the face  
Of heaven scarce she sees: and (that which most  
Doth pity move, her conversation lost  
With kindred gods) the simple Maid gave care  
(Caught by this wily chat, and free from fear)  
The goddesses she makes her welcome guests,  
Whom, with acquaint cates and Nectar store she feasts:  
The banquet done in sport and merriment  
She wore Diana's rob, and her bow bend  
With tender finger drew; and sought to wield  
minerva's golden headpiece, and huge shield:  
But Venus, strait, deceitfully 'gan praise  
Aetna's high top, and to the skies to raise  
The Valleys flowers, and something her admired,  
Of which, she wittingly, witless inquired:  
She could not think, or easily believe  
The Rose, from all those frosts preserved, should live:  
Or that the colder Months should there retain  
The Summer's grass, all winter to remain;  
Nor, that the tender blossoms of the Spring  
Are niped, by ang'ry Boötes' blustering:  
(Thus praising and thus doubting) with desire  
To see the place, her breast was set on fire;  
Thy tender Virgins frail, unwary years  
Made her consent to go, t'increase my fears.  
What tears spent I, to hinder her (in vain?)  
How little did my'ntreaties (fruitless) gain  
From her? that (now resolved and confident)  
In sister's guard (together with them went?)  
And (a large train of Nymphs t'attend them seen  
Unto the Meadows clothed in lasting green)  
With the first morning light, when as the field  
Yet i'll with dew, heavens liquid juice doth yield  
To bank of Violets; they gathered there  
The moyst'ned flowers, that, with pearl drops appear:  
But when the Sun grew to the midday's height,  
The Pole was ceased on, by vnlook't-for night:  
The trembling Island then began to reel  
And nod (shaked by the noise of Chariot wheel,  
Of horses neighing) nor could it appear  
(Whether the Coachman Death's forerunner were,  
Or death herself:) the grass and rivers great  
Were dried, the fields, strait burnt with parching heat:  
All things were blasted; there, the Privet white  
We saw, the Rose and Lilly altered quite  
From native sent and colour: every flower  
The pestilent contagion blasteth o'er:  
And (as the hoarse fell steersman turned again,  
With horrid outcries of each beast the rain)  
Back with the hell-blacke Chariot returns night,  
And to the World the day-restored light  
Discovers our sad loss and heaviness:  
For now no Proserpina, nor goddesses  
Were seen; for she dear soul was rapt away,  
And they (that act performed) made no stay:  
Poor Cyane upon the Meadow ground  
Struck dead, with cold amazement next we found;  
And (as she lay) the garland from her brow.  
We took, whose fresher flowers were withered now  
With the hot steam: there each of us inquires,  
And of our Mistress hap to know desires  
Of her (who nearest was to the success)  
Each of us with uncertain doubtfulness  
Demands the colour of the Steeds, and who  
The Coachman was; but she (that melts in woe)  
Nothing replies, of nothing us resolves:  
But (metamorphosed) secretly dissolves  
Herself into a Fountain; that soft hair  
Upon her head, her feet new turned are  
Into a dew; those arms diffused grow  
In streams, that (following our footsteps) o'erflow.  
The rest fled, and our Mermaids with swift wing  
Trudge to Pelorus, and (for grief) to sing,  
Since, cease: and now (in stead of melody)  
Plagues they portend, and dire mortality;  
And their soft voices now serve but t'entice  
Th'unheedy Mariner, that in a trice  
(answering their calls) finds his unhappy end;  
Of all thy servants, I alone t'attend  
Thy sorrows live: Ceres in deep suspense,  
(Fool that she was) hoped that yet no offence  
Was past, and still to come; but by and by  
That mood she changeth, and (with fiery eye  
Turned in her head, her breast enraged) above  
Up to the gods she flings (with plaints to move)  
As a fierce Tigress, when her den's forlorn  
Of tender young, (by fearful horseman borne  
To Persian king, madding) out strips the wind;  
(Dispersing all her rage, and fury blind  
In shining spots:) at length she overtakes  
The Hunter, and with yawning wide mouth makes  
Him leave his prey; but in a shape of glass  
He cousins the poor beast, and safe doth pass  
Onward his way: th'enraged Mother thus  
Throughout all heaven storms: restore to us  
Restore, sh'exclaimes; we are no wandering brood  
Of some base River, nor Plebeian blood  
Of Dryads flows from us; Saturn high  
Begot me on the tow'ry Cybele:  
Where is the privilege of gods then? where  
You gods, of those dread laws the sacred fear?  
What boots a virtuous life, or what? the fair  
Title of good, if Cytherea dare,  
If shameless she presume to show that face  
(Unmasked by Lemnian nets, to her disgrace?)  
That wholesome sleep, the couch, those twinings chaste  
Of her and Mars, made her thus bold at last  
With me and mine: since when (no marvel) though  
Such deeds, and such base actions from her flow:  
But what? are you turned Pandoresses, your;  
Diana and Pallas, that yet never knew  
What lust meant? Is your maiden honour gone?  
Are your vows changed, that thus you waited on  
Venus and her bold Ruffian? (suffice:)  
You both deserved the bloody sacrifice  
Of thirsty Scythian altar: let me know  
The reason of your rage; what moved you so  
'Gainst Proserpina? did she in word or thought  
Offend you ever, had she ever sought  
Texpell thee, Delia, from thy groves? or e'er  
Did she, Tritonia, thy strong arms bear.  
Or was sh'offenfiue in her speech? or rude,  
(Her self into your dances to intrude?)  
Oh no: Trinacria was her loved home,  
She never stirred, never from thence would roam:  
But what availed such privacy? no day,  
No time, could keep your envious eyes away:  
Thus she the goddesses (that silent were,  
Awed by great jove) blamed with her speech severe:  
(Silent) they nought would know, and no relief  
Could give, but tears (sad Echoes to her grief)  
What should she do? yet to another strain  
She (falls) into entreaties mild again.  
Pardon (quoth she) ye deities, if love,  
If my too strong affection, did move  
A wretch to those extremes, that were unfit;  
Pardon ye power's divine and pity it.  
Look, how I kneel; look, how mine age doth bow  
low at your feet: (thus prostrate) let me know  
(Only) the certainty of my sad state,  
The manner of my woes unfortunate:  
(What ere) let me but know it; I shall think,  
That fate (not mischief) made my fortunes sink:  
Let me but see my daughter once: not? no?  
Shall I, the search of mine own blood forego?  
But, fear not (whosoe'er thou art: thy prey  
Safely enjoy; I, to thy choice give way.  
And if the Ravisher (you goddesses)  
Have bribed you, for your silence? yet confess,  
At least (Latona) thou, thou that too well,  
Lucina's name, and our great pains canst tell;  
That double birth, the twins (which thou didst bear)  
Well testify, how much the love and fear  
Of children costs us; thou, still happy art  
In two, whilst I of one have lost my part:  
So mayst thou ever (to thy wished desire)  
Enjoy thy yellow son and daughter dear.  
The goddesses (at these fresh plaints) no power  
Had, to refrain; but with a second shower  
Of tears, they washed their cheeks: poor remedy  
(She saith) your weeping silence gives to me:  
Ay me! they all are fled; why standest thou here?  
Why stayest thou longer, and perceivest not clear,  
That heaven is armed against thee? rather haste,  
Search every nook of land, the Ocean vast:  
I will, and follow the diurnal Sun  
(Unwearied) with him in swift course to run,  
Through hidden ways; not an hour of rest,  
No sleep shall seize upon his troubled breast,  
Till my lost pledge I find: (whether her grave  
Be digged by Thetis in Iberian wave;  
Or in the Red-Sea she entrenched be)  
No place, no secret corner shall go free:  
Not frosty Rhenus, or Riphaean cold,  
Nor heat of Lybian sands, shall me withhold  
From strictest search; and (till I find her out)  
The utmost limits will I pry throughout,  
Of Southern wind, and (for a further proof)  
Will visit Boreas in his snowy roof:  
Then, will I tread on Atlas in the West;  
Next, with my flaming torches in the East  
Hidaspcs shines; then look upon me, jove:  
Look, how this wandering vagamund shall rove,  
Through Towns and Countries: do thou look on me,  
Thou juno; and in my destruction, see  
And reap thy full content: then, then, no more  
Grieve at this rival (thy base husband's whore.)  
Insult ye proud gods at my fortunes mock,  
Boast your great triumph on poor Ceres' stock.  
Thus spoke she, and from off the lofty top  
Of her known Aetna downward slid, to lop  
The branches from those trees that must give light,  
And guide her errant labours in the night:  
near to the River Acis, stood a Grove  
(Whose little streams, in memory of love)  
Fair Galatea to the Sea prefers,  
And oft there baths the beauteous limbs of hers:  
The trees grew thick here; their entangled boughs  
On every side shadow high Aetna's brows;  
Thither brought jupiter the captived prey  
Which, he (long since) had got in Giant frey:  
The wood grew proud of that Phlegraean broil,  
And victory, clothed every tree with spoil;  
Here, the vast jaws, and each prodigious limb  
Of Giants hung, their heads, their faces grim.  
(Yet threatening) to those boughlesse trunks are fixed  
And fastened: ('mongst which) the bones are mixed,  
Of scattered Serpents, and their rugged skins  
(Shrunk up by thunder from their withered fins:)  
No tree, here grew, that not preserved the fame,  
And of some conquered Giant bore a name.  
This, of Aegeons hundred hands, the steel,  
(Whose weight her crooked branches bend:) did feel  
That Caeus Arms, this shield of Mimas wore,  
A groaning fourth naked Ophton bore.  
And last, a Fir tree (taller than the rest,  
For broad shade-spreading leaves, 'mongst all, the best)  
The smoky Trophies of Enceladus  
Their king, did load: the weight (so ponderous)  
Had broke the body of that goodly tree  
(Did not a strong Oak prop with near supply:  
So sacred was the fear and piety  
To this most memorable grove, that free  
From least offence, the heavenly Trophies hung;  
Nor durst rude shepherds rustic pipe and song  
Draw hither, their faint bleating flocks to shade;  
Nor Cyclop's once with cruel axe invade  
The lusty Oak: when Poliphemus spies  
This place, he from the sacred shadow flies.  
But neither deity, nor reverence  
Of zeal, religion of the place; from thence  
Long kept th'incensed Ceres', whose strong arm  
With wheeling Sith (to their lamented harm)  
Cuts down the trunklesse bodies: (in this mood)  
e'en jove she wounds; the Pine tree falls, nor stood  
The smother Cedar, but doth prostrate fall,  
Here, she destroys; there, leaves: and (last of all)  
She looks upon her handiwork, and views  
The mangled bodies (which of them to choose  
Fit'st for her purpose:) so, the merchants care  
Provides (for safety of his life and ware,  
Which he transports, to some long voyage bend)  
('Gainst angry storms and tempests provident.)  
(First, the tall Cedar and hard Beech applied  
To the main mast and rudder, the Barks guide)  
The softer wood to the light Oar he gives,  
And strongest trees for moisture keel contrives.  
Two neighbouring Cypresses, there, lift on high  
Their towering, untouched heads (that kiss the sky)  
Such two on Ida's top, fleet Simois  
Did never see; Orontes, such (as these)  
Did never sprinkle with swift streams (that flow  
Unto Apollo's Grove, where none such grow)  
So equal in their height, and boughs esteemed,  
So e'en they grew, that brother-twins they seemed;  
(Despising with their fellow-tops, the grove:)  
These, Ceres chose for torches; and would prove  
Her stubborn strength upon them both; when (first)  
Her arms she tuck't, then folded up her skirt:  
Next, with sharp axe, she hews alternately  
The two, (that on the ground strait grovelingly  
Alike, they suffered in their fall) alike,  
Their locks they shed, the Fawns & wet Nymphs shricke  
(For grief) to view their ruin (as they lay)  
She lifts them up, and bears with her away:  
(The loose hair turned over her shoulder) she  
Descends from panting Mountains suddenly,  
Through flames she goes, through craggy rocks doth tear  
A passage; the parched sands (that scorn to bear  
Her steps) she kicks.  
So, cursed Megaera hastens the wished light  
Of fatal Yew trees, when some horrid slight  
She practiseth 'gainst Cadmus', Theban walls;  
Or, when her malice and pale vengeance falls  
On poor Thyesti'an town; darkness and Fiends  
Make her a lane to pass (as she descends  
To Phlegeton) in whose hot waves she dipped  
The deadly lights, that with his flames were typed:  
So, when the goddess was arrived at last;  
At the Rocks scorching mouth, she from her cast  
The Cypresses, into those jaws (her face  
Turned from the smoke) now every hollow place  
Was filled, and the contracted fire (withdrawn)  
Kept in the flames, and stopped their waving yawn:  
The Mountain rumbles, Mulciber began strive  
(Half choked) th'imprisoned vapours to relieve.  
When, lo; the berry-bearing Cypress leaves  
Did shine, and sulphur mixed (that to them cleaves)  
Made the boughs crackle, and high Aetna raise  
His old flames higher by this newcome blaze.  
Then took she up the firebrands (whose dim light  
Lest it should fail her in the tedious flight)  
She anointed with the juice that Phaeton  
His Steeds; and liquor that the Moon, upon  
Her Heifers, sprinkles. Now soft rest doth creep  
On mortal brows, their eyelids folds in sleep:  
Whilst she (with griefe-torne heart upon her way  
And progress) something thus t'her self would say:  
Full little did I think (while thou wert mine)  
To look thee with these lights (my Proserpina;)  
Loved Mothers wishes, fervent strong desire  
Of marri'ge bed, and holy Nuptial fire  
Were my delights: and oh! how I did long,  
In heaven to hear the Saffron Hymen's song.  
But Lachesis (that makes no difference  
'Twixt men and gods) would not with me dispense:  
How honoured was I lately, how adored  
By Suitors great, that me for thee implored?  
What Mother (though she ne'er so fruitful were)  
But thought me happier than herself (to bear  
e'en thee alone) my first, my latestioy:  
By thee my barrenness did fruit enjoy:  
By thee was I a goddess (deified)  
(Whilst thou my glory were't, thy Mother's pride:)  
I never unto juno ' inferior was  
(Whilst thou hadst being squalid now and base)  
Gramercy, jove: but why give I a part  
To him? (my self the causer of my smart)  
'Twas I, 'twas cruel I; now I disclose  
My carelessness, that thee, to busy foes  
Forsaken, left: whilst I (securely glad)  
Frisked to the noise of Bacchus' dances (mad)  
And with the sound of rattling arms (unkind)  
(Whilst thou wert rapt) the Phrygian Lion joined  
To the swift Chariot; but behold (my sweet)  
The punishment for these deservings meet.  
Look on the gaping wounds upon my face,  
The red-turned furrows, that my breast deface;  
My womb (unmindful) that it thee had borne,  
Look, how by frequent strokes 'tis rend and torn:  
Where shall I seek thee, in which heaven above?  
Under what Climate here, on earth dost move?  
What guide, what track shall lead me? (might I know  
But in what kind of Chariotthou didst go,  
Where the damned thief doth live, in earth or seas?)  
The print of the swift wheels my sight would please.  
I go, I go, where my faint plants shall guide,  
Whether blind chance: sorrow, like this betid  
Diona (all forsaken) may she look.  
For her lost Venus.  
Shall it be lawful, will some Destiny  
Give way (my child) that once more I may see,  
Once more embrace thee? doth that beauty reign  
Upon thy cheeks, and freshness still remain?  
Or shall I hap (unhappy) to behold  
Thee such, as night and dreams have oft foretold?  
Thus said she; and the first step she advanced  
From Aetna, on the flowers to light, she chanced:  
Those flowers, that to her grief, her daughter's fate  
Were conscious: she detests with cursing hate  
Those, and the place (made privy to the rape:)  
Then (through confused paths) she her course doth shape,  
Pries through the fields with blazing light, and low  
Sh'inclines the brands (all comfortless) in woe,  
With tears she baths her cheeks: tears, that abound;  
(Producing sighs and groans, that with their sound  
Ring in th'air and woods) the flaming light  
Now spreads on far, whose shadow in calm night  
Swims on the Seas; the blaze of it doth fly  
To Lybian coast, and banks of Italy;  
Th' Etruscan shore was bright and clearly seen,  
And (from th' inflamed Seas) the Sirtes shine.  
Next unto scylla's dens she goes, the light  
Unusual, those mad dogs did affright:  
Whl'st (some astonished) silent were (the rest  
More hardy) barked at their unwelcome guest.  
Finis Libri Tertij.   
FINIS.