THE PICTURE OF INCEST.  
Lively PORTRAICTED IN THE HISTORY of CINYRAS and MYRRNA.  
By james Gresham.  
LONDON. Printed for R. A. 1626.  
A   

OVIDIj METAMORPHOSIS.  
LIB. X.  

OF strange disasters shall my Muse now sing  
Fathers approach not you my Carolling.  
Nor you fair Daughters, that in virtue glory,  
To taint your chaste ears with my lustful story:  
Or if my poor unpolisht lines have power  
To yield delight unto those hearts of your,  
Let me not be believed nor this my tale  
Be thought of any credible avail.  
Or if to so much truth they ' gain consent  
Yet with the fact believe the punishment.  
And sith Dame Nature hath so fare transgressed  
To suffer such a deed to be confessed  
I'm glad Ismaria and our Orphean Thrace  
Are not polluted with an act so base.  
And that our native soil so distant lies,  
From those wherein there are such villainies.  
Let Sweet Pancha●a be with riches spread,  
And fragrant flowers rarely diapered.  
May there the taste delighting Cinnamon,  
Sent pleasing Costus and the dainty gum  
Of sweet extracted Frankincense there grow,  
Whilst that alone can only MYRRAH snow.  
But sure that tree could not enforce a deed  
So bad, from so much goodness to proceed  
No (MYRRAH) no CYPID himself denies  
To lend his aid unto such surquedries,  
And vindicates his flames from the least wrongs  
That to such bestiality belongs.  
No, rather have some S●ygean fate inspired  
Thee, with a wish by none to be desired.  
'Tis lewd to loathe, the parent thou shouldst rate  
But this thy love doth even exceed that hate,  
Making thee odious and unfit to own  
That good the Gods upon thee have bestown.  
On each hand art thou round beset with suers  
Both home nobility and foreign wooers.  
That both in wit and arms contend and say  
How to bear thee (the wished prize) away.  
Of these then (MYRRHA) choose thee one ●o  
Thy happy Spouse, and let thy Sire be He.  
Hereon she ponders, and her lust opposes,  
And (to herself) what fury (says) discloses  
My frantic mind? what can I better do?  
You Sacred gods and laws parental too  
As you prohibit such a deeds Commission  
Resist in me this lawless disposition:  
(If it at least be lawless) But such favours  
Pity forbids to be thought misbehaviours.  
Since other creatures without censuring crime  
Do freely couple in their own due time.  
The little Heifar scarce yet aged a year  
Her own begetter on her back may bear  
Yet not be turpious, And the lusty Steed  
Cover the Mare which sprung from his own seed  
The lecherous Goat too, leaps the female she  
From whom himself was gendered: and that he  
Proceeding from them both, by carnal use  
Oft tups the Dam that did himself produce.  
Birds with each other too do mate and by  
The so up hatched do like fruct. fie.  
And I no reason see but wee as well  
May freely do, when nature doth compel:  
O happy they, that have this Freedoms bliss  
To couple where they list without amiss,  
But most unhappy we that must obey  
Such laws as humane care provides for stay.  
And that whereto our nature's most do ply us  
That only should those envious laws deny us.  
Yea, there are Nations too ('tis said) wherein  
The bearing mother with her son doth sin,  
And the engendering Sire his Daughter prove,  
And by this course ingeminate their love,  
Accursed I that (loving as I do)  
'Twas not my fortune to be borne there too.  
But by this Jstands too too happy fate  
(Even) seeking love, must seem degenerate.  
But why revolve I thus? what help accrewes  
To my desires by the words I use?  
Hence therefore you forbidden rhoughts and fly  
The troubled breast wherein you lurking lie.  
'Tis true, my Father hath a power to move  
An icy disposition unto love.  
But yet in me can love, nor like no beauty,  
That aims at aught beyond a filial duty.  
Were my fate such, that I were not his daughter,  
My wish would then be ●o such heinous matter,  
" A smiling fortune might so fare prevail  
To bring me to his bed with wind and sail,  
But now (so ill hath destiny ordained)  
That though she's mine there's nothing therein gained,  
Since that proximity which should combine  
Denies me to be his, or make him mine.  
O would I therefore were some other Sires,  
That I on him might satiate my desires  
" And lose myself amidst those pleasing charms  
Whi●h live within the circle of his arms:  
Or that 'twere possible for me, by flight  
(Leaving these confines and my Country's sight)  
To fly my destinated woe, and shun  
The shelf that threatens my confusion.  
But a preposterous-burning-lust restrains  
My power from doing so, in amorous chains,  
Permitting me thus fare to reach at bliss  
To hear, and see, and touch, and sometimes kiss  
Though beyond that he grant me nothing more  
T'enrich my wish, or make his virtue poor:  
Beyond (said I) fie on thee wicked maid,  
Canst thou even hope for more than thoust enjoyed  
Or so beguile thy thoughts to think that he  
(Though thou shouldst craueed) would act such villainy?  
Dost thou not weigh that further grants will cause  
Both loss of name and breach of humane laws?  
And make ensuing ages that shall read,  
Thy hapless story, blush at thee though dead?  
What? would●st thy Mother's rival be, yea more  
Thy Father's foul adulterated whore?  
Or thy own Daughter's sister? and a Mother  
To that abortive birth thou shouldst call brother?  
Dost thou not dread those hair snaked furies ires  
That do not only see thy foul desires  
But can and will (unto thy deeds extent)  
Add a condign ensuing punishment?  
O quake to think on't, and wh●●st yet thou'rt free  
Taint not thy virtuous mind, nor let there be  
A base pollution of that nature's h●sts  
Which quite prohibits such unjust requests.  
And which though thou shouldst (as thou crau'it obtain)  
Would even at best be but a fleeting gain.  
My father too, is pious, and precise  
In due observing of his Country's guise  
And one that by no fafcinating art  
Will be seduced to render up his hart:  
(Though o I wish (and fervently desire)  
There burnt in him the self same ardent fire,  
That as my hart on his perfections dote  
So he of me and mine would take like note.)  
But deep and strange must that art be can lure  
A mind so good to aught that's so impure.   

Thus to herself she said. But stupid he  
(Whom plenty of great suitors made to be  
Ambiguous what to do) atle supposing  
Her thoughts bend to a fact of so much loathing,  
With secret scrutmy assa●es to know,  
(By iterating such as d●d her woe)  
Towards whose desert, her best affection stands  
To link herself in matrimonial bands.  
To this at first she locks her lips (as gri●●ing  
To think how fare her wish was from relieving)  
But after looking with transpeircing eves  
Upon her Sire! (whose love 'twas did surprise  
Her hart with lust,) vents from her troubled breast  
Volleys of sighs (●h● symptoms of unrest)  
And from her rose cheek a due let● glide  
Of pearly tears (like those in summer tide  
Falling on the ripe Cherries which the sun  
After exhales from lying thereupon,)  
And with this tear distilied shower doth shroud  
Her star like cyes within her appr●n cloud.  
Which strange distemperature of hers her father  
Deeming of fear (not lust) yet knowing neither  
●o bids her weeping and with gentle touch  
Wipes her wet eyes, then kisses her as mu● la●  
With which she seems to be so much ore●oy'd  
That she (●uen) wishes to be still thus cloyed  
With the Ambrosiac: Nectar of his lips,  
And never to be out of this Eclipse.  
He thinking now, if ever had his carriage  
Won a wished time to win her unto marriage,  
Consults again with her desires to find  
What kind of man it was would please her mind  
To whom (as glad by this means to express  
The whice she levelled at in this distress,)  
She thus replies, the man that must obtain  
The conquest of my heart, and my bed gain,  
Must in all parts (dear Sire) resemble thee,  
Or never look to be embraced by me.  
Whilst he (not knowing her close thoughts) applauds  
Of this her liking, and with lavish lauds,  
Says, Daughter mayst thou be thus duteous still  
And evermore obey thy fathers will.  
The Gods will sure reward thee for't, and crown  
Thy duty with perpetual renown.  
No sooner was that word of (duty) spoken,  
But strait her countenance with a change was strooken,  
As conscious to herself of that soul fact  
Which with her aged Sire she sought to act,  
And grieving that those words, which she intended  
To break the ye, should be misapprehended.  
It now was midnight and a silent sleep  
Did cares from mind, & toils from body keep,  
When watchful MYRRHA (too too hapless Maid)  
Is to her former enemy betrayed,  
And so pursued by her unquiet thoughts  
That night no sleep unto her eyes allots,  
But doth again retract that lewd desire  
Which blew the coals to this incestuous fire.  
And one while timerously despairs to try  
And yet again resolves it by and by.  
Shaming to ask she covets what she shames  
And these unwilling willing motions blames:  
On every side is her attempt beset  
With hope to forward and with fear to let  
And in this conflict what her hart should do  
Cannot resolve or give consent unto.  
But as the tree hewed by the sharp edged steel  
After a many wounds gins to reel,  
Tremblingly doubtful on which hand to fall  
And is on every side much feared of all,  
So stood she shaken with a various passion  
By her too temerous timorous inclination.  
That which dissuades seems light, & what allures  
As great and just a punishment procures,  
And nothing can her thoughts intent, but siraied  
One change or other on those thoughts do wait  
" (Much like the billows of the boiling sea  
" In a tempestuous and cloudy day  
" Where one wave following the first amain  
" Comes strait a third that breaks them both (in twain)  
No mean nor ease can her distempers find  
But that which death affords the lovesick mind  
And that indeed she hugs and strait resolves  
To put in execution: Then inuolues  
Her fair neck with her Z●ne, tread to that height  
That falling thence she so might climb to death.  
And having thus prepared herself to run  
On her own woeful sad confusion  
Farewell Dear father (cries she) when l'medead  
Let (yet) my death's cause be remembered  
And since my life durst not my love make known  
Let my desires by this my death be shown.  
And therewith apts her girdles knot t'enchaine  
Her azure veyned-neeke, to case her pain.   

'Tis said the mournful murnour of her tears  
And sorrows tones, came to her nurse's ears,  
Who then (full little dreaming what a fact  
Her foster charge was now about to act  
Of self contriving death) was not fare laid  
From the sad stage whereon this Scene was played  
And hearing her strait rises, and with speed  
Opening the doors, and guessing at the deed  
By what she saw provided; first, expresses  
Her woe ider by her cries, tearing her tresles,  
And mice rably macerating with her knife  
Her age ploughed bosom; then (to save her life)  
Breaks from her tender neck, that ha●d knot, tied  
By which so sweet a beauty sought t'have died.  
And with sof●kind embraces, bids her clear  
I hose heavens (her eye) that weepimg clouded were.  
Earnesily craving what the cause might be  
That dragged her thoughts to this self tragedy.  
Whilst she as (one dumb strucken) stands at gaze  
With a dejected look, and nothing says  
But grieves that by her death's too slow dispatch  
Her too kind nurse should her so tardy catch.  
She good old nurse conjures her still with love  
To show what did these tears effusion move  
And with her nakd and wrinkled breasts displayed  
(Which hoary age had dry and withered made)  
Entreats her, by her infant Swathlings, and  
The food she first received from her hand  
(When in her now exhausted and shriveld nipple  
There then was pleasant milk for her to tipple)  
That unto her she would those griefs impart  
Which seemed so much to overload her hart,  
" Persuading her that griefs oft kill concealed  
" But find redress when theyare in time revealed.  
To all which MYRRHA still with silent gaze  
(Turning aside) sighs, but yet nothing says;  
" As one whose thoughts presaging no relief  
Would rather dye then utter forth her grief.  
The gentle Nurse (as yet in knowledge blind  
What these distempers moved, but bend to find  
The fount from whence they flowed: (with promise made  
Both of her secrecy and utmost aid.  
(To her best age worn strength) might that might  
Assuage these passions, or her heart delight,)  
Again thus woes her, Sweet child, let me know,  
What sudden grief this is torments thee so.  
And what my aged experience can redress  
My willing power shall speedily express.  
Be't a distracting frenzy,  a charm,  
Of sovereign herbs to cure thee of that harm  
Or be'st thou hurt by some malignant fate,  
I yet a spell shall shield thee from that hate.  
Or dreadst thou some incensed god, lo I  
With sacred rites that ire can pacify.  
What should I more suggest? Good fortune, she  
Sweetly smiles on thee, and as yet we're free  
From all incursions; yea, thy Sire and Mother  
Are living too and nightly 'nioy each other.  
MYRRHA no sooner hears the name of Sire  
Fall from her nurse's lips, but all on fire  
" (Like the dry flax to which the smallest coal  
" Serves as a taper to inflame the whole.)  
She breathes forth many a sigh, whilst still th'old crone  
The cause conceives not of her heavy moan  
But yet suspects she love's, and therefore still  
Sticks to her former purpose; and doth will  
That whatsoever 'twere she yet would please  
To let her know't and try her age's ease.  
And therewith takes the teare-distilling Maid  
Into her lap, and (with weak arms displayed  
Empaling her fair corpses,) says, come I know  
The troubled spring from whence these streams do flow.  
Thou art in love, and either sham'st to say  
With whom, or doubtst jest I'll the same bewray.  
But credit me my aid shall serve t'express  
How fare I am from such perfidiousness:  
Nor shall my tongue one word thereof reveal  
Unto thy Father, but the same conceal.  
At which her ill concluding words enraged  
(Breaking the pale, wherein she was incaged  
And with her face, pressing the neighbour bed  
As one more grieved than joyed by what she'd said)  
Cries, o depart, and spare a further quest  
Of that which shame constrains me to detest,  
And either leave me to myself alone  
Or cease to question more, my rueful moan.  
For what you crave, t'enrich your knowledge by  
Is but a lewd incestuous villainy.  
Hereat th'old beldame starts. & (what with fear  
And bed rid age, of many a hoary year)  
With trembling hands upheaved, doth grovelling lie  
To gain the cause of this her misery.  
And one while with delusive flattery sues  
To screw it out, another while doth use  
The sharp compulsive menaces of death,  
By showing her the means to do it with,  
Adding withal to these her mixed persuasions  
All her officious help t'assuage her passions.   

Hart-grieved-mirrha, at these words erects  
Her downcast looks, and with such sad effects,  
As showed how deep sh'was hurt, with briny teare●  
Bedews her nurse's bosom, and still fears  
To let her know't, and yet was oft about  
To make it known, yet would not let it out.  
But with her vesture clouding those fair skies  
Wherein there shone at once, two sun like eyes.  
" (And by these words like h●le sparks forshowing  
" What kind of fire 'twas in her breft was glowing  
Says. Happy o thrice happy art thou sped  
(Dear mother) that enioy'st my father's bed.  
And therewith sighing, shuts her lips ashamed  
To utter more, and therefore leauesed vnnam'd.  
The aged nurse hereat, with tremor filled  
Is almost to a jelly pale distilled,  
And with her snowwhite hairs, bristled upright  
(showing how much these words her hart affright)  
Strives with request, to make her shun that shelf  
By which she sought to shipwreck her fair self,  
And (if 'twere possible) to quench that flame  
Which seemed to kindle such a fire of shame.  
But she, (though knowing what her nurse advised  
Was friendly counsel (not to be despised)  
And on what dangerous Seas her lust must Sail  
Before it could arrive, where't might avail)  
Resolves (for sure) that if she did not reap  
The fruit Town with so many tears, to heap  
Upon her lust, self murder, and thereby  
To end at once both life and misery.  
Her loving Nurse, fearing this resolution  
Might prove indeed her beauty's dissolution  
(If not prevented) to her wounds applies  
Sage sovereign oils of age-taught subtleties,  
And bids her live, and rather than destroy  
So sweet a fabric, fully to enjoy  
Her so much loved—: but durst not (father) name  
For fear to move in her both grief and shame,  
And to these words of comfort, swears to join  
Her best endeavour, to content her mind.  
'Twas now the ripening Autumn, the wished  
Wherein the aged matrons of that Clime,  
With Snow white vestures o'er their bodies spread time  
And each a Corn made garland on her head,  
Did use to celebrate the annual Feasts  
Of Sacred CERES with their corn and beasts.  
'Gainst which solemnity, for nine night's space  
All venial acts of manly sweet embrace  
Were quite prohibited: Unto this throng  
Comes the aged wife of CINYRAS among.  
Willing to act the secret mysteries  
Of those Commanding Sacred Deities.  
And to omit no service, which might show  
The great respect she to those gods did owe.  
Whilst therefore by these rites, the nuptial bed  
Was of its lawful charge disburdened.  
The ill seducing Nurse, (whom age had made  
A sound proficient in this kind of trade)  
Having with wine and fascinating Art  
Bereft the weak brained CINYRAS of his hart  
And brought him to her lure (by cunning gloze)  
Doth MIRRHA'S love in a forged name disclose,  
Flattering his fancy with a feigned lie,  
That such a virgin loved him whose bright eye  
Reflected rays of wonder, and should he  
Deny her what she sought, 'twould doubtless be  
Her life's consumer, therefore craves with speed  
That he'd accept her proffer in this need.  
Adding such further praises to her feature  
As she best thought might move a yielding nature.  
He rapt with wonder strait desires to know  
How old that beauty was, that loved him so,  
To whom she (sense deluding-crone) replies  
Her years and MIRRHA'S do just sympathize,  
And through my life's long course I cannot tell  
That e'er I saw a nearer parallel.  
Hereat he forthwith love's, and craves with speed  
To bring her to his bed, (the mark indeed,  
At which she aimed) that so he might possess  
That sence-delighting-rate-delitiousnesse.   

No sooner did his words his wish impart,  
(As lust still speeds when it is helped by Art)  
But back returns the old trot, to discover  
To her sad charge, how she had won her lover  
And thus gins, rejoice child the thing's done  
And that great difficulties overthrown  
Which thou thoughtst so impossible, and he  
To whom thou late wert thralled, 's now slave to thee.  
Ill did th'unhappy virgin entertain  
This hapless knowledge of her Father's gain  
As one whose heart too truly did presage  
The sad events of her lust fired rage.  
And therefore weeps; & yet (like April weather)  
Again strait smiles, and so in truth doth neither.  
But as the current of her passions wind  
So do the various discords of her mind.  
Now posts swift wirged time towards night, with speed,  
Making the same as black as was the deed.  
And with a Deathlike silence hath possess  
Whatever might disturb a quiet rest.  
And even now, hath Charliswaine-Chariot run  
His midway journey from the setting sun  
When on ●he goes to perpetrate that fact  
Which none but such a Minotaur would act.  
The pale-faced Moon thereat ashamed doth s●●oud  
Her silver rays, in an obscuring cloud,  
And those bright Stars which nightly used to blaze  
Their glorious splendour, (to the worlds amaze  
●re with black Curtains so close endeavoured,  
●hat not the least can be discovered.  
●he night itself too wants that wont light  
●hich usually it had before that night  
●nd each thing so prodigiously seems bend,  
〈◊〉 if they justly feared a sad event.  
thrice did her stumbling feet seem to fore show  
●ow swiftly she was posting to her woe,  
●nd thrice th'ill boding screech-owl with harsh throat  
croaks out an ominous and fatal note,  
●euining what that foul acts end would be  
●hat in each Scene had so much prodigy.  
But on she trudg●s (shrouded by the dark  
●●om the least lustre of a shameful spark.)  
●ith one hand holding her lust guiding mother  
●nd groping out the blind way with the other.  
●t last (" as oft bad actions hit their aim  
Though in the end they perish with the same)  
●he finds the Chamber door, and without din,  
opening the same with soft pace enters in,  
●hen strait an aspen tremor doth so shake  
●er feeble timbered joints, and therewith make  
●er legs so falter, that with fatal luck,  
●●d she the fruit from that forbidden tree pluck.  
●●e milk dipped rose vermilion in her cheek,  
●ed from its s●ate, some safer place to seek,  
And that Angellike face (in which before  
There sat a godlike beauty to adore,  
Did nothing but a bloodless pale retain  
(To link both deed and issue in one chain.)  
Her wont courage leaves her too; and still  
The nearer she approaches to her ill  
The more she trembles, and abhors to think  
How nigh she was brought unto her wishes brink  
It irks her now that e'er she was so unwise  
To undertake so hard an enterprise.  
And only wishes to retire, so none  
Might either see her, or she pass unknown.  
But after long delay (still steered by  
Her age experienced Nurse's policy  
In these distractions) she attains the Port,  
(Her father's bed) so longed for in this sort.  
Whom when her Nurse bequeathes to his desires,  
Here (says she) CINYRAS quench thy lustful fires▪  
And ravel out thy thread of life in pleasure,  
With that which thou account'st thy age's treasure  
Here mayst thou satiate without surfeit, and  
Enjoy more riches than thy Realm command.  
And with this hart delighting-mu●icke-ioynes  
Their destinated breasts for amorous twines.  
Such as indeed are only free for those,  
That in a lawful marriage bed repose.)   

He sence-deluded-sire with arms displayed  
As one not dreaming to be thus betrayed)  
●eceiues into his dark and wanton bed,  
The tender bowels he so sostered;  
●nd with his Nectar-candied-words, assays  
●o drive the Damsel from her virgin maze  
adding unto these words such pleasing action  
●s he best thought might give her satisfaction.  
And to complete and make this tide of pleasure  
●low to a greater height and fullier measure  
Because her age so justly did resemble  
●IRRHA'S, whom she both was and did dissemble,  
●hey interchange like names (as being nather)  
●e her sweet daughter calls; she him kind father.  
●h'incestious game thus ended; and she full  
●f that adulterate fruit she came to pull  
departs, and leaves her new beguiled sire  
●o guess what sweet thus pleased his fond desire  
●earing within her wretched womb that seed  
●hich nature made: but lust did merely breed,  
●nd the next night returns to clear the score  
●hich both had jointly left unpaid before  
Pursuing her desires in that swift sort  
As if she wished no end to such sweet sport.   

At length, (when after many night's exchange  
Of kind embrace betwixt these lover's strange  
And equal intermixture of such sweets  
As are there used, where love with like love meets)  
His mind began to crave one happy sight  
Of that obscured fuel of delight  
Which he so oft had locked within his arms  
(And freed from rougher handle and worse harms  
But never viewed, and only in obscurity  
Had cropped the sweet flower of her virgin purity  
He forthwith craves accordingly, to see  
What this same peerless paragon might be  
Whom when apparently his eyes beheld  
To be indeed his own and only child  
And therewith weighed what an abyss of sin  
His fordid bestial lust had plunged him in  
" (For vice as till't be acteds ever blind  
" So when 'tis done it leaves a sting behind.)  
Distracting rage than so possessed his hart  
And grief his organ speech, that up he start  
And in his fury drawing forth the blade  
Which fate for this her fault had ready laid,  
Thought to have sheathed it in that tender breast  
In which but now his chiefest content did rest  
But what with fear of this attempt, and stung  
With the remembrance of that horrid wron●  
Which she (as in a crystal mirror true  
The veil uncovered) did now plainly view.  
" (For perpetrated vice seen after action  
" Appears so foul it oft drives to distraction.)  
Away she flies, and by the help of night  
Avoids the tragic end of her affright;  
And ushered by her thoughts, at random roves  
Among the large and solitary groves.  
Leaving the sweet Arabia and those fields  
Of Rich Panchaia which rare odour yields,  
And nine Moons wanders in this careless race  
Before her sear can find a resting place;  
Till in the end not able to sustain  
A longer durance of ●er gravid pain  
She seats her in a Sabra where a while  
She strives her lust bred sorrows to beguile,  
But can scarce longer make her burdened womb  
Th'incestious load therein enclosed entomb.  
With grief whereof; (even ignorant of prayer)  
And almost brought unto a foul despair  
By a hart wounding and afflicting strife  
Between a feared death and wearied life.  
She thus in doleful and soul grieving plaints  
Bewails the discord of these Combatants,  
O you all-sacred-Dieties (quoth she)  
That rule the world with sovereign Majesty  
And guide the heavenly motions of the Spheres  
With supreme power, if you have any ears  
To hear the woeful sad and mournful moans  
Of poor distressed wretched mortal ones;  
Such as with hearts unfeigned do confess  
Their soule-deepe ulcerated wickedness.  
Harken o harken then unto my cry  
Who as I have deserved desire to dye  
And will not your dread powers invoke to shun  
The smarting rod of your correction.  
Pour down your angry vengeance on my head  
That against nature have thus trespassed,  
And let me now no longer live to shame  
The lovely sex and root from whence I came.  
But lest my lingering life may be offence,  
To such as shall su●uiue my impudence,  
And my dead corpse those neighbour graves distain  
By whose offenceless sides they must be laid  
Let me partake neither of life nor death  
To grieve the one, or soil the other with.  
But so transformed be, that I of either  
May seem possessed, but yet indeed have neither  
No sooner were these words effused, but straight  
A strange effect upon her wish did wait  
Wrought by some certain Deity whose ear  
Was bend her pity moving moan to hear,  
And give redress to; For whilst yet her prayer  
Was uttering, (but not quite dissolved to air)  
Thofe goodly pillars, which but erst did grace  
Her stately moving fabric, in their pace  
Were so involved within the humid earth,  
As if they only there had had their birth,  
And from her flesh transformed nails and toes,  
And outstretched crooked winding root there grows  
from whence the long trunk of the lofty tree  
●eceiues its prime foundation and degree.  
●er body sweet, so comely in each part  
●oth to the middle of the tree convert,  
Within whose metaphorphosed Saphire veins  
The life maintaining marrowy-sap remains.  
Her fair enclapsing arms, (which but ere while  
Were snares for amorous lovers to entoyle  
●heir lust-rapt senses in,) were now estranged  
●ō what they were, & to great branches changed  
Through whose each little spray, her blood like juice  
Dispreads itself with pros●●e avarice.  
Her dainty fingers too, (not hereto borne)  
Into sun shading little boughs do turn.  
And finally her snowwhite silke-smooth-skin  
Becomes a rough hard bark of what't had been,  
Serving to shield her (as her clothes had done)  
Both from the winter's rage and piercing sun.  
In this wise begins th'uprising tree t'entomb  
Within its hollow grave her painful womb,  
And hath with quicker speed than thought, o'er pressed  
Those love-delighting hillocks of her breast,  
And with swift change is hastening to enshrine  
Her stately neck within its rugged rind,  
All which she shuns not, but (as to her fate)  
With willing mind herself doth subjugated  
To the surrescent barque; which gliding over  
Doth (as a cloud the sun) her fair face cover.  
And though with this her bodies just correction  
She loft both light of reason and affection  
Yet still she weeps, in sign whereof her tearest  
On the trees rind in luke-warne drops appears.  
Wherein a sweet and odoriferous smell  
Of sense delighting fragrancy doth dwell.  
Which for its worth a semblable name we give  
That no age shall forget nor time out live.  
●ut now gins th'incestious birth to grow  
●nto it's full maturity of woe.  
Within the barke-walled limits of the tree  
Wherewith she was enclosed in misery)  
striving to burst away through the dark tomb  
Of her transformed incarcerating womb.  
●er gravid belly swells unto that height  
That each small throb seems now to threaten  
●aking her stretch and struggle with the pain death,  
Which her ripe birth did urge her to sustain.  
Words she hath none to utter or express  
The unknown measure of her wretchedness.  
Nor to iwoake a gracious help from those  
Whose sacred powers help women in their  
But still expects delivery from that sorrow throws,  
Which as it had no mean, no help could borrow.  
The bending tree seems with sad hollow tones  
To echo forth her many ruthful groans.  
And with a flood of tears (gushed from her eyes)  
Bedews and wets itself in piteous wise,  
Where at the tenderhearted JUNO (grieved  
To see so much distress, so vnrelieued.)  
Standing as then close by the mourning sprays  
Puts to her helping hand, and then assays  
With words of Childbed comfort to delude  
The wounding sense of this her solitude.  
Forthwith the wombe-swolne-tree-begins to crack  
And through the cleaving bark doth passage make,  
For nine months growth to enter-at, when lo  
She strait yields up, the burden of her woe,  
Which had no sooner birth, but (as allied  
Unto its mother's misery) it cried.   

The neighbouring Naydes (whose cells not far●●  
From her distressed delivery, distant were)  
Hearing the cry, approach and in their arms  
First taking the young babe (yet free from harms)  
And then with tender touch, laying him down  
Upon the new grown, smooth, and soft grass't-ground,  
Embalm him with the sweet-Mirrhe-trickling tears  
Which on his tree-chang'd-mothers-barke appears.  
Swift posting time had not long run his race  
Before this birth began to wax in face.  
And each part else so lovely, that his feature  
Grew natures wonder in a so borne creature,  
●●d Envy's self delight: For such as was  
●at beauty of the world, which did surpass  
〈◊〉 others, whom the curious Artists paint  
●tables naked; and do do call Love's Saint.  
●en such was he, and in a just compare  
●ch way as lovely sweet, as young, as fair.  
●●d taking from the first his bow and arrows  
●herewith he heals by love, and wounds with sorrows.  
〈◊〉 adding but the like unto the t'other  
●u'd swear that this were CUPID & no other.  
affair in matchless beauty did his fate  
conspire to make him, though unfortunate.   
FINIS.