'Cyrene hearing all her fon's complaints;
Alas, poor youth, fhe cries, alas he faints;
Is it with fafting or with grief? Go bring
A bowl of water from yon crystal spring,
And bring a flaggon of old sparkling wine.
The nymphs difpatch; fome make the altar fhine
With fpicy, flames, fome the white napkins get,
And various dishes on the table fet.
She takes a cup of one great pearl, and cries
First to the Ocean let us facrifice;
And, while fhe holds it in her hand, fhe prays
To the great Ocean; fings the Ocean's praise;
Invokes a hundred nymphs that him obey,
But in a hundred groves and rivers sway;
Thrice the pours wine upon the facred fires,
And thrice the flame to th' arched roof afpires,
With which propitious figns Cyrene pleas'd,
She thus her fon's impatient grief appeas'd:
In the Carpathian gulph blue Proteus dwells,
Great Neptune's prophet, who the ocean quells;
He in a glittering chariot courfes ofer
The foaming waves, him all the nymphs adore,
Old Nereus too, becaufe he all things knows,
The paft, the prefent, and the future shows :
So Neptune pleas'd, who Proteus thus infpir'd,
And with fuch wages to his fervice hir'd,
Gave him the rule of all his briny flocks,
That feed among a thousand ragged rocks:
He's coafting now to the Emathian shore,
Near fair Pallene, where bright Thetis bore
This fon of th' Ocean, thou must him pursue,
And feize, and bind, and make him tell the true
*Cause and events of thy sad disastrous chance ;
By no fair words or prayers canft thou advance,
Nor gentle means; hard force will make him bend,
And for his own be glad to ferve thy end:
When next the radiant fun shall scorch the plain,
And thirty cattle feek for fhade in vain;
I will myfelf conduct thee to the cells
And clofe retreats where this enchanter dwells;
When he the ocean leaves and takes his reft;
There feize him tired, and with fleep oppreft,
And bind him faft with fetters and with chains;
And ftill, the more he struggles and he strains,
The fafter hold him, and beware his wiles,
By which he other mortals still beguiles;
For into twenty various forms he 'll turn,
A marble pillar, or a curved urn,
A flash of fire, or else a gushing flood,
A fhaggy lion fmeared all with blood,
A fcaly dragon, or a rugged bear,
A chafed boar, or tiger, he 'll
But thou, the more he shifts his various shapes,
Take the more care to hinder his escapes,
And hold him fafter, till at length he rife
In the fame form thou didst him first surprize;
Then will he tell whofe anger has thee griev'd,
And how thy lofs may be again retriev'd.
Thus faid Cyrene, and, with a gentle look
Upon her fon, her golden treffes fhook,
From whence ambrofian odours were diffus'd
About the room, by which the fhepherd, us'd
So long to woe, straight seemed to revive,
And thought his loved bees again alive;
His hair and weed the fweet perfume retains,
And sprightly vigour runs through all his veins.
There is a mighty gulph, which many a tide
Had eaten out of a great mountain's fide;
Sometimes the foaming waves come braving o'er
The ragged cliffs that all infest the shore,
And a great fea covers this mighty bay;
But when with falling tides it steals away,
Then does a dry and fpacious ftrand appear,
Which rough and scatter'd rocks does only bear.
About the midft, one above all the rest
With fcraggy splints raises its lofty crest;
The spreading roof has two unequal fides,
Half undermined by the beating tides,
Which make two hollow chambers on the ftrand,
Arched with rock, and floored with the fand;
Of these the larger is the cool retreat
Which Proteus chooses from the fcorching heat;
Within the leffer fair Cyrene hides
Bold Ariftæus, where the youth abides,
Turn'd from the light, and catting in his mind
How he may feize the bard, and how him bind.
Thus all prepar'd, the nymph no longer stays,
But in a mift away herlelf conveys;
And, as the rifes, all the fky grows clear,
Phoebus begins his flaming head to rear,
What is the honour of poor fheep and bees, That thou fhould'st envy or deny me these? Thou art a Goddess, I an humble fwain, And can my rural fortunes give thee pain? If fo, then come and cut down all my groves, Parch all my eared fheaves, and kill my droves, Famish my flocks, and root up all my vines ; He that is once undone no more repines. Thus went.he on, until at length the found Reach'd fair Cyrene; the fat circled round With all her nymphs, in vaulted chambers fpread Under the great and facred river's bed; There was Cydippe, gentle, sweet, and fair, And bright Dycorias with golden hair; The first a virgin free from wanton ftains, The other newly paft Lucina's pains; Clio and Beroe from the ocean Lately arrived each upon a fwan Opis and Ephyre and Deiopeia, Drymo, Liga, and the young Thaleia; Swift Arethufa had her quiver laid; And wanton Speio with her garland play'd; Some fpin Milefian wools, fome entertain The reft with ftories of the pleafing pain; The gay Climene told the crafty wiles Of jealous Vulcan; how he Mars beguiles, How the sweet thefts are found, the train is fet, And how the lovers ftruggle in the net. Whilft to fuch tales they lend a willing ear, Their time and work away together wear;
Till Aristæus' fad complaint begins
To make them liften, then proceeding wins
All the attention of the crystal hall :.
But Arethufa, moved, before all
The rest starts up, and rears her sprightly head
Above the waves that murmur'd as they fled;
And, Oh the Gods, Cyrene! cries fhe out,
Sifter Cyrene, fifter, here without,
Thy chiefest care,. fad Ariftæus ftands,
And fighs, and fwells, and with his gentle hands
Wipes his wet eyes, then to reproaches falls,
And thee unkind and cruel mother calls.
She, ftruck and pale, and feeling all the smart
That at fuch news could pierce a mother's heart,
Cries, Bring him to us, bring him ftrait away,
For him 'tis lawful, Ariftæus may,
Sprung of the Gods, their facred portals tread.
Then the commands the hasty streams, that filed
So faft away, to stop and leave a room
Where the fad youth might to her palace come:
The waters hear their Goddefs's command,
And, rising from their bed, in arches ftand;
He, through the glazed vaults, amaz'd, defcends,
Guided by two of the kind nymphs, his friends,
Till the vaft fpacious caverns he defcries,
Where fair Cyrene's watery kingdom lies,
And, ftruck with wonder, the new fcene beheld,
Where in vaft regions mighty waters fwell'd;
Here gloomy groves repeat the hollow found
Of falling floods, there rocky cliffs rebound
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