What tenderest hearts could fay, betwixt them paft, Till grief too close upon them crept;
So fighing he withdrew, fhe turn'd away and wept. Much of the father in his breaft did rife,
When on the next he fix'd his eyes,
A tender infant in the nurse's arms,
Full of kind play, and pretty charms : And as to give the farewel kifs he near it drew, About his manly neck two little arms it threw ; Smil'd in his eyes, as if it begg'd his ftay,
And look'd kind things it could not say.
But the great pomp of grief was yet to come.
Th' appointed time was almost past,
Th' impatient tides knock'd at the fhore, and bid him haste
To feek a foreign home;
The fummons he refolv'd t' obey, Difdaining of his fufferings to complain,
Though every step feem'd trod with pain; So forth he came, attended on his way By a fad lamenting throng,
That bleft him, and about him hung.
A weight his generous heart could hardly bear;
But for the comfort that was near,
His beauteous Mate, the fountain of his joys,
That fed his foul with love;
The cordial that can mortal pains remove,
To which all worldly bleffings elfe are toys.
I faw them ready for departure stand;
Juft when approach'd the Monarch of our land,
And took the charming Mourner by the hand :
T'exprefs all nobleft offices he strove,
Of royal goodness, and a brother's love.
Then down to the shore fide,
Where to convey them did two royal barges ride,
With folemn pace they pass'd,
And there fo tenderly embrac'd,
All griev'd by fympathy to see them part, And their kind pains touch'd each by-ftander's heart. Then hand in hand the pity'd pair Turn'd round to face their fate; She ev'n amidft afflictions fair, He, though oppreft, ftill great.
Into th' expecting boat with hafte they went, Where, as the troubled Fair-one to the shore fome wishes
For that dear pledge fh'ad left behind,
And as her paffion grew too mighty for her mind,
She of fome tears her eyes beguil'd,
Which, as upon her cheek they lay,
The happy hero kiss'd away,
And, as the wept, blufh'd with difdain, and fiil'd.
Straight forth they launch into the high-fwoln Thames;
The well-ftruck oars lave up the yielding ftreams.
All fix'd their longing eyes, and wishing stood,
Till they were got into the wider flood;
Till leffen'd out of fight, and feen no more,
Then figh'd, and turn'd into the hated shore.
Thefeus, the fon of Ægeus, having flain the Minotaur, promised to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and Pafiphae, for the affiftance which the gave him, to carry her home with him, and make her his wife; fo together with her fifter Phædra they went on board and failed to Chios, where being warned by Bacchus, he left Ariadne, and married her fifter Phædra, who afterwards, in Thefeus her husband's abfence, fell in love with Hippolytus her fon-in-law, who had vow'd celibacy, and was a hunter; wherefore, fince fhe could not conveniently otherwife, fhe chofe by this epiftle to give him an account of her paffion.
IF thou 'rt unkind, I ne'er fhall health enjoy,
Yet much I wish to thee, my lovely boy :
Read this, and reading how my foul is feiz'd,
Rather than not, be with my ruin pleas'd:
Thus fecrets fafe to fartheft fhores may move;
By letters foes converfe, and learn to love.
Thrice my
fad tale, as I to tell it try'd,
Upon my faultering tongue abortive dy'd ;
Long Shame prevail'd, nor could be conquer'd quite,
But what I blufh'd to fpeak, Love made me write.
'Tis dangerous to refift the power of Love,
The gods obey him, and he 's king above;
He clear'd the doubts that did my mind confound,
And promis'd me to bring thee hither bound:
Oh may he come, and in that breaft of thine
Fix a kind dart, and make it flame like mine!
Yet of my wedlock vows I'll lose no care,
Search back through all my fame, thou 'lt find it fair.
But Love long breeding to worst pain does turn;
Outward unharm'd, within, within I burn!
As the young bull or courfer yet untam'd,
When yok'd or bridled first, are pinch'd and maim'd;
So my unpractis'd heart in love can find
No reft, th' unwonted weight fo toils my mind:
When young, Love's pangs by arts we may remove,
But in our riper years with rage we love.
To thee I yield then all my dear renown,
And pr'ythee let 's together be undone.
Who would not pluck the new-blown blushing rofe,
Or the ripe fruit that courts him as it grows?
But if my virtue hitherto has gain'd
Efteem for fpotlefs, fhall it now be stain'd?
Oh, in thy love I shall no hazard run ;
'Tis not a fin, but when 'tis coarfely done.
And now fhould Juno leave her Jove to me,
I'd quit that Jove, Hippolytus, for thee:
Believe me too, with ftrange dsfires I change,
Amongst wild beafts I long with thee to range.
To thy delights and Delia I incline,
Make her my goddefs too, because she's thine:
I long to know the woods, to drive the deer,
And o'er the mountain's tops my hounds to cheer,
Shaking my dart; then, the chafe ended, lye
Stretch'd on the grass; and would'st not thou be by?
Oft in light chariots I with pleasure ride,
And love myself the furious feeds to guide.
Now like a Bacchanal more wild I ftray,
Or old Cybele's priefts, as mad as they
When under Ida's hill they offerings pay:
Ev'n mad as those the deities of night
And water, Fauns and Dryads, do affright.
But ftill each little interval I gain,
Eafily find 'tis love breeds all my pain.
Sure on our race love like a fate does fall,
And Venus will have tribute of us all.
Jove lov'd Europa, whence my father came,
And, to a bull transform'd, enjoy'd the dame :
She, like my mother, languish'd to obtain,
And fill'd her womb with fhame as well as pain.
The faithlefs Thefeus by my fifter's aid
The monfter flew, and a fafe conqueft made:
Now, in that family my right to save,
I am at laft on the fame terms a flave:
'Twas fatal to my fifter and to me,
She lov'd thy father, but my choice was thee.
Let monuments of triumph then be shown
For two unhappy nymphs by you undone.
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