Book 15
The daughter of Pasyphae in vayne oft tempting mee
479
My fathers chamber to defyle, surmysde mee to have sought
The thing that shee with al her hart would fayne I should have wrought.
And whither it were for feare I should her wickednesse bewray,
Or else for spyght bycause I had so often sayd her nay,
Shee chardgd mee with hir owne offence. My father by and by
Condemning mee, did banish mee his Realme without cause whye.
And at my going like a fo did ban me bitterly.
To Pitthey Troyzen outlawelike my chariot streight tooke I.
My way lay hard uppon the shore of Corinth. Soodeinly
The sea did ryse, and like a mount the wave did swell on hye,
And seemed huger for to growe in drawing ever nye,
And roring clyved in the toppe. Up starts immediatly
A horned bullocke from amid the broken wave, and by
The brest did rayse him in the ayre, and at his nostrills and
His platter mouth did puffe out part of sea uppon the land.
My servants harts were sore afrayd. But my hart musing ay
Uppon my wrongfull banishment, did nought at all dismay.
My horses setting up theyr eares and snorting wexed shye,
And beeing greatly flayghted with the monster in theyr eye,
Turnd downe to sea: and on the rockes my wagon drew. In vayne
I stryving for to hold them backe, layd hand uppon the reyne
All whyght with fome, and haling backe lay almost bolt upryght.
And sure the feercenesse of the steedes had yeelded to my might,
But that the wheele that ronneth ay about the Extree round,
Did breake by dashing on a stub, and overthrew to ground.
Then from the Charyot I was snatcht the brydles beeing cast
About my limbes. Yee myght have seene my sinewes sticking fast
Uppon the stub: my gutts drawen out alyve: my members, part
Still left uppon the stump, and part foorth harryed with the cart:
The crasshing of my broken bones: and with what passing peyne
I breathed out my weery ghoste. There did not whole remayne
One peece of all my corce by which yee myght discerne as tho
What lump or part it was. For all was wound from toppe to toe.
Now canst thou, nymph, or darest thou compare thy harmes with myne?
Moreover I the lightlesse Realme behild with theis same eyne,
And bathde my tattred bodye in the river Phlegeton,
And had not bright Apollos sonne his cunning shewde uppon
My bodye by his surgery, my lyfe had quyght bee gone.
Which after I by force of herbes and leechecraft had ageine
