Kitap 15
Receyvd by Aesculapius meanes, though Pluto did disdeine,
479
Then Cynthia (lest this gift of hers myght woorke mee greater spyght)
Thicke clowds did round about mee cast. And to th'entent I myght
Bee saufe myself, and harmelessely appeere to others syght:
Shee made mee old. And for my face, shee left it in such plyght,
That none can knowe mee by my looke. And long shee dowted whither
To give mee Dele or Crete. At length refusing bothe togither,
Shee plaast mee heere. And therwithall shee bade me give up quyght
The name that of my horses in remembrance put mee myght.
For whereas erst Hippolytus hath beene thy name (quoth shee)
I will that Virbie afterward thy name for ever bee.
From that tyme foorth within this wood I keepe my residence,
As of the meaner Goddes, a God of small magnificence,
And heere I hyde mee underneathe my sovereine Ladyes wing
Obeying humbly to her hest in every kynd of thing.
But yit the harmes of other folk could nothing help nor boote
Aegerias sorrowes to asswage. Downe at a mountaines foote
Shee lying melted into teares, till Phebus sister sheene
For pitie of her greate distresse in which shee had her seene,
Did turne her to a fountaine cleere, and melted quyght away
Her members into water thinne that never should decay.
The straungenesse of the thing did make the nymphes astonyed: and
552
The Ladye of Amazons sonne amaazd therat did stand,
As when the Tyrrhene Tilman sawe in earing of his land
The fatall clod first stirre alone without the help of hand,
And by and by forgoing quyght the earthly shape of clod,
To take the seemely shape of man, and shortly like a God
To tell of things as then to comme. The Tyrrhenes did him call
By name of Tages. He did teach the Tuskanes first of all
To gesse by searching bulks of beastes what after should befall.
Or like as did king Romulus when soodeinly he found
His lawnce on mountayne Palatine fast rooted in the ground,
And bearing leaves, no longer now a weapon but a tree,
Which shadowed such as woondringly came thither for to see.
Or else as Cippus when he in the ronning brooke had seene
His homes. For why he saw them, and supposing there had beene
No credit to bee given unto the glauncing image, hee
Put oft his fingers to his head, and felt it so to bee.
And blaming now no more his eyes, in comming from the chase
With conquest of his foes, he stayd. And lifting up his face
