But went himself to the distracted throng,
Where high Githaron echo'd with their song.
And as the fiery war-horse paws the ground,
And fnorts and trembles at the trumpet's found;
Transported thus he heard the frantic rout,
And rav'd and madden'd at the distant fhout.
A spacious circuit on the hill there stood,
Level and wide, and fkirted round with wood;
Here the rash Pentheus, with unhallow'd

eyes, The howling dames and myftic Orgies fpies.

His mother sternly view'd him where he stood, And kindled into madness as fhe view'd:

Her leafy jav'lin at her fon fhe caft,

And cries, "The boar that lays our country wafte! "The boar, my fifters! aim the fatal dart, "And ftrike the brindled monster to the heart. Pentheus astonish'd heard the dismal found, And fees the yelling matrons gath'ring round; He fees and weeps at his approaching fate, And begs for

mercy, and

repents too late.

Help, help! my aunt Autonde, he cry'd;

"Remember how your own Altaon dy'd.

Deaf

Deaf to his cries, the frantic matron crops
One stretch'd-out arm, the other Ino lops.
In vain does Pentheus to his mother fue,
And the raw bleeding ftumps prefents to view:
His mother howl'd; and, heedless of his pray'r,
Her trembling hand fhe twisted in his hair,
"And this, fhe cry'd, fhall be Agave's fhare,
When from the neck his ftruggling head she tore,
And in her hands the ghaftly visage bore,
With pleasure all the hideous trunk survey;
Then pull'd and tore the mangled limbs away,
As ftarting in the pangs of death it lay.
Soon as the wood its leafy honours cafts,
Blown off and scatter'd by autumnal blasts,
With fuch a fudden death lay Pentheus flain,
And in a thousand pieces ftrow'd the plain.

By so distinguishing a judgment aw'd,
The Thebans tremble, and confefs the God.

The

The Story of SALMACIS

HERMAPHRODITU S.

and

From the Fourth Book of OVID'S
Metamorphofes

OW Salmacis, with weak enfeebling streams

How

Softens the body, and unnerves the limbs,

And what the fecret caufe, fhall here be shown; The cause is fecret, but th' effect is known.

The Naïads nurft an infant heretofore, That Cytherea once to Hermes bore:

From both th' illuftrious authors of his race

The child was nam'd; nor was it hard to trace
Both the bright parents through the infant's face.
When fifteen years, in Ida's cool retreat,
The boy had told, he left his native seat,
And fought fresh fountains in a foreign foil:
The pleasure leffen'd the attending toil.

With eager fteps the Lycian fields he croft,
And fields that border on the Lycian coaft;
A river here he view'd fo lovely bright,

It fhew'd the bottom in a fairer light,

Nor kept a fand conceal❜d from human fight: The stream produc'd nor flimy ooze, nor weeds, Nor miry rushes, nor the fpiky reeds;

But dealt enriching moisture all around,

The fruitful bankswith chearful verdure crown'd,
And kept the spring eternal on the ground.
A nymph prefides, not practis'd in the chace,
Nor skilful at the bow, nor at the race:
Of all the blue-ey'd daughters of the main,
The only ftranger to Diana's train:

Her fifters often, as 'tis faid, wou'd cry,
"Fy Salmacis, what always idle! fy,

"Or take thy quiver, or thy arrows feize, "And mix the toils of hunting with thy ease. Nor quiver fhe nor arrows e'er would feize, Nor mix the toils of hunting with her ease. But oft would bathe her in the crystal tide, Oft with a comb her dewy locks divide;

Now

Now in the limpid ftreams the view'd her face,
And dreft her image in the floating glass:
On beds of leaves the now repos'd her limbs,
Now gather'd flow'rs that grew about her streams;
And then by chance was gathering, as the stood
To view the boy, and long'd for what the view'd.

Fain wou'd the meet the youth with hafty feet,
She fain wou'd meet him, but refus'd to meet
Before her looks were fet with nicest care,
And well deferv'd to be reputed fair.

"Bright youth, she cries, whom all thy features

prove

"A God, and, if a God, the God of love; "But if a mortal, bleft thy nurse's breast, "Bleft are thy parents, and thy fifters bleft: "But oh how bleft! how more than bleft thy bride, "Ally'd in blifs, if any yet ally'd.

"If so, let mine the stol'n enjoyments be;

"If not, behold a willing bride in me.

The boy knew nought of love, and touch'd with

fhame,

He ftrove, and blush'd, but still the blush became;