Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/209

 Then cride I out: Thine evill heart my selfe I tardie take. Where of a straunge advouterer the countenance I did make, I am in deede thy husband. O unfaithfull woman thou, Even I my selfe can testifie thy lewde behavior now. She made none answere to my words, but being stricken dum And with the sorrow of hir heart alonly overcum, Forsaketh hir entangling house, and naughtie husband quight: And hating all the sort of men by reason of the spight That I had wrought hir, straide abrode among the Mountaines hie, And exercisde Dianas feates. Then kindled by and by A fiercer fire within my bones than ever was before, When she had thus forsaken me by whome I set such store. I prayde hir she woulde pardon me, and did confesse my fault. Affirming that my selfe likewise with such a great assault Of richesse might right well have bene enforst to yeelde to blame, The rather if performance had ensewed of the same. When I had this submission made, and she sufficiently Revengde hir wronged chastitie, she then immediatly Was reconcilde: and afterward we lived many a yeare In joy and never any jarre betweene us did appeare. Besides all this (as though hir love had bene too small a gift) She gave me eke a goodly Grewnd which was of foote so swift, That when Diana gave him hir, she said he should outgo All others, and with this same Grewnd she gave this Dart also The which you see I hold in hand. Perchaunce ye faine would know What fortune to the Grewnd befell. I will unto you show A wondrous case. The straungenesse of the matter will you move. The krinkes of certaine Prophesies surmounting farre above The reach of auncient wits to read, the Brookenymphes did expound: And mindlesse of hir owne darke doubts Dame Themis being found, Was as a rechelesse Prophetisse throwne flat against the ground. For which presumptuous deede of theirs she tooke just punishment. To Thebes in Baeotia streight a cruell beast she sent, Which wrought the bane of many a Wight. The countryfolk did feed Him with their cattell and themselves, untill (as was agreed) That all we youthfull Gentlemen that dwelled there about Assembling pitcht our corded toyles the champion fields throughout.