Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/241

 Her skinne was starched, and so sheere a man myght well espye The verie bowels in her bulk how every one did lye. And eke above her courbed loynes her withered hippes were seene. In stead of belly was a space where belly should have beene. Her brest did hang so sagging downe as that a man would weene That scarcely to her ridgebone had hir ribbes beene fastened well. Her leannesse made her joynts bolne big, and kneepannes for to swell. And with exceeding mighty knubs her heeles behynd boynd out. Now when the Nymph behild this elfe afarre, (she was in dout To come too neere her:) shee declarde her Ladies message. And In that same little whyle although the Nymph aloof did stand, And though shee were but newly come, yit seemed shee to feele The force of Famin. Wheruppon shee turning backe her wheele Did reyne her dragons up aloft: who streyght with courage free Conveyd her into Thessaly. Although that Famin bee Ay contrarye to Ceres woork, yit did shee then agree To do her will and glyding through the Ayre supported by The wynd, she found th'appoynted house: and entring by and by The caytifs chamber where he slept (it was in tyme of nyght) Shee hugged him betweene her armes there snorting bolt upryght, And breathing her into him, blew uppon his face and brest, That hungar in his emptie veynes myght woorke as hee did rest. And when she had accomplished her charge, shee then forsooke The frutefull Clymates of the world, and home ageine betooke Herself untoo her frutelesse feeldes and former dwelling place. The gentle sleepe did all this whyle with fethers soft embrace The wretched Erisicthons corse. Who dreaming streight of meate Did stirre his hungry jawes in vayne as though he had to eate And chanking tooth on tooth apace he gryndes them in his head, And occupies his emptie throte with swallowing, and in stead Of food devoures the lither ayre. But when that sleepe with nyght Was shaken off, immediatly a furious appetite Of feeding gan to rage in him, which in his greedy gummes And in his meatlesse maw dooth reigne unstauncht. Anon there cummes Before him whatsoever lives on sea, in aire or land: And yit he crieth still for more. And though the platters stand Before his face full furnished, yit dooth he still complayne