Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/389

 Unyoakt his weerye Oxen. Had he tane in hand agen A shredding hooke, yee would have thought hee had a gardener beene, Or proyner of sum vynes. Or had you him with ladder seene Uppon his necke, a gatherer of frute yee would him deeme. With swoord a souldier, with his rod an Angler he did seeme. And finally in many shapes he sought to fynd accesse To joy the beawty but by syght, that did his hart oppresse. Moreover, putting on his head a womans wimple gay, And staying by a staffe, graye heares he foorth to syght did lay Uppon his forehead, and did feyne a beldame for to bee, By meanes wherof he came within her goodly ortyards free. And woondring at the frute, sayd: Much more skill hast thou I see Than all the Nymphes of Albula. Hayle, Lady myne, the flowre Unspotted of pure maydenhod in all the world this howre. And with that woord he kissed her a little: but his kisse Was such as trew old women would have never given ywis. Then sitting downe uppon a bank, he looked upward at The braunches bent with harvests weyght. Ageinst him where he sat A goodly Elme with glistring grapes did growe: which after hee Had praysed, and the vyne likewyse that ran uppon the tree: But if (quoth hee) this Elme without the vyne did single stand, It should have nothing (saving leaves) to bee desyred: and Ageine if that the vyne which ronnes uppon the Elme had nat The tree to leane unto, it should uppon the ground ly flat. Yit art not thou admonisht by example of this tree To take a husband, neyther doost thou passe to maryed bee. But would to God thou wouldest. Sure Queene Helen never had Mo suters, nor the Lady that did cause the battell mad Betweene the halfbrute Centawres and the Lapythes, nor the wyfe Of bold Ulysses whoo was eeke ay fearefull of his lyfe, Than thou shouldst have. For thousands now (even now most cheefly when Thou seemest suters to abhorre) desyre thee, both of men, And Goddes and halfgoddes, yea and all the fayryes that doo dwell In Albane hilles. But if thou wilt bee wyse, and myndest well To match thy self, and wilt give eare to this old woman heere, (To whom thou more than to them all art (trust mee) leef and deere, And more than thou thyself beleevst) the common matches flee,