Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/48

 Downe by his elbow by and by did Atlas nephew sit. And for to passe the tyme withall for seeming overlong, He helde him talke of this and that, and now and than among He playd upon his merrie Pipe to cause his watching eyes To fall asleepe. Poore Argus did the best he could devise To overcome the pleasant nappes: and though that some did sleepe, Yet of his eyes the greater part he made their watch to keepe. And after other talke he askt (for lately was it founde) Who was the founder of that Pype that did so sweetely sounde. Then sayde the God: There dwelt sometime a Nymph of noble fame Among the hilles of Arcadie, that Syrinx had to name. Of all the Nymphes of Nonacris and Fairie farre and neere, In beautie and in personage thys Ladie had no peere. Full often had she given the slippe both to the Satyrs quicke And other Gods that dwell in Woods, and in the Forrests thicke, Or in the fruitfull fieldes abrode: It was hir whole desire To follow chaste Dianas guise in Maydenhead and attire, Whome she did counterfaite so nighe, that such as did hir see Might at a blush have taken hir Diana for to bee, But that the Nymph did in hir hande a bowe of Cornell holde, Whereas Diana evermore did beare a bowe of golde. And yet she did deceyve folke so. Upon a certaine day God Pan with garland on his heade of Pinetree, sawe hir stray From Mount Lyceus all alone, and thus to hir did say: Unto a Gods request, O Nymph, voucesafe thou to agree That doth desire thy wedded spouse and husband for to bee. There was yet more behinde to tell: as how that Syrinx fled, Through waylesse woods and gave no eare to that that Pan had sed, Untill she to the gentle streame of sandie Ladon came, Where, for bicause it was so deepe, she could not passe the same, She piteously to chaunge hir shape the water Nymphes besought: And how when Pan betweene his armes, to catch the Nymph had thought, In steade of hir he caught the Reedes newe growne upon the brooke, And as he sighed, with his breath the Reedes he softly shooke Which made a still and mourning noyse, with straungnesse of the which And sweetenesse of the feeble sounde the God delighted mich, Saide: Certesse, Syrinx, for thy sake it is my full intent,