Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/8

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To utter perill through fond toyes and fansies in their head. For Idols, doubtfull oracles and soothsayres prophecies Doo nothing else but make fooles fayne and blynd their bleared eyes. Dedalions daughter warnes to use the toong with modestee And not to vaunt with such as are their betters in degree. The seege of Troy, the death of men, the razing of the citie, And slaughter of king Priams stock without remors of pitie, Which in the xii. and xiii. bookes bee written, doo declare How heynous wilfull perjurie and filthie whoredome are In syght of God. The frentick fray betweene the Lapithes and The Centaures is a note wherby is given to understand The beastly rage of drunkennesse. Ulysses dooth expresse The image of discretion, wit, and great advisednesse. And Ajax on the other syde doth represent a man Stout, headie, irefull, hault of mynd, and such a one as can Abyde to suffer no repulse. And both of them declare How covetous of glorie and reward mens natures are. And finally it sheweth playne that wisdome dooth prevayle In all attempts and purposes when strength of hand dooth fayle. The death of fayre Polyxena dooth shew a princely mynd And firme regard of honor rare engraft in woman kynd. And Polymnestor, king of Thrace, dooth shew himself to bee A glasse for wretched covetous folke wherein themselves to see. This storie further witnesseth that murther crieth ay For vengeance, and itself one tyme or other dooth bewray. The tale of Gyant Polypheme doth evidently prove That nothing is so feerce and wyld, which yeeldeth not to love. And in the person of the selfsame Gyant is set out The rude and homely wooing of a country cloyne and lout. The tale of Apes reproves the vyce of wilfull perjurie, And willeth people to beware they use not for to lye. Aeneas going downe to hell dooth shew that vertue may In saufty travell where it will, and nothing can it stay. The length of lyfe in Sybill dooth declare it is but vayne Too wish long lyfe, syth length of lyfe is also length of payne. The Grecian Achemenides dooth lerne us how we ought Bee thankfull for the benefits that any man hath wrought. And in this Achemenides the Poet dooth expresse The image of exceeding feare in daunger and distresse. What else are Circes witchcrafts and enchauntments than the vyle And filthy pleasures of the flesh which doo our soules defyle? And what is else herbe Moly than the gift of stayednesse And temperance which dooth all fowle concupiscence represse? The tale of Anaxaretee willes dames of hygh degree To use their lovers courteously how meane so ere they bee. And Iphis lernes inferior folkes too fondly not to set Their love on such as are too hygh for their estate to get. Alemons sonne declares that men should willingly obay What God commaundes, and not uppon exceptions seeme to stay.

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