Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/155

Book 3. "Are my Reproaches of so small a Force? Tis time I then pursue another Course: "It is decreed the guilty Wretch shall die, "If I'm indeed the Mistress of the Sky, "If rightly stil'd among the Pow'rs above "The Wife and Sister of the thund'ring Jove. "(And none can sure a Sister's Right deny) "It is decreed the guilty Wretch shall die. "She boasts an Honour I can hardly claim, "Pregnant she rises to a Mother's Name; "While proud and vain she triumphs in her Jove, "And shows the glorious Tokens of his Love: "But if I'm still the Mistress of the Skies, "By her own Lover the fond Beauty dies. This said, descending in a yellow Cloud, Before the Gates of Semele she stood. Old Beroe's decrepit Shape she wears, Her wrinkled Visage, and her hoary Hairs; Whilst in her trembling Gait she totters on, And learns to tattle in the Nurse's Tone. The Goddess, thus disguis'd in Age, beguil'd With pleasing Stories her false Foster Child. Much did she talk of Love, and when she came To mention to the Nymph her Lover's Name. Fetching a Sigh, and holding down her Head, Tis well, says she, if all be true that's said. "But trust me, Child, I'm much inclin'd to fear "Some Counterfeit in this your Jupiter. "Many an honest well-designing Maid "Has been by these pretended Gods betray'd. "But if he be indeed the thund'ring Jove, "Bid him, when next he courts the Rights of Love, "Descend triumphant from th' Ætherial Sky, "In all the Pomp of his Divinity, "Encompas'd round by those Celestial Charms, "With which he fills th' immortal Juno's Arms. Rh