Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/163

Book 3. E're yet the Sun's Autumnal Heats refine Their sprightly Juice, and mellow it to Wine. The glowing Beauties of his Breast he spies, And with a new redoubled Passion dies. As Wax dissolves, as Ice begins to run, And trickle into Drops before the Sun; So melts the Youth, and languishes away, His Beauty withers, and his Limbs decay; And none of those attractive Charms remain, To which the slighted Echo su'd in vain. She saw him in his present Misery, Whom, spight of all her Wrongs, she griev'd to see. She answer'd sadly to the Lover's Moan, Sigh'd back his Sighs, and groan'd to ev'ry Groan: "Ah Youth! belov'd in vain, Narcissus cries; "Ah Youth! belov'd in vain, the Nymph replies. "Farewel, fays he; the parting Sound scarce fell From his faint Lips, but she reply'd, "Farewel. Then on th' unwholsome Earth he gasping lyes, 'Till Death shuts up those self-admiring Eyes. To the cold Shades his flitting Ghost retires, And in the Stygian Waves it self admires. For him the Naiads and the Dryads mourn, Whom the sad Echo answers in her turn; And now the Sister Nymphs prepare his Urn: When, looking for his Corps they only found A rising Stalk, with yellow Blossoms crown'd.

This sad Event gave blind Tiresias Fame, Through Greece establish'd in a Prophets Name. Th' unhallow'd Pentheus only durst deride The cheated People, and their Eyeless Guide. To whom the Prophet in his Fury said, Shaking the hoary Honours of his Head; Twere