Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/191

Book 4. As Lillies shut within a Chrystal Case, Receive a glossy Lustre from the Glass. He's mine, he's all my own, the Naid cries, And flings off all, and after him she flies. And now she fastens on him as he swims, And holds him close, and wraps about his Limbs. The more the Boy resisted, and was coy, The more she clipt, and kist the strugling Boy. So when the wrigling Snake is snatcht on high In Eagle's Claws, and hisses in the Sky, Around the Foe his twirling Tail he flings, And twists her Legs, and wriths about her Wings. The restless Boy still obstinately strove To free himself, and still refus'd her Love. Amidst his Limbs she kept her Limbs intwin'd, "And why, coy Youth, she cries, why thus unkind! "Oh may the Gods thus keep us ever join'd! "Oh may we never, never part again! So pray'd the Nymph, nor did she pray in vain: For now she finds him, as his Limbs she preft, Grow nearer still, and nearer to her Breast; Till, piercing each the other's Flesh they run Together, and incorporate in One: Last in one Face are both their Faces join'd, As when the Stock and grafted Twig combin'd Shoot up the same, and wear a common Rind: Both Bodies in a single Body mix, A single Body with a double Sex. The Boy, thus lost in Woman, now survey'd The River's guilty Stream, and thus he pray'd. (He pray'd, but wonder'd at his softer Tone, Surpriz'd to hear a Voice but half his own) You Parent-Gods, whose Heav'nly Names I bear, Hear your Hermaphrodite, and grant my Pray'r; Oh