Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/300

216 Nor sooner said, but, in a peevish Mood, Leapt from the Precipice on which he stood: The Standers-by were struck with fresh Surprize, Instead of falling, to behold him rise A snowy Swan, and soaring to the Skies. But dearly the rash Prank his Mother cost, Who ignorantly gave her Son for lost; For his Misfortune wept, till she became A Lake, and still renown'd with Hyrie's Name. Thence to Latona's Isle, where once were seen, Transform'd to Birds, a Monarch, and his Queen. Far off she saw how old Cephisus mourn'd His Son, into a Seele by Phœbus turn'd; And where, astonish'd at a stranger Sight, Eumelus gaz'd on his wing'd Daughter's Flight. Ætolian Pleuron she did next survey, Where Sons a Mother's Murder did essay, But sudden Plumes the Matron bore away. On her Right Hand, Cyllenè, a fair Soil Fair, till Menephron there the beauteous Hill Attempted with foul Incest to defile. Her harness'd Dragons now direct she drives For Corinth, and at Corinth she arrives; Where, if what old Tradition tells, be true, In former Ages Men from Mushrooms grew. But here Medea finds her Bed supply'd, During her Absence, by another Bride; And hopeless to recover her lost Game, She sets both Bride, and Palace in a Flame. Nor could a Rival's Death her Wrath asswage, Nor stopt at Creon's Family her Rage; She murders her own Infants, in Despight To faithless Jason, and in Jason's Sight; Yet e'er his Sword could reach her, up she springs, Securely mounted on her Dragons Wings.

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