Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/111

Book 10. And shades the Neck; when weary with Delay, She sunk her Head within, and met it half the way. And tho' with outward Shape she lost her Sense, With bitter Tears she wept her last Offence; And still she weeps, nor sheds her Tears in vain; For still the precious Drops her Name retain. Mean time the mis-begotten Infant grows, And ripe for Birth, distends with deadly Throws The swelling Rind, with unavailing Strife, To leave the wooden Womb, and pushes into Life. The Mother Tree, as if oppress'd with Pain, Wriths here, and there, to break the Bark, in vain; And, like a lab'ring Woman, wou'd have pray'd, But wants a Voice to call Lucina's Aid: The bending Bole sends out a hollow Sound, And trickling Tears fall thicker on the Ground. The mild Lucina came uncall'd, and stood Beside the strugling Boughs, and heard the groaning Wood; Then reach'd her Midwife-Hand to speed the Throws, And spoke the pow'rful Spells, that Babes to Birth disclose. The Bark divides, the living Load to free, And safe delivers the Convulsive Tree. The ready Nymphs receive the crying Child, And wash him in the Tears the Parent Plant distill'd. They swath'd him with their Scarfs; beneath him spread The Ground with Herbs; with Roses rais'd his Head. The lovely Babe was born with ev'ry Grace, Ev'n Envy must have prais'd so fair a Face: Such was his Form, as Painters when they show Their utmost Art, on naked Loves bestow: And that their Arms no Diff'rence might betray, Give him a Bow, or his from Cupid take away. Time glides along with undiscover'd Haste, The Future but a Length behind the Past; So swift are Years. The Babe, whom just before His Grandsire got, and whom his Sister bore; The