Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/389

Geor. IV. Whose Nest some prying Churl had found, and thence, By Stealth, convey'd th' unfeather'd Innocence. But she supplies the Night with mournful Strains, And melancholy Musick fills the Plains.
 * Sad Orpheus thus his tedious Hours employs,

Averse from Venus, and from nuptial Joys. Alone he tempts the frozen Floods, alone Th' unhappy Climes, where Spring was never known: He mourn'd his wretched Wife, in vain restor'd, And Pluto's unavailing Boon deplor'd.
 * The Thracian Matrons, who the Youth accus'd,

Of Love disdain'd, and Marriage Rites refus'd: With Furies, and Nocturnal Orgies fir'd, At length, against his sacred Life conspir'd. Whom ev'n the savage Beasts had spar'd, they kill'd, And strew'd his mangl'd Limbs about the Field. Then, when his Head, from his fair Shoulders torn, Wash'd by the Waters, was on Hebrus born; Ev'n then his trembling Tongue invok'd his Bride; With his last Voice, Eurydice, he cry'd, Eurydice, the Rocks and River-banks reply'd. This answer Proteus gave, nor more he said, But in the Billows plung'd his hoary Head; And where he leap'd, the Waves in Circles widely spread.
 * The Nymph return'd, her drooping Son to chear,

And bade him banish his superfluous fear: For now, said she, the Cause is known, from whence Thy Woe succeeded, and for what Offence: Rh