"Begone!" the goddess cries with stern disdain, "Begone! nor dare the hallow'd stream to ftain.' She fled, for ever banish'd from the train. 585

This Juno, heard, who long had watch'd her time To punish the detefted rival's crime:

The time was come; for, to enrage her more,
A lovely boy the teeming rival bore.

The goddess cast a furious look, and cry'd, 590 "It is enough; I'm fully fatisfy'd:

"This boy fhall fland a living mark, to prove "My husband's bafenefs and the ftrumpet's love. "But vengeance fhall awake; thofe guilty charms "That drew the Thunderer from Juno's arms, 595 "No longer fhall their wonted force retain,

"Nor please the god, nor make the mortal vain."

This faid, her hand within her hair she wound, Swung her to earth, and dragg'd her on the ground: The proftrate wretch lifts up her arms in prayer; 6c0 Her arms grow fhaggy, and deform'd with hair; Her nails are sharpen'd into pointed claws, Her hands bear half her weight, and turn to paws; Her lips, that once could tempt a god, begin

To

grow distorted in an ugly grin;

And, left the fupplicating brute might reach
The ears of Jove, fhe was depriv'd of speech:
Her furly voice thro' a hoarfe paffage came
In favage founds; her mind was still the fame:
The furry monfter fix'd her eyes above,
And heav'd her new unwieldy paws to Jove,

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610

And begg'd his aid with inward groans; and tho'
She could not call him false, she thought him fo.

How did she fear to lodge in woods alone, And haunt the fields and meadows once her own! 615 How often would the deep-mouth'd dogs pursue, Whilft from her hounds the frighted huntress flew! How did the fear her fellow brutes, and shun The shaggy bear, tho' now herself was one! How from the fight of rugged wolves retire, Altho' the grim Lycaon was her fire!

But now her fon had fifteen summers told, Fierce at the chase, and in the forest bold, When, as he beat the woods in quest of prey,

620

He chanc'd to roufe his mother where the lay. 625
She knew her fon, and kept him in her fight,
And fondly gaz'd: the boy was in a fright,
And aim'd a pointed arrow at her breast,
And would have flain his mother in the beast;
But Jove forbade, and snatch'd 'em thro' the air 630
In whirlwinds up to heav'n, and fix'd 'em there,
Where the new conftellations nightly rife,

And add a luftre to the northern skies.

When Juno faw the rival in her height, Spangled with stars and circled round with light, 635 She fought old Ocean in his deep abodes,

And Tethys, both rever'd among the gods.

They ask what brings her there?"Ne'er afk," fays fhe, "What brings me here; heav'n is no place for me, N

"You'll fee, when night has cover'd all things o'er,640 "Jove's ftarry bastard and triumphant whore "Ufurp the heav'ns; you'll fee 'em proudly roll "In their new orbs, and brighten all the pole. "And who shall now on Juno's altar wait, "When those she hates grow greater by her hate? 645 "I on the nymph a brutal form imprefs'd,

66

Jove to a goddess has transform'd the beaft: "This, this was all my weak revenge could do; "But let the god his chaste amours pursue,

"And, as he acted after lo's rape,

650

"Reftore th' adult'refs to her former shape;

655

"Then may he caft his Juno off, and lead "The great Lycaon's offspring to his bed. "But you, ye venerable Powers! be kind, "And, if my wrongs a due refentment find, "Receive not in your waves their fetting beams, "Nor let the glaring strumpet taint your streams." The goddess ended, and her with was giv'n; Back the return'd in triumph up to heav'n; Hier gaudy peacocks drew her thro' the skies, 660 Their tails were spotted with a thousand eyes; The eyes of Argus on their tails were rang'd, At the fame time the raven's colour chang'd.

The story of Coronis, and birth of Æfculapius. THE raven once in fnowy plumes was drest, White as the whiteft dove's unfully'd breast,

665

Fair as the guardian of the Capitol,
Soft as the swan, a large and lovely fowl;

His tongue, his prating tongue, bad chang'd him quite To footy blackness from the purest white.

The story of his change shall here be told. 670 In Theffaly there liv'd a nymph of old,

Coronis nam'd; a peerless maid the shin'd,
Confefs'd the fairest of the fairer kind:

Apollo lov'd her till her guilt he knew,

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680

While true she was, or whilst he thought her true ;
But his own bird, the raven, chanc'd to find
The falfe one with a fecret rival join'd:
Coronis begg'd him to suppress the tale,
But could not with repeated pray'rs prevail.
His milk-white pinions to the god he ply'd,
The bufy daw flew with him fide by side,
And by a thousand teasing questions drew
Th' important fecret from him as they flew.
The daw gave honest counsel, tho' despis'd;
And, tedious in her tattle, thus advis'd.
"Stay, filly Bird! th' ill-natur'd task refuse,
"Nor be the bearer of unwelcome news;
"Be warn'd by my example; you difcern

685

"What now I am, and what I was fhall learn:

"My foolish honefty was all my crime;
"Then hear my ftory. Once upon a time
"The two-shap'd Ericthonius had his birth

690

"(Without a mother) from the teeming earth;

"Minerva nurs'd him, and the infant laid
"Within a cheft, of twining ofiers made.
"The daughters of King Cecrops undertook
"To guard the cheft, commanded not to look
"On what was hid within. I ftood to fee

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700

"The charge obey'd, perch'd on a neighb'ring tree, "The fifters Pandrofos and Hersè keep "The strict command; Aglauros needs would peep, "And faw the monstrous infant in a fright, "And call'd her fifters to the hideous fight:

A boy's foft shape did to the waist prevail,

"But the boy ended in a dragon's tail. "I told the ftern Minerva all that pafs'd, "But for my pains, discarded and disgrac'd, The frowning goddefs drove me from her fight, "And for her fav'rite chose the bird of night. "Be then no telltale; for I think my wrong "Enough to teach a bird to hold her tongue. "But you, perhaps, may think I was remov'd,

As never by the heav'nly maid belov'd:

"But I was lov'd: ask Pallas if I lie;

"Tho' Pallas hate me now, fhe won't deny;

"For I, whom in a feather'd shape you view,
"Was once a maid (by Heav'n the story's true)
"A blooming maid, and a king's daughter too.
"A crowd of lovers own'd my beauty's charms;
"My beauty was the cause of all my harms;
“Neptune, as on his shores I went to rove,
"Obferv'd me in my walks, and fell in love.

710

715

720