Opening of Metamorphoses
X, translated by Golding
From thence in saffron colourd robe flew Hymen through the
ayre,
And into Thracia
beeing called by Orphy did repayre.
He came in deede at Orphyes call: but neyther did he sing
The woordes of that solemnitie, nor merry countnance bring,
Nor any handsell of good lucke. His torch with drizling
smoke
Was dim: the same to burne out cleere, no stirring could
provoke.
The end was woorser than the signe. For as the Bryde did
rome
Abrode accompanyde with a trayne of Nymphes to bring her
home,
A serpent lurking in the grasse did sting her in the ancle:
Whereof shee dyde incontinent, so swift the bane did
rancle.
Whom when the Thracian
Poet had bewayld sufficiently
On earth, the Ghostes departed hence he minding for to
trie,
Downe at the gate of Taenarus
did go to Limbo lake.
And thence by gastly folk and soules late buried he did take
His journey to Persephonee and to the king of Ghosts
That like a Lordly tyran reignes in those unpleasant
coasts.
And playing on his tuned harp he thus began to sound:
O you, the Sovereines of the world set underneath the
ground,
To whome wee all (what ever thing is made of mortall kynd)
Repayre, if by your leave I now may freely speake my mynd,
I come not hither as a spye the shady Hell to see:
Nor yet the foule three headed Curre whose heares all
Adders bee
To tye in cheynes. The cause of this my vyage is my wyfe
Whose foote a Viper stinging did abridge her youthfull
lyfe.
I would have borne it paciently: and so to doo I strave,
But Love surmounted powre. This God is knowen great force
to have
Above on earth. And whether he reigne heere or no I dowt.
But I beleeve hee reignes heere too. If fame that flies
abowt
Of former rape report not wrong, Love coupled also yow.
By theis same places full of feare: by this huge Chaos now,
And by the stilnesse of this waste and emptye Kingdome, I
Beseech yee of Eurydicee unreele the destinye
That was so swiftly reeled up. All things to you belong.
And though wee lingring for a whyle our pageants do
prolong,
Yit soone or late wee all to one abyding place doo rome:
Wee haste us hither all: this place becomes our latest
home:
And you doo over humaine kynd reigne longest tyme. Now when
This woman shall have lived full her tyme, shee shall agen
Become your owne. The use of her but for a whyle I crave.
And if the Destnyes for my wyfe denye mee for to have
Releace, I fully am resolvd for ever heere to dwell.
Rejoyce you in the death of both. As he this tale did tell,
And played on his instrument, the bloodlesse ghostes shed
teares:
To tyre on Titius growing hart the greedy Grype forbeares:
The shunning water Tantalus
endevereth not to drink:
And Danaus
daughters ceast to fill theyr tubbes that have no brink.
Ixions wheele stood still: and downe sate Sisyphus
uppon
His rolling stone. Then first of all (so fame for truth
hath gone)
The Furies beeing striken there with pitie at his song
Did weepe. And neyther Pluto
nor his Ladie were so strong
And hard of stomacke to withhold his just petition long.
They called foorth Eurydicee who was as yit among
The newcome Ghosts, and limped of her wound. Her husband
tooke
Her with condicion that he should not backe uppon her
looke,
Untill the tyme that hee were past the bounds of Limbo
quyght:
Or else to lose his gyft. They tooke a path that steepe
upryght
Rose darke and full of foggye mist. And now they were
within
A kenning of the upper earth, when Orphye did begin
To dowt him lest shee followed not, and through an eager
love
Desyrous for to see her he his eyes did backward move.
Immediatly shee slipped backe. He retching out his hands,
Desyrous to bee caught and for to ketch her grasping
stands.
But nothing save the slippry aire (unhappy man) he caught.
Shee dying now the second tyme complaynd of Orphye naught.
For why what had shee to complayne, onlesse it were of love
Which made her husband backe agen his eyes uppon her move?
Her last farewell shee spake so soft, that scarce he heard
the sound,
And then revolted to the place in which he had her found.
This double dying of his wife set Orphye in a stound,
No lesse than him who at the syght of Plutos dreadfull
Hound
That on the middle necke of three dooth beare an iron
cheyne,
Was striken in a sodein feare and could it not restreyne,
Untill the tyme his former shape and nature beeing gone,
His body quyght was overgrowne, and turned into stone.
Or than the foolish Olenus,
who on himself did take
Anothers fault, and giltlesse needes himself would giltie
make,
Togither with his wretched wyfe Lethaea, for whose pryde
They both becomming stones, doo stand even yit on watry
Ide.
He would have gone to Hell ageine, and earnest sute did
make:
But Charon
would not suffer him to passe the Stygian lake.
Seven dayes he sate forlorne uppon the bank and never eate
A bit of bread. Care, teares, and thought, and sorrow were
his meate
And crying out uppon the Gods of Hell as cruell, hee
Withdrew to lofty Rhodopee and Heme which beaten bee
With Northern wynds. Three tymes the Sunne had passed
through the sheere
And watry signe of Pisces and had finisht full the yeere,
And Orphye (were it that his ill successe hee still did
rew,
Or that he vowed so to doo) did utterly eschew
The womankynd. Yit many a one desyrous were to match
With him, but he them with repulse did all alike dispatch.
He also taught the Thracian
folke a stewes of Males to make
And of the flowring pryme of boayes the pleasure for to
take.