To win his lady, or to lose his life, } (What shift some men will make to get a wife?) } Threw down a golden apple in her way; For all her haste, she could not choose but stay: Renown said, Run; the glittering bribe cried, Hold; The man might have been hanged, but for his gold. Yet some suppose 'twas love, (some few indeed!) That stopt the fatal fury of her speed: She saw, she sighed; her nimble feet refuse Their wonted speed, and she took pains to lose. A prophet some, and some a poet cry,[61] (No matter which, so neither of them lie,) From steepy Othry's top to Pylus drove His herd, and for his pains enjoyed his love. If such another wager should be laid, I'll find the man, if you can find the maid. Why name I men, when love extended finds His power on high, and in celestial minds? Venus the shepherd's homely habit took, And managed something else besides the crook; Nay, when Adonis died, was heard to roar, And never from her heart forgave the boar. How blest was fair Endymion with his moon, Who sleeps on Latmos' top from night to noon! What Jason from Medea's love possest, You shall not hear, but know 'tis like the rest. My aching head can scarce support the pain; This cursed love will surely turn my brain: Feel how it shoots, and yet you take no pity; Nay, then, 'tis time to end my doleful ditty. A clammy sweat does o'er my temples creep, My heavy eyes are urged with iron sleep; I lay me down to gasp my latest breath, The wolves will get a breakfast by my death; Yet scarce enough their hunger to supply, For love has made me carrion ere I die. FOOTNOTES: [59] This appeared in the First Miscellany. [60] To swerve, as the word is here used, means to draw one's self up a tree by clinging round it with the legs and arms. It occurs in the old ballad of Sir Andrew Barton, where he sends one of his men aloft: Then Gordon swarved the maine-mast tree, He swarved it with might and main. _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_, Vol. II. p. 192 [61] Melampus, the son of Amythaon, was a prophet and physician. Tibullus cites him in the character of an augur: —————_compertum est veracibus ut mihi signis, Queis Amythaonius nequeat certare Melampus._ As a physician, he discovered the use of hellebore; thence called Melampodium. THE EPITHALAMIUM OF HELEN AND MENELAUS. FROM THE EIGHTEENTH IDYLLIUM OF THEOCRITUS.[62]