Ambitious Gorgons, wide-mouth'd Lamians,[401] Shape-changing Proteans, damn'd Briarians, Is Minos dead, is Rhadamanth asleep, That ye thus dare unto Jove's palace creep? What, hath Rhamnusia spent her knotted whip, That ye dare strive on Hebe's cup to sip? Yet know Apollo's quiver is not spent, But can abate your daring hardiment. Python is slain, yet his accursèd race Dare look divine Astrea in the face; 10 Chaos return, and with confusion Involve the world with strange disunion; For Pluto sits in that adorèd chair Which doth belong unto Minerva's heir. O hecatombe! O catastrophe![402] From Midas' pomp to Irus' beggary! Prometheus, who celestial fire Did steal from heaven, therewith to inspire Our earthly bodies with a senseful mind, Whereby we might the depth of nature find, 20 Is ding'd[403] to hell, and vulture eats his heart, Which did such deep philosophy impart To mortal men; when thieving Mercury, That even in his new-born infancy Stole fair Apollo's quiver and Jove's mace, And would have filch'd the lightning from his place, But that he fear'd he should have burnt his wing And sing'd his downy feathers' new-come spring; He that in ghastly shade of night doth lead Our souls unto the empire of the dead; 30 When he that better doth deserve a rope Is a fair planet in our horoscope, And now hath Caduceus in his hand, Of life and death that hath the sole command. Thus petty thefts are paid and soundly whipt, But greater crimes are slightly overslipt; Nay, he's a god that can do villany With a good grace and glib facility. The harmless hunter, with a ventrous eye, When unawares he did Diana spy 40 Nak'd in the fountain, he became straightway Unto his greedy hounds a wishèd prey, His own delights taking away his breath, And all ungrateful forced his fatal death (And ever since hounds eat their masters clean, For so Diana curst them in the stream). When strong-back'd Hercules, in one poor night, With great, great ease, and wond[e]rous delight, In strength of lust and Venus' surquedry, Robb'd fifty wenches of virginity-- 50 Far more than lusty Laurence[404]--yet, poor soul, He with Actæon drinks of Nemis'[405] bowl: When Hercules' lewd act is registered, And for his fruitful labour deified, And had a place in heaven him assigned, When he the world unto the world resigned. Thus little scapes are deeply punishèd, But mighty villains are for gods adored. Jove brought his sister to a nuptial bed, And hath an Hebe and a Ganymede, 60 A Leda, and a thousand more beside His chaste Alcmena and his sister-bride, Who 'fore his face was odiously defil'd, And by Ixion grossly got with child: This thunderer, that right vertuously