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To him, and Semele the-great-in-graces:

Given his fair grought, far from his father's

view,

In caves from whence eternal odours flew.
And in high number of the Deities placed
Yet when the many-hymn-given God had
past

His Nurses' cares, in ivies and in bays
All over thicketed, his varied ways
To sylvan coverts evermore he took
With all his Nurses; whose shrill voices
shook

Thickets, in which could no foot's entry fall;

And he himself made captain of them all. And so, O grape-abounding Bacchus

be

Ever saluted by my Muse and me. Give us to spend with spirit our hour

out here ;

And every hour extend to many a year.

Seated in Delphos, rich and populous)

braces

dales

Of Nyssa, and with curious festivals

Where th' instauration of delightsome

dance

Amongst the Muses, and the Graces, she I Gives form; in which, herself the regency

Could not contain her; such impetuous throes

Her birth gave way to, that abroad she flew,

And stood, in gold arm'd, in her Father's view,

Shaking her sharp lance. All Olympus shook

So terribly beneath her, that it took
Up in amazes all the Deities there.

All earth resounded with vociferous fear.
The sea was put up, all in purple waves,
And settled suddenly her rudest raves.
Hyperion's radiant son his swift-hooved
steeds

A mighty time stay'd, till her arming weeds,

As glorious as the Gods', the blue-eyed Maid

Took from her deathless shoulders; but then stay'd

All these distempers; and heaven's counsellor, Jove,

Rejoiced that all things else his stay could

TO VESTA AND MERCURY.

VESTA I sing, who, in bequest of fate,
Art sorted out an everlasting state
In all th' Immortals' high-built roofs, and
all

Those of earth-dwelling men, as general And ancient honours given thee for thy gift

Of free-lived chastity, and precious thrift. Nor can there amongst mortals banquets be,

In which, both first and last, they give not thee

Their endless gratitudes in pour'd-out wine,
As gracious sacrifice to thy divine
And useful virtues; being invoked by all,
Before the least taste of their festival
In wine or food affect their appetites.
And thou, that of th' adorn'd with all
delights

Art the most useful angel; born a God
Of Jove and Maia; of heaven's golden rod
The sole sustainer; and hast power to
bless

With all good all men, great Argicides,
Inhabit all good houses; seeing no wants
Of mutual minds' love in th' inhabitants.

Join in kind blessing with the bashful

maid

A blaze burns from his golden burgonet
Which to behold exceeds the sharpest set
Of any eyes' intention; beams so clear
It all ways pours abroad. The glorious
cheer

Of his far-shining face up to his crown Casts circular radiance; that comes streaming down

About his temples, his bright cheeks, and all
Retaining the refulgence of their fall.
About his bosom flows so fine a weed
As doth the thinness of the wind exceed
In rich context: beneath whose deep folds
fiv

His masculine horses round about the sky;
Till in this hemisphere he renders stay
This gold-yoked coach and coursers; and
his way,

Let down by heaven, the heavenly coachman makes

Down to the ocean, where his rest he takes.
My salutations then, fair King, receive,
And, in propitious returns relieve
My life with mind-tit means; and then
from thee,

And all the race of complete Deity,
My song shall celebrate those half-God
states,

That yet sad death's condition circulates. And whose brave acts the Gods show men, that they

As brave may aim at, since they can but die.

TO CASTOR AND POLLUX. JOVE'S fair Sons, father'd by th' Oebalian king,

Muses well-worth-all men's beholdings, sing:

The dear birth, that bright-ankled Leda bore;

Horse-taming Castor; and, the conqueror Of tooth-tongued Momus, Pollux; whom beneath

Steep-brow'd Taygetus she gave half-god breath,

In love mix'd with the black-clouds' King of heaven :

Who, both of men and ships (being tempest driven,

When Winter's wrathful empire is in force Upon th' implacable seas), preserve the

course.

And end to all their irksome grievance give.

So, once more, to the swift-horse-riding

race

Of royal Tyndarus, eternal grace.

TO MEN OF HOSPITALITY. REVERENCE a man with use propitious That hospitable rights wants; and a house (You of this city with the seat of state The ox-eyed Juno vow'd) yet situate Near Pluto's region. At the extreme base Of whose so high-hair'd city, from the

race

Of blue-waved Hebrus' lovely fluent, graced With Jove's begetting, you divine cups

taste.