Metamorphoses

Ovid

Ovid. The XV bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis. Golding, Arthur, translator. London: W. Seres (printer), 1567.

In this meane tyme the Trachine king sore vexed in his thought
With signes that both before and since his brothers death were wrought,
For counsell at the sacret Spelles (which are but toyes to foode
Fond fancyes, and not counsellers in perill to doo goode)
Did make him reedy to the God of Claros for to go.
For heathenish Phorbas and the folk of Phlegia had as tho
The way to Delphos stopt, that none could travell to or fro.
But ere he on his journey went, he made his faythfull make
Alcyone preevye to the thing. Immediatly theyr strake
A chilnesse to her verry bones, and pale was all her face
Like box and downe her heavy cheekes the teares did gush apace.
Three times about to speake, three times shee washt her face with teares,
And stinting oft with sobbes, shee thus complayned in his eares:
What fault of myne, husband deere, hath turnd thy hart fro mee?
Where is that care of mee that erst was woont to bee in thee?
And canst thou having left thy deere Alcyone merrye bee?
Doo journeyes long delyght thee now? dooth now myne absence please
Thee better then my presence dooth? Think I that thou at ease
Shalt go by land? Shall I have cause but onely for to moorne?
And not to bee afrayd? And shall my care of thy returne
Bee voyd of feare? No no. The sea mee sore afrayd dooth make.
To think uppon the sea dooth cause my flesh for feare to quake.
I sawe the broken ribbes of shippes alate uppon the shore.
And oft on Tumbes I reade theyr names whose bodyes long before
The sea had swallowed. Let not fond vayne hope seduce thy mynd,
That Aeolus is thy fathrinlaw who holdes the boystous wynd
In prison, and can calme the seas at pleasure. When the wynds
Are once let looce uppon the sea, no order then them bynds.
Then neyther land hathe priviledge, nor sea exemption fynds.
Yea even the clowdes of heaven they vex, and with theyr meeting stout
Enforce the fyre with hideous noyse to brust in flashes out.
The more that I doo know them, (for ryght well I know theyr powre,
And saw them oft a little wench within my fathers bowre)
So much the more I think them to bee feard. But if thy will
By no intreatance may bee turnd at home to tarry still,
But that thou needes wilt go: then mee, deere husband, with thee take.
So shall the sea us equally togither tosse and shake.
So woorser than I feele I shall bee certeine not to feare.
So shall we whatsoever happes togitherjoyntly beare.
So shall wee on the broad mayne sea togither joyntly sayle.
Theis woordes and teares wherewith the imp of Aeolus did assayle
Her husbond borne of heavenly race, did make his hart relent.
(For he lovd her no lesse than shee lovd him.) But fully bent
He seemed, neyther for to leave the journey which he ment
To take by sea, nor yit to give Alcyone leave as tho
Companion of his perlous course by water for to go.
He many woordes of comfort spake her feare away to chace.
But nought hee could perswade therein to make her like the cace.
This last asswagement of her greef he added in the end,
Which was the onely thing that made her loving hart to bend:
All taryance will assuredly seeme over long to mee.
And by my fathers blasing beames I make my vow to thee
That at the furthest ere the tyme (if God therto agree)
The moone doo fill her circle twyce, ageine I will heere bee.
When in sum hope of his returne this promis had her set,
He willd a shippe immediatly from harbrough to bee fet,
And throughly rigged for to bee, that neyther maast, nor sayle,
Nor tackling, no nor other thing should apperteyning fayle.
Which when Alcyone did behold, as one whoose hart misgave
The happes at hand, shee quaakt ageine, and teares out gusshing drave.
And streyning Ceyx in her armes with pale and piteous looke,
Poore wretched soule, her last farewell at length shee sadly tooke,
And swounded flat uppon the ground. Anon the watermen
(As Ceyx sought delayes and was in dowt to turne agen)
Set hand to Ores, of which there were two rowes on eyther syde,
And all at once with equall stroke the swelling sea devyde.
Shee lifting up her watrye eyes behilld her husband stand
Uppon the hatches making signes by beckening with his hand:
And shee made signes to him ageine. And after that the land
Was farre removed from the shippe, and that the sight began
To bee unable to discerne the face of any man,
As long as ere shee could shee lookt uppon the rowing keele.
And when shee could no longer tyme for distance ken it weele,
Shee looked still uppon the sayles that flasked with the wynd
Uppon the maast. And when shee could the sayles no longer fynd,
She gate her to her empty bed with sad and sorye hart,
And layd her downe. The chamber did renew afresh her smart,
And of her bed did bring to mynd the deere departed part.
From harbrough now they quyght were gone: and now a plasant gale
Did blowe. The mayster made his men theyr Ores asyde to hale,
And hoysed up the toppesayle on the hyghest of the maast,
And clapt on all his other sayles bycause no wind should waast.
Scarce full t'one half, (or sure not much above) the shippe had ronne
Uppon the sea and every way the land did farre them shonne,
When toward night the wallowing waves began to waxen whyght,
And eeke the heady easterne wynd did blow with greater myght,
Anon the Mayster cryed: Strike the toppesayle, let the mayne
Sheate flye and fardle it to the yard. Thus spake he, but in vayne,
For why so hideous was the storme uppon the soodeine brayd,
That not a man was able there to heere what other sayd.
And lowd the sea with meeting waves extreemely raging rores.
Yit fell they to it of them selves. Sum haalde asyde the Ores:
Sum fensed in the Gallyes sydes, sum downe the sayleclothes rend:
Sum pump the water out, and sea to sea ageine doo send.
Another hales the sayleyards downe. And whyle they did eche thing
Disorderly, the storme increast, and from eche quarter fling
The wyndes with deadly foode, and bownce the raging waves togither.
The Pilot being sore dismayd sayth playne, he knowes not whither
To wend himself, nor what to doo or bid, nor in what state
Things stood. So huge the mischeef was, and did so overmate
All arte. For why of ratling ropes, of crying men and boyes,
Of flusshing waves and thundring ayre, confused was the noyse.
The surges mounting up aloft did seeme to mate the skye,
And with theyr sprinckling for to wet the clowdes that hang on hye.
One whyle the sea, when iirom the brink it raysd the yellow sand,
Was like in colour to the same. Another whyle did stand
A colour on it blacker than the Lake of Styx. Anon
It lyeth playne and loomethwhyght with seething froth thereon.

And with the sea the Trachin shippe ay alteration tooke.
One whyle as from a mountaynes toppe it seemed downe to looke
To vallyes and the depth of hell. Another whyle beset
With swelling surges round about which neere above it met,
It looked from the bottom of the whoorlepoole up aloft
As if it were from hell to heaven. A hideous flusshing oft
The waves did make in beating full against the Gallyes syde.
The Gallye being striken gave as great a sownd that tyde
As did sumtyme the Battellramb of steele, or now the Gonne
In making battrye to a towre. And as feerce Lyons ronne
Full brist with all theyr force ageinst the armed men that stand
In order bent to keepe them off with weapons in theyr hand,
Even so as often as the waves by force of wynd did rave,
So oft uppon the netting of the shippe they maynely drave,
And mounted farre above the same. Anon off fell the hoopes:
And having washt the pitch away, the sea made open loopes
To let the deadly water in. Behold the clowdes did melt,
And showers large came pooring downe. The seamen that them felt
Myght thinke that all the heaven had falne uppon them that same tyme,
And that the swelling sea likewyse above the heaven would clyme.
The sayles were throughly wet with showers, and with the heavenly raine
Was mixt the waters of the sea. No lyghts at all remayne
Of sunne, or moone, or starres in heaven. The darknesse of the nyght
Augmented with the dreadfull storme, takes dowble powre and myght.
Howbee't the flasshing lyghtnings oft doo put the same to flyght,
And with theyr glauncing now and then do give a soodeine lyght.
The lightnings setts the waves on fyre. Above the netting skippe
The waves, and with a violent force doo lyght within the shippe.
And as a souldyer stowter than the rest of all his band
That oft assayles a citie walles defended well by hand,
At length atteines his hope, and for to purchace prayse withall
Alone among a thousand men getts up uppon the wall:
So when the loftye waves had long the Gallyes sydes assayd,
At length the tenth wave rysing up with huger force and brayd,
Did never cease assaulting of the weery shippe, till that
Uppon the hatches lyke a fo victoriously it gat.
A part thereof did still as yit assault the shippe without,
And part had gotten in. The men all trembling ran about,
As in a Citie commes to passe, when of the enmyes sum
Dig downe the walles without, and sum already in are come.
All arte and conning was to seeke. Theyr harts and stomacks fayle:
And looke, how many surges came theyr vessell to assayle,
So many deathes did seeme to charge and breake uppon them all.
One weepes: another stands amazde: the third them blist dooth call
Whom buryall dooth remayne. To God another makes his vow,
And holding up his handes to heaven the which hee sees not now,
Dooth pray in vayne for help. The thought of this man is uppon
His brother and his parents whom he cleerely hath forgone.
Another calles his house and wyfe and children unto mynd,
And every man in generall the things he left behynd.
Alcyone moveth Ceyx hart. In Ceyx mouth is none
But onely one Alcyone. And though shee were alone
The wyght that he desyred most, yit was he verry glad
Shee was not there. To Trachin ward to looke desyre he had,
And homeward fayne he would have turnd his eyes which never more
Should see the land. But then he knew not which way was the shore,
Nor where he was. The raging sea did rowle about so fast:
And all the heaven with clowds as black as pitch was over cast,
That never nyght was halfe so dark. There came a flaw at last,
That with his violence brake the maste, and strake the sterne away.
A billowe proudly pranking up as vaunting of his pray
By conquest gotten, walloweth hole and breaketh not asunder,
Beholding with a lofty looke the waters woorking under.
And looke, as if a man should from the places where they growe
Rend downe the mountaynes, Athe and Pind, and whole them overthrowe
Into the open sea: so soft the Billowe tumbling downe,
With weyght and violent stroke did sink and in the bottom drowne
The Gallye. And the moste of them that were within the same
Went downe therwith and never up to open aier came,
But dyed strangled in the gulf. Another sort againe
Caught peeces of the broken shippe. The king himself was fayne
A shiver of the sunken shippe in that same hand to hold,
In which hee erst a royall mace had hilld of yellow gold.
His father and his fathrinlawe he calles uppon (alas
In vayne.) But cheefly in his mouth his wife Alcyone was.
In hart was shee: in toong was shee: he wisshed that his corse
To land where shee myght take it up the surges myght enforce:
And that by her most loving handes he might be layd in grave.
In swimming still (as often as the surges leave him gave
To ope his lippes) he harped still upon Alcyones name,
And when he drowned in the waves he muttred still the same.
Behold, even full uppon the wave a flake of water blacke
Did breake, and underneathe the sea the head of Ceyx stracke.
That nyght the lyghtsum Lucifer for sorrowe was so dim,
As scarcely could a man discerne or thinke it to bee him.
And forasmuch as out of heaven he might not steppe asyde,
With thick and darksum clowds that nyght his countnance he did hyde.
Alcyone of so great mischaunce not knowing aught as yit,
Did keepe a reckening of the nyghts that in the whyle did flit,
And hasted garments both for him and for herself likewyse,
To weare at his homecomming which shee vaynely did surmyse.
To all the Goddes devoutly shee did offer frankincence:
But most above them all the Church of Juno shee did sence.
And for her husband (who as then was none) shee kneeld before
The Altar, wisshing health and soone arrivall at the shore,
And that none other woman myght before her be preferd.
Of all her prayers this one peece effectually was heard.
For Juno could not fynd in hart intreated for to bee
For him that was already dead. But to th'entent that shee
From dame Alcyones deadly hands might keepe her Altars free,
Shee sayd: Most faythfull messenger of my commaundments, O
Thou Raynebowe, to the slugguish house of Slomber swiftly go.
And bid him send a Dreame in shape of Ceyx to his wyfe
Alcyone, for to shew her playne the losing of his lyfe.
Dame Iris takes her pall wherein a thousand colours were
And bowwing lyke a stringed bow upon the dowdy sphere,
Immediatly descended to the drowzye house of Sleepe
Whose Court the clowdes continually doo clocely overdreepe.