Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/8

To utter perill through fond toyes and fansies in their head.
For Idols, doubtfull oracles and soothsayres prophecies
Doo nothing else but make fooles fayne and blynd their bleared eyes.
Dedalions daughter warnes to use the toong with modestee
And not to vaunt with such as are their betters in degree.
Out of the xij.ℂ The seege of Troy, the death of men, the razing of the citie,
And slaughter of king Priams stock without remors of pitie,
Which in the xii. and xiii. bookes bee written, doo declare
How heynous wilfull perjurie and filthie whoredome are
In syght of God. The frentick fray betweene the Lapithes and
The Centaures is a note wherby is given to understand
The beastly rage of drunkennesse.Out of the xij. ℂ Ulysses dooth expresse
The image of discretion, wit, and great advisednesse.
And Ajax on the other syde doth represent a man
Stout, headie, irefull, hault of mynd, and such a one as can
Abyde to suffer no repulse. And both of them declare
How covetous of glorie and reward mens natures are.
And finally it sheweth playne that wisdome dooth prevayle
In all attempts and purposes when strength of hand dooth fayle.
The death of fayre Polyxena dooth shew a princely mynd
And firme regard of honor rare engraft in woman kynd.
And Polymnestor, king of Thrace, dooth shew himself to bee
A glasse for wretched covetous folke wherein themselves to see.
This storie further witnesseth that murther crieth ay
For vengeance, and itself one tyme or other dooth bewray.
The tale of Gyant Polypheme doth evidently prove
That nothing is so feerce and wyld, which yeeldeth not to love.
And in the person of the selfsame Gyant is set out
The rude and homely wooing of a country cloyne and lout.
Out of the xiij.ℂ The tale of Apes reproves the vyce of wilfull perjurie,
And willeth people to beware they use not for to lye.
Aeneas going downe to hell dooth shew that vertue may
In saufty travell where it will, and nothing can it stay.
The length of lyfe in Sybill dooth declare it is but vayne
Too wish long lyfe, syth length of lyfe is also length of payne.
The Grecian Achemenides dooth lerne us how we ought
Bee thankfull for the benefits that any man hath wrought.
And in this Achemenides the Poet dooth expresse
The image of exceeding feare in daunger and distresse.
What else are Circes witchcrafts and enchauntments than the vyle
And filthy pleasures of the flesh which doo our soules defyle?
And what is else herbe Moly than the gift of stayednesse
And temperance which dooth all fowle concupiscence represse?
The tale of Anaxaretee willes dames of hygh degree
To use their lovers courteously how meane so ere they bee.
And Iphis lernes inferior folkes too fondly not to set
Their love on such as are too hygh for their estate to get.
Out of the xv.ℂ Alemons sonne declares that men should willingly obay
What God commaundes, and not uppon exceptions seeme to stay.

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