Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/169

Tell, with that Eloquence, so much thy own,
What thou hast heard, or what of Cæneus known:
What was he, whence his Change of Sex begun,
What Trophies, join'd in Wars with thee, he won?
Who conquer'd him, and in what fatal Strife
The Youth, without a Wound, cou'd lose his Life?
Neleides then; Though tardy Age, and Time,
Have shrunk my Sinews, and decay'd my Prime;
Though much I have forgotten of my Store,
Yet not exhausted, I remember more.
Of all that Arms atchiev'd, or Peace design'd,
That Action still is fresher in my Mind,
Than ought beside. If reverend Age can give
To Faith a Sanction, in my third I live.
'Twas in my second Cent'ry, I survey'd
Young Cænis, then a fair Thessalian Maid:
Cænis the bright, was born to high command;
A Princess, and a Native of thy Land,
Divine Achilles; every Tongue proclaim'd
Her Beauty, and her Eyes all Hearts inflam'd.
Peleus, thy Sire, perhaps had sought her Bed,
Among the rest; but he had either led
Thy Mother then; or was by Promise ty'd;
But she to him, and all, alike her Love deny'd.
It was her Fortune once to take her Way
Along the sandy Margin of the Sea:
The Pow'r of Ocean view'd her as she pass'd,
And lov'd as soon as seen, by Force embrac'd.
So Fame reports. Her Virgin-Treasure seiz'd,
And his new Joys, the Ravisher so pleas'd,
That thus, transported, to the Nymph he cry'd!
Ask what thou wilt, no Pray'r shall be deny'd.
This also Fame relates: The haughty Fair,
Who not the Rape ev'n of a God cou'd bear,
This Answer, proud, return'd: To mighty Wrongs
A mighty Recompence, of Right, belongs,

Giv