XXX.

Say, why forbidden thorn? the foe replied: "To every reptile, every infect free,

"Has malice harth to thee alone denied

"The fragrance of the rofe enjoy'd by me?"

" 'Twas love, not malice, form'd the kind decree,
Half-wroth, she cried :) "Thine all these buskets are,
"Thine fruit and flow'r, were Cupid s words to me:
<< But oh? I charge thee, love, the rose forbear;
For prickles fharp do arm the dang❜rous rofiere.

XXXI.

"Prickles will pain, and pain will banish love:
"I charge thee, Pfyche, then the rose forbear.
"When faint and fick, thy languors to remove,
"To yon ambrofial shrubs, and plants repair;
"Thou weetest not what med'cines in them are.
"What wonders follow their repeated use

"N'ote thy weak sense conceive, fhould I declare:
"Their labour'd balm, and well-concocted juice,

"New life, new forms, new thews, new joys, new worlds
"produce.

XXXII.

Thy term of tryal paft with conftancy,

"Thy wimpling flough shall fall like filth away;
"On pinions broad up-lifted to the skie,
"Thou shalt, aftert, thy ftranger felf furvey.
C 2

"Together,

Together, Pfyche, will we climb and play; "Together wander through the fields of air,

Beyond where funs and moons meté night and day. "I charge thee, O my love, the rose forbear,

"If thou wouldft scathe avoid, Pfyche, forewarn'd, beware!"

XXXIII.

Out burft the frannion into open laugh:

She blush'd, and frown'd at his uncivil mirth.
Then, foften'd to a fmile, as hiding half
What mote offend if boldly utter'd forth,
He seem'd t' affay to give his answer birth:
But stop'd; and chang❜d his smiles to looks of ruth,
"Is this (quoth he) fit guerdon for thy worth?

"Does Cupid thus impofe upon thy youth? "Dwells then in heav'n fuch envy, void of love and truth?

XXXIV.'

"Is this the inftance of his tenderness,

"To envy Pfyche what to worms is given? «To cut her off from present happiness

"With feign'd reverfion of a promis'd heav'n?

By threat'nings false from true enjoyments driven !

"How innocent the thorn to touch, he knows :

"Where are my wounds? or where th' avenging levin ? "How foftly blush these colours of the rofe?

"How fweet (and div'd into the flow'r) its fragrance flows?

XXXV. "Difad

th?

n!

levin!

Hows?

Difad

66

XXXV.

Difadvantageous are thy terms of tryal;

"No longer Pfyche then the rose forbear.

<< What is to recompence the harsh denyal,
"But dreams of wand'ring thro' the fields of air,
"And joys, I know not what, I know not where !
"As eath, on leafy pinions borne the tree

"Mote rush into the skies, and flutter there,、

"As thou foar yon, and quit thy due degree:

"Thou for this world wert made: this world was made for thee.

XXXVI..

"In vain you'd fly to yonder shrubs and plants;
"Bitter their tafte, and worthless their effect:
"Here is the polychreft for all thy wants;
"No panacea, like the rofe, expect.

"Mute as my fellow-brutes, as them abject
"And reafonlefs was I, till haply woke
"By tasting of the rofe, (Q weak neglect
"In thee the while!) the dawn of fapience broke
"On my admiring foul, I reason'd, and I spoke.

XXXVII.

i

"Nor this the only change; for foon I found
"The brifker fpirits flow in fuller tyde;
"And more than ufual luftre spread around;›
"Such virtue has the rose, in me well tried.

C 3

" But

"But wife, I ween, thy lover has denied

Its ufe to thee; I join him too: beware "The dang'rous rofe.-For fuch thy beauty's pride " "Twere death to gaze on, if improv'd!-Forbear "To fharp that wit, too keen !-Touch not the rofiere."

XXXVIII.

Uncheckt, indulg'd, her growing passions rise :
Wonder, to see him safe, and hear his telling;
Ambition vain, to be more fair and wise;
And rage, at Cupid's mifconceiv'd false dealing:
Various the gufts, but, all one way impelling,
She plung'd into the bofom of the tree,

And fnatch'd the rofe, no dreaded pain or quelling.
Off drops the fnake, nor farther staid to fee;
But rush'd into the flood, and vanish'd presently. ·

XXXIX.

Full many a thorn her tender body rent;
Full many a thorn within the wounds remain,
And throbbing cause continual dreriment: >>
While gory drops her dainty form distain.
She wishes her loft innocence again,

And her loft peace, loft charms, loft love to find;
But shame upbraids her with a wish fo vain :
Defpair fucceeded, and averfion blind;

Pain fills her tortur'd fenfe, and horror clouds her mind.

XL. Her

Her

XL.

Her bleeding, faint, diforder'd, woe-begon
Stretcht on the bank beside the fatal thorn,
Venus who came to feek her with her fon,
Beheld. She ftop'd: And albe heav'nly born,
Ruthful of others woe, began to mourn.
The lofs of Vénus' fmiles fick nature found:
As froft-nipt drops the bloom, the birds forelorn
Sit hush'd, the faded sun spreads dimness round;
The clatt'ring thunders crafh, and earthquakes rock the ground,

XLI.

Then arming with a killing frown her brow;
"Die, poor unhappy”—Cupid fuppliant broke
Th' unfinish'd fentence; and with dueful bow
Beg'd her to doff the keennefs of her look,
Which nature feeling to her center fhook.

"Then how should Pfyche bear it? Spare the maid;
""Tis plain that Anteros his fpight has wroke;

"Shall vengeance due to him, on her be laid ? "Oh! let me run, and reach th' ambrofial balms," he said.

XLII.

"Ah what would Cupid ask?" the queen replies;
"Can all those balms restore her peace again?
"Wouldst thou a wretched life immortalize;
"Wouldst thou protract by potent herbs, her pain ?