JUPITER

Thou Daphne, who Jove's presence now dost shun, Swifter ere long shalt from, Apollo run. But there lie that which makes us terrible, Affrighting gods and men. Io to thee In calms I come, and Fair one make me proud, To seal the love which I so long have vowed. Both thou shalt find impressed On thy smooth cheek, soft lip, and Ivory breast, Nay rather we solicit you to prove What yet you have not tried, the sweets of love. A Truant still? If you want art, Io, I can teach you skill: Give me your hand, your lip: why these but are The Prologue to a pastime much more rare. Women by nature are ambitious, and Long to know what they do not understand. I'll practice you in that which you before Never knew. All these my Comment shall explain at full. In vain you strive. Where I do stain I can again make pure: And that Day shall not hinder us, be sure: Arise you fogs and damps, your vapours gather, To shroud us both from Juno and thy father. These blushes none shall see; Behold these mists, to curtain us and thee. And Io now I'll teach thee sports untry'de, In darkness best a Virgins blush to hide. The clamorous Queen's descended from the Spheres, To find the cause of this illusive Fog: But Io I have so transhape thee now, That she by no means can discover thee; And in that confidence I'll front her boldly. My lovely Juno? What make you here on earth? Though it fits not Your Sex to ask a thing that ill beseems, Or pry into the counsels of the gods; Yet thus much I'll resolve you? I came down To censure here some causes amongst men, And set things crooked upright. Thou once gone, e were again transhape, and we both one. weet Juno will you once more mount your Chariot, and keep your state above My designs ended, will not long be from you. Be it bred Beneath the Moon, it's my Saturnia's. She is, no doubt. Why does my Juno ask? A gift too small for Juno to entreat, Or Jove to grant; Demand some greater boon. She's not for thy use; What would my Love do with her? Not for the triple world: What was it, Sweet, That you of me demanded? In what a straight am I? her to betray, And give her up into her enemies hand, In man would prove a savage cruelty, Much more in us: and to deny a gift Appearing of so small a consequence, Would but augment her too much jealousy, And open that which is as yet concealed. Say I will not, And give no reason; it may then appear, This Heifer to be no such as she seems. Well, she is yours; but how will you dispose her? It's enough, In that, to us you shall express your love. But prove he to her churlish or unkind, There's one, at once his hundred eyes shall blind. So, she is now your charge. How oft hath she, thinking to heave her hands For divine pity; when she spied her hoofes Cast them to the earth, with them her head with shame, And bellowing when she would complain her grief, Started at her own found? How oft, when grazing on her father's banks, (These fruitful banks on which she used to sport) Offering to drink, when in his Crystal streams, In which so often she with pride hath looked, On her white brow, read cheek, and golden curls: Now when she spies those lips a God hath kissed, Stretched to so vast a wideness, penthoused over With enlarged nostrils; looking on those eyes, (In which 'twas once my sole delight to look) To see them broad and glaring; her clear brow Late decked with shining jewels, pressed with horns. How oft hath she (more frighted than ashamed) Thought, from her self, in vain, to hide her self? I do, and will, by thine aid, Mercury; High therefore to the top of Pindus mount, (There Argus keeps his watch) in some disguise; Thy Caduceus and thy wings laid by, Find with the slave some conference, till by cunning Thou charmest his waking eyes, and being fast, Cut off his head, and with one blow extinguish So many lights at once. Now by Styx, And oath no God was ever known to break, Sign her release, she shall hereafter be To Jove as a mere stranger. Now Mercury, ince Juno is appeased, fetch Io hither, her own native beauty, whom we will Restore unto her father. Inachus, rcease exclaims, thy prayers have had access, high tears been pitied, and thy lose bemoaned; Argus is slave, and fair Saturnia pleased, and Io to her pristine shape restored. For thy remissness In Io's late affliction, speak, it's granted. Be you pleased, And Juno shall, I hope, be satisfied. Io, you shall to Egypt be confined, Be that your punishment for Juno's hate: Which executed you shall taste our love. In Egypt held a goddess thou shalt be, Adored and worshipped in thine heifers shape; Oblations shall be daily offered thee, And Incense burned to thy divinity, And this for ever. Juno, in vain you sorrow, Jove's word is passed, and cannot be revoked. And now with this one Maxim we conclude; Where lust is punished, though the blood be tainted, It (after such long Penance) may be sainted. How am I moved with Inachus exclaims? Why are the ears of gods kept open still, But first to hear, then pity? hast thou not, Mercury, Seen Io's tears? Perceived her scalding sighs, And even thus far herd her suspires and groans, Tortured beneath that Neatherd churlish groom, More savage than the beasts he feeds? Presume the art safe in us. And whilst and heifer grazeth on the plain, Io, her hoof shall still imprint thy name. My Juno are we friends? Let her long divorce, My fair intreats, with Inachus exclaims Invoke thy love and pity, by my life.