IRIS

Away, Dissembling Mercury; my messages Ask honest haste, not Like those wanton ones Your thundering father sends. Hermes forbear, Juno will chide and strike; Is great Jove jealous that I am employed On her love errands? she did never yet Clasp weak mortality in her white arms, As he hath often done: I only come To celebrate the long wished Nuptials, Here in Olympiam, which are now performed Betwixt two goodly Rivers, which have mixed Their gentle rising waves, and are to grow Into a thousand streams, great as themselves; I needs not name them, for the found is loud In heaven and earth, and I am sent from her The Queen of Marriage, that was present here, And smiled to see them join, and hath not chid Since it was done: good Hermes let me go. But what hath he to do with Nuptial rights? Let him keep state upon his starry throne, And fright poor mortals with his thunderbolts, Leaving to us the mutual darts of eyes. IS Hermes grown a lover, by what power Unknown to us, calls he the Naiades? GReat wit and power hath Hermes to contrive A liveless dance, which of one sex consists. BEhold the Statues which wise Vulcan placed Under the Altar of Olympian Jove, Shall dance for joy of these great Nuptials: And gave to them and Artificial life, See how they move, drawn by this heavenly joy, Like the wild trees, which followed Orpheus Harp. Just match this show; or my Invention fails, Had it been worthier, I would have invoked The blazing Comets, Clouds and falling Stars, And all my kindred Meteors of the Air To have excelled it, but I now must strive To imitate Confusion, therefore thou Delightful Flora, if thou ever feltst Increase of sweetness in those blooming plants, On which the horns of my fair bow decline; Send hither all the Rural company, Which deck the May-games with their Country sports; Juno will have it so. Hermes, so it may be done Merely in honour of the State, and these That now have proved it, not to satisfy The lust of Jupiter, in having thanks More then his Juno, if thy snaky rod Have power to search the heavens, or found the sea, Or call together all the ends of earth, To bring in any thing that may do grace To us, and these; do it, we shall be pleased.