Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/309

And clapt on all his other sayles bycause no wind should waast.
Scarce full t'one half, (or sure not much above) the shippe had ronne
Uppon the sea and every way the land did farre them shonne,
When toward night the wallowing waves began to waxen whyght,
And eeke the heady easterne wynd did blow with greater myght,
Anon the Mayster cryed: Strike the toppesayle, let the mayne
Sheate flye and fardle it to the yard. Thus spake he, but in vayne,
For why so hideous was the storme uppon the soodeine brayd,
That not a man was able there to heere what other sayd.
And lowd the sea with meeting waves extreemely raging rores.
Yit fell they to it of them selves. Sum haalde asyde the Ores:
Sum fensed in the Gallyes sydes, sum downe the sayleclothes rend:
Sum pump the water out, and sea to sea ageine doo send.
Another hales the sayleyards downe. And whyle they did eche thing
Disorderly, the storme increast, and from eche quarter fling
The wyndes with deadly foode, and bownce the raging waves togither.
The Pilot being sore dismayd sayth playne, he knowes not whither
To wend himself, nor what to doo or bid, nor in what state
Things stood. So huge the mischeef was, and did so overmate
All arte. For why of ratling ropes, of crying men and boyes,
Of flusshing waves and thundring ayre, confused was the noyse.
The surges mounting up aloft did seeme to mate the skye,
And with theyr sprinckling for to wet the clowdes that hang on hye.
One whyle the sea, when iirom the brink it raysd the yellow sand,
Was like in colour to the same. Another whyle did stand
A colour on it blacker than the Lake of Styx. Anon
It lyeth playne and loomethwhyght with seething froth thereon.
And with the sea the Trachin shippe ay alteration tooke.
One whyle as from a mountaynes toppe it seemed downe to looke
To vallyes and the depth of hell. Another whyle beset
With swelling surges round about which neere above it met,
It looked from the bottom of the whoorlepoole up aloft
As if it were from hell to heaven. A hideous flusshing oft
The waves did make in beating full against the Gallyes syde.
The Gallye being striken gave as great a sownd that tyde
As did sumtyme the Battellramb of steele, or now the Gonne
In making battrye to a towre. And as feerce Lyons ronne