Page:Metamorphoses (Ovid, 1567).djvu/377

A thousand Lyons, wolves and beares did put us in a feare
By meeting us. But none of them was to bee feared there.
For none of them could doo us harme: but with a gentle looke
And following us with fawning feete theyr wanton tayles they shooke.
Anon did Damzells welcome us and led us through the hall
(The which was made of marble stone, floore, arches, roof, and wall)
To Circe. Shee sate underneathe a traverse in a chayre
Aloft ryght rich and stately, in a chamber large and fayre.
Shee ware a goodly longtreynd gowne: and all her rest attyre
Was every whit of goldsmithes woork. There sate mee also by her
The Sea nymphes and her Ladyes whoose fyne fingers never knew
What toozing wooll did meene, nor threede from whorled spindle drew.
They sorted herbes, and picking out the flowers that were mixt,
Did put them into mawnds, and with indifferent space betwixt
Did lay the leaves and stalks on heapes according to theyr hew,
And shee herself the woork of them did oversee and vew.
The vertue and the use of them ryght perfectly shee knew,
And in what leaf it lay, and which in mixture would agree.
And so perusing every herb by good advysement, shee
Did wey them out. Assoone as shee us entring in did see,
And greeting had bothe given and tane, shee looked cheerefully,
And graunting all that we desyrde, commaunded by and by
A certeine potion to bee made of barly parched drye
And wyne and hony mixt with cheese. And with the same shee slye
Had meynt the jewce of certeine herbes which unespyde did lye
By reason of the sweetenesse of the drink. Wee tooke the cup
Delivered by her wicked hand, and quaft it cleerely up
With thirstye throtes. Which doone, and that the cursed witch had smit
Our highest heare tippes with her wand, (it is a shame, but yit
I will declare the truth) I wext all rough with bristled heare,
And could not make complaint with woordes. In stead of speech I there
Did make a rawghtish grunting, and with groveling face gan beare
My visage downeward to the ground. I felt a hooked groyne
To wexen hard uppon my mouth, and brawned neck to joyne
My head and shoulders. And the handes with which I late ago
Had taken up the charmed cup, were turnd to feete as tho.
Such force there is in Sorcerie. In fyne wyth other mo