26
AMYNTAS.
Phillis and Sylvia sate, and I sate with them.
When lo, a bee, that hummed around the mead,
Gathering her sweets, fastened on Phillis' cheek,
Bit it with eagerness, and sucked it's balm———
—On Phillis' cheek, vermilion as the rose;
And haply by it's view deceived, the insect,
Mistook it for some rich, ambrosial flower.
Phillis, forthwith, impatient of the puncture,
Expressed her pain in girlish lamentation.
But her consoling Sylvia thus addressed her:
"Grieve not, my Phillis; I'll remove thy smart;
"The intruder's little wound I soon will heal.
"By application of a verbal charm.
"I learned the secret from the sage Aresia;
"And in return a beauteous horn. I gave her,
"Which to the chace I bore (thou oft hast seen it)
"Ivory the substance was; 'twas set in gold."
She spoke; and straight approached her beauteous lips,
Her lips nectareous to the wounded cheek
Of Phillis, pressed them to the injured part;
When lo, a bee, that hummed around the mead,
Gathering her sweets, fastened on Phillis' cheek,
Bit it with eagerness, and sucked it's balm———
—On Phillis' cheek, vermilion as the rose;
And haply by it's view deceived, the insect,
Mistook it for some rich, ambrosial flower.
Phillis, forthwith, impatient of the puncture,
Expressed her pain in girlish lamentation.
But her consoling Sylvia thus addressed her:
"Grieve not, my Phillis; I'll remove thy smart;
"The intruder's little wound I soon will heal.
"By application of a verbal charm.
"I learned the secret from the sage Aresia;
"And in return a beauteous horn. I gave her,
"Which to the chace I bore (thou oft hast seen it)
"Ivory the substance was; 'twas set in gold."
She spoke; and straight approached her beauteous lips,
Her lips nectareous to the wounded cheek
Of Phillis, pressed them to the injured part;
And
