pable than any man I know. The Earl of Mulgrave and Mr Waller, two of the best judges of our age, have assured me, that they could never read over the translation of Chapman, without incredible pleasure and extreme transport. This admiration of theirs must needs proceed from the author himself; for the translator has thrown him down as low as harsh numbers, improper English, and a monstrous length of verse could carry him. What then would he appear in the harmonious version of one of the best writers, living in a much better age than was the last? I mean for versification, and the art of numbers; for in the drama we have not arrived to the pitch of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. But here, my lord, I am forced to break off abruptly, without endeavouring at a compliment in the close. This Miscellany is, without dispute, one of the best of the kind which has hitherto been extant in our tongue; at least, as Sir Samuel Tuke has said before me, a modest man may praise what is not his own. My fellows have no need of any protection; but I humbly recommend my part of it, as much as it deserves, to your patronage and acceptance, and all the rest to your forgiveness. I

am,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
JOHN DRYDEN,

THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

OF

F bodies changed to various forms I sing Ye gods, from whence these miracles did spring, Inspire my numbers with celestial heat, Till I my long laborious work complete; And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes, Deduced from nature's birth to Cæsar's times. Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball, And heaven's high canopy, that covers all, One was the face of nature, if a face; Rather a rude and indigested mass; A lifeless lump, unfashioned, and unframed, Of jarring seeds, and justly chaos named. No sun was lighted up the world to view; No moon did yet her blunted horns renew; Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky, Nor, poised, did on her own foundations lie;

2

Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.

Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
And water's dark abyss unnavigable.

No certain form on any was imprest;

All were confused, and each disturbed the rest :
For hot and cold were in one body fixed;
And soft with hard, and light with heavy, mixed.
But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
To these intestine discords put an end.

Then earth from air. and seas from earth, were driven,
And grosser air sunk from ætherial heaven.
Thus disembroiled, they take their proper place;
The next of kin contiguously embrace;
And foes are sundered by a larger space.
The force of fire ascended first on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky.
Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire,
Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng,
Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
About her coasts unruly waters roar,

And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore.

Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had formed the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded earth into a spacious round;
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,
And bade the congregated waters flow:
He adds the running springs, and standing lakes,
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part in earth are swallowed up, the most
In ample oceans, disembogued, are lost:
He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.
And as five zones the ætherial regions bind,
Five, correspondent, are to earth assigned;

The sun, with rays directly darting down,
Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone:
The two beneath the distant poles complain
Of endless winter, and perpetual rain.
Betwixt the extremes, two happier climates hold
The temper that partakes of hot and cold.
The fields of liquid air, inclosing all,
Surround the compass of this earthly ball:
The lighter parts lie next the fires above;
The grosser near the watery surface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there,
And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear,
And winds that on their wings cold winter bear.
Nor were those blustering brethren left at large,
On seas and shores their fury to discharge:
Bound as they are, and circumscribed in place,
They rend the world, resistless, where they pass,
And mighty marks of mischief leave behind;
Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind.
First, Eurus to the rising morn is sent,
(The regions of the balmy continent,)
And eastern realms, where early Persians run,
To greet the blest appearance of the sun.
Westward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight,
Pleased with the remnants of departing light;
Fierce Boreas with his offspring issues forth,
To invade the frozen waggon of the North;
While frowning Auster seeks the southern sphere,
And rots, with endless rain, the unwholesome year.
High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for heaven designed;
Where fields of light and liquid æther flow,
Purged from the ponderous dregs of earth below.
Scarce had the Power distinguished these, when
straight

The stars, no longer overlaid with weight,