And must I beare with yow, Dame Cenye? for none other than a moother (I avow) No better than a moother will I count thee whyle I live. Remembrest not what shape by birth dame nature did thee give? Forgettst thou how thou purchasedst this counterfetted shape Of man? Consyderest what thou art by birth? and how for rape Thou art become the thing thou art? Go take thy distaffe, and Thy spindle, and in spinning yarne go exercyse thy hand. Let men alone with feates of armes. As Latreus made this stout And scornefull taunting in a ring still turning him about, This Cenye with a dart did hit him full uppon the syde

The wrong heere doone to mee (Quoth Ceny) makes mee wish great things. And therfore to th'entent I may no more constreyned bee to such a thing, consent I may no more a woman bee. And if thou graunt thereto, It is even all that I desyre, or wish thee for to doo. In bacer tune theis latter woordes were uttred, and her voyce Did seeme a mannes voyce as it was in deede. For to her choyce The God of sea had given consent.

He calld up Morph, the feyner of mannes shape, a craftye lad. None other could so conningly expresse mans verrye face, His gesture and his sound of voyce, and manner of his pace, Togither with his woonted weede, and woonted phrase of talk. But this same Morphye onely in the shape of man dooth walk.

There is no noyse at all Of waking dogge, nor gagling goose more waker than the hound To hinder sleepe. Of beast ne wyld ne tame there is no sound. No bowghes are stird with blastes of wynd, no noyse of tatling toong Of man or woman ever yit within that bower roong. Dumb quiet dwelleth there.

shee turnd him intoo stone As well in substance as in hew, the name of woolf alone Reserved. For although in shape hee seemed still yit one, The verry colour of the stone beewrayd him to bee none,

For standing in her owne conceyt shee did herself prefer Before Diana, and dispraysd her face, who there with all Inflaamd with wrath, sayd: Well, with deedes we better please her shall. Immediatly shee bent her bowe, and let an arrow go, Which strake her through the toong, whose spight deserved wounding so. Her toong wext dumb, her speech gan fayle that erst was over ryfe, And as shee stryved for to speake, away went blood and lyfe.

untill the tyme that shee Returneth to the native shape shee erst was woont to bee.

hough shee fayne a hundreth shapes, deceyve thee let her not.

His head and harp both cam To Hebrus, and (a woondrous thing) as downe the streame they swam, His Harp did yeeld a moorning sound: his livelesse toong did make A certeine lamentable noyse as though it still yit spake, And bothe the banks in moorning wyse made answer to the same.

For every other living wyght dame nature dooth permit To match without offence of sin. The Heifer thinkes no shame To beare her father on her backe:

O Muse my mother, frame my song of Jove,

Her last farewell shee spake so soft, that scarce he heard the sound,

nothing save the slippry aire (unhappy man) he caught.

The Furies beeing striken there with pitie at his song Did weepe. And neyther Pluto nor his Ladie were so strong And hard of stomacke to withhold his just petition long.

And Iphys followed after her with larger pace than ay Shee was accustomd. And her face continued not so whyght. Her strength encreased, and her looke more sharper was to syght. Her heare grew shorter, and shee had a much more lively spryght, Than when shee was a wench. For thou, O Iphys, who ryght now A modther wert, art now a boay.

A wench was borne to Lyctus who knew nothing of the same. The mother making him beleeve it was a boay, did bring It up, and none but shee and nurce were privie to the thing. The father thanking God did give the chyld the Graundsyres name, The which was Iphys. Joyfull was the moother of the same, Bycause the name did serve alike to man and woman bothe, And so the lye through godly guile forth unperceyved gothe. The garments of it were a boayes. The face of it was such As eyther in a boay or gyrle of beawtie uttered much.

I cannot but to wickednesse now more and more inclyne.

Shee had no sooner left Her talking, but her lyfe therewith togither was bereft.

whyle her mouth did give her way to speake, With such complaynt as this, her mynd shee last or all did break

Save only on that part that he hath taken of his mother, The fyre shall have no power at all. Eternall is the tother, The which he takes of mee, and cannot dye, ne yeeld to fyre. When this is rid of earthly drosse, then will I lift it hygher, And take it unto heaven:

But the damzell still escaped, now a Mare And now a Cow, and now a Bird, a Hart, a Hynd, or Hare, And ever fed her hungry Syre with undeserved fare.

Now save mee, quoth shee, from the yoke of bondage I thee pray, O thou that my virginitie enjoyest as a pray. Neptunus had it. Who to this her prayer did consent. And though her maister looking backe (for after him shee went) Had newly seene her: yit he turnd hir shape and made hir man, And gave her looke of fisherman.

Her face pale colourd was. Hir heare was harsh and shirle, her eyes were sunken in her head. Her lyppes were hore with filth, her teeth were furd and rusty red. Her skinne was starched, and so sheere a man myght well espye The verie bowels in her bulk how every one did lye. And eke above her courbed loynes her withered hippes were seene. In stead of belly was a space where belly should have beene. Her brest did hang so sagging downe as that a man would weene That scarcely to her ridgebone had hir ribbes beene fastened well. Her leannesse made her joynts bolne big, and kneepannes for to swell

And as the Bark did overgrow the heades of both, eche spake To other whyle they myght. At last they eche of them did take Theyr leave of other bothe at once, and therewithall the bark Did hyde theyr faces both at once

overstrong thou maakst The Gods: to say that they can give and take way shapes.

The Nymph was sore afrayd. Howbee't shee swam, and as she swam, my hand I softly layd Upon her brest which quivered still. And whyle I toucht the same, I sensibly did feele how all her body hard became: And how the earth did overgrow her bulk. And as I spake, New earth enclosde hir swimming limbes, which by and by did take Another shape, and grew into a mighty Ile.

Dame, come off and lay us downe this geare. And thou a woman offer not us men so great a shame, As we to toyle and thou to take the honor of our game. Ne let that faire smooth face of thine beguile thee, lest that hee That being doted in thy love did give thee this our fee, Be over farre to rescow thee. And with that word they tooke The gift from hir, and right of gift from him.

to uncoth Arts

For even as in the mothers wombe an infant doth begin To take the lively shape of man, and formed is within To due proportion piece by piece in every limme, and when Full ripe he is, he takes the use of Aire with other men: So when that of the Vipers teeth the perfect shape of man Within the bowels of the earth was formed, they began To rise togither orderly upon the fruitefull fielde: And (which a greater wonder is) immediatly they wielde Their weapons growing up with them,

Even so hir quailed love which late ye would have thought had quight Bene vanisht out of minde, as soone as Jason came in sight

But now an uncouth maladie perforce against my will Doth hale me. Love persuades me one, another thing my skill. The best I see and like: the worst I follow headlong still.

For what a wondrous thing is this? Is any thing like this which men doe terme by name of Love?

And of their murther from their brestes not yet the token goth, For even still yet are stainde with bloud the fethers of them both.

sorrow tide hir tongue, and wordes agreeable unto Hir great displeasure were not at commaundment at that stound. And weepe she could not.

Againe hir tunglesse mouth did want the utterance of the fact. Great is the wit of pensivenesse, and when the head is rakt With hard misfortune, sharpe forecast of practise entereth in. A warpe of white upon a frame of Thracia she did pin, And weaved purple letters in betweene it, which bewraide The wicked deede of Tereus. And having done, she praide A certaine woman by hir signes to beare them to hir mistresse.

The stumpe whereon it hung Did patter still. The tip fell downe and quivering on the ground As though that it had murmured it made a certaine sound. And as an Adders tayle cut off doth skip a while: even so The tip of Philomelaas tongue did wriggle to and fro,

my voyce the verie woods shall fill, And make the stones to understand

And there they now doe practise still their filthy tongues to scold And shamelessely (though underneath the water) they doe hold Their former wont of brawling still amid the water cold. Their voices stil are hoarse and harsh, their throtes have puffed goles, Their chappes with brawling widened are, their hammer headed Jowls Are joyned to their shoulders just, the neckes of them doe seeme Cut off, the ridgebone of their backe stickes up of colour greene. Their paunch which is the greatest part of all their trunck is gray, And so they up and downe the Pond made newly Frogges doe play.

There upon a mountaines top She weepeth still in stone. From stone the drerie teares do drop.

Moreover for the beautie, shape, and favor growen in me, Right well I know I doe deserve a Goddesse for to be. Besides all this, seven sonnes I have and daughters seven likewise,

he, clad in feathers white, hir lazie wings must flap. And with a bobbed Bill bewayle the cause of hir missehap.

Of bodies chang'd to various forms,