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216

PARADISE LOST.

[BOOK IX.—506-538

Hermione and Cadmus,¹ or the god

In Epidaurus;² nor to which transformed

Ammonian Jove,³ or Capitoline was seen;

He, with Olympias, this, with her who bore

Scipio, the height of Rome. With tract oblique

At first, as one who sought access, but feared

To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.

As when a ship, by skillful steersman wrought,

Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind

Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail:

So varied he, and of his tortuous train

Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,

To lure her eye. She, busied, heard the sound

Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used

To such disport before her through the field,

From every beast, more duteous at her call,

Than at Circean call the herd disguised.⁴

He, bolder now, uncalled before her stood,

But as in gaze admiring: oft he bowed

His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck,

Fawning, and licked the ground whereon she trod.

His gentle dumb expression turned at length

The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad

Of her attention gained, with serpent tongue

Organic, or impulse of vocal air,

His fraudulent temptation thus began:

Wonder not, sovereign mistress, if, perhaps,

Thou canst, who art sole wonder; much less arm

Thy looks, the heaven of mildness, with disdain,

Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze

Insatiate, I thus single, nor have feared

¹ Hermione and Cadmus.—Fabled as changed into serpents.

² Epidaurus.—Another name for Æsculapius, the god of physic, who, being sent for to Rome in the time of a plague, was said to have entered the city in the form of a serpent.

³ Ammonian Jove.—Said to have conversed with his mother Olympia in the form of a serpent—the matron who, as the mother of Scipio Africanus, raised Rome to its height of greatness.

⁴ At Circean call the herd disguised.—In allusion to Circe, who was said to have turned men into beasts. (Ovid. Met. xiv. 45.)