GorgeousGallery sig. Oiiiiv

[sig. Oiiiiv]

What wil ye more, th’appointed place at length she doth attayne, Till Fortune please her loue to send, there minding to remayne: (320) And whiles shee doth the fountayn cleare, with thoughtful hope behold And euery let, her loue may stay, vnto her selfe vnfolde. A dreadfull Lyon downe desendes, from Mountaine huge therby, With thundring pace, whose sodain sight, when Thisbie can espy: No maruel was though terror then, & straungenes of the sight, (325) Within a simple maydens brest, all counsayle put to flight. Howbeit, though counsayle fayld, yet feare so did that place possesse, That as the tender brest, whose age no feare did yet oppresse: Now seeth his foe, with rauening Iaw, him ready to receaue, Sets winges vnto his littell legs, himselfe poore foole to saue. (330) Euen so this Mayd, her enemy flees, vnto a hollow tree: For succor flyes, whose ruthful mone, did succor not denye: But close her keepes. The Liones fearce, that in the Mountayne ||(wilde, Deuoured had, new slaughtred beastes, & empty belly filde: With moossell all embrude with blood, drawes to the cristal Well, (335) Hee dranke, and in his backe returne, this fatall hap befell. Amid this way a kercheife white, which frighted Thisbie had Let fall by chaunce, as feare and haste, vnto the tree her lad: This Lion findes, and with his mouth, yet smoaking all in gore, And armid pawes it staynes with blood, and all in sunder tore. (340) That doone away hee windes, as fier of Hell, or Vulcans thunder Blew in his tayle, or as his corps it seas’d to teare a sunder: Now Pyramus who could not earst, the wrathfull house forgo, Hath past the towne, and as hee drew the Fountayn neare vnto: The cloth hee spies, which when (alas) all stained so hee saw, (345) In sunder tore, the ground about, full traste with Lyons paw: The Siluer streames with strekes of blood, besprent and troubled |(new, And there again that cursed trace, the woful print to shew: A sure beleefe did straight inuade, his ouerlyuing minde, That there the fatall ende (alas) of Thisbie was assinde: (350) And that her dainty flesh, of beastes a pray vnmeet was made, Wherwith distrest with woodlike rage, + the words he out abrade.