A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13

Note 364 — ACT V., SCENE I.

Reading edition

So in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra"—

"Let me lodge Lichas on the horn o' th' moon."

—Steevens.

Again, Ovid's "Metam.," lib. 9. l. 215—

"Tremit ille pavetque Pallidus; et timide verba excusantia dicit Dicentem, genibusque manus adhibere parantem Corripit Alcides; et terque quaterque rotatum Mittit in Euboicas tormento fortius undas, Ille per aerias pendens indurnit auras."

Of which the following is Gay's translation—

"The youth all pale with shiv'ring fear was stung, And vain excuses falter'd on his tongue: Alcides snatch'd him, as with suppliant face He strove to clasp his knees, and beg for grace; He toss'd him o'er his head with airy course, And hurl'd with more than with an engine's force: Far o'er the Eubœan main aloof he flies, And hardens by degrees amid the skies."

Return to ACT V., SCENE I.