Have taught their stately song: the whilst he fed
His lambs beneath the holy Helicon.
And thus the goddesses, th’ Olympian maids
Whose sire is Jove, first hail’d me in their speech;
“Shepherds! that tend in fields the fold; ye shames!
[146]Ye fleshly appetites! the Muses hear:
’Tis we can utter fictions veil’d like truths,
Or, if we list, speak truths without a veil.”
So said the daughters of the mighty Jove,
Sooth-speaking maids: and gave unto my hand