Pygmalion, whose chaste mind all the beauties in Cyprus could not ensnare, yet, at the length having carved in ivory an excellent proportion of a beauteous woman, was so deeply enamoured on his own workmanship that he would oftentimes lay the image in bed with him, and fondly use such petitions and dalliance as if it had been a breathing creature. But in the end, finding his fond dotage, and yet persevering in his ardent affection, made his devout prayers to Venus, that she would vouchsafe to inspire life into his love, and then join them both together in marriage. Whereupon Venus, graciously condescending to his earnest suit, the maid (by the power of her deity) was metamorphosed into a living woman. And after, Pygmalion (being in Cyprus) begat a son of her, which was called Paphus; whereupon that island Cyprus, in honour of Venus, was after, and is now, called by the inhabitants, Paphos.[332]
[332] Paphos was the name of a town in Cyprus (celebrated for its temple of Aphrodite)—not of the island itself.
My wanton muse lasciviously doth sing
Of sportive love, of lovely dallying.
O beauteous angel! deign thou to infuse
A sprightly wit into my dullèd muse.
I invocate none other saint but thee,
To grace the first blooms of my poesy.
Thy favours, like Promethean sacred fire,
In dead and dull conceit can life inspire;
Or, like that rare and rich elixir stone,
Can turn to gold leaden invention.
Be gracious then, and deign to show in me
The mighty power of thy deity;
And as thou read’st (fair) take compassion—
Force me not envy my Pygmalion:
Then when thy kindness grants me such sweet bliss,
I’ll gladly write thy Metamorphosis.
PYGMALION.
Pygmalion, whose high love-hating mind
Disdain’d to yield servile affection
Or amorous suit to any woman-kind,
Knowing their wants and men’s perfection;
Yet love at length forced him to know his fate,
And love the shade whose substance he did hate.
For having wrought in purest ivory
So fair an image of a woman’s feature,[333]
That never yet proudest mortality
Could show so rare and beauteous a creature 10
(Unless my mistress’ all-excelling face,
Which gives to beauty beauty’s only grace)—
He was amazèd at the wondrous rareness
Of his own workmanship’s perfection.
He thought that Nature ne’er produced such fairness,
In which all beauties have their mansion;
And, thus admiring, was enamourèd
On that fair image himself portrayèd.
And naked as it stood before his eyes,
Imperious Love declares his deity: 20
O what alluring beauties he descries
In each part of his fair imagery!
Her nakedness each beauteous shape contains;
All beauty in her nakedness remains.
He thought he saw the blood run through the vein
And leap, and swell with all alluring means;
Then fears he is deceived, and then again
He thinks he seeth the brightness of the beams
Which shoot from out the fairness of her eye;
At which he stands as in an ecstasy. 30