Some Naiad? say; or is a Grace his flame?

Or maybe Muse, and then ’tis Erato,

The trifling wanton. Tell me, if thou know,

Woman or goddess is she? and her name.’

15

Then said the snowy gull, ‘O heavenly queen,

What is my knowledge, who am but a bird?

Yet is she only mortal, as I ween,

And namèd Psyche, if I rightly heard.’—

But Aphrodite’s look daunted his cheer,