P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses
Arthur Golding, Ed.

And with the sea the Trachin shippe ay alteration tooke.
One whyle as from a mountaynes toppe it seemed downe to looke
To vallyes and the depth of hell. Another whyle beset
With swelling surges round about which neere above it met,
It looked from the bottom of the whoorlepoole up aloft
As if it were from hell to heaven. A hideous flusshing oft
The waves did make in beating full against the Gallyes syde.
The Gallye being striken gave as great a sownd that tyde
As did sumtyme the Battellramb of steele, or now the Gonne
In making battrye to a towre. And as feerce Lyons ronne
Full brist with all theyr force ageinst the armed men that stand
In order bent to keepe them off with weapons in theyr hand,
Even so as often as the waves by force of wynd did rave,
So oft uppon the netting of the shippe they maynely drave,
And mounted farre above the same. Anon off fell the hoopes:
And having washt the pitch away, the sea made open loopes
To let the deadly water in. Behold the clowdes did melt,
And showers large came pooring downe. The seamen that them felt
Myght thinke that all the heaven had falne uppon them that same tyme,
And that the swelling sea likewyse above the heaven would clyme.
The sayles were throughly wet with showers, and with the heavenly raine
Was mixt the waters of the sea. No lyghts at all remayne
Of sunne, or moone, or starres in heaven. The darknesse of the nyght
Augmented with the dreadfull storme, takes dowble powre and myght.
Howbee't the flasshing lyghtnings oft doo put the same to flyght,
And with theyr glauncing now and then do give a soodeine lyght.
The lightnings setts the waves on fyre. Above the netting skippe
The waves, and with a violent force doo lyght within the shippe.
And as a souldyer stowter than the rest of all his band
That oft assayles a citie walles defended well by hand,
At length atteines his hope, and for to purchace prayse withall
Alone among a thousand men getts up uppon the wall:
So when the loftye waves had long the Gallyes sydes assayd,
At length the tenth wave rysing up with huger force and brayd,
Did never cease assaulting of the weery shippe, till that
Uppon the hatches lyke a fo victoriously it gat.
A part thereof did still as yit assault the shippe without,
And part had gotten in. The men all trembling ran about,
As in a Citie commes to passe, when of the enmyes sum
Dig downe the walles without, and sum already in are come.
All arte and conning was to seeke. Theyr harts and stomacks fayle:
And looke, how many surges came theyr vessell to assayle,
So many deathes did seeme to charge and breake uppon them all.
One weepes: another stands amazde: the third them blist dooth call
Whom buryall dooth remayne. To God another makes his vow,
And holding up his handes to heaven the which hee sees not now,
Dooth pray in vayne for help. The thought of this man is uppon
His brother and his parents whom he cleerely hath forgone.
Another calles his house and wyfe and children unto mynd,
And every man in generall the things he left behynd.
Alcyone moveth Ceyx hart. In Ceyx mouth is none
But onely one Alcyone. And though shee were alone
The wyght that he desyred most, yit was he verry glad
Shee was not there. To Trachin ward to looke desyre he had,
And homeward fayne he would have turnd his eyes which never more
Should see the land. But then he knew not which way was the shore,
Nor where he was. The raging sea did rowle about so fast:
And all the heaven with clowds as black as pitch was over cast,
That never nyght was halfe so dark. There came a flaw at last,
That with his violence brake the maste, and strake the sterne away.
A billowe proudly pranking up as vaunting of his pray
By conquest gotten, walloweth hole and breaketh not asunder,
Beholding with a lofty looke the waters woorking under.
And looke, as if a man should from the places where they growe
Rend downe the mountaynes, Athe and Pind, and whole them overthrowe
Into the open sea: so soft the Billowe tumbling downe,
With weyght and violent stroke did sink and in the bottom drowne
The Gallye. And the moste of them that were within the same
Went downe therwith and never up to open aier came,
But dyed strangled in the gulf. Another sort againe
Caught peeces of the broken shippe. The king himself was fayne
A shiver of the sunken shippe in that same hand to hold,
In which hee erst a royall mace had hilld of yellow gold.
His father and his fathrinlawe he calles uppon (alas
In vayne.) But cheefly in his mouth his wife Alcyone was.
In hart was shee: in toong was shee: he wisshed that his corse
To land where shee myght take it up the surges myght enforce:
And that by her most loving handes he might be layd in grave.
In swimming still (as often as the surges leave him gave
To ope his lippes) he harped still upon Alcyones name,
And when he drowned in the waves he muttred still the same.
Behold, even full uppon the wave a flake of water blacke
Did breake, and underneathe the sea the head of Ceyx stracke.
That nyght the lyghtsum Lucifer for sorrowe was so dim,
As scarcely could a man discerne or thinke it to bee him.
And forasmuch as out of heaven he might not steppe asyde,
With thick and darksum clowds that nyght his countnance he did hyde.
Alcyone of so great mischaunce not knowing aught as yit,
Did keepe a reckening of the nyghts that in the whyle did flit,
And hasted garments both for him and for herself likewyse,
To weare at his homecomming which shee vaynely did surmyse.
To all the Goddes devoutly shee did offer frankincence:
But most above them all the Church of Juno shee did sence.
And for her husband (who as then was none) shee kneeld before
The Altar, wisshing health and soone arrivall at the shore,
And that none other woman myght before her be preferd.
Of all her prayers this one peece effectually was heard.
For Juno could not fynd in hart intreated for to bee
For him that was already dead. But to th'entent that shee
From dame Alcyones deadly hands might keepe her Altars free,
Shee sayd: Most faythfull messenger of my commaundments, O
Thou Raynebowe, to the slugguish house of Slomber swiftly go.
And bid him send a Dreame in shape of Ceyx to his wyfe
Alcyone, for to shew her playne the losing of his lyfe.
Dame Iris takes her pall wherein a thousand colours were
And bowwing lyke a stringed bow upon the dowdy sphere,
Immediatly descended to the drowzye house of Sleepe
Whose Court the clowdes continually doo clocely overdreepe.