Flovvers of Epigrammes Ovt of sundrie the moste singular authours selected, as well auncient as late writers. Pleasant and profitable to the expert readers of quicke capacitie: By Timothe Kendall |
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Out of Pvlix an auncient Poet.
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 | Flovvers of Epigrammes |  |
Out of Pvlix an auncient Poet.
Hermaphroditus speaketh.
While great with me my mother wēt,vncertaine what I was:
She askte the gods what she should haue,
a lad, or els a lasse.
Quoth Mars, thart with a maiden sped:
Not so Apollo saied,
It is a man: quoth Iuno then,
tis neither man nor maied.
My mothers tyme of trauaile came,
her throwes and thrutches past:
A mungrill Herkinalson, she
did bryng me forthe at last.
[1]
what should my destenie bee:
To dye by dint of deadly swoorde,
affirmed Iuno she:
He will be hanged on a tree,
quoth Mars as I suppose:
And I doe thinke saied Phœbus then,
in lake, life he shall lose.
Their verdicts none were vaine, it came
as eche did saie to passe:
And how beholde: (tis straunge I tell,)
a certaine brooke there was,
Oreshadowed with a tree, that had
full many a leauie branche:
In climyng vp this tree, my sworde
fell out, and goard my paunche.
The bowes in fallyng, caught my feete,
my head fell in the foorde:
So man, maied, neither bothe, was I
hangde, drounde, and kilde with sworde.
| Flovvers of Epigrammes | |