loveliness, now the snowy neck and golden hair of the mother. The one is like unto the crescent moon, the other to the full. So grows a young laurel beneath the shadow of its parent tree and, small as it now is, gives promise of great branches and thick foliage to come. Or as ’twere two roses of Paestum on one stalk; the one day’s fulness has brought to maturity; steeped in the dews of spring it spreads abroad its petals; the other yet nestles in its bud nor dares receive the sun’s warmth within its tender heart.
Venus stood and addressed Maria with these gentle words: “All hail! revered daughter of divine Serena, scion of great kings and destined to be the mother of kings. For thy sake have I left my home in Paphos’ isle and Cyprus; for thy sake was I pleased to face so many labours and cross so many seas lest thou shouldst continue to live a private life little befitting thy true worth and lest young Honorius should still feed in his heart the flame of unrequited love. Take the rank thy birth demands, resume the crown to bequeath it to thy children and re-enter the palace whence thy mother sprang. E’en though no ties of blood united thee to the royal house, though thou wert in no way related thereto, yet would thy beauty render thee worthy of a kingdom. What face could rather win a sceptre? What countenance better adorn a palace? Redder than roses thy lips, whiter than the hoar-frost thy neck, cowslips[135] are not more yellow than thine hair, fire not more bright than thine eyes. With how fine an interspace do the delicate eyebrows meet upon thy forehead! How just the blend that makes thy blush, thy fairness not o’ermantled with too much
[135] The _viola_ was probably a pansy or wallflower, Gk λευκόϊον.
Aurorae vincis digitos umerosque Dianae; 270 ipsam iam superas matrem. si Bacchus amator dotali potuit caelum signare corona, cur nullis virgo redimitur pulchrior astris? iam tibi molitur stellantia serta Bootes inque decus Mariae iam sidera parturit aether. 275 i, digno nectenda viro tantique per orbem consors imperii! iam te venerabitur Hister; nomen adorabunt populi; iam Rhenus et Albis serviet; in medios ibis regina Sygambros. quid numerem gentes Atlanteosque recessus 280 Oceani? toto pariter donabere mundo.” Dixit et ornatus, dederant quos nuper ovantes Nereides, collo membrisque micantibus aptat. ipsa caput distinguit acu, substringit amictus; flammea virgineis accommodat ipsa capillis. 285 ante fores iam pompa sonat, pilentaque sacra praeradiant ductura nurum. calet obvius ire iam princeps tardumque cupit discedere solem: nobilis haud aliter sonipes, quem primus amoris sollicitavit odor, tumidus quatiensque decoras 290 curvata cervice iubas Pharsalia rura pervolat et notos hinnitu flagitat amnes naribus accensis; mulcet fecunda magistros spes gregis et pulchro gaudent armenta marito. Candidus interea positis exercitus armis 295 exultat socerum circa; nec signifer ullus