Now all undrest the shining Goddess stood, When young Actaeon, wilder’d in the wood,
wilder’d in the wood, wandered
in the wild, in the forest
To the cool grott by his hard fate betray’d,
grott, grotto
betray’d, treacherously confronted,
his hard fate would not be on his
side for this one
The fountains fill’d with naked nymphs survey’d.
survey’d, observed, espied,
considered, contemplated
The frighted virgins shriek’d at the surprize
(The forest echo’d with their piercing cries).
listen, you can hear it
Then in a huddle round their Goddess prest: She, proudly eminent above the rest, With blushes glow’d; such blushes as adorn The ruddy welkin, or the purple morn;
ruddy welkin, red sky, as at sunset
And tho’ the crowding nymphs her body hide, Half backward shrunk, and view’d him from a side. Surpriz’d, at first she would have snatch’d her bow, But sees the circling waters round her flow; These in the hollow of her hand she took, And dash’d ’em in his face, while thus she spoke:
These, ’em, the circling waters
“Tell, if thou can’st, the wond’rous sight disclos’d, A Goddess naked to thy view expos’d.”
This said, the man begun to disappear By slow degrees, and ended in a deer.
begun, began
A rising horn on either brow he wears, And stretches out his neck, and pricks his ears; Rough is his skin, with sudden hairs o’er-grown, His bosom pants with fears before unknown:
the skittishness of a deer
Transform’d at length, he flies away in haste, And wonders why he flies away so fast.
What should he do? Or seek his old abodes, Or herd among the deer, and sculk in woods! Here shame dissuades him, there his fear prevails, And each by turns his aking heart assails.
As he thus ponders, he behind him spies His op’ning hounds, and now he hears their cries:
op’ning, advancing
A gen’rous pack, or to maintain the chace,
Or snuff the vapour from the scented grass.
or to … Or, either to … Or
maintain the chace … snuff the vapour,
dogs doing what dogs do
He bounded off with fear, and swiftly ran O’er craggy mountains, and the flow’ry plain; Through brakes and thickets forc’d his way, and flew Through many a ring, where once he did pursue.
Deafen’d and stunn’d with their promiscuous cries.
promiscuous, unleashed,
unconstrained
When now the fleetest of the pack, that prest Close at his heels, and sprung before the rest, Had fasten’d on him, straight another pair, Hung on his wounded haunch, and held him there, ‘Till all the pack came up, and ev’ry hound Tore the sad huntsman grov’ling on the ground, Who now appear’d but one continu’d wound.
the attack
With dropping tears his bitter fate he moans, And fills the mountain with his dying groans. His servants with a piteous look he spies, And turns about his supplicating eyes.
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