uero [Greek: THETA], legebatur intextum.
Atque inter utrasque litteras in scalarum modum gradus quidam insigniti
uidebantur quibus ab inferiore ad superius elementum esset ascensus. Eandem
tamen uestem uiolentorum quorundam sciderant manus et particulas quas
quisque potuit abstulerant. Et dextera quidem eius libellos, sceptrum uero
sinistra gestabat.

Quae ubi poeticas Musas uidit nostro adsistentes toro fletibusque meis
uerba dictantes, commota paulisper ac toruis inflammata luminibus: "Quis,"
inquit, "has scenicas meretriculas ad hunc aegrum permisit accedere quae
dolores eius non modo nullis remediis fouerent, uerum dulcibus insuper
alerent uenenis? Hae sunt enim quae infructuosis affectuum spinis uberem
fructibus rationis segetem necant hominumque mentes assuefaciunt morbo, non
liberant. At si quem profanum, uti uulgo solitum uobis, blanditiae uestrae
detraherent, minus moleste ferendum putarem; nihil quippe in eo nostrae
operae laederentur. Hunc uero Eleaticis atque Academicis studiis
innutritum? Sed abite potius Sirenes usque in exitium dulces meisque eum
Musis curandum sanandumque relinquite."

His ille chorus increpitus deiecit humi maestior uultum confessusque rubore
uerecundiam limen tristis excessit. At ego cuius acies lacrimis mersa
caligaret nec dinoscere possem, quaenam haec esset mulier tam imperiosae
auctoritatis, obstipui uisuque in terram defixo quidnam deinceps esset
actura, exspectare tacitus coepi. Tum illa propius accedens in extrema
lectuli mei parte consedit meumque intuens uultum luctu grauem atque in
humum maerore deiectum his uersibus de nostrae mentis perturbatione
conquesta est.

I.

While I ruminated these things with myself, and determined to set forth
my woful complaint in writing, methought I saw a woman stand above my
head, having a grave countenance, glistening clear eye, and of quicker
sight than commonly Nature doth afford; her colour fresh and bespeaking
unabated vigour, and yet discovering so many years, that she could not
at all be thought to belong to our times; her stature uncertain and
doubtful, for sometime she exceeded not the common height of men, and
sometime she seemed to touch the heavens with her head, and if she
lifted it up to the highest, she pierced the very heavens, so that she
could not be seen by the beholders; her garments were made of most fine
threads with cunning workmanship into an ever-during stuff, which (as I
knew after