y of all my cruell fortune and calamity, I found good
hope and soveraigne remedy, though it were very late, to be delivered
from all my misery, by invocation and prayer, to the excellent beauty of
the Goddesse, whom I saw shining before mine eyes, wherefore shaking off
mine Assie and drowsie sleepe, I arose with a joyfull face, and mooved
by a great affection to purifie my selfe, I plunged my selfe seven times
into the water of the Sea, which number of seven is conveniable and
agreeable to holy and divine things, as the worthy and sage Philosopher
Pythagoras hath declared. Then with a weeping countenance, I made this
Orison to the puissant Goddesse, saying: O blessed Queene of heaven,
whether thou be the Dame Ceres which art the originall and motherly
nource of all fruitfull things in earth, who after the finding of thy
daughter Proserpina, through the great joy which thou diddest presently
conceive, madest barraine and unfruitfull ground to be plowed and sowne,
and now thou inhabitest in the land of Eleusie; or whether thou be
the celestiall Venus, who in the beginning of the world diddest couple
together all kind of things with an ingendered love, by an eternall
propagation of humane kind, art now worshipped within the Temples of the
Ile Paphos, thou which art the sister of the God Phoebus, who nourishest
so many people by the generation of beasts, and art now adored at the
sacred places of Ephesus, thou which art horrible Proserpina, by reason
of the deadly howlings which thou yeeldest, that hast power to stoppe
and put away the invasion of the hags and Ghoasts which appeare unto
men, and to keepe them downe in the closures of the earth: thou which
art worshipped in divers manners, and doest illuminate all the borders
of the earth by thy feminine shape, thou which nourishest all the fruits
of the world by thy vigor and force; with whatsoever name or fashion it
is lawfull to call upon thee, I pray thee, to end my great travaile and
misery, and deliver mee from the wretched fortune, which had so
long time pursued me. Grant peace and rest if it please thee to my
adversities, for I have endured too much labour and perill. Remoove from
me my shape of mine Asse, and render to me my pristine estate, and if
I have offended in any point of divine Majesty, let me rather dye then
live, for I am full weary of my life. When I had ended this orison, and
discovered my plaints to the Goddesse, I fortuned to fall asleepe, and
by and by