The disrespectful treatment of the wood nymphs by Appulus is punished by his transformation into a wild olive-tree.
Thus Diomedes. Venulus withdraws; Unsped the service of the common cause. Puteoli he passes, and survey’d A cave long honour’d for its awful shade. Here trembling reeds exclude the piercing ray, Here streams in gentle falls through windings stray, And with a passing breath cool zephyrs play. The goatherd god frequents the silent place, As once the wood nymphs of the sylvan race, Till Appulus with a dishonest air, And gross behaviour, banish’d thence the fair: The bold buffoon, whene’er they tread the green, Their motion mimics, but with jest obscene. Loose language oft he utters; but ere long A bark in filmy network binds his tongue. Thus changed, a base wild olive he remains; The shrub the coarseness of the clown retains.