1607?, Edward Topsell, The Hiſtory of Four-footed Beaſts and Serpents (1658), chapter lxiii: “Of the Lion”, page 369:
Ovid hath a witty fiction of one Phyllius, who fell ſo deeply in love with a little boy, that at his pleaſure he took many wilde Beaſts, Birds, and Lions, and tamed them to the delight of his Amaſius: at length the inſatiable Boy required him to do the like by a Bull, which he had overcome, but Phyllius denying that requeſt, they Boy preſently caſt himſelf down from a Rock, and was afterward turned into a Swan; by which the Poet declareth, the unmerciful regard which wretchleſs and childiſh mindes bear towards the greateſt labours and deſerts of the beſt men; and that in ſuch ſociety a man is no longer beloved, then he giveth; alſo the denial of one ſmall requeſt cannot be endured, although a thouſand good turns have gone before it; wherefore ſuch mindes may well be transfuſed into Swans, which forſake their owners and breeders, going and ſwimming far from their firſt and proper habitation.
