Amores

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. Kind thoughts of me may in her bosom rise,
  2. Perhaps she may resent her porter's crime,
  3. And grieve that here so ill I spent my time.
  4. Against me though thou shut'st thy lady's gate,
  5. I cannot one, that serves my mistress, hate.
  6. You both who did against my hopes rebel,
  7. Ah, porter; and ah, cruel gate, farewell.
  1. Come, if ye're friends, and let these hands be bound,
  2. Which could with impious rage a mistress wound:
  3. What more did Ajax in his fury do,
  4. When all the sacred grazing herd he slew?
  5. Or he[*](Orestes) who spared not her who gave him breath?
  6. So ill the son reveng'd his father's death!
  7. Then I had broke the most religious ties,
  8. Both to my parents and the deities:
  9. I tore (0 heav'ns!) her finely braided hair,
  10. How charming then look'd the disorder'd fair.
  11. So Atalanta in her chaise is drawn,
  12. Where the Arcadian beasts her empire own:
  13. So Ariadne, left upon the shore,
  14. Does all alone her lost estate deplore.
  15. Who would not then have rail'd and talk'd aloud
  16. (Which to the helpless sex might be allowed.)
  17. She only did upbraid me with her eye,
  18. Whose speaking tears did want of words supply.
  19. 0, that some merciful superior pow'r
  20. Had struck me lame before that fatal hour,
  21. And not have suffer'd me to pierce my heart
  22. So deeply, in the best and tend'rest part;
  23. To make a lady that subjection own,