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. Let your sad captive in the front appear,
  2. With streaming cheeks, and with dishevell'd hair.
  3. Such lips were form'd for kinder words than these,
  4. Wounds made by lovers' furious ecstasies.
  5. Though like a torrent I was hurried on,
  6. A slave to passion which I could not shun,
  7. I might have only pierc'd her tender ear
  8. With threatening language, such as virgins fear.
  9. Fear having chill'd the current of her blood,
  10. She pale as Parian marble statue stood;
  11. Tears, which suspense did for a while restrain,
  12. Gush'd forth, and down her cheeks the deluge ran.
  13. As when the sun does by a powerful beam
  14. Dissolve the frost, it runs into a stream.
  15. The lamentable objects struck me dead,
  16. And tears of blood to quench those tears I shed;
  17. Thrice at her feet the prostrate suppliant fell,
  18. And thrice did she repulse the criminal.
  19. What would I not your anger to abate,
  20. Redeem your favour, or remove your hate?
  21. To your revenge no means or method spare;
  22. Revenge, alas! is easy to the fair.
  1. There is a bawd renown'd in Venus' wars,
  2. Aud dreadful still with honorable scars;
  3. Her youth and beauty, craft and guile supply,
  4. Sworn foe to all degrees of chastity.
  5. Dypsas, who first taught love-sick maids the way
  6. To cheat the bridegroom on the wedding-day,
  7. And then a hundred subtle tricks devis'd,
  8. Wherewith the am'rous theft might be disguis'd;
  9. Of herbs and spells she tries the guilty force,
  10. The poison of a mare that goes to horse.
  11. Cleaving the midnight air upon a switch,
  12. Some for a bawd, most take her for a witch.
  13. Each morning sees her reeling to her bed,
  14. Her native blue o'ercome with drunken red:
  15. Her ready tongue ne'er wants a useful lie,
  16. Soft moving words, nor charming flattery.
  17. Thus I o'erheard her to my Lucia speak:
  18. "Young Damon's heart wilt thou for ever break
  19. He long has lov'd thee, and by me he sends
  20. To learn thy motions, which he still attends;
  21. If to the park thou go'st, the plays are ill;
  22. If to the plays, he thinks the air would kill.
  23. The other day he gaz'd upon thy face,
  24. As he would grow a statue in the place;
  25. And who indeed does not? like a new star,
  26. Beauty like thine strikes wonder from afar.
  27. Alas! methinks thou art ill-dress'd to-night;
  28. This point's too poor; thy necklace is not right;
  29. This gown was by some botching tailor made,
  30. It spoils thy shape; this fucus is ill laid.
  31. Hear me, and be as happy as thou'rt fair:
  32. Damon is rich, and what thou wanst, can spare.
  33. Like thine his face, like thine his eyes are thought.
  34. Would he not buy, he might himself be bought."
  35. Fair Lucia blush'd. "It is a sign of grace,
  36. (Dypsas replied,) that red becomes thy face.
  37. All lovers now by what they give are weighed,
  38. And she is best belov'd that best is paid;
  39. The sun-burnt Latins, in old Tatius' reign,
  40. Did to one man perhaps their love restrain:
  41. Venus in her Aeneas' city rules,
  42. And all adore her deity but fools.
  43. Go on, ye fair, chaste only let such live
  44. As none will ask, and know not how to give.
  45. Life steals away, and our best hours are gone
  46. Ere the true use or worth of them be known.
  47. Things long neglected, of themselves decay;
  48. What we forbear, time rudely makes his prey.