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. Say you are honest, and I'll credit thee.
  2. Conceal your actions, and while I am by,
  3. Let modest words your looser thoughts belie;
  4. When to your private chamber you retire,
  5. Unmask your lust, and vent each warm desire;
  6. Throw off affected coyness, and remove
  7. The bold intruder between thee and love:
  8. Talk not of honour, lay that toy aside,
  9. In men 'tis folly, and in women pride;
  10. There without blushes you may naked lie,
  11. Clasping his body with your tender thigh;
  12. Shoot your moist dart into his mouth, to show
  13. The sense you have of what he acts below;
  14. Try all the ways, your pliant bodies twine,
  15. In folds more strange than those of Aretine:
  16. With melting looks fierce joys you may excite,
  17. And with thick dying accents urge delight.
  18. But when you're dress'd, then look as innocent
  19. As if you knew not what such matters meant;
  20. Cozen the prying town, and put a cheat