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. Submits with quiet to the looser rein.
  2. A hundred eyes had Argus, yet the while
  3. One silly maid did all those eyes beguile;
  4. Danae, tho' shut within a brazen tow'r,
  5. Felt the male virtue of the golden show'r;
  6. But chaste Penelope, left to her own will
  7. And free disposal, never thought of ill;
  8. She to her absent lord preserv'd her truth,
  9. For all th' addresses of the smoother youth,
  10. What's rarely seen, our fancy magnifies;
  11. Permitted pleasure who does not despise ?
  12. Thy care provokes beyond her face, and more
  13. Men strive to make tho cuckold than the whore.
  14. They're wondrous charms we think, and long to know
  15. That in a wife enchants a husband so:
  16. Rage, swear, and curse, no matter, she alone
  17. Pleases, who sighs, and cries, " I am undone."
  18. But could thy spies say, " We have kept her chaste,"
  19. Good servants then, but an ill wife thou hast;
  20. Who fears to be a cuckold is a clown,
  21. Not worthy to partake of this lewd town,
  22. Where it is monstrous to be fair and chaste,
  23. And not one inch of either sex lies waste.
  24. Wouldst thou be happy ? with her ways comply,
  25. And in her case lay points of honour by:
  26. The friendship she begins, wisely improve,
  27. And a fair wife gets one a world of love:
  28. So shalt thou welcome be to ev'ry treat,
  29. Live high, not pay, and never run in debt.
  1. 'Twas in the midst and silent dead of night,
  2. When heavy sleep oppos'd my weary sight,
  3. This vision did my troubled mind affright:-
  4. To Sol expos'd there stood a rising ground,
  5. Which cast beneath a spacious shade around;
  6. A gloomy grove of spreading oaks below,
  7. And various birds were perch'd on ev'ry bough;
  8. Just on the margin of a verdant mead,
  9. Where murm'ring brooks refreshing waters spread
  10. To shun the heat I sought this cool recess,
  11. But in this shade I felt my heat no less;
  12. When browzing o'er the flow'ry grass appear'd
  13. A lovely cow, the fairest of the herd.
  14. By spotless white distinguished from the rest,
  15. Whiter than milk from her own udder press'd;
  16. Whiter than falling, or the driven snow,
  17. Before descending mists can make it flow.
  18. She, with a lusty bull, her happy mate,
  19. Delighted, on the tender herbage sat;
  20. There, as he crops the flow'rs, and chews the cud,
  21. Feasting a second time upon his food,
  22. His limbs with sudden heaviness oppress'd,
  23. He bends his head, and sinks to pleasing rest.
  24. A noisy crow, cleaving the liquid air,
  25. Thrice with lewd bill pick'd off the heifer's hair;
  26. The glossy white imbib'd a spreading blot,
  27. But on her breast appear'd a livid spot.
  28. The cow rose slowly from her consort's side,
  29. But when afar the grazing bull she spied,
  30. Frisk'd to the herd, with an impetuous haste,
  31. And pleas'd, in new luxuriant soil, her taste.
  32. Oh, learn'd diviner!
  33. What may this visionary dream portend,
  34. If dreams in any future truth can end ?
  35. The prophet nicely weighs what I relate,
  36. And thus denounces in the voice of fate:-
  37. "That heat you tried to shun i' th' shady grove,
  38. But shunn'd in vain, was the fierce heat of love.
  39. The cow denotes the nymph, your only care,
  40. (For white's th' expressive image of the fair,)
  41. And you the bull, abandon'd to despair.
  42. The picking crow some busy bawd implies,
  43. Who with base arts will soon seduce your prim.
  44. You saw the cow to fresher pasture range,
  45. So will your nymph for richer lovers change;
  46. As mixing with the herd you saw her rove,
  47. So will the fair pursue promiscuous love;
  48. Soon will you find a foul incestuous blot,
  49. As on the cow you view'd the livid spot."
  50. At this my blood retired, with dismal fright,
  51. And left me pale as death ; my fainting sight
  52. Was quite o'ercast in dusky shades of night.
  1. Thy course, thy noble course a while forbear,
  2. I am in haste now going to my dear!
  3. Thy banks how rich, thy stream how worthy praise
  4. Alas, my haste ! sweet river, let me pass.
  5. No bridges here, no ferry, not an oar,
  6. Or rope to haul me to the farther shore !
  7. I have remember'd thee a little one,
  8. Who now with all this flood com'st blund'ring down.
  9. Did I refuse my sleep, my wine, my friend,