Sometimes it profits to conceal your end;
Name not yourself her lover, but her friend.
How many skittish girls have thus been caught ?
He prov'd a lover, who a friend was thought..
Sailors by fun and wind are swarthy made;
A tann'd complexion beft becomes their trade.
'Tis a disgrace to ploughmen to be fair;
Bluff cheeks they have, and weather-beaten hair.
Th' ambitious youth, who seeks an olive crown,
Is fun-burnt with his daily toil, and brown.
But if the lover hopes to be in grace,
Wan be his looks, and meagre be his face.
That colour from the fair compassion draws:
She thinks you fick, and thinks herself the cause.
Orion wander'd in the woods for love:
His paleness did the nymphs to pity move;
His ghaftly visage argu'd hidden love.
Nor fail a night-cap, in full health, to wear;
Neglect thy dress, and discompose thy hair.
All things are decent, that in love avail :
Read long by night, and study to be pale:
Forfake your food, refuse your needful rest;
Be miferable, that you may be bleft.

Shall I complain, or shall I warn you most?
Faith, truth, and friendship in the world are loft;
A little and an empty name they boaft.
Trust not thy friend, much less thy mistress praise;
If he believe, thou may'st a rival raise.
'Tis true, Patroclus, by no luft mifled,
Sought not to ftain his dear companion's bed.
Nor Pylades Hermione embrac'd;

E'en Phædra to Pirithous still was chafte.
But hope not thou, in this vile age, to find
Those rare examples of a faithful mind.
The fea shall fooner with sweet honey flow;
Or from the furzes pears and apples grow.

}

}

We

:

}

We fin with gust, we love by fraud to gain;
And find a pleasure in our fellow's pain.
From rival foes you may the fair defend;
But, would you ward the blow, beware your friend:
Beware your brother, and your next of kin;
But from your bosom-friend your care begin.
Here I had ended, but experience finds,
That fundry women are of fundry minds;
With various crotchets fill'd, and hard to please:
They therefore must be caught by various ways.
All things are not produc'd in any foil;
This ground for wine is proper, that for oil.
So 'tis in men, but more in womankind:
Diff'rent in face, in manners, and in mind:
But wife men shift their fails with every wind:
As changeful Proteus vary'd oft his shape,
And did in sundry forms and figures 'scape;
A running stream, a standing tree became,
A roaring lion, or a bleating lamb.
Some fish with harpons, some with darts are struck,
Some drawn with nets, fome hang upon the hook:
So turn thyself; and imitating them,
Try fev'ral tricks, and change thy ftratagem.
One rule will not for diff'rent ages hold;
The jades grow cunning, as they grow more old,
Then talk not bawdy to the bashful maid;
Broad words will make her innocence afraid.
Nor to an ign'rant girl of learning speak;
She thinks you conjure, when you talk in Greek.
And hence 'tis often seen, the simple shun
The learn'd, and into vile embraces run.
Part of my task is done, and part to do:
But here tis time to reft myself and you.

:

FROM

OVID'S AMOURS.

}}

:

ΒΟΟΚΙ. ELEG. I.

OR mighty wars I thought to tune my lute,
And make my measures to my subject suit.

Six feet for ev'ry verse the muse design'd :
But Cupid, laughing, when he saw my mind,
From ev'ry fecond verse a foot purloin'd.
Who gave thee, boy, this arbitrary sway,
On subjects, not thy own, commands to lay,
Who Phœbus only and his laws obey ?
'Tis more abfurd than if the Queen of Love
Should in Minerva's arms to battle move;
Or manly Pallas from that queen should take
Her torch, and o'er the dying lover shake.
In fields as well may Cynthia sow the corn,
Or Ceres wind in woods the bugle-horn.
As well may Phœbus quit the trembling string,
For fword and shield; and Mars may learn to fing.
Already thy dominions are too large;
Be not ambitious of a foreign charge.

If thou wilt reign o'er all, and ev'ry where,
The God of Musfick for his harp may fear.
Thus when with foaring wings I feek renown,
Thou pluck'ft my pinions, and I flutter down.
Could I on such mean thoughts my Muse employ,
I want a mistress or a blooming boy.
Thus I complain'd: his bow the stripling bent,
And chose an arrow fit for his intent.

The

The shaft his pupose fatally purfues;
Now, poet, there's a subject for thy Muse.
He said: too well, alas, he knows his trade,
For in my breast a mortal wound he made.
(Far hence, ye proud hexameters, remove)
My verse is pac'd and trammel'd into love.

With myrtle wreaths my thoughtful brows inclose,
While in unequal verse I sing my woes.

FROM

OVID's AMOURS.

BOOK I. ELEG. 4.

To bis mistress, whose husband is invited to a feast with them. The poet inftructs her how to behave herself in his company.

Y

OUR husband will be with us at the treat;
May that be the last supper he shall eat.

And am poor I a guest invited there,
Only to fee, while he may touch the fair ?
To fee you kiss and hug your nauseous lord,
While his leud hand descends below the board?
Now wonder not that Hippodamia's charms,
At such a fight, the Centaurs urg'd to arms;
That in a rage they threw their cups afide,
Affail'd the bridegroom, and would force the bride.
I am not half a horse, (I would I were)
Yet hardly can from you my hands forbear.
Take then my counsel; which, observ'd, may be
Of some importance both to you and me.
Be sure to come before your man be there;
There's nothing can be done; but come howe'er.
Sit next him (that belongs to decency)
But tread upon my foot in passing by.
Read in my looks what filently they speak,
And flily, with your eyes, your answer make.
My lifted eye-brow shall declare my pain;
My right-hand to his fellow shall complain;

1

And