Long Shame prevail'd, nor could be conquer'd quite,
But what I blush'd to speak, Love made me write.
'Tis dangerous to refift the power of Love,
The gods obey him, and he 's king above;
He clear'd the doubts that did my mind confound,
And promis'd me to bring thee hither bound:
Oh may he come, and in that breaft of thine
Fix a kind dart, and make it flame like mine!
Yet of my wedlock vows I'll lose no care,

Search back through all my fame, thou 'lt find it fair.
But Love long breeding to worst pain does turn;
Outward unharm'd, within, within I burn!

As the young bull or courfer yet untam'd,
When yok'd or bridled firft, are pinch'd and maim'd;
So my unpractis'd heart in love can find

No reft, th' unwonted weight fo toils my mind:

When young, Love's pangs, by arts we may remove,
But in our riper years with rage we love.
To thee I yield then all my dear renown,
And pr'ythee let 's together be undone.

Who would not pluck the new-blown blushing rofe,
Or the ripe fruit that courts him as it grows?
But if my virtue hitherto has gain'd
Efteem for fpotlefs, fhall it now be ftain'd?
Oh, in thy love I shall no hazard run;
'Tis not a fin, but when 'tis coarfely done.
And now fhould Juno leave her Jove to me,
I'd quit that Jove, Hippolytus, for thee:
Believe me too, with ftrange defires I change,
Amongst wild beafts I long with thee to range.

F 3

Το

To thy delights and Delia I incline,

Make her my goddess too, because she's thine:
I long to know the woods, to drive the deer,
And o'er the mountain's tops my hounds to cheer,
Shaking my dart; then, the chafe ended, lye
Stretch'd on the grafs; and would'st not thou be by?
Oft in light chariots I with pleasure ride,

And love myself the furious feeds to guide.
Now like a Bacchanal more wild I stray,
Or old Cybele's priests, as mad as they
When under Ida's hill they offerings pay:
Ev'n mad as thofe the deities of night
And water, Fauns and Dryads, do affright.
But ftill each little interval I gain,
Eafily find 'tis love breeds all my pain.
Sure on our race love like a fate does fall,
And Venus will have tribute of us all.
Jove lov'd Europa, whence my father came,
And, to a bull transform'd, enjoy'd the dame :
She, like my mother, languish'd to obtain,
And fill'd her womb with fhame as well as pain.
The faithless Thefeus by my fifter's aid
The monster flew, and a fafe conqueft made:
Now, in that family my right to fave,

I am at laft on the fame terms a flave:
'Twas fatal to my fifter and to me,
She lov'd thy father, but my choice was thee.
Let monuments of triumph then be shown
For two unhappy nymphs by you undone.

}

When

When firft our vows were to Eleufis paid,
Would I had in a Cretan grave been laid;
'Twas there thou didst a perfect conquest gain,
Whilft love's fierce fever rag'd in every vein :
White was thy robe, a garland deck'd thy head,
A modeft blush thy comely face o'erspread, :
That face, which may be terrible in arms,
But graceful feem'd to me, and full of charms :
I love the man whofe fashion's leaft his care,
And hate my fex's coxcombs fine and fair;
For whilst thus plain thy careless locks let fly,
Th' unpolish'd form is beauty in my eye.
If thou but ride, or shake the trembling dart,
I fix my eyes, and wonder at thý art :
To fee thee poife the javelin moves delight,
And all thou doft is lovely in my fight:
But to the woods thy cruelty refign,
Nor treat it with so poor a life as mine.
Muft cold Diana be ador'd alone,

Muft fhe have all thy vows, and Venus none?
That pleasure palls, if 'tis enjoy'd too long;
Love makes the weary firm, the feeble strong.
For Cynthia's fake unbend and eafe thy bow,
Elfe to thy arm 'twill weak and ufeless grow.
Famous was Cephalus in wood and plain,
And by him many a boar and pard was flain,
Yet to Aurora's love he did incline,
Who wifely left old age for youth like thine.
Under the spreading fhades her amorous boy,
The fair Adonis, Venus could enjoy ;

Atalanta's love too Melcager fought,

And to her tribute paid of all he caught :
Be thou and I next the bleft fylvan pair;
Where Love's a ftranger, woods but deferts are.
With thee, through dangerous ways unknown before,
I'll rove, and fearless face the dreadful boar.

Between two feas a little ifthmus lies,
Where on each fide the beating billows rife,
There in Trazena I thy love will meet,
More bleft and pleas'd than in my native Crete.
As we could wish, old Thefeus is away
At Theffaly, where always let him stay
With his Perithoüs, whom well I fee
Preferr❜d above Hippolytus or me.

Nor has he only thus expreft his hate;
We both have fuffer'd wrongs of mighty weight:
My brother firft he cruelly did flay,

Then from my fifter falfely ran away,
And left expos'd to every beast a prey :
A warlike queen to thee thy being gave,
A mother worthy of a fon fo brave,

From cruel Thefeus yet her death did find,

Nor, though fhe gave him thee, could make him kind.
Unwedded too he murder'd her in fpight,

To bastardize, and rob thee of thy right:
And if, to wrong thee more, two fons I've brought,
Believe it his, and none of Phædra's fault:`
Rather, thou faireft thing the earth contains,
I wish at first I'd dy'd of mother's pains.

How

How canft thou rev'rence then thy father's bed,
From which himself fo abjectly is fled?
The thought affrights not me, but me inflames;
Mother and fon are notions, very names
Of worn-out piety, in fashion then

When old dull Saturn rul'd the race of men;
But braver Jove taught pleasure was no fin,
And with his fifter did himself begin.
Nearness of blood and kindred beft we prove,
When we exprefs it in the closest love.

Nor need we fear our fault fhould be reveal'd;
'Twill under near relation be conceal'd,

And all who hear our loves, with praife fhall crown
A mother's kindnefs to a grateful fon.

No need at midnight in the dark to stray,
T'unlock the gates, and cry, My love, this way!
No bufy fpies our pleafures to betray.

But in one house, as heretofore, we 'll live;
In public, kiffes take; in public, give:

Though in my bed thou 'rt feen, 'twill gain applause
From all, whilft none have fenfe to guess the cause :
Only make hafte, and let this league be fign'd;
So may my tyrant Love to thee be kind.
For this I am an humble fuppliant grown;
Now where are all my boasts of greatness gone?
I fwore I ne'er would yield, refolv'd to fight,
Deceiv'd by Love, that's feldom in the right;
Now on my own I crawl, to clafp thy knees;
What's decent no true lover cares or fees:

}

Shame,