Page images
PDF
EPUB

LIBER IV.

O DE I.

Ad VENEREM.

NTERMISSA, Venus, diu

Rurfus bella moves ? parce precor, precor.

Non fum qualis eram bonae

Sub regno Cynarae. define, dulcium

Mater faeva Cupidinum,

Circa luftra decem flectere mollibus Jam durum imperiis : abi

Quo blandae juvenum te revocant preces. Tempeftivius in domum

Paulli, purpureis ales oloribus, Comiffabere Maximi;

Si torrere jecur quaeris idoneum. Namque et nobilis, et decens,

Et pro folicitis non tacitus reis, Et centum puer artium,

Late figna feret militiae tuae. Et, quandoque potentior

A

BOOK

IV.

O DE I.

TO VENU S.

GAIN? new Tumults in my

breaft?

Ah spare me, Venus! let me, let me reft! I am not now, alas! the man

As in the gentle Reign of My Queen Anne. Ah found no more thy foft alarms,

Nor circle fober fifty with thy Charms.

Mother too fierce of dear Defires!

Turn, turn to willing hearts your wanton fires. To Number five direct your Doves,

There spread round MURRAY all your blooming

Loves;

Noble and young, who strikes the heart

With ev'ry sprightly, ev'ry decent part: Equal, the injur❜d to defend,

To charm the Mistress, or to fix the Friend. He, with a hundred Arts refin'd,

Shall stretch thy conquests over half the kind : To him each Rival shall submit,

Make but his Riches equal to his Wit. Then shall thy Form the Marble grace,

(Thy Grecian Form) and Chloe lend the Face;

Largi muneribus riferit aemuli,

Albanos prope te lacus

Ponet marmoream fub trabe citrea. Illic plurima naribus

Duces thura; lyraque et Berecynthia Delectabere tibia

Mixtis carminibus, non fine fiftula. Illic bis pueri die

Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum Laudantes, pede candido

In morem Salium ter quatient humum. Me nec femina, nec puer

Jam, nec fpes animi credula mutui, Nec certare juvat mero,

Nec vincire novis tempora floribus. Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur

Manat rara meas lacryma per genas?

Cur facunda parum decoro

Inter verba cadit lingua filentio ? Nocturnis ego fomniis

Jam captum teneo, jam volucrem fequor Te per gramina Martii

Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles.

His Houfe, embosom'd in the Grove,
Sacred to focial life and focial love,
Shall glitter o'er the pendent green,

Where Thames reflects the vifionary scene:
Thither, the filver-founding lyres

Shall call the fmiling Loves, and young Defires; There, ev'ry Grace and Mufe fhall throng,

Exalt the dance, or animate the fong; There Youths and Nymphs, in confort gay, Shall hail the rifing, close the parting day. With me, alas! those joys are o'er ;

For me the vernal garlands bloom no more. Adieu! fond hope of mutual fire,

The ftill-believing, ftill renew'd defire; Adieu! the heart-expanding bowl,

And all the kind Deceivers of the foul!
But why? ah tell me, ah too dear!

Steals down my cheek th' involuntary Tear?
Why words fo flowing, thoughts fo free,
Stop or turn nonsense, at one glance of thee?
Thee, preft in Fancy's airy beam,

Absent I follow thro' th' extended Dream ;
Now, now I feize, I clafp thy charms,

And now you burst (ah cruel!) from my arms;

And swiftly shoot along the Mall,

Or foftly glide by the Canal,

Now shown by Cynthia's filver ray,

And now, on rolling waters fnatch'd away.

N

LIBER IV.

O DE IX.

E forte credas interitura, quae

Longe fonantem natus ad Aufidum
Non ante vulgatas per artes

Verba loquor focianda chordis;

Non, fi priores Maeonius tenet
Sedes Homerus, Pindaricae latent
Ceaeque, et Alcaei minaces

Stefichorique graves Camenae :

Nec, fi quid olim lufit Anacreon,
Delevit aetas: fpirat adhuc amor,
Vivuntque commiffi calores
Aeoliae fidibus puellae.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi; fed omnes illacrymabiles
Urguentur ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate facro.

« PreviousContinue »