Yet not so much to blame is heat or sky,

As heaven's dread name long outraged day by day. This kills, and killed poor girls in days gone by : Their oaths the winds and waters waft away.

Was Venus wroth thou didst her equal shine?
She envies all whose charms with hers compare.
Hast thou despised Pelasgian Juno's shrine,
Or dared deny that Pallas' eyes were fair?

Ah! maidens' tongues were heedless evermore :
This fell disease from pride and beauty rose.
But, love, thy vexed life's weary trials o'er,
A calmer hour awaits thee at the close.

In youth the hornèd Io lowed; now changed,
The cow that drank Nile's waters reigns on high;
And Ino, who in youth the woodlands ranged,
Hears as Leucothoë the poor sailor's cry.

In youth the fair Andromeda was doomed
A prey to savage monsters of the sea;
The same in Perseus' home in wifehood bloomed
And wore her wifely honours royally.

A bear Callisto roamed Arcadia; now,

A radiant star, she guides the nightly sail : And if the Fates should speed thy rest, I trow Those Fates with bliss shall crown thy burial.

Thou'lt talk to Semele of beauty's bane,

Who, by experience taught, will trust thy tale; Queen crowned 'mid Homer's Heroines thou'lt reign, Nor one thy proud prerogative assail.

Calmly, sick love, to fate the issue leave;

Eternal Jove may smile, and light arise.
O Jove! even Juno's self will grant reprieve,
For Juno sorrows when a damsel dies.

Powerless the wheel by spells of magic driven,
On the cold hearth the half-burnt laurel lies;
The moon refuses to descend from heaven,

And the dark bird outpours its baleful cries.

All that I loved, to the drear realms below
Thou'lt bear, O pale-dark raft of destiny!
If not to one, to two, Heaven, mercy show :
If life be hers, I'll live; if death, I'll die.

O spare her, and in song thy praise I'll swell,
I'll write "The Damsel saved by Jove's decree;"
And, veiled, before thy shrine she'll sit and tell
Her dangers, and her gratitude to thee.

Persephone, continued mercy show,

And thou, her husband, be not more severe ; Since yours so many thousand nymphs below, O let one lovely maiden linger here!

Iope, fair Tyro, and Europa too,*

Unchaste Pasiphaë, and the heroine-band Of Troy, Achaia, Thebes, now dwell with you, And all the bloom of Priam's ruined land.

* Vobiscumst Iope, vobiscum candida Tyro, Vobiscum Europe nec proba Pasiphae,

Et quot Troia tulit vetus et quot Achaia formas,

Et Thebe et Priami diruta regna senis. (Mueller.)

Where are Rome's women of renown to-day?
Alas! the greedy pyre has claimed them all;
For beauty dies and fortune flits away—

Death soon or late doth all that lives enthral.

My love, relieved from grievous danger now,
To Dian pay her choral rites meanwhile;
To Isis, too, discharge thy vigil-vow:

Be mine, for all my care, thy loving smile!

XXI.

TO CYNTHIA.

Extrema, mea lux, cum potus nocte vagarer.

My love, as I was roaming late at night,
Wine-flushed, with not a slave to guide my way,
A group of urchins met me in my plight—
How many there might be, I cannot say.

I dared not even count the impish crew-
I was so terrified: some seemed to be

With brands equipped, and some with shafts, a few
Appeared to be preparing chains for me.

The whole were naked. One, more rude than all,

Cried, "Seize him! well you know him! he's the dunce

The angry woman hired us to bemaul."

He spoke; a rope was round my neck at once.

One bids him drag me forth; another shouts,

Hang him! He thinks we are not gods! Ho, there! She's waited hours for you, you lout of louts!

And you, the while, are staggering heaven knows where.

"When her Sidonian night-cap she unties,

And opes her eyes where lovely languors rest, You'll breathe no perfumes from Arabian skies, But such as Love's own fingers have exprest.

"Spare, brothers, spare; he swears he'll now be true.
And lo! unto the very door we've come."
My stripped-off garment then they round me threw,
And said, "Go, learn to spend your nights at home."

'Twas morn: I wished to see if all alone

My Cynthia lay-lone lay my lovely queen.
I stood amazed; nor e'er her form had known
More fair, when, clad in robes of purple sheen,

She went to tell chaste Vesta what she'd dreamed,
Lest to herself or me it boded harm:

So fair to me the awakened sleeper seemed.
O beauty, how omnipotent thy charm!

"Why come to spy me with the morning sun? What? do you think I'm prone to rove like you? I'm not so fickle-quite content with one,

Yourself, or any other still more true.

"No trace of guilt will meet your jealous eyes, Nor to my couch hath stranger found his way.

See here, no pantings in my bosom rise,

The sure revealers of the amorous fray."

She spake; with her right hand my kiss opposed, Then in loose sandal darted from my sight. Thus prying eyes Love's hallowed temple closed; Since then I have not known one happy night.

XXII.

NO ESCAPE FROM LOVE.

Quo fugis? ah, demens, nulla est fuga! tu licet usque.

Ho, madman! whither now? escape there's none :
Fly to the Don, Love at thy heels will run ;
Mount winged Pegasus and scour the sky,
Thy course with wingèd feet like Perseus ply,
With winged sandals beat the hurrying gale,
Another Mercury-'twill nought avail.
Love ever hovers o'er the hapless head,
And on free necks alights with weight of lead.
A keen-eyed wardour he; thy stricken eyes
He'll never suffer from the ground to rise;
Yet shouldst thou ever sin, he's sure to lend
A ready ear, if timely vows ascend.

The happy hours we've spent let grey-beards blame; We'll keep our old road, darling, all the same.

Their ears with musty proverbs let them fill ;

But here, sweet pipe, 'tis meet that thou shouldst trill, Erst in Maeander's stream unjustly thrown,

When Pallas out of shape her cheeks had blown.