He curses a certain procuress, whom he overhears instructing his mistress in the arts of a courtesan.
There is a certain—(whoever wishes to make acquaintance with a procuress, let him listen.)—There is a certain old hag, Dipsas by name. From fact does she derive094her name; never in a sober state does she behold the mother of the swarthy Memnon with her horses of roseate hue. She knows well the magic arts, and the charms of Ææa,095and by her skill she turns back to its source096the flowing stream. She knows right well what the herbs, what the thrums impelled around the whirling spinning-wheel,097andwhat the venomous exudation098from the prurient mare can effect. When she wills it, the clouds are overspread throughout all the sky; when she wills it, the day is bright with a clear atmosphere.
I have beheld (if I may be believed) the stars dripping with blood: the face of the moon was empurpled099with gore. I believe that she, transformed,101was flying amid the shades of night, and that her hag's carcase was covered with feathers.ThisI believe, and such is the report. A double pupil, too,102sparkles in her eyes, and light proceeds from a twofold eyeball. Forth from the ancient sepulchres she calls our great grandsires, and their grandsires103as well; and with her long incantations she cleaves the solid ground. She has made it her occupation to violate the chaste bed; and besides, her tongue is not "wanting in guilty advocacy. Chance made me the witness of her language; in such words was she giving her advice; the twofold doors105concealed me.
"You understand, my life, how greatly you yesterday pleased a wealthy young man;forhe stopped short, and stood gazing for some time on your face. And whom do you not please? Your beauty is inferior to no one's.Butwoe is me! your person has not a fitting dress. Ionlywish you were as well off, as you are distinguished for beauty; if you became rich, I should not be poor. The adverse star of Mars in opposition106was unfortunate for you; Mars has gone; now Venus is befriending you with her planet. See now how favourable she is on her approach; a rich lover is sighing for you, and he makes it his care107what are your requirements. He has good looks, too, that may compare with your own; if he did not wish to have you at a price, he were worthy himself to be purchased."
On this the damselblushed:108"Blushing,"said the hag, "suits a faircomplexion indeed; but if youonlypretend it, 'tis an advantage;ifreal, it is wont to be injurious. When, your eyes cast down,109you are looking full upon your bosom, each man mustonlybe looked at in the proportion in which he offers. Possibly the sluttish Sabine females,111when Tati us was king, were unwilling to be accommodating to more menthan one. Now-a-days, Mars employs the braveryof our menin foreign warfare;112but Venus holds sway in the City of her own Æneas. Enjoy yourselves, my pretty ones; she is chaste, whom nobody has courted; or else, if coyness does not prevent her, she herself is the wooer. Dispel these frowns113as well, which you are carrying upon your lofty brow; with those frowns will numerous failings be removed. Penelope used to try114the strength of the young men upon the bow; the bow that testedthe strengthof their sides, was made of horn. Age glides stealthily on, and beguiles us as it flies; just as the swift river glides onward with its flowing waters. Brass grows bright by use; good clothes require to be worn; uninhabited buildings grow white with nasty mould. Unless you entertainlovers, beautysoonwaxes old, with no one to enjoy it; andevenone or twoloversare not sufficiently profitable. From manyof them, gain is more sure, and not so difficult to be got. An abundant prey falls to the hoary wolves out of awholeflock.
"See now! what does this poet of yours make you a present of besides his last verses? You will read many thousands of them bythisnew lover. The God himself of poets, graceful in his mantle116adorned with gold, strikes the harmonious strings of the gilded lyre. He that shall make you presents, let him be to you greater than great Homer; believe me, it is a noble thing to give. And, if there shall be any one redeemed at a price for his person117, do not you despise him; the fault of having the foot rubbed with chalk118is a mere trifle. Neither let the old-fashioned wax busts about the halls119take you in; pack off with your forefathers, you needy lover. Nay more, should120one, because he is good-looking, ask for a night without a present;why, let him first solicit his own admirer for something to present to you.
"Be less exacting of presents, while you are laying your nets,for fearlest they should escape you:oncecaught, tease them at your own pleasure. Pretended affection, too, is not a bad thing; let him fancy he is loved; but have you a care that this affection is not all for nothing. Often refuse your favours; sometimes pretend a head-ache; and sometimes there will be Isis121to afford a pretext.Butsoon admit him again; that he may acquire no habits of endurance, and that his love, so often repulsed, may not begin to flag. Let your door be deaf to him who entreats, open to him who brings. Let the lover that is admitted, hear the remarks of him who is excluded. And, as though you were the first injured, sometimes get in a passion with him when injuredby you. His censure, when counterbalanced by your censure,127may wear away. But do you never afford a long duration for anger; prolonged anger frequently produces hatred. Moreover, let your eyes learn, at discretion, to shed tears; and let this cause or that cause your cheeks to be wet. And do not, if you deceive any one, hesitate to be guilty of perjury; Venus lendsbuta deaf hearing128to deceivedlovers.
"Let a male servant and a crafty handmaid129be trained up to their parts; who may instruct him what may be conveniently purchased for you. And let them ask but little for themselves; if they ask a little of many,130very soon, great will be the heap from the gleanings.131Let your sister, and your mother, and your nurse as well, fleece your admirer. A booty is soon made, that is sought by many hands. When occasions for asking for presents shall fail you, call attention with a cake132to your birthday Take care that no one loves you in security, without a rival; love is not very lasting if you removeallrivalry. Let him perceive the traces ofanotherperson on the couch; all your neck, too, discoloured by the marks of toying. Especially let him see the presents, which another has sent. If he gives you nothing, the Sacred Street133must be talked about. When you have received many things, but yet he has not given you every thing, be continually asking him to lend you something, for you never to return. Let your tongue aid you, and let it conceal your thoughts;134caress him, and prove his ruin.135Beneath the luscious honey cursed poisons lie concealed. If you observe these precepts, tried by me throughout a long experience; and if the winds and the breezes do not bear away my words; often will you bless me while I live; often will you pray, when I am dead, that in quietude my bones may repose.".
She was in the middle of her speech, when my shadow betrayed me; but my hands with difficulty refrained from tearing her grey scanty locks, and her eyes bleared with wine, and her wrinkled cheeks. May the Gods grant you both no home,136and a needy old age; prolonged winters as well, and everlasting thirst.
He tells Atticus that like the soldier, the lover ought to be on his guard and that Love is a species of warfare.
Every lover is a soldier, and Cupid has a camp of his own; believe me, Atticus,138every lover is a soldier. The age which is fitted for war, is suited to love as well. For an old man to be a soldier, is shocking; amorousness in an old man is shocking. The years which139generals require in the valiant soldier, the same does the charming fair require in her husband. Bothsoldier and loverpass sleepless nights; both rest upon the ground. The one watches at the door of his mistress; but the otherat thatof his general.140Long marches are the duty of the soldier; send the fairfaraway,andthe lover will boldly follow her, without a limitto his endurance. Over opposing mountains will he go, and rivers swollen with rains; the accumulating snows will he pace.
About to plough the waves, he will not reproach the stormy East winds; nor will he watch for Constellations favourable for scudding over the waves. Who, except either the soldier or the lover, will submit to both the chill of the night, and the snows mingled with the heavy showers? The one is sent as a spy against the hostile foe; the other keeps his eye on his rival, as though upon an enemy. The one lays siege to stubborn cities, the other to the threshold of his obdurate mistress: the one bursts open gates, and the other, doors.142Full oft has it answered to attack the enemy when buried in sleep; and to slaughter an unarmed multitude with armed hand. Thus did the fierce troops of the Thracian Rhesus143fall; and you, captured steeds, forsook your lord. Full oft do lovers take advantage of the sleep of husbands, and brandish their arms against the slumbering foe. To escape the troops of the sentinels, and the bands of the patrol, is the partbothof the soldier, and of the lover always in misery. Mars is wayward, and Venus is uncertain; both the conquered rise again, and those fall whom you would say could never possibly be prostrate.
Whoever, then, has pronounced Lovemereslothfulness, let him ceaseto love:144to the discerning mind does Love belong. The mighty Achilles is inflamed by the captive Briseis. Trojans, while you may, destroy the Argive resources. Hector used to go to battlefreshfrom the embraces of Andromache; and it was his wife who placed his helmet on his head. The son of Atreus, the first ofallthe chiefs, on beholding the daughter of Priam, is said to have been smitten with the dishevelled locks of the ravingprophetess.146Mars, too, when caught, was sensible of the chains wrought at the forge;147there was no story better known than his, in all the heavens.
I myself was of slothful habit, and born for a lazy inactivity;148the couch and the shade149had enervated my mind. Attentions to the charming fair gave a fillip to me, in my indolence; andLovecommanded me to serve150in his camp. Hence it is that thou seest me active, and waging the warfare by night. Let him who wishes not to become slothful, fall in love.
He tells his mistress that she ought not to require presents as a return for her love.
Such as she, who, borne away from the Eurotas,151in the Phrygian ships, was the cause of warfare to her two husbands; such as Leda was, whom her crafty paramour, concealed in his white feathers, deceived underthe form ofa fictitious bird; such as Amymone152used to wander in the parchedfields ofArgos, when the urn was pressing the locks on the top of her head; such were you; and I was in dread of both the eagle and the bull with respect to you, and whateverform besidesLove has created of the mighty Jove.
Now, all fears are gone, and the disease of my mind is cured; and now no longer does that formof yoursrivet my eyes. Do you inquire why I am changed?It is, because you require presents. This reason does not allow of your pleasing me. So long as you were disinterested, I was in love with your mind together with your person; now,in my estimationyour appearance is affected by this blemish on your disposition. Love is both a child and naked; he has years without sordidness, andhe wearsno clothes, that he may be without concealment. Why do you require the son of Venus to be prostituted at a price? He has no fold in his dress,153in which to conceal that price. Neither Venus is suited for cruel arms, nor yet the son of Venus; it befits not such unwarlike Divinities to serve for pay. The courtesan stands for hire to any one at a certain price; and with her submissive body, she seeks for wretched pelf. Still, she curses the tyranny of the avaricious procurer;154and she does by compulsion155what you are doing of your own free will.
Take, as an example, the cattle, devoid of reason; it were a shocking thing for there to be a finer feeling in the brutes. The mare asks no gift of the horse, nor the cow of the bull; the ram does not woo the ewe, induced by presents. Woman alone takes pleasure in spoils torn from the man; she alone lets out her nights; alone is she on sale, to be hired at a price. She sells, too,joysthat delight them both,andwhich both covet; and she makes it amatterof pay, at what price she herself is to be gratified. Those joys, which are so equally sweet to both, why does the one sell, andwhythe other buy them? Why must that delight prove a loss to me, to you a gain, for which the female and the male combine with kindred impulse? Witnesses hired dishonestly,156sell their perjuries; the chest157of the commissioned judge158is disgracefully openfor the bribe.
'Tis a dishonourable thing to defend the wretched criminals with a tongue that is purchased;159'tis a disgrace for a tribunal to make great acquisitions. 'Tis a disgrace for a woman to increase her patrimonial possessions by the profits of her embraces, and to prostitute her beauty for lucre. Thanks arejustlydue for things obtained without purchase; there are no thanks for an intercourse disgracefully bartered. He who hires,160pays allhis due; the priceoncepaid, he no longer remains a debtor for your acquiescence. Cease, ye beauties, to bargain for pay for your favours. Sordid gains bring no good results. It was not worth her while to bargain for the Sabine bracelets,161in order that the arms should crush the head of the sacred maiden. The son pierced163with the sword those entrails from which he had sprung, and a simple necklace164was the cause of the punishment.
But yet it is not unbecoming for a present to be asked of the wealthy man; he has something to give to her who does ask for a present. Pluck the grapes that hang from the loaded vines; let the fruitful soil of Alcinous165afford the apples. Let the needy man proffer duty, zeal, and fidelity; what each one possesses, let him bestow it all upon his mistress. My endowments, too, are in my lines to shig the praises of those fair who deserve them; she, whom I choose, becomes celebrated through my skill. Vestments will rend, gems and gold will spoil; the fame which poesy confers is everlasting.
StillI do not detest giving and revolt at it, but at being asked for a price. Cease to demand it,andI will give you that which I refuse you while you ask.
He begs Nape to deliver his letter to her mistress, and commences by praising her neatness and dexterity, and the interest she has hitherto manifested in his behalf.
Nape, skilled at binding the straggling locks166and arranging them in order, and not deserving to be reckoned167among the female slaves;known, too,by experienceto be successful in the contrivances of the stealthy night, and clever in giving the signals;168you who have so oft entreated Corinna, when hesitating, to come to me; who have been found so often faithful by me in my difficulties; take and carry these tablets,169so well-filled,170this morning to your mistress; and by your diligence dispelallimpeding delay. Neither veins of flint, nor hard iron is in your breast, nor have you a simplicity greater than that of yourcleverclass. There is no doubt that you, too, have experienced the bow of Cupid; in my behalf defend the banner of your service. IfCorinnaasks what I am doing, you will say that I am living in expectation of the night. The wax inscribed with my persuasive hand is carrying the rest.
While I am speaking, time is flying; opportunely give her my tablets, when she is at leisure; but still, make her read them at once. I bid you watch her eyes and her forehead as she reads; from the silent features we may know the future. Andbe thereno delay; when she has read them through, request her to write a long answer;172I hate it, when the bleached wax is empty, with a margin on every side. Let her write the lines close as they run, and let the letters traced in the extreme margin long detain my eyes.
Butwhat need is there for wearying her fingers with holding the pen?175Let the whole of her letter contain this one word, "Come." Then, I should not delay to crown my victorious tablets with laurel, nor to place them in the midst of the temple of Venus. Beneath them I would inscribe "Naso consecrates these faithful servants of his to Venus; but lately, you were pieces of worthless maple."176
He curses the tablets which he has sent, because his mistress has written an answer on them, in which she refuses to grant his request.
Lament my misfortune; my tablets have returned to me with sad intelligence. Her unlucky letter announces that she cannotbe seento-day. There is something in omens; just now, when she was preparing to go, Napè stopped short, having struck her foot178against the threshold. When sent out of doors another time, remember to pass the threshold more carefully, andlikea sober woman lift your foot highenough.
Away with you; obdurate tablets, fatal bits of board; and you wax, as well, crammed with the lines of denial. I doubt the Corsican bee180has sent you collected from the blossom of the tall hemlock, beneath its abominable honey.
Besides, you were red, as though you had been thoroughly dyed in vermilion;181such a colour is exactly that of blood. Useless bits of board, thrown out in the street,theremay you lie; and may the weight of the wheel crush you, as it passes along. I could even prove that he who formed you to shape from the tree, had not the hands of innocence. That tree surely has afforded a gibbet for some wretched neck,andhas supplied the dreadful crosses182for the executioner. It has given a disgusting shelter to the screeching owls; in its branches it has borne the eggs of the vulture and of the screech-owl.183In my madness, have I entrusted my courtship to these, and have I given soft words to bethuscarried to my mistress?
These tablets would more becomingly hold the prosy summons,184which some judge185pronounces, with his sour face.
He entreats the morning not to hasten on with its usual speed.
Now over the Ocean does she come from her aged husbandTithonus, who, with her yellow locks, brings on the day with her frosty chariot. Whither, Aurora, art thou hastening? Stay;andthen may the yearly bird, with its wonted death, honour the shades189of thy Memnon, its parent. Now do I delight to recline in the soft arms of my mistress; now, if ever, is she deliciously united to my side. Now, too, slumbers are sound, and now the moisture is cooling the birds, too, are sweetly waronng with their little throats. Whither art thou hastening, hated by the men, detested by the fair? Check thy dewy reins with thy rosy hand.190
Before thy rising, the sailor better observes his Constellations; and he wanders not in ignorance, in the midst of the waves. On thy approach, the wayfarer arises, weary though he be; the soldier lays upon his arms the hands used to bear them. Thou art the first to look upon the tillers of the fields laden with the two-pronged fork; thou art the first to summon the lagging oxen to the crooked yoke. 'Tis thou who dost deprive boys of their sleep, and dost hand them over to their masters;192, that their tender hands may suffer the cruel stripes.193'Tis thou, too, who dost send the man before the vestibule of the attorney,194when about to become bail;195that he may submit to the great risks of a single word.
Thou art no source of pleasure to the pleader,198nor yet to the counsel; for fresh combats each is forced to rise. Thou, when the labours of the females might have had a pause, dost recal the hand of the worker in wool to its task.
AllthisI could endure; but who could allow the fair to arisethusearly, exceptthe manwho has no mistress of his own? How often have I wished that night would not make way for thee; and that the stars when put to flight would not fly from thy countenance. Many a time have I wished that either the wind would break thy chariot to pieces, or that thy steed would fall, overtaken bysomedense cloud. Remorseless one, whither dost thou hasten? Inasmuch as thy son was black, such was the colour of his mother's heart. What if199she had not once burned with passion for Cephalus? Or does she fancy that her escapade was not known? Ionlywish it was allowed Tithonus to tell of thee; there would not be a more coarse tale inallthe heavens. While thou art avoiding him, because he is chilled by length of years, thou dost rise early in the morning fromthe bed ofthe old man to thy odious chariot. But if thou wastonlyholding some Cephalus embraced in thy arms;thenwouldst thou be crying out, "Run slowly on, ye horses of the night."
Why should I be punished in my affections, if thy husband does decay throughlength ofyears? Wast thou married to the old fellow by my contrivance? See how many hours of sleep the Moon gave201to the youth beloved byher; and yet her beauty is not inferior to thine. The parent of the Gods himself, that he might not see thee so often, joined two nights together202forthe attainment ofhis desires.
I had finished my reproaches; you might be sure she heard them;forshe blushed'. However, no later than usual did the day arise.
His mistress having been in the habit of dyeing her hair with noxious compositions, she has nearly lost it, becoming almost bald. He reminds her of his former advice, and entreats her to abstain from the practice, on which there may be a chance of her recovering it.
Ialways used to say; "Do leave off doctoring your hair."203Andnow you have no hairleft, that you can be dyeing. But, if you had let it alone, what was more plenteous than it? It used to reach down your sides, so far as ever204they extend. And besides: Was it not so fine, that you were afraid to dress205it; just like the veils206which the swarthy Seres use? Orlikethe thread which the spider draws out with her slender legs, when she fastens her light work beneath the neglected beam? And yet its colour was not black, nor yet was it golden, but though it was neither, it was a mixture of them both. Acolour, such as the tall cedar has in the moist vallies of craggy Ida, when its bark is stript off.
Besides, it wasquitetractable, and falling into a thousand ringlets; and it was the cause of no trouble to you. Neither the bodkin,208nor the tooth of the combevertore it; your tire woman always had a whole skin. Many a time was it dressed before my eyes; andyet, never did the bodkin210seized make wounds in her arms. Many a time too, in the morning, her locks not yet arranged, was she lying on the purple couch, with her face half upturned. Then even, unadorned, was she beauteous; as when the Thracian Bacchanal, in her weariness, throws herself carelessly upon the green grass. Still, fine as it was, and just like down, what evils, alas! did her tortured hair endure! How patiently did it submit itself to the iron and the fire;211that the curls might become crisp with their twisting circlets. "'Tis a shame," I used to cry, "'tis a shame, to be burning that hair; naturally it is becoming; do, cruel one, be merciful to your own head. Away with all violence from it; it is nothairthat deserves to be scorched; the very locks instruct212the bodkins when applied."
Those beauteous locks are gone; which Apollo might have longed for,andwhich Bacchus might have wished to be on his own head. With them I might compare those, which naked Dione is painted213as once having held up with her dripping hand. Why are you complaining that hair so badly treated is gone? Why, silly girl, do you lay down the mirror214with disconsolate hand? You are not seen to advantage by yourself with eyes accustomedto your former self.For you to please, you ought to be forgetful of yourformerself.
No enchanted herbs of a rival215have done you this injury; no treacherous hag has been washing you with Itæmonian water. The effects, too, of no disease have injured you; (far away be allbadomens;216) nor has an envious tongue thinned your abundant locks;'twas your own self who gave the prepared poison to your head. Now Germany will be sending217for you her captured locks; by the favour of a conquered race you will be adorned. Ah! how many a time will you have to blush, as any one admires your hair; andthenyou will say, "Now I am receiving praise for a bought commodity! In place of myself, he is now bepraising some Sygambrian girl218unknown to me; still, I rememberthe timewhen that glory was my own."
Wretch that I am! with difficulty does she restrain her tears; and she covers her face with her hand, having her delicate cheeks suffused with blushes. She is venturing to look at her former locks,placedin her bosom; a treasure, alas! not fitted for that spot.219
Calm your feelings with your features; the loss may still be repaired. Before long, you will become beauteous with your natural hair.
He tells the envious that the fame of Poets is immortal, and that theirs is not a life devoted to idleness.
Why, gnawing Envy, dost thou blame me for years of slothfulness; andwhydost thou call poesy the employment of an idle mind?Thou sayestthat I do not, after the manner of my ancestors, while vigorous years allow me, seek the prizes of warfare covered with dust; that I do not make myself acquainted with the prosy law, and that I have not let my tongue for hire221in the disagreeable courts of justice.
The pursuits of which thou art speaking, are perishable; by me, everlasting fame is sought; that to all time I may be celebrated throughout the whole world. The Mæonian bard222will live, so long as Tenedos and Ida223shall stand; so long as Simois shall roll down to the sea his rapid waves. The Ascræan, too,224will live, so long as the grape shall swell with its juices;225so long as the corn shall fall, reaped by the curving sickle. The son of Battus226will to all time be sung throughout the whole world; although he is not powerful in genius, in his skill he shows his might. No mischance willevercome to thetragicbuskin227of Sophocles; with the Sun and Moon Aratus228will ever exist. So long as the deceitful slave,229the harsh father, the roguish procuress, and the cozening courtesan shall endure, Menander will exist. Ennius,230without anyart, and Accius,231with his spirited language, have a name that will perish with no lapse of time.
What age is to be forgetful of Varro,232and the first shipthat sailed, and of the golden fleece sought by the chief, the son of Æson? Then will the verses perish of the sublime Lucretius,233when the same day shall give the world to destruction. Tityrus,234and the harvests, and the arms of Æneas, will be read of, so long as thou, Rome,235shalt be the ruler of the conquered earth. So long as the flames and the bow shall be the arms of Cupid, thy numbers, polished Tibullus,236will be repeated. Gallus237will be knownby the West, and Gallusknownby the East,238and with Gallus will his Lycoris be known. Though flint-stones, then,andthough the share of the enduring plough perish by lapse of time,yetpoetry is exempt from death. Let monarchs and the triumphs of monarchs yield to poesy, and let the wealthy shores of the golden Tagus239yield.
Let the vulgar throng admire worthless things; let the yellow-haired Apollo supply for me cups filled from the Castalian stream; let me bear, too, on my locks the myrtle that dreads the cold; and let me often be read by the anxious lover. Envy feeds upon the living; after death it is at rest, when his own reward protects each according to his merit. Still then, when the closing fire240shall have consumed me, shall I live on; and a great portion of myself willeverbe surviving.