The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Elegies of Tibullus

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Elegies of TibullusThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: The Elegies of TibullusAuthor: TibullusTranslator: Theodore Chickering WilliamsRelease date: January 1, 2006 [eBook #9610]Most recently updated: January 2, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Ted Garvin, David Garcia and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team.*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ELEGIES OF TIBULLUS ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: The Elegies of TibullusAuthor: TibullusTranslator: Theodore Chickering WilliamsRelease date: January 1, 2006 [eBook #9610]Most recently updated: January 2, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Ted Garvin, David Garcia and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team.

Title: The Elegies of Tibullus

Author: TibullusTranslator: Theodore Chickering Williams

Author: Tibullus

Translator: Theodore Chickering Williams

Release date: January 1, 2006 [eBook #9610]Most recently updated: January 2, 2021

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Ted Garvin, David Garcia and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team.

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ELEGIES OF TIBULLUS ***

BEINGTHE CONSOLATIONS OF A ROMAN LOVERDONE IN ENGLISH VERSE

BY THEODORE C. WILLIAMS

BOSTON AND NEW YORKHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY(The Riverside Press Cambridge)1908

TO WILLIAM COE COLLAR

HEAD MASTER OF THEROXBURY LATIN SCHOOLOur old master ever young to his old boys:

Did Mentor with his mantle thee invest,Or Chiron lend thee his persuasive lyre,Or Socrates, of pedagogues the best,Teach thee the harp-strings of a youth's desire?

Albius Tibullus was a Roman gentleman, whose father fought on Pompey's side. The precise dates of his birth and death are in doubt, and what we know of his life is all in his own poems; except that Horace condoles with him about Glycera, and Apuleius says Delia's real name was Plautia.

Horace paid him this immortal compliment: (Epist. 4 bk. I).

"Albi nostrorum sermonum candide judex,Non tu corpus eras sine pectore; Di tibi formam,Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi."

After his death, Ovid wrote him a fine elegy (p. 115); and Domitius Marsus a neat epigram. The former promised him an immortality equal to Homer's; the latter sent him to Elysium at Virgil's side. These excessive eulogies are the more remarkable in that Tibullus stood, proudly or indolently, aloof from the court. He never flatters Augustus nor mentions his name. He scoffs at riches, glory and war, wanting nothing but to triumph as a lover. Ovid dares to group him with the laurelled shades of Catullus and Gallus, of whom the former had lampooned the divine Julius and the latter had been exiled by Augustus.

But in spite of this contemporarysuccès d'estime, Tibullus is clearly a minor poet. He expresses only one aspect of his time. His few themes are oft-repeated and in monotonous rhythms. He sings of nothing greater than his own lost loves. Yet of Delia, Nemesis and Neaera, we learn only that all were fair, faithless and venal. For a man whose ideal of love was life-long fidelity, he was tragically unsuccessful.

If this were all, his verse would have perished with that of Macer and Gallus. But it is not all. These love-poems of a private gentleman of the Augustan time, show a delicacy of sentiment almost modern. Of the ribald curses which Catullus hurls after his departing Lesbia, there is nothing. He throws the blame on others: and if, just to frighten, he describes the wretched old age of the girls who never were faithful, it is with a playful tone and hoping such bad luck will never befall any sweet-heart of his. This delicacy and tenderness, with the playful accent, are, perhaps, Tibullus' distinctive charm.

His popularity in 18th century France was very great. The current English version, Grainger's (1755) with its cheap verse and common-place gallantries, is a stupid echo of the French feeling for Tibullus as an erotic poet. Much better is the witty prose version by the elder Mirabeau, done during the Terror, in the prison at Vincennes, and published after his release, with a ravishing portrait of "Sophie," surrounded by Cupids and billing doves. One of the old Parisian editors dared to say:

"Tons ceux qui aiment, ou qui ont jamais aimé, savent par coeur ce délicieux Tibulle."

But it was unjust to classify Tibullus merely as an erotic poet. The gallants of theancien régimewere quite capable of writing their own valentines. Tibullus was popular as a sort of Latin Rousseau. He satirized rank, riches and glory as corrupting man's primitive simplicity. He pled for a return to nature, to country-side, thatched cottages, ploughed fields, flocks, harvests, vintages and rustic holidays. He made this plea, not with an armoury of Greek learning, such as cumber Virgil and Horace, but with an original passion. He cannot speak of the jewelled Roman coquettes without a sigh for those happy times when Phoebus himself tended cattle and lived on curds and whey, all for the love of a king's daughter.

For our own generation Tibullus has another claim to notice. All Augustan writers express their dread and weariness of war. But Tibullus protests as a survivor of the lost cause. He has been, himself, a soldier-lover maddened by separation. As an heir of the old order, he saw how vulgar and mercenary was thisparvenuimperial glory, won at the expense of lost liberties and broken hearts. War, he says, is only the strife of robbers. Its motive is the spoils. It happens because beautiful women want emeralds, Indian slaves and glimmering silk from Cos. Therefore, of course, we fight. But if Neaera and her kind would eat acorns, as of old, we could burn the navies and build cities without walls.

He was indeed a minor poet. He does not carry forward, like Virgil, the whole heritage from the Greeks, or rise like him to idealizing the master-passion of his own age, that vision of a cosmopolitan world-state, centred at Rome and based upon eternal decrees of Fate and Jove. But neither was he duped, as Virgil was, into mistaking the blood-bought empire of the Caesars for the return of Saturn's reign. Sometimes a minor poet, just by reason of his aloofness from the social trend of his time, may also escape its limitations, and sound some notes which remain forever true to what is unchanging in the human heart. I believe Tibullus has done so.

This translation has been done in the play-time of many busy years. I have used what few helps I could find, especially the Mirabeau, above alluded to. The text is often doubtful. But in so rambling a writer it has not seemed to me that the laborious transpositions of later German editors were important. I have rejected as probably spurious all of the fourth book but two short pieces. While I agree with those who find the third book doubtful, I have included it.

But from scholars I must ask indulgence. I have translated with latitude, considering whole phrases rather than single words. But I have always been faithful to the thought and spirit of the original, except in the few passages where euphemism was required. If the reader who has no Latin, gets a pleasing impression of Tibullus, that is what I have chiefly hoped to do. In my forth-coming translations of theAeneidI have kept stricter watch upon verbal accuracy, as is due to an author better-known and more to be revered.

THEODORE C. WILLIAMS.New York, 1905.

PrefaceBOOK II.The Simple LifeII.Love and WitchcraftIII.Sickness and AbsenceIV.The Art of ConquestV.Country-Life with DeliaVI.A Lover's CursesVII.A Desperate ExpedientVIII.MessalaIX.To Pholoë and MarathusX.To Venal BeautyXI.War is a CrimeBOOK III.A Rustic HolidayII.A Birthday WishIII.My Lady RusticatesIV.On His Lady's AvariceV.The Priesthood of ApolloVI.Let Lovers All EnlistVII. A Voice from the Tomb[Transcriber's Note: Elegy VII listed in Contents, but not in text.]BOOK IIII.The New-Year's GiftII.He Died for LoveIII.Riches are UselessIV.A Dream from PhoebusV.To Friends at the BathsVI.A Fare-Well ToastBOOK IVXIII.A Lover's OathOvid's Lament for Tibullus' Death

THE SIMPLE LIFE

Give, if thou wilt, for gold a life of toil!Let endless acres claim thy care!While sounds of war thy fearful slumbers spoil,And far-off trumpets scare!To me my poverty brings tranquil hours;My lowly hearth-stone cheerly shines;My modest garden bears me fruit and flowers,And plenteous native wines.I set my tender vines with timely skill,Or pluck large apples from the bough;Or goad my lazy steers to work my will,Or guide my own rude plough.Full tenderly upon my breast I bearA lamb or small kid gone astray;And yearly worship with my swains prepare,The shepherd's ancient way.I love those rude shrines in a lonely fieldWhere rustic faith the god reveres,Or flower-crowned cross-road mile-stones, half concealedBy gifts of travellers.Whatever fruit the kindly seasons show,Due tribute to our gods I pour;O'er Ceres' brows the tasseled wheat I throw,Or wreathe her temple door.My plenteous orchards fear no pelf or harm,By red Priapus sentinelled;By his huge sickle's formidable charmThe bird thieves are dispelled.With offerings at my hearth, and faithful fires,My Lares I revere: not nowAs when with greater gifts my wealthier siresPerformed the hallowing vow.No herds have I like theirs: I only bringOne white lamb from my little fold,While my few bondmen at the altar singOur harvest anthems old.Gods of my hearth! ye never learned to slightA poor man's gift. My bowls of clayTo ye are hallowed by the cleansing rite,The best, most ancient way.If from my sheep the thief, the wolf, be driven,If fatter flocks allure them more,To me the riches to my fathers givenKind Heaven need not restore.My small, sure crop contents me; and the stormThat pelts my thatch breaks not my rest,While to my heart I clasp the beauteous formOf her it loves the best.My simple cot brings such secure repose,When so companioned I can lie,That winds of winter and the whirling snowsSing me soft lullaby.This lot be mine! I envy not their goldWho rove the furious ocean foam:A frugal life will all my pleasures hold,If love be mine, and home.Enough I travel, if I steal awayTo sleep at noon-tide by the flowOf some cool stream. Could India's jewels payFor longer absence? No!Let great Messala vanquish land and sea,And deck with spoils his golden hall!I am myself a conquest, and must beMy Delia's captive thrall.Be Delia mine, and Fame may flout and scorn,Or brand me with the sluggard's name!With cheerful hands I'll plant my upland corn,And live to laugh at Fame.If I might hold my Delia to my side,The bare ground were a happier bedThan theirs who, on a couch of silken pride,Must mourn for love long dead.Gilt couch, soft down, slow fountains murmuring song—These bring no peace. Befooled by wordsWas he who, when in love a victor strong,Left it for spoils and swords.For such let sad Cilicia's captives bleed,Her citadels his legions hold!And let him stride his swift, triumphal steed,In silvered robes or gold!These eyes of mine would look on only theeIn that last hour when light shall fail.Embrace me, dear, in death! Let thy hand beIn my cold fingers pale!With thine own arms my lifeless body layOn that cold couch so soon on fire!Give thy last kisses to my grateful clay,And weep beside my pyre!And weep! Ah, me! Thy heart will wear no steelNor be stone-cold that rueful day:Thy faithful grief may all true lovers feelNor tearless turn away!Yet ask I not that thou shouldst vex my shadeWith cheek all wan and blighted brow:But, O, to-day be love's full tribute paid,While the swift Fates allow.Soon Death, with shadow-mantled head, will come,Soon palsied age will creep our way,Bidding love's flatteries at last be dumb,Unfit for old and gray.But light-winged Venus still is smiling fair:By night or noon we heed her call;To pound on midnight doors I still may dare,Or brave for love a brawl.I am a soldier and a captain goodIn love's campaign, and calmly yieldTo all who hunger after wounds and blood,War's trumpet-echoing field.Ye toils and triumphs unto glory dear!Ye riches home from conquest borne!If my small fields their wonted harvest bear,Both wealth and want I scorn!

LOVE AND WITCHCRAFT

Bring larger bowls and give my sorrows wine,By heaviest slumbers be my brain possessed!Soothe my sad brows with Bacchus' gift divine,Nor wake me while my hapless passions rest!For Delia's jealous master at her doorHas set a watch, and bolts it with stern steel.May wintry tempests strike it o'er and o'er,And amorous Jove crash through with thunder-peal!My sighs alone, O Door, should pierce thee through,Or backward upon soundless hinges turn.The curses my mad rhymes upon thee threw,—Forgive them!—Ah! in my own breast they burn!May I not move thee to remember nowHow oft, dear Door, thou wert love's place of prayer?While with fond kiss and supplicating vow,I hung thee o'er with many a garland fair?In vain the prayer! Thine own resolve must breakThy prison, Delia, and its guards evade.Bid them defiance for thy lover's sake!Be bold! The brave bring Venus to their aid.'Tis Venus guides a youth through doors unknown;'Tis taught of her, a maid with firm-set lipsSteals from her soft couch, silent and alone,And noiseless to her tryst securely trips.Her art it is, if with a husband near,A lady darts a love-lorn look and smileTo one more blest; but languid sloth and fearReceive not Venus' perfect gift of guile.Trust Venus, too, t' avert the wretched wrathOf footpad, hungry for thy robe and ring!So safe and sacred is a lover's path,That common caution to the winds we fling.Oft-times I fail the wintry frost to feel,And drenching rains unheeded round me pour,If Delia comes at last with mute appeal,And, finger on her lip, throws wide the door.Away those lamps! Thou, man or maid, away!Great Venus wills not that her gifts be scanned.Ask me no names! Walk lightly there, I pray!Hold back thy tell-tale torch and curious hand!Yet fear not! Should some slave our loves behold,Let him look on, and at his liking stare!Hereafter not a whisper shall be told;By all the gods our innocence he'll swear.Or should one such from prudent silence swerveThe chatterer who prates of me and theeShall learn, too late, why Venus, whom I serve,Was born of blood upon a storm-swept sea.Nay, even thy husband will believe no ill.All this a wondrous witch did tell me true:One who can guide the stars to work her will,Or turn a torrent's course her task to do.Her spells call forth pale spectres from their graves,And charm bare bones from smoking pyres away:'Mid trooping ghosts with fearful shriek she raves,Then sprinkles with new milk, and holds at bay.She has the power to scatter tempests rude,And snows in summer at her whisper fall;The horrid simples by Medea brewedAre hers; she holds the hounds of Hell in thrall.For me a charm this potent witch did weave;Thrice if thou sing, then speak with spittings three,Thy husband not one witness will believe,Nor his own eyes, if our embrace they see!But tempt not others! He will surely spyAll else—to me, me only, magic-blind!And, hark! the hag with drugs, she said, would tryTo heal love's madness and my heart unbind.One cloudless night, with smoky torch, she burnedBlack victims to her gods of sorcery;Yet asked I not love's loss, but love returned,And would not wish for life, if robbed of thee.

SICKNESS AND ABSENCE

Am I abandoned? Does Messala sweepYon wide Aegean wave, not any moreHe, nor my mates, remembering where I weep,Struck down by fever on this alien shore?Spare me, dark death! I have no mother here,To clasp my relics to her widowed breast;No sister, to pour forth with hallowing tearAssyrian incense where my ashes rest.Nor Delia, who, before she said adieu,Asked omens fair at every potent shrine.Thrice did the ministrants give blessings true,The thrice-cast lot returned the lucky sign.All promised safe return; but she had fearsAnd doubting sorrows, which implored my stay;While I, though all was ready, dried her tears,And found fresh pretext for one more delay.An evil bird, I cried, did near me flit,Or luckless portent thrust my plans aside;Or Saturn's day, unhallowed and unfit,Forbade a journey from my Delia's side.Full oft, when starting on the fatal track,My stumbling feet foretold unhappy hours:Ah! he who journeys when love calls him back,Should know he disobeys celestial powers!Help me, great Goddess! For thy healing powerThe votive tablets on thy shrine display.See Delia there outwatch the midnight hour,Sitting, white-stoled, until the dawn of day!Each day her tresses twice she doth unbind,And sings, the loveliest of the Pharian band.O that my fathers' gods this prayer could find!Gods of my hearth and of my native land!How happily men lived when Saturn reigned!Ere weary highways crossed the fair young world,Ere lofty ships the purple seas disdained,Their swelling canvas to the winds unfurled!No roving seaman, from a distant course,Filled full of far-fetched wares his frail ship's hold:At home, the strong bull stood unyoked; the horseEndured no bridle in the age of gold.Men's houses had no doors? No firm-set rockMarked field from field by niggard masters held.The very oaks ran honey; the mild flockBrought home its swelling udders, uncompelled.Nor wrath nor war did that blest kingdom know;No craft was taught in old Saturnian time,By which the frowning smith, with blow on blow,Could forge the furious sword and so much crime.Now Jove is king! Now have we carnage foul,And wreckful seas, and countless ways to die.Nay! spare me, Father Jove, for on my soulNor perjury, nor words blaspheming lie.If longer life I ask of Fate in vain,O'er my frail dust this superscription be:—"Here Death's dark handTIBULLUSdoth detain,Messala's follower over land and sea!"Then, since my soul to love did always yield,Let Venus guide it the immortal way,Where dance and song fill all th' Elysian field,And music that will never die away.There many a song-bird with his fellow sails,And cheerly carols on the cloudless air;Each grove breathes incense; all the happy valesO'er-run with roses, numberless and fair.Bright bands of youth with tender maidens stray,Led by the love-god all delights to share;And each fond lover death once snatched awayWinds an immortal myrtle in his hair.Far, far from such, the dreadful realms of gloomBy those black streams of Hades circled round,Where viper-tressed, fierce ministers of doom,—The Furies drive lost souls from bound to bound.The doors of brass, and dragon-gate of Hell,Grim Cerberus guards, and frights the phantoms back:Ixion, who by Juno's beauty fell,Gives his frail body to the whirling rack.Stretched o'er nine roods, lies Tityos accursed,The vulture at his vitals feeding slow;There Tantalus, whose bitter, burning thirstThe fleeting waters madden as they flow.There Danaus' daughters Venus' anger feel,Filling their urns at Lethe all in vain;—And there's the wretch who would my Delia steal,And wish me absent on a long campaign!O chaste and true! In thy still house shall sitThe careful crone who guards thy virtuous bed;She tells thee tales, and when the lamps are lit,Reels from her distaff the unending thread.Some evening, after tasks too closely plied,My Delia, drowsing near the harmless dame,All sweet surprise, will find me at her side,Unheralded, as if from heaven I came.Then to my arms, in lovely disarray,With welcome kiss, thy darling feet will fly!O happy dream and prayer! O blissful day!What golden dawn, at last, shall bring thee nigh?

THE ARTS OF CONQUEST

"Safe in the shelter of thy garden-bower,"Priapus, from the harm of suns or snows,"With beard all shag, and hair that wildly flows,—"O say! o'er beauteous youth whence comes thy power?"Naked thou frontest wintry nights and days,"Naked, no less, to Sirius' burning rays."So did my song implore the rustic sonOf Bacchus, by his moon-shaped sickle known."Comply with beauty's lightest wish," said he,"Complying love leads best to victory."Nor let a furious 'No' thy bosom pain;"Beauty but slowly can endure a chain."Slow Time the rage of lions will o'er-sway,"And bid them fawn on man. Rough rocks and rude"In gentle streams Time smoothly wears away;"And on the vine-clad hills by sunshine wooed,"The purpling grapes feel Time's secure control;"In Time, the skies themselves new stars unroll."Fear not great oaths! Love's broken oaths are borne"Unharmed of heaven o'er every wind and wave."Jove is most mild; and he himself hath sworn"There is no force in vows which lovers rave."Falsely by Dian's arrows boldly swear!"And perjure thee by chaste Minerva's hair!"Be a prompt wooer, if thou wouldst be wise:"Time is in flight, and never backward flies."How swiftly fades the bloom, the vernal green!"How swift yon poplar dims its silver sheen!"Spurning the goal th' Olympian courser flies,"Then yields to Time his strength, his victories;"And oft I see sad, fading youth deplore"Each hour it lost, each pleasure it forbore."Serpents each spring look young once more; harsh Heaven"To beauteous youth has one brief season given."With never-fading youth stern Fate endows"Phoebus and Bacchus only, and allows"Full-clustering ringlets on their lovely brows."Keep at thy loved one's side, though hour by hour"The path runs on; though Summer's parching star"Burn all the fields, or blackest tempests lower,"Or monitory rainbows threaten far."If he would hasten o'er the purple sea,"Thyself the helmsman or the oarsman be."Endure, unmurmuring, each unwelcome toil,"Nor fear thy unaccustomed hands to spoil."If to the hills he goes with huntsman's snare,"Let thine own back the nets and burden bear."Swords would he have? Fence lightly when you meet;"Expose thy body and compel defeat."He will be gracious then, and will not spurn"Caresses to receive, resist, return."He will protest, relent, and half-conspire,"And later, all unasked, thy love desire."But nay! In these vile times thy skill is vain."Beauty and youth are sold for golden gain."May he who first taught love to sell and buy,"In grave accurst, with all his riches lie!"O beauteous youth, how will ye dare to slight"The Muse, to whom Pierian streams belong?"Will ye not smile on poets, and delight,"More than all golden gifts, in gift of song?"Did not some song empurple Nisus' hair,"And bid young Pelops' ivory shoulder glow?"That youth the Muses praise, is he not fair,"Long as the stars shall shine or waters flow ?"But he who scorns the Muse, and will for gain"Surrender his base heart,—let his foul cries"Pursue the Corybants' infuriate train,"Through all the cities of the Phrygian plain,—"Unmanned forever, in foul Phrygian guise!"But Venus blesses lovers who endear"Love's quest alone by flattery, by fear,"By supplication, plaint, and piteous tear."Such song the god of gardens bade me singFor Titius; but his fond wife would flingSuch counsel to the winds: "Beware," she cried,"Trust not fair youth too far. For each one's pride"Offers alluring charms: one loves to ride"A gallant horse, and rein him firmly in;"One cleaves the calm wave with white shoulder bare;"One is all courage, and for this looks fair;"And one's pure, blushing cheeks thy praises win."Let him obey her! But my precepts wiseAre meant for all whom youthful beauty's eyesTurn from in scorn. Let each his glory boast!Mine is, that lovers, when despairing most,My clients should be called. For them my doorStands hospitably open evermore.Philosopher to Venus I shall be,And throngs of studious youth will learn of me.Alas! alas! How love has been my bane!My cunning fails, and all my arts are vain.Have mercy, fair one, lest my pupils allMock me, who point a path in which I fall!

COUNTRY-LIFE WITH DELIA

With haughty frown I swore I could employThine absence well. But all my pride is o'er!Now am I lashed, as when a madcap boyWhirls a swift top along the level floor.Aye! Twist me! Plague me! Never shall I saySuch boast again. Thy scorn and anger spare!Spare me!—by all our stolen loves I pray,By Venus,—by thy wealth of plaited hair!Was it not I, when fever laid thee low,Whose holy rites and offerings set thee free?Thrice round thy bed with brimstone did I go,While the wise witch sang healing charms for thee.Lest evil dreams should vex thee, I did bringThat worshipped wafer by the Vestal given;Then, with loose robes and linen stole, did singNine prayers to Hecate 'neath the midnight heaven.All rites were done! Yet doth a rival holdMy darling, and my futile prayers deride:For I dreamed madly of a life all gold,If she were healed,—but Heaven the dream denied.A pleasant country-seat, whose orchards yieldSweet fruit to be my Delia's willing care,While our full corn-crop in the sultry fieldStands ripe and dry! O, but my dreams were fair!She in the vine-vat will our clusters press,And tread the rich must with her dancing feet;She oft my sheep will number, oft caressSome pretty, prattling slave with kisses sweet.She offers Pan due tributes of our wealth,Grapes for the vine, and for a field of cornWheat in the ear, or for the sheep-fold's healthSome frugal feast is to his altar borne.Of all my house let her the mistress be!I am displaced and give not one command!Then let Messala come! From each choice treeLet Delia pluck him fruit with her soft hand!To serve and please so worshipful a guest,She spends her utmost art and anxious care;Asks his least wish, and spreads her dainty best,Herself the hostess and hand-maiden fair.Mad hope! The storm-winds bore away that dreamFar as Armenia's perfume-breathing bids.Great Venus! Did I at thy shrine blaspheme?Am I accursed for rash and impious words?Had I, polluted, touched some altar pure,Or stolen garlands from a temple door—What prayers and vigils would I not endure,And weeping kiss the consecrated floor?Had I deserved this stroke,—with pious painFrom shrine to shrine my suppliant knees should crawl;I would to all absolving gods complain,And smite my forehead on the marble wall.Thou who thy gibes at love canst scarce repress,Beware! The angry god may strike again!I knew a youth who laughed at love's distress,And bore, when old, the worst that lovers ken.His poor, thin voice he did compel to woo,And curled, for mockery, his scanty hair;Spied on her door, as slighted lovers do,And stopped her maid in any public square.The forum-loungers thrust him roughly by,And spat upon their breasts, such luck to turn:Have mercy, Venus! Thy true follower I!Why wouldst thou, goddess, thine own harvest burn!

A LOVER'S CURSES

I strove with wine my sorrows to efface.But wine turned tears was all the drink I knew;I tried a new, strange lass. Each cold embraceBrought my true love to mind, and colder grew."I was bewitched" she cried "by shameful charms;"And things most vile she vowed she could declare.Bewitched! 'tis true! but by thy soft white arms,Thy lovely brows and lavish golden hair!Such charms had Thetis, born in Nereid cave,Who drives her dolphin-chariot fast and freeTo Peleus o'er the smooth Hæmonian wave,Love-guided o'er long leagues of azure sea.Ah me! the magic that dissolves my healthIs a rich suitor in my mistress' eye,Whom that vile bawd led to her door by stealthAnd opened it, and bade me pine and die.That hag should feed on blood. Her festive bowlsShould be rank gall: and round her haunted roomWild, wailing ghosts and monitory owlsShould flit forever shrieking death and doom.Made hunger-mad, may she devour the grassThat grows on graves, and gnaw the bare bones downWhich wolves have left! Stark-naked may she pass,Chased by the street-dogs through the taunting town!My curse comes fast. Unerring signs are seenIn stars above us. There are gods who stillProtect unhappy lovers: and our QueenVenus rains fire on all who slight her will.O cruel girl! unlearn the wicked artOf that rapacious hag! For everywhereWealth murders love. But thy poor lover's heartIs ever thine, and thou his dearest care.A poor man clings close to thy lovely side,And keeps the crowd off, and thy pathway free;He hides thee with kind friends, and as his brideFrom thy dull, golden thraldom ransoms thee.Vain is my song. Her door will not uncloseFor words, but for a hand that knocks with gold.O fear me, my proud rival, fear thy foes!Oft have the wheels of fortune backward rolled!

A DESPERATE EXPEDIENT

Thou beckonest ever with a face all smiles,Then, God of Love, thou lookest fierce and pale.Unfeeling boy! why waste on me such wiles?What glory if a god o'er man prevails?Once more thy snares are set. My Delia fliesTo steal a night—with whom I cannot tell.Can I believe when she denies, denies—I, for whose sake she tricked her lord so well?By me, alas! those cunning ways were shownTo fool her slaves. My skill I now deplore!For me she made excuse to sleep alone,Or silenced the shrill hinges of her door."Twas I prescribed what remedies to useIf mutual passion somewhat fiercely play;If there were tell-tale bite or rosy bruise,I showed what simples take the scars away.Hear me! fond husband of the false and fair,Make me thy guest, and she shall chastely go!When she makes talk with men I shall take care,Nor shall she at the wine her bosom show.I shall take care she does not nod or smileTo any other, nor her hand imbueWith his fast-flowing wine, that her swift guileMay scribble on the board their rendez-vous.When she goes out, beware! And if she hieTo Bona Dea, where no males may be,Straight to the sacred altars follow I,Who only trust her if my eyes can see.Oh! oft I pressed that soft hand I adore,Feigning with some rare ring or seal to play,And plied thee with strong wine till thou didst snore,While I, with wine and water, won the day.I wronged thee, aye! But 'twas not what I meant.Forgive, for I confess. 'Twas Cupid's spellO'er-swayed me. Who can foil a god's intent?Now have I courage all my deeds to tell.Yes, it was I, unblushing I declare.At whom thy watch-dog all night long did bay:—But some-one else now stands insistent there,Or peers about him and then walks away.He seems to pass. But soon will backward fareAlone, and, coughing, at the threshold hide.What skill hath stolen love! Beware, beware!Thy boat is drifting on a treacherous tide.What worth a lovely wife, if others buyThy treasure, if thy stoutest bolt betrays,If in thy very arms she breathes a sighFor absent joy, and feigns a slightmalaise?Give her in charge to me! I will not spareA master's whip. Her chain shall constant be.While thou mayst go abroad and have no careWho trims his curls, or flaunts his toga free.Whatever beaux accost her, all is well!Not the least hint of scandal shall be made.For I will send them far away, to tellIn some quite distant street their amorous trade.All this a god decrees; a sibyl wiseIn prophet-song did this to me proclaim;Who when Bellona kindles in her eyes,Fears neither twisted scourge nor scorching flame.Then with a battle-axe herself will scarHer own wild arms, and sprinkle on the groundBlood, for Bellona's emblems of wild war,Swift-flowing from the bosom's gaping wound.A barb of iron rankles in her breast,As thus she chants the god's command to all:"Oh, spare a beauty by true love possessed,Lest some vast after-woe upon thee fall!"For shouldst thou win her, all thy power will fail,As from this wound flows forth the fatal gore,Or as these ashes cast upon the gale,Are scattered far and kindled never more."And, O my Delia, the fierce prophetessTold dreadful things that on thy head should fall:—I know not what they were—but none the lessI pray my darling may escape them all.Not for thyself do I forgive thee, no!'Tis thy sweet mother all my wrath disarms,—That precious creature, who would come and go,And lead thee through the darkness to my arms.Though great the peril, oft the silent dameWould join our hands together, and all nightWait watching on the threshold till I came,Nor ever failed to know my steps aright.Long be thy life! dear, kind and faithful heart!Would it were possible my life's whole yearWere at the friendly hearth-stone where thou art!'Tis for thy sake I hold thy daughter dear.Be what she will, she is not less thy child.Oh, teach her to be chaste! Though well she knowsNo free-born fillet binds her tresses wildNor Roman stole around her ankles flows!My lot is servile too. Whate'er I seeOf beauty brings her to my fevered eye.If I should be accused of crime, or beDragged up the steep street, by the hair, to die:—Even then there were no fear that I should layRude hands on thee my sweet! for if o'erswayedBy such blind frenzy in an evil day,I should bewail the hour my hands were made.Yet would I have thee chaste and constant be,Not with a fearful but a faithful heart;And that in thy fond breast the love of meBurn but more fondly when we live apart.She who was never faithful to a friendWill come to age and misery, and windWith tremulous ringer from her distaff's endThe ever-twisting wool; and she will bindUpon her moving looms the finished thread,Or clean and pick the long skeins white as snow.And all her fickle gallants when they wed,Will say, "That old one well deserves her woe."Venus from heaven will note her flowing tear:"I smile not on the faithless," she will say.Her curse on others fall! O, Delia dear!Let us teach true love to grow old and gray!

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