tuque, o Minoa venumdata Scylla figura, tondes1 purpurea regna paterna coma. hanc igitur dotem virgo desponderat hosti! Nise, tuas portas fraude reclusit amor. at vos, innuptae, felicius urite taedas: pendet Cretaea tracta puella rate. non tamen immerito Minos sedet arbiter Orci: victor erat quamvis, aequus in hoste fuit. XX CREDIS eum iam posse tuae meminisse figurae, est tibi forma potens, sunt castae Palladis artes, fidus ero: in nostros curre, puella, toros! nox mihi prima venit! primae date tempora noctis: 3 longius in primo, Luna, morare toro. tu quoque, qui aestivos spatiosius exigis ignes, Phoebe, moraturae contrahe lucis iter. 1 tondes Keil: tondens NFL. 2 tantine his Paldam: tantisne in N: tantis in FL. 10 13 14 11 12 And thou, Scylla, that didst sell thyself for the beauty of Minos, thou didst shear away thy father's realm when thou shorest his purple lock. Such was the dower that the maiden pledged to the foe! Nisus, 'twas love that opened thy gates by guile. But may ye, unwedded maids, burn your marriage torches with happier omen: for, see, she hangs to the Cretan bark and is dragged through the sea. Yet Minos deserves his place as the judge of Hell: though victor he showed justice to his conquered foe. XX DEEMST thou that he whom thou hast seen set sail from thine embraces can give a thought to the remembrance of thy beauty? Cruel the man that had the heart to leave his mistress for the sake of gain! When such tears as thine were shed was all Africa worth the winning? But thou, foolish girl, dreamst of the gods by whom he swore, and of the light words he spake. Perchance e'en now he vexes his heart with another passion. 7 Thy beauty hath power, thine are the chaste arts of Pallas, and glorious is the renown shed on thee by thy learned grandsire.1 Rich enough is thine house, if thy lover be but true! I will be true: do thou, my hasten to my couch! love, Grant 13 The first night of love is come for me. me, Moon and Sun, the full space of that first night. Moon, linger longer than thy wont o'er our first embraces. Thou too, Phoebus, that o'ermuch prolongst thy summer fires, shorten the course of thy 1 It is possible that Cynthia (Hostia) claimed to be descended from the poet Hostius (circa 130), who wrote an epic on the Illyrian war of 178 B.C. foedera sunt ponenda prius signandaque iura et scribenda mihi lex in amore novo. haec Amor ipse suo constringit pignora signo: quam multae ante meis cedent sermonibus horae, nec flenti dominae patefiant nocte fenestrae : XXI MAGNVM iter ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas, ut me longa gravi solvat amore via. 3 crescit enim assidue spectando 3 cura puellae: ipse alimenta sibi maxima praebet amor. omnia sunt temptata mihi, quacumque fugari possit at ex omni me premit ipse deus. vix tamen aut semel admittit, cum saepe negarit: seu venit, extremo dormit amicta 4 toro. 1 vigilata N: vigilanda FL. 20 30 laggard light. First must the terms be made, the pact be sealed, the contract written, that shall rule my new love. Love himself with his own signet seals up our troth; the whirling crown of the starry goddess 1 is witness. How many an hour shall first yield to my tale of love ere Venus spur us to her sweet warfare! For if Love's bed be not bound by compact sure the lover's nights of sleepless watching find no gods to avenge them, and lust soon breaks the fetters it imposed: but for us may our love's first omens keep fast our troth. Wherefore for him that breaks the pledge that he swore on heaven's altars, and pollutes the rites of wedlock by turning to other loves, for him be all the woes love knows so well, and let shrill-tongued gossip fasten on him, nor, though he weep, may the window of his mistress be unbarred to him by night; let him love without ceasing, yet ever lack the fruition of love. XXI I AM constrained to set forth on a mighty journey to learned Athens, that long travel may free me from the burden of love. For my passion for my mistress grows with gazing on her: love itself is love's chief nourishment. I have tried all means whereby Love may be put to flight: but the god afflicts me from every side. Yet scarce ever, or only once and again, will she admit me, while oft she says me nay: or if she comes to me, she sleeps fully clad on the bed's 1 Ariadne. unum erit auxilium: mutatis Cynthia terris 1 10 quantum oculis, animo tam procul ibit amor. nunc agite, o socii, propellite in aequora 1 navem, remorumque pares ducite sorte vices, iungiteque extremo felicia lintea malo : iam liquidum nautis aura secundat iter. Romanae turres et vos valeatis, amici, qualiscumque mihi tuque, puella, vale! ergo ego nunc rudis Hadriaci vehar aequoris hospes, cogar et undisonos nunc prece adire deos. deinde per Ionium vectus cum fessa Lechaeo scandam ego Theseae bracchia longa viae. illic vel stadiis animum emendare Platonis incipiam aut hortis, docte Epicure, tuis; persequar aut studium linguae, Demosthenis arma, librorumque tuos, docte 2 Menandre, sales; aut certe tabulae capient mea lumina pictae, sive ebore exactae, seu magis aere, manus. aut spatia annorum, aut longa intervalla profundi lenibunt tacito vulnera nostra sinu : seu moriar, fato, non turpi fractus amore; atque erit illa mihi mortis honesta dies. 1 aequora F: aequore NL. 20 30 2 docte NFL; the repetition of docte is scarcely defensible scite L. Müller. |