tragedies, and sceptres fill'd my lines,
But though I apt were for such high designs,
Love laughed at my cloak, and buskins painted,
And rule, so soon with private hands acquainted.
My mistress' deity also drew me fro it,
And love triumpheth o'er his buskined poet.
What lawful is, or we profess love's art:
(Alas, my precepts turn myself to smart!) 20
We write, or what Penelope sends Ulysses,
Or Phillis' tears that her Demophoon misses.
What thankless Jason, Macareus, and Paris,
Phedra, and Hippolyte may read, my care is.
And what poor Dido, with her drawn sword sharp,
Doth say, with her that loved the Aonian harp.
As[328] soon as from strange lands Sabinus came,
And writings did from divers places frame,
White-cheeked Penelope knew Ulysses' sign,
The step-dame read Hippolytus' lustless line. 30
AEneas to Elisa answer gives,
And Phillis hath to read, if now she lives.
Jason's sad letter doth Hypsipyle greet;
Sappho her vowed harp lays at Phoebus' feet.
Nor of thee, Macer, that resound'st forth arms,
Is golden love hid in Mars' mid alarms.
There Paris is, and Helen's crimes record,
With Laodamia, mate to her dead lord,
Unless I err to these thou more incline,
Than wars, and from thy tents wilt come to mine. 40

FOOTNOTES:

[327] Not in Isham copy or ed. A.

[328] The original has "Quam cito de toto rediit meus orbe Sabinus," &c.

ELEGIA XIX.[329]

Ad rivalem cui uxor curae non erat.

Fool, if to keep thy wife thou hast no need,
Keep her from me, my more desire to breed;
We scorn things lawful; stolen sweets we affect;
Cruel is he that loves whom none protect.
Let us, both lovers, hope and fear alike,
And may repulse place for our wishes strike.[330]
What should I do with fortune that ne'er fails me?
Nothing I love that at all times avails me.
Wily Corinna saw this blemish in me,
And craftily knows by what means to win me. 10
Ah, often, that her hale[331] head ached, she lying,
Willed me, whose slow feet sought delay, be flying!
Ah, oft, how much she might, she feigned offence;
And, doing wrong, made show of innocence.
So, having vexed, she nourished my warm fire,
And was again most apt to my desire.
To please me, what fair terms and sweet wor