not chaste, please thee?
Never can these by any means agree.
Kindly thy mistress use, if thou be wise;
Look gently, and rough husbands' laws despise.
Honour what friends thy wife gives, she'll give many,
Least labour so shall win great grace of any.
So shalt thou go with youths to feasts together,
And see at home much that thou ne'er brought'st thither.

FOOTNOTES:

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

[365] Old eds. "least." ("Nec custodiri, ni velit, ulla potest.")

[366] The original has "Nescio quid, quod te ceperit, esse putant."

[367] Dyce calls this line an "erroneous version of 'Non proba sit quam
vir servat, sed adultera; cara est.'" But Merkel's reading is "Non proba
fit quam vir servat, sed adultera cara"--which is accurately rendered by
Marlowe.

ELEGIA VI.[368]

Ad amnem dum iter faceret ad amicam.

Flood with reed-grown[369] slime banks, till I be past
Thy waters stay: I to my mistress haste.
Thou hast no bridge, nor boat with ropes to throw,
That may transport me, without oars to row.
Thee I have passed, and knew thy stream none such,
When thy wave's brim did scarce my ankles touch.
With snow thawed from the next hill now thou gushest,[370]
And in thy foul deep waters thick thou rushest.
What helps my haste? what to have ta'en small rest?
What day and night to travel in her quest? 10
If standing here I can by no means get
My foot upon the further bank to set.
Now wish I those wings noble Perseus had,
Bearing the head with dreadful adders[371] clad;
Now wish the chariot, whence corn fields were found,
First to be thrown upon the untilled ground:
I speak old poet's wonderful inventions,
Ne'er was, nor [e'er] shall be, what my verse mentions.
Rather, thou large bank-overflowing river,
Slide in thy bounds; so shalt thou run for ever. 20
Trust me, land-stream, thou shalt no envy lack,
If I a lover be by thee held back.
Great floods ought to assist young men in love,
Great floods the force of it do often prove.
In mid Bithynia,[372] 'tis said, Inachus
Grew pale, and, in cold fords, hot lecherous.
Troy had not yet been ten years' siege out stander,
When nymph Neaera rapt thy looks, Scamander.
What, not Alpheus in strange lands to run,
The Arcadian virgin's constant love hath won? 30