Amores

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. There is a bawd renown'd in Venus' wars,
  2. Aud dreadful still with honorable scars;
  3. Her youth and beauty, craft and guile supply,
  4. Sworn foe to all degrees of chastity.
  5. Dypsas, who first taught love-sick maids the way
  6. To cheat the bridegroom on the wedding-day,
  7. And then a hundred subtle tricks devis'd,
  8. Wherewith the am'rous theft might be disguis'd;
  9. Of herbs and spells she tries the guilty force,
  10. The poison of a mare that goes to horse.
  11. Cleaving the midnight air upon a switch,
  12. Some for a bawd, most take her for a witch.
  13. Each morning sees her reeling to her bed,
  14. Her native blue o'ercome with drunken red:
  15. Her ready tongue ne'er wants a useful lie,
  16. Soft moving words, nor charming flattery.
  17. Thus I o'erheard her to my Lucia speak:
  18. "Young Damon's heart wilt thou for ever break
  19. He long has lov'd thee, and by me he sends
  20. To learn thy motions, which he still attends;