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. The belly must be smooth, no wrinkle there
  2. To shock the lover's wanton glance appear;
  3. His touch as well as sight they fain would please,
  4. And the womb early of its burden ease.
  5. Had woman sooner known this wicked trade,
  6. Among the race of men what havock had they made.
  7. Mankind had been extinct, and lost the seed,
  8. Without a wonder to restore the breed,
  9. As when Deucalion and his Purrha hurl'd
  10. The stones that sow'd with men the delug'd world,
  11. Had Thetis, goddess of the sea, refus'd
  12. To bear the burden, and her fruit abus'd,
  13. Who would have Priam's royal seat destroy'd?
  14. Or had the vestal whom fierce Mars enjoy'd,
  15. Stifled the twins within her pergnant womb,
  16. What founder would have then been born to Rome?
  17. Had Venus, when she with Aeneas teem'd,
  18. To death, ere born, Anchises' son condemn'd,
  19. The world had of the Caesars been depriv'd;