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. Not easy to deny desired joy;
  2. Thro' whose soft eyes still secret wishes shine,
  3. Fit for thy mistress' use, but more for mine;
  4. Who, Betty, did the fatal secret see?
  5. Who told Corinna you were kind to me!
  6. Yet when she chid me for my kind embrace,
  7. Did any guilty blush spread o'er my face!
  8. Did I betray thee, maid, or could she spy
  9. The least confession in my conscious eye !
  10. Not that I think it a disgrace to prove
  11. Stol'n sweets, or make a chambermaid my love;
  12. Achilles wanton'd in Briseis' arms,
  13. Atrides bow'd to fair Cassandra's charms:
  14. Sure I am less than these,-then what can bring
  15. Disgrace to me, that so became a king !
  16. But when she look'd on you, poor harmless maid,
  17. You blush'd, and all the kind intrigue betray'd;
  18. Yet still I vow'd, I made a stout defence,
  19. I swore, and look'd as bold as innocence;
  20. "Damme,—egad!" all that, and—"let me die!"'