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. What's rarely seen, our fancy magnifies;
  2. Permitted pleasure who does not despise ?
  3. Thy care provokes beyond her face, and more
  4. Men strive to make tho cuckold than the whore.
  5. They're wondrous charms we think, and long to know
  6. That in a wife enchants a husband so:
  7. Rage, swear, and curse, no matter, she alone
  8. Pleases, who sighs, and cries, " I am undone."
  9. But could thy spies say, " We have kept her chaste,"
  10. Good servants then, but an ill wife thou hast;
  11. Who fears to be a cuckold is a clown,
  12. Not worthy to partake of this lewd town,
  13. Where it is monstrous to be fair and chaste,
  14. And not one inch of either sex lies waste.
  15. Wouldst thou be happy ? with her ways comply,
  16. And in her case lay points of honour by:
  17. The friendship she begins, wisely improve,
  18. And a fair wife gets one a world of love:
  19. So shalt thou welcome be to ev'ry treat,
  20. Live high, not pay, and never run in debt.