70

LOVE DISARMED.

Thus she the captive did deliver;
The captive thus gave up his quiver.

The god disarm'd, e'er since that day
Passes his life in harmless play;
Flies round, or sits upon her breast,
A little flutt'ring idle guest.

E'er since that day the beauteous maid
Governs the world in Cupid's stead;
Directs his arrows as she wills;

Gives grief or pleasure, spares or kills.

PRIOR.

AMOR INERMIS.

71

Vincula sic puero solvit nympha, et sua nymphæ, Vincula solventi, tradidit arma puer.

Se deus hinc lusu puerili exercet inermis,
Nec juvenes curat virgineosque greges:
Interdum ad pectus volitat, nymphamque revisit;
Sed sedet innocuum numen, et hospes iners.

Hinc arcus pharetramque gerens funestaque tela,
Pro libitu passim dirigit arma Chloe;
Pro libitu parcit vel vulnerat; ipsa Cupido
Et simul in terris regnat, et ipsa Venus.

EHIND her neck her comely tresses tied, Her ivory quiver graceful by her side, A hunting Chloe went: she lost her way, And through the woods uncertain chanced to stray.

Apollo passing by beheld the maid;

And, sister dear, bright Cynthia, turn, he said;
The hunted hind lies close in yonder brake.
Loud Cupid laugh'd, to see the god's mistake:
And laughing, cried, Learn better, great divine,
To know thy kindred, and to honour mine.
Rightly advised, far hence thy sister seek,
Or on Meander's banks, or Latmus' peak.
But in this nymph, my friend, my sister know;
She draws my arrows, and she bends my
bow.
Fair Thames she haunts, and every neighbouring

grove

* This Poem first appeared in the Carmina Comitialia, ed. 1721, p. 87.

FORTÈ

CHLOE VENATRIX.*

ORTÈ Chloe, pulchros nodo collecta capillos

Post collum, pharetrâque latus succincta decorâ, Venatrix ad sylvam ibat; cervumque secuta Elapsum visu, deserta per avia tendit

Incerta. Errantem nympham conspexit Apollo, Et converte tuos, dixit, mea Cynthia, cursus; En ibi (monstravitque manu) tibi cervus anhelat Occultus dumo, latebrisque moratur in illis.

Improbus hæc audivit amor, lepidumque cachinnum

Attollens, poterantne etiam tua numina falli? Hinc quæso, bone Phoebe, tuam dignosce so

rorem,

Et meliùs venerare meam. Tua Cynthia longè Mæandri ad ripas, aut summi in vertice Latmi, Versatur; nostra est soror hæc, nostra, inquit, amica est:1

Hæc nostros promit calamos, arcumque sonantem

74

CHLOE HUNTING.

Sacred to soft recess, and gentle love.
Go with thy Cynthia, hurl the pointed spear
At the rough boar, or chace the flying deer:
I and my Chloe take a nobler aim:

At human hearts we fling, nor ever miss the game.