THE

FIRST BOOK

O F

OVID'S ART OF LOVE.

IN Cupid's fchool whoe'er would take degree,
Muft learn his rudiments, by reading me.
Seamen with failing arts their veffels move;
Art guides the chariot : art inftru&ts to love.
Of ships and chariots others know the rule;
But I am mafter in Love's mighty school.
Cupid indeed is obftinate and wild,

A ftubborn God; but yet the God 's a child :
Easy to govern in his tender age,

Like fierce Achilles in his pupillage :

That hero, born for conqueft, trembling stood
Before the Centaur, and receiv'd the rod.
As Chiron mollify'd his cruel mind

With art, and taught his warlike hands to wind
The filver ftrings of his melodious lyre:
So Love's fair Goddess does my foul inspire,
To teach her fofter arts; to footh the mind,

And fimooth the rugged breasts of human-kind.

"

Yet Cupid and Achilles each with fcorn

And

rage were fill'd; and both were goddess-born.

The

The bull, reclaim'd and yok'd, the burden draws
The horse receives the bit within his jaws;

And ftubborn Love fhall bend beneath

my fway, Though ftruggling oft he strives to disobey.

He fhakes his torch, he wounds me with his darts;
But vain his force, and vainer are his arts.

The more he burns my foul, or wounds my fight,
The more he teaches to revenge the fpite.

I boaft no aid the Delphian God affords,
Nor aufpice from the flight of chattering birds;
Nor Clio nor her fifters have I feen:

As Hefiod faw them on the fhady green :
Experience makes my work; a truth fo try'd
You
and Venus be my guide.
believe;
may
Far hence, ye vestals, be, who bind your hair;
And wives, who gowns below your ancles wear.
I fing the brothels loofe and unconfin'd,
Th'unpunishable pleafures of the kind;
Which all alike, for love, or money, find.

You, who in Cupid's rolls inscribe your name,
First feek an object worthy of your flame;
Then ftrive, with art, your lady's mind to gain
And last, provide your love may long remain.
On these three precepts all my work fhall move:
Thefe are the rules and principles of love.

Before your youth with marriage is oppreft,
Make choice of one who fuits your humour beft;
And fuch a damfel drops not from the sky;

}

She must be fought for with a curious

eye.

The

The wary angler, in the winding brook,
Knows what the fish, and where to bait his hook.
The fowler and the huntfman know by name
The certain haunts and harbour of their game.
So muft the lover beat the likelieft grounds;
Th' affembly where his quarry most abounds.
Nor fhall my novice wander far aftray;
Thefe rules fhall put him in the ready way.
Thou shalt not fail around the continent,
As far as Perfeus or as Paris went :
For Rome alone affords thee fuch a store,
As all the world can hardly fhew thee more.
The face of heaven with fewer ftars is crown'd,
Than beauties in the Roman sphere are found.
Whether thy love is bent on blooming youth,
On dawning sweetness in unartful truth;
Or courts the juicy joys of riper growth;
Here mayft thou find thy full defires in both.
Or if autumnal beauties please thy fight
(An age that knows to give, and take delight);
Millions of matrons of the graver fort,

In common prudence, will not balk the sport
In fummer heats thou need'ft but only go
To Pompey's cool and fhady portico;
Or Concord's fane; or that proud edifice,
Whose turrets near the baudy suburb rise :
Or to that other portico, where stands
The cruel father urging his commands,
And fifty daughters wait the time of rest,
To plunge their poniards in the bridegrooms breast:

Of

Or Venus' temple; where, on annual nights,
They mourn Adonis with Affyrian rites.
Nor fhun the Jewish walk, where the foul drove,
On fabbaths, reft from every thing but love :
Nor Ifis' temple; for that facred whore
Makes others, what to Jove fhe was before.
And if the hall itself be not bely'd,
Ev'n there the caufe of love is often try'd;
Near it at least, or in the palace-yard,
From whence the noify combatants are heard.
The crafty counsellors, in formal gown,
There gain another's caufe, but lofe their own.
There eloquence is nonpluft in the fuit;
And lawyers, who had words at will, are mute.
Venus, from her adjoining temple, fmiles,
To fee them caught in their litigious wiles.
Grave fenators lead home the youthful dame,
Returning clients, when they patrons came.
But, above all, the play-house is the place;
There's choice of quarry in that narrow chace.
There take thy ftand, and fharply looking out,
Soon may'st thou find a mistress in the rout,
For length of time, or for a fingle bout.

The theatres are berries for the fair:
Like ants on mole-hills thither they repair;
Like bees to hives, fo numerously they throng;
It may be faid, they to that place belong.
Thither they fwarm, who have the public voice :
There choose, if plenty not diftracts thy choice.

Το