Amours
- 1.8.92
Die with a blow with thy beloved pot;
- 1.8.93
No brandy, and eternal thirst, thy lot."
- 1.9.1
Trust me, my Atticus, in love are wars;
- 1.9.2
And Cupid has his camp, as well as Mars:
- 1.9.3
The age that's fit for war best suits with love,
- 1.9.4
The old in both unserviceable prove,
- 1.9.5
Infirm in war, and impotent in love.
- 1.9.6
The soldiers which a general does require,
- 1.9.7
Are such as ladies would in bed desire:
- 1.9.8
Who but a soldier, and a lover, can
- 1.9.9
Bear the night's cold, in show'rs of hail and rain?
- 1.9.10
One in continual watch his station keeps,
- 1.9.11
Or on the earth in broken slumbers sleeps;
- 1.9.12
The other takes his still repeated round
- 1.9.13
By mistress' house — then lodges on the ground.
- 1.9.14
Soldiers, and lovers, with a careful eye,
- 1.9.15
Observe the motions of the enemy:
- 1.9.16
One to the walls makes his approach in form,
- 1.9.17
Pushes the siege, and takes the town by storm:
- 1.9.18
The other lays his close to Celia's fort,
- 1.9.19
Presses his point, and gains the wish'd-for port.
- 1.9.20
As soldiers, when the foe securely lies
- 1.9.21
In sleep, and wine dissolv'd, the camp surprise;
- 1.9.22
So when the jealous to their rest remove,
- 1.9.23
And all is hush'd, — the other steals to love.
- 1.9.24
You then, who think that love's an idle fit,
- 1.9.25
Know, that it is the exercise of wit.
- 1.9.26
In flames of love the fierce Achilles burns,
- 1.9.27
And, quitting arms, absent Briseis mourns:
- 1.9.28
From the embraces of Andromache
- 1.9.29
Went Hector arm'd for war, and victory.
- 1.9.30
As Agamemnon saw Cassandra pass
- 1.9.31
With hair dishevell'd, and disorder'd dress,
- 1.9.32
H' admir'd the beauties of the prophetess:
- 1.9.33
The god of war was caught in th' act of love;
- 1.9.34
A story know to all the court above.
- 1.9.35
Once did I pass my hours in sloth and ease,
- 1.9.36
Cool shades and beds of down could only please;
- 1.9.37
When a commanding beauty rais'd my mind,
- 1.9.38
I left all little trifling thoughts behind,
- 1.9.39
And to her service all my heart resign'd:
- 1.9.40
Since, like an active soldier, have I spent
- 1.9.41
My time in toils of war, in beauty's tent:
- 1.9.42
And for so sweet a pay all dangers underwent.
- 1.9.43
You see, my Atticus, by what I prove,
- 1.9.44
Who would not live in idleness-must love.
- 1.10.1
Poem 10, in which the poet complains that his mistress has asked him for money, is not here translated.
- 1.11.1
Nape, who know'st so well to set the hair,
- 1.11.2
And all the fashions of the modish fair,
- 1.11.3
Like thee no lady's woman in the town
- 1.11.4
Can forward an intrigue, or pin a gown;
- 1.11.5
No maid than thee can boast a quicker eye,
- 1.11.6
Nor sooner the sour husband's coming spy.
- 1.11.7
Here, Nape, take this billet-doux, and bear
- 1.11.8
My soul's soft wishes to the absent fair.
- 1.11.9
If I can guess, thy heart is not of flint,
- 1.11.10
Nor is there the least vein of iron in't;
- 1.11.11
I something in thy looks and manners see
- 1.11.12
Above the rudeness of thy low degree;
- 1.11.13
A softer turn, to pity more inclined,
- 1.11.14
Than vulgar souls, a more complacent mind;
- 1.11.15
Thou feel'st, if I can guess, an equal flame,
- 1.11.16
And thine and my distemper is the same.
- 1.11.17
If how I do, she asks, do thou reply,
- 1.11.18
For the dear night, and night's dear joys, I die.
- 1.11.19
Tell her the letter will the rest explain,
- 1.11.20
And does my soul, and all its hopes contain.
- 1.11.21
But time, while I am speaking, flies: be sure
- 1.11.22
To give the billet in a leisure hour:
- 1.11.23
Don't be content with her imperfect view,
- 1.11.24
But make her, when she has it, read it through.
- 1.11.25
I charge thee, as she reads, observe her eyes,
- 1.11.26
Catch, if thou canst, her gentle looks and sighs;
- 1.11.27
As these are sure presages of my joy,
- 1.11.28
So frowns and low'rs my flattering hopes destroy.
- 1.11.29
Pray her, when she has read it, to indite
- 1.11.30
An answer, and a long epistle write.
- 1.11.31
I hate a billet, where at once I view
- 1.11.32
A page all empty, but a line or two.
- 1.11.33
Let her without a margin fill it up,
- 1.11.34
And crowd it from the bottom to the top.
- 1.11.35
But why should I her pretty fingers tire?
- 1.11.36
A word's enough, and all that I desire.
- 1.11.37
Ah, Nape, let her only bid me come;
- 1.11.38
The page is large, which for that word has room.
- 1.11.39
Her letter, like a conqu'ror's, shall be bound
- 1.11.40
With bays, for it with conquests shall be crown'd.
- 1.12.1
Ah, pity me, my friends! the cruel fair
- 1.12.2
Will neither read my just complaint, nor hear.
- 1.12.3
The billet-doux I sent her she return'd,
- 1.12.4
And e'en to ope the tender letter scorn'd
- 1.12.5
Ill was the omen, for the slave I sent
- 1.12.6
Trip'd at the sill as out of doors he went.
- 1.12.7
If e'er you on an errand go for me,
- 1.12.8
More careful, sirrah! how you stumble, be;
- 1.12.9
Step soberly, and warily along;
- 1.12.10
The end's ne'er right if the beginning's wrong.
- 1.12.11
Sinee thus in vain her pity I implore,
- 1.12.12
I'll ne'er to tablets trust my passion more;
- 1.12.13
Nor with my wax for death my warrant seal;
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