TRANSLATIONS

FROM

OVID'S ART OF LOVE.

THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

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 inftructs to love.
Of fhips and chariots others know the rule;
But I am master in Love's mighty fchool.
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

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With art, and taught his warlike hands to wind

Ver. 1. In Cupid's School] We cannot fee, without real regret and mortification, fuch a waste of time and talent as what our author has flung away in tranflating fo loofe and flagitious, as well as trifling work of his favourite Ovid, full of fome of the moft exceptionable and naufeous circumftances of ancient mythology. Imoft undoubtedly shall make no comment on it, nor on the two fucceeding tranflations, Dr. J. WARTON,

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The filver ftrings of his melodious lyre:
So Love's fair goddess does my foul infpire,
To teach her fofter arts; to footh the mind,
And smooth the rugged breafts of human kind.
Yet Cupid and Achilles, each with scorn
And rage were fill'd; and both were goddess-
born.

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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 ftrives to disobey.
He flakes his torch, he wounds me with his

darts;

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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.

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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 may believe; and Venus be my guide. Far hence, ye veftals, be, who bind your

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hair; And wives, who gowns below your ancles wear. I fing the brothels loofe and unconfin'd,

Th' unpunishable pleasures of the kind;
Which all alike, for love, or money, find.

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

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Before your youth with marriage is oppreft, Make choice of one who fuits your humour beft: And fuch a damfel drops not from the fky; She must be fought for with a curious

eye.

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The wary angler, in the winding brook, Knows what the fish, and where to bait his

hook.

game.

The fowler and the huntfman know by name
The certain haunts and harbour of their
So muft the lover beat the likelieft grounds;
Th'affembly where his quarry most abounds. 55
Nor fhall my novice wander far astray;
These 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 heav'n 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.

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