On these three precepts all my work fhall move: These are the rules and principles of love.
Before your youth with marriage is oppreft, Make choice of one who fuits your humor beft: And such a damfel drops not from the sky; She must be fought for with a curious eye.
The wary angler, in the winding brook,
Knows what the fish, and where to bait his hook..
The fowler and the huntsman know by name
The certain haunts and harbor of their game.
So must the lover beat the likelieft grounds;
Th' affembly where his quarry most abounds.
Nor fhall my novice wander far aftray;
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.
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,
Whofe turrets near the baudy fuburb rise :
Or to that other portico, where ftands
The cruel father urging his commands,
And fifty daughters wait the time of rest,
To plunge their poniards in the bridegrooms
breaft:
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 ev'ry thing but love:
Nor Ifis' temple; for that facred whore
Makes others, what to Jove he was before.
And if the hall itself be not bely'd,...
E'en there the caufe of love is often try'd;
Near it at leaft, or in the palace-yard,
From whence the noify combatants are heard.
The crafty counfellors, 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-houfe is the place;
There's choice of quarry in that narrow chace.
There take thy ftand, and sharply looking out,
Soon may'st thou find a miftrefs 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 num'roufly they throng,
It may be faid, they to that place belong.
Thither they fwarm, who have the public voice:
There choofe, if plenty not diftracts thy choice.
To fee, and to be feen, in heaps they run;
Some to undo, and fome to be undone.
From Romulus the rife of plays began,
To his new fubjects a commodious man;
Who, his unmarried foldiers to fupply,
Took care the commonwealth fhould multiply:
Providing Sabine women for his braves,
Like a true king, to get a race of flaves.
His play-house not of Parian marble made,
Nor was it spread with purple fails for fhade.
The stage with rushes, or with leaves they ftrew'd:
No scenes in profpect, no machining God.
On rows of homely turf they fat to see,
Crown'd with the wreaths of ev'ry common
There, while they fat in ruftic majesty,
Each lover had his mistress in his eye;
And whom he faw moft fuiting to his mind,
For joys of matrimonial rape defign'd.
Scarce could they wait the plaudit in their haste;
But, ere the dances and the fong were past,
The monarch gave the fignal from his throne;
And, rifing, bade his merry men fall on.
The martial crew, like foldiers ready prest,
Juft at the word (the word too was, The Best)
With joyful cries each other animate;
Some choose, and fome at hazard feize their
As doves from eagles, or from wolves the lambs,
So from their lawless lovers fly the dames.
Their fear was one, but not one face of fear;
Some rend the lovely treffes of their hair;
Some fhriek, and fome are ftruck with dumb
despair.
Her abfent mother one invokes in vain;
One stands amaz'd, not daring to complain;
The nimbler truft their feet, the flow remain.
But nought availing, all are captives led,
Trembling and blushing, to the genial bed.
She who too long refifted, or deny'd,
The lufty lover made by force a bride;
And, with fuperior ftrength, compell'd her to his fide.
Then footh'd her thus:--My foul's far better part,
Ceafe weeping, nor afflict thy tender heart:
For what thy father to thy mother was,
That faith to thee, that folemn vow I pafs.
Thus Romulus became fo popular;
This was the way to thrive in peace and war;
To pay his army, and fresh whores to bring:
Who would not fight for fuch a gracious king?
Thus love in theatres did firft improve;
And theatres are ftill the scenes of love:
Nor fhun the chariot's, and the courfer's race;
The Circus is no inconvenient place.
No need is there of talking on the hand;
Nor nods, nor figns, which lovers understand.
But boldly next the fair your feat provide ;
Clofe as you can to hers, and fide by fide.
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