ELEGIA I.
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uemadmodum a Cupidine, pro bellis amoris scribere coactus sit. _We which were Ovid's five books, now are three,For these before the rest preferreth he:If reading five thou plain'st of tediousness,Two ta'en away, thy[128] labour will be less;_ With Muse prepared,[129] I meant to sing of arms,Choosing a subject fit for fierce alarms:Both verses were alike till Love (men say)Began to smile and took one foot away.Rash boy, who gave thee power to change a line?We are the Muses' prophets, none of thine.What, if thy mother take Diana's[130] bow,Shall Dian fan when love begins to glow?In woody groves is't meet that Ceres reign,And quiver-bearing Dian till the plain? 10Who'll set the fair-tressed Sun in battle-rayWhile Mars doth take the Aonian harp to play?Great are thy kingdoms, over-strong and large,Ambitious imp, why seek'st thou further charge?Are all things thine? the Muses' Tempe thine?Then scarce can Phoebus say, "This harp is mine."When[131] in this work's first verse I trod aloft,Love slaked my muse, and made my numbers soft:I have no mistress nor no favourite,Being fittest matter for a wanton wit. 20Thus I complained, but Love unlocked his quiver,Took out the shaft, ordained my heart to shiver,And bent his sinewy bow upon his knee,Saying, "Poet, here's a work beseeming thee."O, woe is me! he never shoots but hits,I burn, love in my idle bosom sits:Let my first verse be six, my last five feet:Farewell stern war, for blunter poets meet!Elegian muse, that warblest amorous lays,Girt my shine[132] brow with seabank myrtle sprays.[133] 30 FOOTNOTES: [128] So the Isham copy. Ed. A. "the." [129] Isham copy and ed. A. "vpreard, I meane." [130] The original has-- "Quid? si prÊripiat flavÊ Venus arma _MinervÊ_Ventilet accensas flavÊ _Minerva_ comas." [131] "Cum bene surrexit versu nova pagina, primo!At tenuat nervos proximus ille meos." [132] Sheen. [133] Dyce's correction for "praise" of the old eds.
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