CHLOE VENATRIX.

75

Incurvat, Tamumque colens, placidosque re

cessus

Lucorum, quos alma quies sacravit amori.
Ite per umbrosos saltus, lustrisque vel aprum
Excutite horrentem setis, cervumve fugacem,
Tuque sororque tua; et directo sternite ferro:
Nobilior labor, et divis dignissima cura,
Meque Chloenque manet; nos corda humana
ferimus,

Vibrantes certum vulnus, nec inutile telum.

THE GARLAND.

THE pride of every grove I chose,

The violet sweet, and lily fair,

The dappled pink, and blushing rose,
To deck my charming Chloe's hair.

At morn the nymph vouchsafed to place Upon her brow the various wreath; The flowers less blooming than her face, The scent less fragrant than her breath.

The flowers she wore along the day;

And every nymph and shepherd said, That in her hair they look'd more gay Than glowing in their native bed.

Undrest at evening, when she found Their colours lost, their odours past, She changed her look, and on the ground Her garland and her eye she cast.

SERTUM.+

ELEGI nemoris suave est quodcunque vel

SE

horti,

Liliaque, et violas, virgineasque rosas; Quod caryophyllis pulchrè variatur, ut esset, Ornatum capiti texeret unde Chloe.

Illa statim in sertum textos imponere flores
Dignata est pulchris, munere læta, comis.
At neque sic positis, si virginis ora videres,
Gratia vel formæ par, vel odoris, erat.

Quæ primo induerat florum redimicula mane,
Gessit per totum nympha venusta diem :
Et juvenes pariter, pariter dixêre puellæ,
Non in natali sic nituisse solo.

Exuta ut flores sensit, quòd nulla colorum
Vespere restaret gratia, nullus odor;
Palluit obtutu, gemuitque, oculoque pudicè
Demisso, sertum dejiciebat humi.

+ This Poem first appeared in ed. 1743, p. 180.

That eye dropt sense distinct and clear,
As any muse's tongue could speak;
When from its lid a pearly tear

Ran trickling down her beauteous cheek.

Dissembling what I knew too well,
My love, my life, said I, explain,
This change of humour pr'ythee tell,
That falling tear, what does it mean?

She sigh'd; she smiled; and to the flowers
Pointing, the lovely moralist said,
See, friend, in some few fleeting hours,
See yonder, what a change is made!

Ah me! the blooming pride of May
And that of beauty are but one;
At noon both flourish bright and gay,
Both fade at evening, pale and gone.

At dawn poor Stella danced and sung,
The amorous youth around her bow'd;
At night her fatal knell was rung,

I saw, and kiss'd her in her shroud.

Such as she is who died to-day,

Such I, alas! may be to-morrow; Go, Damon, bid thy muse display

The justice of thy Chloe's sorrow.

PRIOR.

SERTUM.

Ille, silens quamvìs, musâ facundior omni,
Index egregiæ mentis ocellus erat;

Cùm furtim ex illo, gemmæ rutilantis ad instar, Pulchram humectaret lucida gutta genam.

Quod scivi, nescivi; et cur, charissima vita, Oh! mea lux, dixi, cur ea gutta cadit? Unde obiit pallor vultus? fare, obsecro, fare, Tam subito lapsu gutta quid illa velit?

Ecce! unde! (ingemuitque simul, peramabile ridens)

Ecce! ait interpres pulchra, sit unde dolor! Dona tua en quantum, paucis fugientibus horis, Unica mutârit, tota nec illa, dies!

Hei mihi! quod floret languetque superbia Maii, Floret idem formæ gloria, languet idem. Utraque mane vigens placidumque et dulce rubescit,

Utraque marcescit vespere, pallet, abit.

Cùm mane illuxit, multos Stella inter amantes, Saltibus et cantu, lusus amorque fuit: Vespere pallentem conspexi in frigore mortis, Osculaque exangui terque quaterque dedi.

Triste hodie et pallens quod cernitur illa, videbor Cras istud forsan triste cadaver ego.

I, Damon, Musamque jube describere versu, Quàm justo doleat vestra dolore Chloe.