Remedia amoris
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Nor yet abruptly should you leave the fair
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And, like Ulysses, drive them to despair:He not only abandoned Circe, but Calypso queen of Ogygia, who had been as kind to him as Circe.
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To no such violent methods I'll advise,
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Nor aid a lover while his mistress dies.
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I mean not Cupid's purple wings to clip,
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Nor break his bow, or feather'd arrows strip.
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The counsels that I gave are just and true,
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Do you as faithfully my rules pursue.
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Phoebus, to thee once more for aid I run;
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Assist me, as thou hast already done.
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He comes, he comes, he'll instantly appear,
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His quiver, and his sounding harp I hear,The same Mercury gave him, with which he vanquished Marsyas, who challenged him to a trial of skill in music, for which he was a little too severely punished. Apollo himself repenting of it, is said to break the strings of his lyre, and, according to Diodorus, would not for a log time make use of it.
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Both signs most certain that the god is near.
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Compare your bastard scarlet with the right,The Lacedaemonian with the Tyrian; for the dye of Amyclea near Lacedaemon was inferior to that of Tyre, as Pliny witnesses.
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The difference will appear, though both are bright.
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Your charmer so by first rate beauties place,
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And her defects by brighter lustre trace.
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Pallas was tall and graceful, sternly fair,
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And Juno carried a majestic air;
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Singly they pleas'd, and by each other charm'd,
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But both by Venus' presence were disarm'd.Alluding to the vision of those three goddesses by Paris on Mount Ida.
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Nor manhood yet must you so far disgrace
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As to become the vassal of a face,
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Nor to mere beauty your devotion pay;
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Her breeding, humor, and her manners weigh;
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But in the scale of an impartial mind,
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Or inclination will your judgment blind.