KISS IV.

'TIS not a Kiss you give, my Love!
"Tis richest nectar from above!
A fragrant show'r of balmy dews,
Which thy sweet lips alone diffuse!
'Tis ev'ry aromatic breeze

That wafts from Afric's spicy trees!
'Tis honey from the ozier hive,

Which chymist bees with care derive

Buchanan, too, has prettily expressed this conceit;

Cum das Basia, nectaris, Neæra, i

Das mî pocula, das dapes Deorum.

All thy kisses, sweetest fair!

BUCHAN. HEND. LIE,

Luscious draughts of nectar are ;
Are the banquets heav'nly pow'rs
Taste in their Olympian bow'rs.

Aut in Cecropiis apes rosetis,
Atque, hinc virgineis et inde ceris,
Septum vimineo tegunt quasillo.
Quæ, si multa mihi voranda dentur,
Immortalis in his repentè fiam,
Magnorumque epulis fruar deorum.
Sed tu munere, parce tali,

Aut mecum dea fac Neæra, fias.
Non mensas sine te volo deorum;

[Aut in Cecropiis, &c.] Cecropiis signifies Athenian, from Cecrops, king of Athens. Athens, or Attica, was a most lovely country, rich in flowering sweets, and celebrated for honey. Virgil speaks thus of Attic bees:

1

Cecropias innatus apes amor urget habendi.

VIRG. GEORG. IV.

Most prone are Attic bees to honied toils.

may also remark, that Hymettus is a mountain covered with thyme, near Athens, more particularly famous for its

honey. Thus Horace, by way of comparative excellency: Ubi non Hymetto

Mella decedunt.

HOR. ODE VI. LIB. II.

Where not the labours of the bee

FRANCIS.

Yield to Hymettus' golden stores. Strabo and Pliny affirm, that this mountain was also remarkable for its marble.--Vid. Strab. Lib. 9, and Plin. Lib.17. Cap.1.

[Non mensas sine te, &c.] Tibullus was equally averse with our Secundus to every felicity that his Neæra did not share with him:

From all the newly-open'd flow'rs
That bloom in Cecrops' roseate bow'rs,
Or from the breathing sweets that grow
On fam'd Hymettus' thymy brow :
But if such kisses you bestow,

If from your lips such raptures flow,
Thus blest! supremely blest by thee!
Ere long I must immortal be;

Must taste on earth those joys that wait
The banquets of celestial state.

Then cease thy bounty, dearest fair!
Such precious gifts, then spare! oh spare!
Or, if I must immortal prove,

Be thou immortal, too, my love!
For, should the heav'nly Pow'rs request
My presence at th' ambrosial feast;
Nay, should they Jove himself dethrone,
And yield to me his radiant crown;
I'd scorn it all, nor would I deign.
O'er golden realms of bliss to reign:

Sit mihi paupertas tecum, jucunda. Neæra ;
At sine te, regum munera nulla volo.

TIBULL. LIB. III. ELEG. 111.

Poor let me be; for poverty can please

With you; without you, crowns could give no ease.

GRAINGER.

Non, si me rutilis præesse regnis,
Excluso Jove, dii deæque cogant.

Mr. Stanley's translation of this kiss is elegantly concise, and harmonious enough, considering the age in which it was written: I shall therefore give it my readers entire, as a specimen of Mr. Stanley's version of the kisses of Secundus. 'Tis no kiss my fair bestows;

Nectar 'tis whence new life flows;
All the sweets which nimble bees
In their ozier treasuries

With unequall'd art repose,
In one kiss her lips disclose.
́These, if I should many take,
Soon would me immortal make,
Rais'd to the divine abodes,
And the banquets of the Gods.

Be not, then, too lavish, fair!
But this heav'nly treasure spare,
'Less thou'lt too immortal be:
For without thy companie,
What to me are the abodes,
Or the banquets of the gods?

Jove's radiant crown I'd scorn to wear,

Unless thou might'st such honours share ; Unless thou, too, with equal sway,

Might'st rule with me the realms of day.