For, when smiling youth is past, Age these tender joys shall blast: Sickness, which our bloom impairs ; Slow-consuming, painful cares; Death, with dire remorseless rage; All attend the steps of age.
QUALEM purpureo diffundit mane colorem
Quæ rosa nocturnis roribus immaduit:
Matutina rubent dominæ sic oscula nostræ
Basiolis, longá nocte, rigata meis.
Quæ circùm facies niveo candore coronat;
Virginis ut violum cùm tenet alba manus.
Tale novum seris cerasum sub floribus ardet ;
Estutemque, et ver cùm simul arbor habet.
Me miserum! quare, cùm flagrantissima jungis
Oscula, de thalamo cogor abire tuo?
[Tale novum seris, &c.] This simile bears no small resemblance to the following, which Ovid has in the story of Narcissus :
Dumque dolet, summâ vestem deduxit ab orâ,
Nudaque marmoreis percussit pectora palmis.
Pectora traxerunt tenuem percussa ruborem.
Non aliter, quam poma solent; quæ candida parte,
Parte rubent. Aut ut variis solet uva racemis
Ducere purpureum, nondum matura, colorem.
ROSES, refresh'd with nightly dew, display,
New beauties blushing to the dawn of day;
So, by the kisses of a rapt'rous night,
Thy vermil lips at morn blush doubly bright;
And from thy face, that's exquisitely fair,
That vermil brightness seems more bright t'appear:
Deep-purpled vi'lets thus a deeper glow,
Held in some virgin's snowy hand, will show;
And early-rip'ning cherries thus assume,
Mid the late blossoms, a superior bloom;
When spring and summer boast united pow'r,
At once producing both the fruit and flow'r.
But why, when most thy kisses fire my heart,
Why, from th' endearing transport must I part
Then, as he wept, he tore away his vest,
And smote with marble hands his naked breast;
His breast, where printed with each frantic blow,
In stains of deep'ning red began to glow:
So apples shew, one white unripen'd side
Contrasting one with streaky crimson dy'd ;-
So clust'ring grapes with partial purple shine,
Ere autumn well matures the loaded vine.
O saltem, labris serva hunc, formosa, ruborem ;
Dum tibi me referet noctis opaca quies !
Si tamem interea cujusquam basia carpent,
Illa meis fiant pallidiora genis.
[Illa meis fiant pallidiora genis.] i. e. paler than my cheeks shall become at seeing this evident testimony of infidelity, viz. your lips losing their rosy colour. The idea of infidelity's being punished by some failure of beauty is also Horace's:
Ulla si juris tibi pejerati
Pona, Barine, nocuisset unquam :
Dente si nigro fieres, vel uno
Turpior ungui;
If ever injur'd pow'r had shed
The slightest vengeance on thy head,
If but a nail or tooth of thee
Were blacken'd by thy perjury,
Again thy falshood might deceive,
And I the faithless vow believe.
And thus Ovid to the same purpose:
Esse Deos credamne?-fidem jurata fefellit,
Et facies illi, quæ fuit ante, manet.
Quam longos habuit, nondum perjura, capillos,
Tanı longos, postquam numina læsit, habet.
OVID. AMOR. LIB. 111. ELEG. III.
Can there be Gods?—the perjur'd fair-one swore
Yet looks as lovely as she look'd before.
Long flow'd the careless tresses of her hair,
While yet she shone as innocent as fair;
Long flow the tresses of the wanton now,
And sport as trophies of her broken vow.
Oh! let that crimson on those lips remain
Till ev'ning brings me to thy arms again :
Yet should those lips ere then some rival bless,
Some youth whom thou in secret shalt caress;
Then may they cease for ever to disclose
That beauteous blush, which emulates the rose !
Then paler turn, than my pale cheek shall prove,
Whene'er I view this mark of faithless love!
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