Page:The works of Horace - Christopher Smart.djvu/91

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ode x.
ODES OF HORACE.
73

youth more favored was wont to fold his arms around thy snowy neck, I lived happier than the Persian monarch.[1]

Lydia. As long as thou hadst not a greater flame for any other, nor was Lydia below Chloe [in thine affections], I Lydia, of distinguished fame, flourished more eminent than the Roman Ilia.

Hor. The Thracian Chloe now commands me, skillful in sweet modulations, and a mistress of the lyre; for whom I would not dread to die, if the fates would spare her, my surviving soul.

Lyd. Calais, the son of the Thurian Ornitus, inflames me with a mutual fire; for whom I would twice endure to die, if the fates would spare my surviving youth.

Hor. What! if our former love returns, and unites by a brazen yoke us once parted? What if Chloe with her golden locks be shaken off, and the door again open to slighted Lydia.

Lyd. Though he is fairer than a star, thou of more levity than a cork, and more passionate than the blustering Adriatic; with thee I should love to live, with thee I would cheerfully die.


ODE X.

TO LYCE.

O Lyce, had you drunk from the remote Tanais, in a state of marriage with tome barbarian, yet you might be sorry to expose me, prostrate before your obdurate doors, to the north winds that have made those places their abode. Do you hear with what a noise your gate, with what [a noise] the grove, planted about your elegant buildings, rebellows to the winds? And how Jupiter glazes the settled snow with his bright influence? Lay aside disdain, offensive to Venus, lest your rope should run backward,[2] while the wheel is revolving. Your

  1. The kings of Persia, in the times of Horace, might more properly be called governors, as they were in subjection to the Parthians. The poet therefore means the ancient kings of Persia, such as Cyrus or Darius, who were called kings of kings; and whose riches and power gave birth to the proverb, "Happier than the king of Persia." Cruq.
  2. An allusion to some mechanical contrivance for raising heavy weights, and which consists of a wheel with a rope passing in a grove along its

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