"this definition reaches." But, alas! the prefent imitator has come up to it, if not perhaps exceeded it. Sir John Denham had Virgil, and Mr. Cowley had Pindar, to deal with, who both wrote upon lasting foundations; but the present subject being Love, it would be unreasonable to think of too great a confinement to be laid on it. And though the paffion and grounds of it willcontinue the fame thro' all ages, yet there will be many little modes, fashions, and graces, ways of complaifance and addrefs, entertainments and diverfions, which time will vary. Since the world will expect new things, and perfons will write, and the Ancients have fo great a fund of learning, whom can the Moderns take better to copy than fuch origiInals? it is most likely they may not come up to them; but it is a thousand to one but their imitation is better than any clumfy invention of their own. Whoever undertakes this way of writing has as much reafon to understand the true fcope, genius, and force, of the expreffions of his author as a literal tranflator; and after all he lies under this misfortune, that the faults pare all his own; and if there is any thing that may -feem pardonable, the Latin at the bottom fhews to whom he is engaged for it*. An imitator and his

*In the first editions of The Art of Cookery and of The Art of Love Dr. King printed the original under the refpec tive pages of his translations.

author ftand much upon the fame terms as Ben does with his father in the comedy *:

What thof' he be my father? I an't bound 'prentice to 'en,

There were many reasons why the imitator transposed several verfes of Ovid, and has divided the whole into fourteen Parts rather than keep it in three books. These may be too tedious to be recited; but, among the reft, fome were, that matters of the fame fubject might lie more compa&; that too large a heap of precepts together might appear too burthenfome; and therefore (if fmall matters may allude to greater) as Virgil in his Georgicks, so here most of the parts end with fome remarkable fable, which carries with it fome moral: yet if any perfons please to take the fix first parts as the first book, and divide the eight laft, they may make three books of them again. There have by chance fome twenty lines crept into the Poem out of The Remedy of Love, which (as inanimate things are generally the most wayward and provoking) fince they would stay have been fuffered to stand there. But as for the Love here mentioned, it being all prudent, honourable, and virtuous, there is no need of any remedy to be prescribed for it but the speedy obtaining of what it defires. Should the imitator's ftyle feem not to be fufficiently restrained, should he * Congreve's Love for Love.

not have afforded pains for review or correction, let it be confidered that perhaps even in that he defired to imitate his author, and would not peruse them, left as fome of Ovid's works were, fo these might be committed to the flames: but he leaves that for the reader to do, if he pleases, when he has bought them.

PART I

WHOEVER Knows not what it is to love,
Let him but read these verses and improve.
Swift ships are rul'd by art, and oars, and fails;
Skill guides our chariots; wit o'er love prevails.
Automedon with reins let loofe could fly;
Tiphys with Argo's ship cut waves and sky.
In Loveaffairs I 'm charioteer of Truth,
And fureft pilot to incautious youth.
Love's hot, unruly, eager to enjoy;
But then confider he is but a boy.

Chiron with pleasing harp Achilles tam'd,

And his rough manners with soft mufick fram'd:
Tho' he'd in council storm, in battle rage,
He bore a fecret reverence for age.

10

Chiron's command with itrict obedience ties IS
The finewy arm by which brave Hector dies.
That was his tafk, but fiercer Love is mine:
They both are boys, and fprung from race divine.
The ftiffneck'd bull does to the yoke fubmit,
And the most fiery courfer champs the bit :
So Love fhall yield. I own I've been his slave,
But conquer'd where my enemy was brave;
And now he darts his flames without a wound,
And all his whistling arrows die in sound.

2

Nor will I raise my fame by hidden art;

In what I teach found reafon fhall have part:
For Nature's paffion cannot be destroy'd,

But moves in virtue's path when welt employ'd.
Yet ftill it will be convenient to remove

The tyranny and plagues of vulgar love.

25

30

May infant Chastity, grave matrons' pride,
A parent's wish, and blushes of a bride,

Protect this Work! so guard it, that no rhyme
In fyllable or thought may vent a crime!
The foldier that Love's armour would defy
Will find his greatest courage is to fly.
When Beauty's am'rous glances parley beat
The only conqueft then is to retreat;
But if the treach'rous fair pretend to yield,
'Tis prefent death unless you quit the field.

Whilft youth and vanity would make you range,
Think on fome beauty may prevent your change;
But fuch by falling fkies are never caught:

No happiness is found but what is fought.

35

40

The huntsman learns where does trip o'er the lawn, And where the foaming boar fecures his brawn: 46 The fowler's low bell robs the lark of fleep;

And they who hope for fish must search the deep:
And he that fuel feeks for chafte defire

Muft search where virtue may that flame inspire. 50
To foreign parts there is no need to roam;
The blefling may be met with nearer home.