 | Ouids elegies |  |
ELEGIA. 15. Adinuidos, quod fama poetarum sit perennis.
Enuie why carpest thou my time is spent so ill,And termst my workes fruites of an idle quill.
Or that vnlike the line from whence I come,
Warres rusty honours are refus'd being young.
Nor that I study not the brawling Lawes,
Nor set my voyce to sale in euery cause,
Thy scope is mortall, mine eternal fame,
That all the World may euer chaunt thy name.
Homer shall liue while Tenedos stands and Ide,
Or into Sea swift Symois doth slide.
Ascraus liues, while grapes with new wine swel,
Or men with crooked sickles corne downe fel.
The World shal of Callamichus euer speake,
His Arte exceld, although his wit was weake.
For euer lasts high Sophocles proud vaine,
With Sunne and Moone, Aratus shall remaine.
While bond-men cheate, fathers hoord, bawds whorish,
And strumpets flatter, shal Menander flourish.
Rude Ennius and Plautus full of wit,
Are both in fames eternal Legend writ.
What age of Varroes name shal not be told,
And Iasons Argos and the fleece of gold,
Lofty Luereticus shall liue that houre,
That nature shal dissolue this earthly bower.
Æneas warre, and Tityrus shall be read,
While Rome of all the conquered world is head,
Thy verses sweet Tybullus shall be spoken.
And Gallus shall be knowne from East to VVest,
So shall Lycoris whom hee loued best.
Therefore when Flint and Iron weare away,
Verse is immortall, and shal nere decay.
To Verse let Kings giue place, and Kingly showes,
And banks ore which gold-bearing Tagus flowes.
Let base conceited witts admire vilde things,
Faire Phœbus lead me to the Muses springs.
About my head be quiuering mirtle wound,
And in sad Louers heads let me be found.
The Liuing, not the Dead can enuy bite,
For after Death all men receiue their right.
Then though Death rakes my bones in funeral fire,
Ile liue, and as he puls me downe mount higher.
| Ouids elegies | |