 | Ouids elegies |  |
The same [Elegia 15.] by B. I.
Enuie, why twitst thou me, my time's spent ill?And call'st my verse fruites of an idle quil?
Or that (vnlike the line from whence I sprong)
VVars dusty honors I pursue not young?
Or that I study not the tedious Lawes;
And prostitute my voyce in euery cause?
Thy scope is mortal; mine eternal Fame,
VVhich through the world shal euer chaunt my name.
Homer wil liue, whilst Tenedos stands, and Ide,
Or to the Sea, fleete Symois doth slide:
And so shall Hesiod too, while vines do beare,
Or crooked sickles crop the ripened eare,
Callamichus, though in Inuention lowe,
No losse shall come to Sophocles proude vaine,
With Sunne and Moone Aratus shall remaine.
Whil'st Slaues be false, Fathers hard, & Bauds be whorish,
VVhil'st Harlots flatter, shall Menander florish.
Ennius, though rude, and Accius high-reard straine,
A fresh applause in euery age shall gaine,
Of Varro's name, what eare shall not be told?
Of Iasons Argo? and the Fleece of gold?
Then, shall Lucretius lofty numbers die,
VVhen Earth, and Seas in fire and flames shall frie.
Titirus, Tillage, Æney shall be read,
Whil'st Rome of all the conquer'd world is head,
Till Cupids fires be out, and his bow broken,
Thy verses (neate Tibullus) shall be spoken.
Our Gallus shall be knowne from East to west,
So shall Licoris, whom he now loues best.
The suffering Plough-share or the flint may weare,
But heauenly Poesie no death can feare.
Kings shall giue place to it, and Kingly showes,
The bankes ore which gold-bearing Tagus flowes.
Kneele hindes to trash: me let bright Phœbus swell,
With cups full flowing from the Muses well.
The frost-drad mirtle shall impale my head,
And of sad louers I'le be often read.
“Enuy the liuing, not the dead doth bite,
“for after death all men receiue their right,
Then when this body falls in funerall fire,
My name shall liue, and my best part aspire.
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