BASIUM IX. NON semper udum da mihi basium, Limite proximiore ducit. Quum te rogabo ter tria basia; [Mensura rebus est, &c] Shakespeare expresses the same thought in the fatherly reproof of the old Friar to Romeo: These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die; like fire and powder, Which, as they meet, cousume. The sweetest honey Is loathsome in its own deliciousness, And in the taste confounds the appetite. SHAK. ROMEO AND JULIET. KISS IX. CEASE thy sweet, thy balmy Kisses; Cease thy many-wreathed smiles; Cease thy melting, murm'ring blisses; Cease thy fond bewitching wiles: On my bosom soft-reclin'd Cease to pour thy tender joys: Pleasure's limits are confin'd, Pleasure oft repeated cloys. Sparingly your bounty use ! Yet let These be neither long, E Utrumque nec longum, nec udum : Dat casta fratri! qualia dat patri Curre procul natitante planta: [Tu deme septem, &c.] All polite voluptuaries have ever admired these little wanton cruelties in their mistresses; thus Horace speaks with the greatest rapture of his Licymnia: Dum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula Cervicem, aut facili sævitiâ negat, Quæ poscente magis gaudeat eripi, HOR. LIB. II. ODE 12. While now her bending neck she plies Backward to meet the burning kiss; Then with an easy cruelty denies, And wishes you would snatch not ask the bliss. FRANCIS. Boileau's imitation of this passage of Horace is too beautiful to be denied a lace here, where he speaks of a kiss snatch'd from the lips of Iris: Qui mollement résiste, et par un doux caprice, Quelquefois le refuse, afin qu'on le ravisse. BOILEAU. Art Poetique. Chant. 11. [Natitante planta, &c.] Milton has a very happy ex pression similar to this in the following passage: Such as, with a sister's love, On the radiant Son of Jove, Tripping light, with wanton grace: And in some retired place Hide thee from my searching eye : Then in sportive am'rous play, Each recess I'll traverse o'er, Where I think thou liest conceal'd: Ev'ry covert I'll explore, So saying, by the hand he took me rais'd, Smooth-sliding without step, last led me up A woody mountain. MILTON. PAR. LOST. BOOK VIII. Et te remotis in penetralibus, In penetrale sequar repôstum ; Prædamque, victor fervidus, in meam Tu deprecantes victa dabis manus, Errabis;-illud crimen ut eluam, [Et te remotis, &c.] Cornelius Gallus mentions the same amorous dalliance: Erubuit vultus ipsa puella meos, Et nunc subridens latebras fugitiva petebat. CORN. GALL. At sight of me, deep blush'd the lovely maid, Then side-long laugh'd, and flying sought the shade. DUNKIN. 1 |