CYNTHIA'S POET.
161
More amusing, perhaps, than most of his expressions of poetic solicitude for this volatile flame of his, is the elegy he indites to her, when she has taken it into her head to run down to the fashionable watering-place of Baiæ, where his jealousy no doubt saw rocks ahead, though he is careful to disown any suspicions as to her conduct, and only urges in general terms that the place is dangerous. Here is his delicate caution in the eleventh elegy of the first book:—
"When thou to lounge 'mid Baiæ's haunts art fain,
Near road first tracked by toiling Hercules,
Admiring now Thesprotus' old domain,
Now famed Misenum, hanging o'er the seas;
Near road first tracked by toiling Hercules,
Admiring now Thesprotus' old domain,
Now famed Misenum, hanging o'er the seas;
Say, dost thou care for me, who watch alone?
In thy love's corner hast thou room to spare?
Or have my lays from thy remembrance flown,
Some treacherous stranger finding harbour there?
In thy love's corner hast thou room to spare?
Or have my lays from thy remembrance flown,
Some treacherous stranger finding harbour there?
Rather I'd deem that, trusting tiny oar,
Thou guidest slender skiff in Lucrine wave;
Or in a sheltered creek, by Teuthras' shore,
Dost cleave thy bath, as in lone ocean cave,
Thou guidest slender skiff in Lucrine wave;
Or in a sheltered creek, by Teuthras' shore,
Dost cleave thy bath, as in lone ocean cave,
Than for seductive whispers leisure find,
Reclining softly on the silent sand,
And mutual gods clean banish from thy mind,
As flirt is wont, no chaperon near at hand.
Reclining softly on the silent sand,
And mutual gods clean banish from thy mind,
As flirt is wont, no chaperon near at hand.
I know, of course, thy blameless character,
Yet in thy fond behalf all court I fear,
Ah! pardon if my verse thy choler stir,
Blame but my jealous care for one so dear.
Yet in thy fond behalf all court I fear,
Ah! pardon if my verse thy choler stir,
Blame but my jealous care for one so dear.
