_He tells a husband who does not care for his wife to watch her a
little more carefully._
|If, fool, thou dost not need the fair to be well watched; still have
her watched for my sake: that I may be pleased with her the more. What
one may have is worthless; what one may not have, gives the more edge to
the desires. If a man falls in love with that which another permits him
_to love_, he is a man without feeling. Let us that love, both hope and
fear in equal degree; and let an occasional repulse make room for our
desires.
Why should I _think of_ Fortune, should she never care to deceive me? I
value nothing that does not sometimes cause me pain. The clever Corinna
saw this failing in me; and she cunningly found out the means by which
I might be enthralled. Oh, how many a time, feigning a pain in her head
[485] that was quite well, has she ordered me, as I lingered with tardy
foot, to take my departure! Oh, how many a time has she feigned a fault,
and guilty _herself,_ has made there to be an appearance of innocence,
just as she pleased! When thus she had tormented me and had rekindled
the languid flame, again was she kind and obliging to my wishes. What
caresses, what delightful words did she have ready for me! What kisses,
ye great Gods, and how many, used she to give me!
You, too, who have so lately ravished my eyes, often stand in dread of
treachery, often, when entreated, refuse; and let me, lying prostrate
on the threshold before your door-posts, endure the prolonged cold
throughout the frosty night. Thus is my love made lasting, and it grows
up in lengthened experience; this is for my advantage, this forms food
for my affection. A surfeit of love, [486] and facilities too great,
become a cause of weariness to me, just as sweet food cloys the
appetite. If the brazen tower had never enclosed Danaë, [487] Danaë had
never been made a mother by Jove. While Juno is watching Io 'with her
curving horns, she becomes still more pleasing to Jove than she has been
_before_.
Whoever desires what he may have, and what is easily obtained, let him
pluck leaves from the trees, and take water from the ample stream. If
any damsel wishes long to hold her sway, let her play with her lover.
Alas! that I, myself, am tormented through my own advice. Let _constant_
indulgence be the lot of whom it may, it does injury to me: that which
pursues, _from it_ I fly; that which flies, I ever pursue. But do thou,
too sure of the beauteous fair, begin now at nightfall to close thy
house. Begin to enquire who it is that so often stealthily paces thy
threshold? Why, _too_, the dogs bark [488] in the silent night. Whither
the careful handmaid is carrying, or whence bringing back, the tablets?
Why so oft she lies in her couch apart? Let this anxiety sometimes gnaw
into thy very marrow; and give some scope and some opportunity for my
stratagems.
If one could fall in love with the wife of a fool, that man could rob
the barren sea-shore of its sand. And now I give thee notice; unless
thou begin to watch this fair, she shall begin to cease to be a flame
of mine. I have put up with much, and that for a long time; I have often
hoped that it would come to pass, that I should adroitly deceive thee,
when thou hadst watched her well. Thou art careless, and dost endure
what should be endured by no husband; but an end there shall be of an
amour that is allowed to me. And shall I then, to my sorrow, forsooth,
never be forbidden admission? Will it ever be night for me, with no
one for an avenger? Am I to dread nothing? Shall I heave no sighs in my
sleep? What have I to do with one so easy, what with such a pander of
a husband? By thy own faultiness thou dost mar my joys. Why, then, dost
thou not choose some one else, for so great long-suffering to please? If
it pleases thee for me to be thy rival, forbid me _to be so_.----