On which the Getes and Sauramates confine My nature does not with the soile agree The air and water does seem strange to me My shelter poor my diet here is bad No health-estoring physick can be had No friend to comfort me who will assay With some discourse to pass the time away But here upon my bed of sickness cast I think of many things which now are past And thou my dearest wife above the rest Dost hold the chiefest place within my breast Thy absent name is mentiond still by me And every day and night I think on thee Sometimes I speak things without sense or wit That I may name thee in my frantick fit If I should swound and that no heating wine Could give life to this faultring tongue of mine To hear of thy approach would make me live Thy very presence would new vigor give Thus I most doubtful of life an grown But thou perhaps liv'st merrily at home No I dare say that thou my dearest wife Dost in my absence lead a mourning life Yet if the number of my years de done And that my hasty thread of life is spun You Gods you might with ease have let me have Within my native land a happy grave If that you would have let my death prevent My fatal journey unto banishment Then had I dy'd in my integrity But now I here a banish'd man must dye And shall I here resigne my weary breath The place makes me unhappy in my death Upon my bed I shall not fall asleep And none upon my Coffin here shall weep Nor shall my wives tears while that they do fall Upon my face me unto life recal I shall not make my will nor with sad cries No friendly hand shall close my dying eies Without a Tomb or Funeral I shall be While as the barbarous earth doth cover me Which when thou hearest be not with grief opprest Nor do not thou for sorrow beat thy breast Why shoudst thou wring thy tender hands in vain Or call upon thy wretched husbands name Tear not thy cheeks nor cut thy hair for me For I am not good wife now took from thee When I was banisht then I dy'd alass For banishment then death more heavy was Now I would have thee to rejoyce good wife Since all my grief is ended with my life And bear thy sorrows with a valiant heart Mis-haps have taught thee how to play thy part And with my body may my soul expire That so no part may scape the greedy fire For if to Pythagoras we may credit give Who saith the soul eternally doth live My soul ' mongst the Sarmatick shades shall stray And to the cruel ghosts ne'r find the way Yet let my ashes be put in an Urn So being dead I shall again return This lawful is the Theban being dead His loving sister saw him buried And let sweet powders round my bones be laid And so into some secret place convey'd Graving these Verses on a Marble stone In Letters to be read by every one I Ovid that did write of wanton Love Lye here my Verse my ' overthrow did prove Thou that hast been in Love and passest by Pray still that Ovids bones may softly lye This Epitaph shall suffice since my books be A far more lasting Monument to me Which though they hurt me yet shall raise my name And give their Authour everlasting fame Yet let thy love in Funoral gifts be shew'd And bring sweet Garland with thy tears be-dew'd Those ashes which the funeral fire shall leave Will in their Urn thy pious love perceive More would I write but that my voyce is spent Nor can my dry tongue speak what I invent Then take my last words to thee live in health Which though I send to thee I want my self ELEGIE IV. Ovid doth his friend advise A life of greatness to despise Since Thunder doth the hill assail While quiet peace lives in the vale MY always dearest friend but then most known When I by adverse Fortune was o're-thrown If thou wilt take the Counsel of a friend Live to thy self do not too high ascend Since Thunder from the highest Tower doth come Live to thy self and glittering titles shun For though the beams of greatness may us warm Yet greatest men have greatest power to harm The naked sail-yard sears no storms at all And greater sails more dangerous are then small The floating Cork upon the waves doth swim While heavy Lead doth sink the Net therein Of these things had some friend admonisht me Perhaps I had been still at Rome with thee While as a gentle wind did drive me on My boat through quiet streams did run along He that by chance doth fall upon the plain He falleth so that he may rise again But when Elpenor fron a high house fell His ghost went down to Pluto King of Hell Though Daedalus his wings did him sustain Yet falling Icarus gave the Sea his name Because that he flew high the other low While both of them their wings abroad did throw The man that unto solitude is bent Doth live most happy if he be content Eumenes of his Son was not deprived Until that he Achilles Horses guided And Phaethon had not dyed in the flame If that his Father could his will restrain Then fear thou still to take the higher way And in thy course draw in thy sails I pray Thou worthy art to live most fortunate And to enjoy a candid happy fate Thy gentle love deserves this praise of mine Since thou didst cleave to me in every time I saw how that thy grief for me was shown Even in thy looks most like unto my own I saw thy tears which on my face did fall And with my tears I drunk thy words withal Now to thy absent friend thou yield'st relief Thereby to lighten this my heavy grief Live thou unenvy'd honour crown thy end For thou art worthy of a noble friend And love thy Ovid's name which cannot be Banisht though Scythia now containeth me For me a land near to the Bear doth hold Whereas the earth is frozen up with cold Here Bosphorus and Tanais do remain And places which have scarcely any name Unhabitable cold doth dwell beyond For I am near unto the farthest land My Country and my wife are absent far And with them two all things that dearest are Yet though with them I cannot present be Within my fancy I their shape do see My house the City stand before my eies And all my actions in their place do rise My wif es dear Image doth it self present Which doth increase and lighten discontent Her absence grieveth me but then again My comfort is she constant doth remain And you my friends do cleave unto my breast Whose names I wish by me might be exprest But wary fear doth my desire restrain And you I think do even wish the same For though that heretofore you pleased were When as your names did in my Verse appear Yet now I le talk
Gods more favourable were Yet now their just deserved wrath I feare The fearful Dove once struck still after springs When she doth hear the Hawks large spreading wings And from the fold the Lamb dare never stray That from the Wolf hath gotten once away Nor would young Phaeton desire to drive His Fathers steeds if be were now alive So having felt great Joves devouring flame I am afraip I should be struck again He that was in the Grecian fleet before Will bend his sails from the Euboean shore And so my weather-beaten bark doth shun That place from whence the furious storm begun Therefore be wisely circumspect take heed It is enough if thee the people read While Icarus flew too high with waxen plumes The Icarian Seas from him their name assumes Yet it is hard to councel in this action Since time and place will give thee best direction For if thou see that Caesars wrath be spent And that his anger is to mildness bent Or if some Courtier thee to Caesar show And speake to him in thy behalf then go With lucky stars and bring me some relief To lighten this my heavy weight of grief For he by whom I did these wounds obtain Can like Achilles spear cure them again But take heed least thou do dis-favour find My hopes are small and fears perplex my mind Lest I another punishment obtain If thou do move his new-calm'd wrath again But when into my study thou dost get And there upon the little shelves art set There thou shalt see thy other brothers stand Brought all to life by one life-giving hand The rest are by their paper titles known Whose written names are on their fore-head shown Three other books thou shalt likewise discern Teaching loves Art which every one can learn But shun them and if thou bast so much breath Tell them that Oedipus was his fathers death And if thy parents words have power to move Love none of those although they teach to love Fifteen volumes of changed shapes there lies Which were of late snatch't from my obsequies Bid them among their changed shapes relate The sad change of my Fortune and estate For she 's unlike to what she was before Once happy now my fate I must deplore I have more precepts to give thee in charge But that my words thy staying would enlarge And should'st thou carry all my thoughts with thee A burthen to thy bearer thou would'st be 'T is far make hast while here I live alone Within a Land far distant from my home ELEGIE II. While fear of Shipwrack all amaze He to the Gods devoutly prayes Describes the tempest and his fear At last the Gods his prayers hear YE Gods of Seas for what remains but prayer Be pleas'd at last our beaten bark to spare Be not offended all for Caesars sake One God enrag'd some other pitty take Mars hated Troy Apollo did defend The Trojans and farr Venus was their is friend And though that Juno Turnus did respect Yet Venus did Aeneas still protect Though Neptune still Ulysses ruine sought Yet him Minerva unto barbour brought And though to them we far inferiour be One God displeas'd some power may pleased be But yet alas it is in vain to spake Since on my face the angry waves do break And now the southern winds so cruel are The will not let the Gods even hear my prayer But coupling mischiefs with their ruffling gales They take away my prayers and drive our sails The waves like mountains now are rowled on Which even seem to touch the starry Throne And by and by deep vallies do appear As if that hell it self dissolved were Nothing but air and water can I see And both of them do seem to threaten me Whiles divers winds their forces do display The sea is doubtful which he should obey For now the winds comes from the purple cast And so again it bloweth from the west Then Boreas flies out from the Northern Wain While Southern winds do beat him back again Our Pilot knew not whither he should steer Are fails him lost in his amazed fear Perish we must all hope of life is past And while I spake the angry billows flash'd Into my face and with their waves did fill My mouth while I continued praying still I know my wife at home doth now lament And grieve to thimk upon my banishment Yet knows she not how I am tossed here And little thinks she that I am so near Unto my death and were she here with me My grief for her a second death would be Now though I dye yet while that she is safe I shall survive in her my other half But now quick lightning breaketh through the Cloud And following Thunder roareth out aloud And now the waves upon the ship do beat Like bullets and as one wave doth retreat Another comes that doth exceed the rest And thus their fury is by turns exprest I fear not death yet I do grieve that I Should here by Shipwrack in this manner dye Happy is he whom sickness doth invade Whose body in the solid earth is lade And having made his will in his grave may rest Nor shall the fishes on his body feast And yet suppose my death deserved be Shall all the rest be punisht here for me O ye green Gods who do the Sea command Take off from us your heavy threatning hand And let me bear this wretched life of mine Unto that place which Caesar did assign If you desire with death to punish me My fault was Judg'd not worthy death to be Had Caesar meant to take my life away He need not use your help who all do sway For if that he do please my bloud to spill My life is but a tenure at his will But you whom I did never yet offend Have pity on me and to mercy bend For though you save me in this great distress Yet you shall see my ruine ne're the less And if the windes and seas did favour me I should no lest a banish'd man still be I am not greedy riches to obtain Nor do I plough the sea in hope of gain I go not to Athens where I once have been Or Asian towns which I have never seen Nor unto Alexandria do I go To see how Nilus seven streams do flow I wish a gentle wind which may so stand To bring me safe to the Sarmatian Land And though to the shoares of Pontus I am sent I now complain of tardie banishment And though to Tomos I am sent away Yet for a speedy passage I do pray Then if you love me calme the angry seas And gently guide our ship if so you please Or if you hate me bring me to that Land Where death even for my punishment may stand Then bear me hence you windes what do I here Or why doth Italy in sight appear Why stay you me who am by Caesar sent Unto the Pontick land to banishment Which I deserv'd nor dare I to defend That
thy crosses Weep for my fall to weep is some relief For chat doth case and carry out our grief And would thou couldst lament my death not life That so by death I might have left my Wife Then in my Country I had died and dead Thy tears upon my Corps had then been shed And thou hadst clos'd my eyes up with thy hand While looking unto Heaven they did stand In an ancient Tomb my ashes had been spread And had been buried where I first was bred Lastly I then had died without blame But now my banishment is to me a shame Yet wretched am I if thou blushest then When thou art call'd wife to a banisht man Wretched am I if thou that name decline Wretched am I if thou sham'st to be mine Where is that tâ—…e wherein thou took'st a pride In Ovids Name and to be Ovids bride Where is that time wherein these words you spake That you in being mine did pleasure take Like a good wife in me you did delight And love encreas'd my value in your sight And unto you so precious was I then That you preferred me before all men Then think it no disgrace that thou art nam'd My wife for which thou maist be griev'd not sham'd When rash Capaneus the wart did fall Evadne blusht not at his fault at all Though Jupiter did fire with fire suppress Yet Phaeton was beloved ne're the less And Semele did not lose old Cadmus love Because she perish'd by her sure to Jove Then since that I am strucken with Joves flame Let not a crimson blush thy fair check stain But with fresh courage rather mc defend That for a good wife I may thee commend Shew now thy vertue in adversity The way to glory through hard waies doth lie Who would talk of Hector had Troy happy been For vertue in adversity is seen Typhis Are fails when no waves are seen In health Apollo's are hath no esteem That vertus which before time lay conceal'd In trouble doth appear and is reveal'd My fortune gives thee scope to raise thy fame And by thy vertue to advance thy name Then use the time for these unhappy daies Do open a fair way for to get praise ELEGIE IV. We writes to his friend in his distress Whose name by signs he doth express O Friend though thou a Gentleman art born Yet thou by vertue dost thy birth adorn Thy Fathers courtesie shineth in thy mind And yet this courtesie is with courage joyn'd In thee thy Fathers Eloquence doth dwell Whom none could in the Roman Court excel Then since by signes I am enforc'd to name thee I hope for praising you you will hot blame me 'T is not my fault your gifts do it proclaim Be what you seem and I deserve no blame Besides my love in verse exprest I trust Shall not harme thee since Caesar is most just Our Countries Father and so mild that he Suffers his name within my verse to be Nor can he now forbid it if he would Caesar it publick and a common good Jupiter sometimes lets the Poets praise His acts that so their wits his deeds may raise Thy case by two examples good doth seem The one believ'd a God the other seen Or else I 'le take the fault and to it stand To say my Letter was not in thy hand Nor thus by writing have I newly err'd With whom by words I often have conferr'd Then friend lest thou be blam'd thou need'st not fear For it is I that must the envy bear For if you 'l not dissemble a known truth I lov'd your Father even from my youth And you know how he did approve my wit More than in my own judgement I thought fit And oftentimes he would speak of my verse And grace them while he did the same rehearse Nor do I give these fair words unto thee But to thy Father who first loved me Nor do I flatter since my lives acts past I can defend except it be the last And yet my fault no wicked crime can be If that my griefs be not unknown to thee It was an errour brought me to this state Then suffer me now to forget my fare Break not my wounds which yet scarce dosed are Since rest it self can hardly help my care And though to suffer justly lam thought There was no wicked purpose in my fault Which Caesar knowing suffer'd me to live Nor to another my goods did be give And this same banishment perhaps shall cease When length of time his anger shall appease And now I pray he would me hence remove If this request would not immodest prove To some more quiet banishment where I Might live far from the cruel enemy Ana such is Caesars clemency that he Would grant it if some askt this boon for me The shores of th' Euxine Sea do me contain Which heretofore the Axine they did name The seas are tossed with a blustring wind Nor can strange ships any safe harbour find And round about bloud-eating men do live Thus sea and land do equal terrour give Not far off stands that cursed Altar where All strangers to Diana offered were These bloudy kingdoms once King Thoas had Not envi'd nor desir'd they were so bad Here the fair Epigenia did devise To please her Goddess with this sacrifice Whither as soon as mad Orestes came Tormented with his own distracted brain And Phoceus with him his companion Who two in body were in mind but one To this sad Altar they were bound which stood Before a pair of gates imbru'd with bloud Yet in themselves no fear of death they had But one friend for the others death was sad The Priest with Faulthion drawn stood ready there With a course fillet bound about his hair But when she knew her Brothers voice she came And did embrace him that should have been slain And being glad she left the place and then She chang'd the rites which Dian did contemn Unto this farthest region I am come Which even Gods and men do likewise shun These barbarous rites near my country are maintain'd If a barbarous country may be Ovid's Land May those winds bear me back which took Orestes hence When Caesar is appeas'd for my offence ELEGIE V. His grief to his friend he doth reveal Whose name he on purpose doth conceal O Chiefest friend ' mongst those were lov'd of me The only sanctuary to my misery By whose sweet speech my soul reviv'd again As oyle pour'd in revives the watching flame Who didst not fear a faithful port to open And refuge to my ship with Thunder broken With whose revenues I supply'd should be If Caesar had took my own goods from me While violence of the time doth carry me Thy name 's almost slipt out of memory Yet thou dost know'r and touched with the flame Of praise dost wish thou mightst thy self proclaim If thou wouldst suffer it I thy name would give And make them that they should thy fame believe I fear my grateful verse should
Sometimes I lanch'd into the deeper main And in six books Romes holidaies have shew'd Where with the Month each Volume doth conclude And to thy sacred name did dedicate That work though left unperfect by my fate Besides I stately Tragedies have writ And with high words the Tragick stile did fit Besides of changed shapes my muse did chant Though they my last life-giving hand did want And would thy anger were but so appeas'd As that to read my verse thou wouldst be pleas'd My verse where from the infant birth of things My Muse her work unto thy own time brings Thou shouldst behold the strength of every line Wherein I strive to praise both thee and thine Nor are my verses mingled so with gall As that my lines should be Satyrical Amongst the vulger people none yet found Themselves once touch'd my Muse my self doth wound Therefore each generous mind I do believe Will not rejoyce but at my ill fare grieve Nor yet will triumph o're my wretched state Who ne're was proud even in my better fate O therefore let these reasons change thy mind That in distress I may thy favour find Not to return though that perhaps may be When thou in time at last maist pardon me But I intreat thee to remove me hence To safer exile fitting my offence LIB 3. The Book doth to the Reader shew That he it loath to come to view And tels how he was entertain'd By some while others him disdain'd I Am that Book who fearfully do come Even from a banisht man to visit Rome And coming weary from a foraign land Good Reader let me rest within thy hand Do not thou fear or be asham'd of me Since no love verses in this paper be My Master now by fortune is opprest It is no time for him to write in jest Though in his youth he had a wanton vein Yet now he doth condemn that work again Behold here 's nothing but sad mourning lines So that my verse agreeth with his times And that my second verse is lame in strength Short feet do cause it or the journies length Nor are my rough leaves cover'd o're with yellow For I my authors fortune mean to follow And though some blots my clearer letters stain Know that my authors toars did make the same If thou my language scarcely understand Know that he writ me in a barbarous land Therefore good Reader teach me where to go Some place of rest unto a strange book show This having said with words which grief made slow One ready was the way to me to show I thankt him and did pray the Gods that he Might like my Master never banisht be Lead on and I will follow by thy hand Though I am tir'd with passing sea and land He did consent and as we went quoth he This is the holy street which thou dost see Here 's Vestaes Temple that keeps holy fire Here Numa's lofty pallace doth aspire Here is Evanders gate and now you come Unto that place where they first builded Rome And then quoth I this is the house of Jove This oaken crown doth my conjecture prove He told me it was Caesars nay then quoth I I see great Jove dwels here in Majesty Yet why doth Bayes upon the gates appear And thus incircle Caesars statue here In it because his house doth merit praise And is beloved of the God of Bayes Or doth it now denote a Festival In token of that peace he gives to all Or as the Lawrel evermore is green So still his house most flourishing hath been Or do those letters on the wreath engrav'd Shew that that City by his power was sav'd Oh Caesar save one Citizen at last Who now into the utmost world is cast Where he sad punishment doth still sustain Which he by errour only did obtain Alass while I view Caesars pallace here My letters seem to quake with trembling fear Dost thou not see my paper does look pale And how my trembling feet begin to fail I pray that this same house which now I see May to my master reconciled be From thence we to Apollo's Temple went To which by steps there is a fair ascent Where stand the signes in fair outlandish stone Of Belus and of Palamed the sonne There ancient books and those that are more new Do all lye open to the readers view I sought my brethren there excepting them Whose hapless birth my father doth condemn And as I sought the chief man of that place Bid me be gone out of that holy space I went to Temples to the Theater-joyn'd But here no entertainment could I finde Nor could I come unto the outward yard Which unto learned books is not debar'd We are heirs unto mis-fortune by descent And we his children suffer banishment Perhaps when time doth Caesar's wrath subdue He will to him and us some favour shew Since for the peoples help I do not care O Caesar hearken to my earnest prayer Since publick stalls are unto me deny'd In private corners I my self may hide And you Plebeians take in hand again My verses which you once repuls'd with shame ELEGIE II. In Swan-like tunes he doth deplore His exile and knocks at the door Of death desiring hasty fare His wretched life would terminate WAs it my fate that I should Scythia see And the land whose Zenith is the Axle-tree And would not you sweet Muses nor Apollo Help me who did your holy rites still follow Could not my hamless verses me excuse And life more serious then jesting Muse But that I must when I the seas had past Unto the Pontick land be brought at last And I that still my self from care with-drew Loving soft ease and no rough labour knew Having past great dangers both by sea and land Here worst of miseries is by me sustain'd Yet I endure these evils for I find My body doth receive strength from my mind And in my passage to my sad exile I with my studie did my cares beguile But when I did my journies end attain And that unto the hated shore I came Then from mine eyes a shower of tears did flow Like water runing from the melted snow And then my house and Rome comes in my mind And every thing that I had left behind Alass that I should knock still at the grave To be let in yet can no entrance have Why have I still escaped from the sword Could not the sea to me a death afford You Gods who constant are in your just ire And do with Caesar in revenge conspire I do beseech you hasten on my fate And bid death open unto me the gate ELEGIE III. He lets his wise here understand Of his sickness in a forraign land Then writes his Epitaph with intent To make his Books his monument THat this my Letter by a strangers hand Is writ the cause my sickness understand For in the worlds remotest part I lye Sick and uncertain of recovery What comfort can within that climate shine