OF PARNELL.
33
THE VIGIL OF VENUS.
WRITTEN IN THE TIME OF JULIUS CÆSAR, AND BY SOME
ASCRIBED TO CATULLUS.
Let those love now, who never lov'd before;
Let those who always lov'd, now love the more.
The spring, the new, the warbling spring appears,
The youthful season of reviving years;
In spring the loves enkindle mutual heats,
The feather'd nation choose their tuneful mates,
The trees grow fruitful with descending rain
And drest in differing greens adorn the plain.
She comes; to-morrow Beauty's empress roves
Through walks that winding run within the groves;
She twines the shooting myrtle into bowers,
And ties their meeting tops with wreaths of flowers,[1]
Let those who always lov'd, now love the more.
The spring, the new, the warbling spring appears,
The youthful season of reviving years;
In spring the loves enkindle mutual heats,
The feather'd nation choose their tuneful mates,
The trees grow fruitful with descending rain
And drest in differing greens adorn the plain.
She comes; to-morrow Beauty's empress roves
Through walks that winding run within the groves;
She twines the shooting myrtle into bowers,
And ties their meeting tops with wreaths of flowers,[1]
- ↑ PERVIGILIUM VENERIS.
Cras amet, qui numquam amavit; quique amavit, eras amet.
Ver novum, ver jam canorum: vere natus orbis est,
Vere concordant amores, vere nubent alites,
Et nemus comam resolvit de maritis imbribus.
Cras amorum copulatrix inter umbras arborum
Implicat gazas virentes de flagello myrteo.
I
