Kitap 1
Love sparkles in the cup and fills it higher;
Wine feeds the flames, and fuel adds to fire.
But choose no mistress in thy drunken fit;
Wine gilds too much their beauties and their wit.
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Nor trust thy judgment when the tapers dance;The night is an ill time to choose a mistress in. We have a saying in England, "Women and linen look best by candle-light."
But sober, and by day thy suit advance.
By daylight Paris judg'd the beauteous three;The Phrygian shepherd, to judge the beauty of these three goddesses demanded to see them naked; and the goddess were so eager to have the question decided by him, that they made no scruple to satisfy his demands.
And for the fairest did the prize decree.
Night is a cheat, and all deformities
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Are hid, or lessen'd, in her dark disguise.
The sun's fair light each error will confess,
In face, in shape, in jewels, and in dress.
Why name I ev'ry place where youths abound?
'Tis loss of time; and a true fruitful ground.
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The Baian baths, where ships at anchor ride,
And wholesome streams from sulphur fountains glide;
Where wounded youths are by experience taught,
The waters are less healthful than they thought,
Or Dian's fane, which near the suburb lies;This temple was in the neighbourhood of Rome, in a valley, where there is also a sacred wood. There were abundance of candles used in it, as we read in Ovid de Fastis.
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Where priests, for their promotion, fight a prize.The sovereign priest of Diana, Aricina, called himself king, and often got that dignity by gaining the better of his opponent in single combat.
