Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Cruel Compassion

By Aristaenetus (fl. 5th or 6th Century A.D.)

(Love Epistles, XXI; translated by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Nathaniel Brassey Halhed)

ARISTOMENES TO MYRONIDES THE GOD of the love-darting bow,
Whose bliss is man’s heart to destroy,
Oft contrives to embitter our woe
By a specious resemblance of joy.—
Long—long had Architeles sigh’d	5
The fair Telesippe to gain:
She coolly his passion denied,
Yet seem’d somewhat moved at his pain.
At length she consented to hear;
But ’twas done with a view to beguile:	10
For her terms were most harsh and severe,
And a frown was as good as her smile.
“You may freely,” says she, “touch my breast,
And kiss, while a kiss has its charms;
And (provided I am not undrest)	15
Encircle me round in your arms.
“In short, my favour you please,
But expect not, nor think of the last:
Lest enraged I revoke my decrees,
And your sentence of exile be cast.”—	20
“Be it so,” cried the youth, with delight,
“Thy pleasure, my fair one, is mine:
Since I’m blest as a prince at your sight,
Sure to touch thee, will make me divine.
“But why keep one favour alone,	25
And grant such a number beside?”—
“Because the men value the boon
But only so long as denied.
“They seek it with labour and pain;
When gain’d, throw it quickly away:	30
For youth is unsettled and vain,
And its choice scarce persists for a day.”
—Thus pines the poor victim away,
Forced to nibble and starve on a kiss;
Served worse than e’en eunuchs—for they	35
Can never feel torture like this.