winds—whispers anear, Disguising her voice in the Zephyr's—"So secret the bed! And thou shy?" 15 She, she, thro' the hush'd humid Midsummer night draws the dew from on high; Dew bright with the tears of its origin, dew with its weight on the bough,

Gutta præceps orbe parvo sustinet casus suos. En, pudorem florulentæ prodiderunt purpuræ: Umor ille quern serenis astra rorant noctibus 20 Mane virgineas papillas solvit umenti peplo. Ipsa jussit mane ut udas virgines nubant rosæ; Fusa Paphies de cruore deque Amoris osculis Deque gemmis deque flammis deque solis purpuris, Cras ruborem qui latebat veste tectus ignea 25 Unico marita nodo non pudebit solvere. Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet.

Misdoubting and clinging and trembling—"Now, now must I fall? Is it now?" Star-fleck'd on the stem of the brier as it gathers and falters and flows, Lo! its trail runs a ripple of fire on the nipple it bids be a rose, 20 Yet englobes it diaphanous, veil upon veil in a tiffany drawn To bedrape the small virginal breasts yet unripe for the spousal of dawn; Till the vein'd very vermeil of Venus, till Cupid's incarnadine kiss, Till the ray of the ruby, the sunrise, ensanguine the bath of her bliss; Till the wimple her bosom uncover, a tissue of fire to the view, 25 And the zone o'er the wrists of the lover slip down as they reach to undo. Now learn ye to love who loved never—now ye who have loved, love anew!

Ipsa nymphas diva luco jussit ire myrteo: It puer comes puellis. Nee tamen credi potest Esse Amorem feriatum, si sagittas vexerit. 30 Ite, nymphæ, posuit arma, feriatus est Amor; Jussus est inermis ire, nudus ire jussus est, Neu quid arcu, neu sagitta, neu quid igne Iæderet; Sed tamen nymphse cavete, quod Cupido pulcher est; Est in armis totus idem quando nudus est Amor! 35

Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit eras amet.

Conpari Venus pudore mittit ad te virgines:

"Go, maidens," Our Lady commands, "while the myrtle is green in the groves, Take the Boy to your escort." "But ah!" cry the maidens, "what trust is in Love's Keeping holiday too, while he weareth his archery, tools of his trade?" 30 "Go! he lays them aside, an apprentice released; ye may wend unafraid. See, I bid him disarm, he disarms; mother-naked I bid him to go, And he goes mother-naked. What flame can he shoot without arrow or bow?" Yet beware ye of Cupid, ye maidens! Beware most of all when he charms As a child: for the more he runs naked, the more he's a strong man-at-arms. 35

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