Tho' form'd to conquer, yet too oft you fall, But, madam, long will your unpractis'd years 'Tis bright at diftance, but deftroys if near. The time ere-long, if verse presage, will come, Your charms fhall open in full Brudenal bloom, all hearts fhall homage vow, fhall eyes gaze, All The mufe shall string her lyre with garlands crown'd, So when Aurora firft falutes the fight, } S. GARTH. T Advertisement. HE publick having encourag'd fo many editions of Ovid's Epiftles, I began to think if any thing might yet be added to the perfection of the work. And the greater part of Sapho to Phaon being omitted in Sir Carr Scrope's tranflation, I follicited an entire new version of that epiftle, to render the whole book compleat. The Author of it will have me acquaint the reader, that it was undertaken on that a count only, and not out of any Suppos'd defect in what that gentleman had done. It was propos'd in this Edition to change the method of the Epifles according to the chronological order, and the s connexion the fubjects often have with each other; which might have contributed to the cafe of the English reader, by clearing fome biftorical passages referr'd to in sveral of them. But cuftom having obtained to the contrary, ve have only fubjoin'd the following account. The chief of those who undertook the expedition of the Golden Flecce, were Hercules and Jafon: fome wri- ters add THESEUs, who was cotemporary with them, and famous for his victory over the Minotaur, which he atchiev'd by the affiftance of ARIADNE, whom afterwards forfaking he marry'd PIEDRA, who fell in love with his fon HIPPOLYTUS. JASON as he went on the foremention'd expedition was entertain'd by HYPSYPYLE at Lemnos, but deferted her for MEDEA, and afterwards MEDEA for CREUSA. HERCULES after his return was poifon'd with a fhirt fent by DEJANIRA. This hero had twice taken Troy in the time of king Laomedon, A 3 Laomedon, to whom Priam fucceeded, the father of PARIS, at whose birth it was propbefy'd that he should occafion it to be destroy'd a third time. Being therefore educated among the fhepherds, he contracted a love to CENONE; 'till hearing of HELENA, he fail'd to Spart, and carry'd her from thence to Troy. This caus'd the war of the Grecian princes against Troy; among whom PROTESILAUS (the hufband of LAODAMIA) was the first that fet foot on the enemy's ground, and was kill'd on the spot. After the war had been continu'd nine years, a quarrel arifing betwixt Agamemnon and ACHILLES, the latter absented himself from the army, and the former in revenge forc'd his mistress BRISEIS from him. When Troy was taken, the Greeks returning homeward met with many difafters. ULYSSES was ten years detain'd from Ithaca, while his queen PENELOPE was afflicted by the fuitors in his abfence. DEMOPHOON was hofpitably receiv'd by PHILLIS, whom after he had marry'd, he left, and purfu'd his voyage home to Athens. Agamemnon himself at his return to Argos was murder'd by his wife, whom his fon ORESTES kill'd, who was betroth'd to HERMIONE, the daughter of Helena. About the fame time ÆNEAS going in fearch of Italy, was detain'd by DIDO, who ftabb'd herself upon his Departure from Carthage. The rest of the fubjects of Ovid have no connexion with each other, neither can their time be certainly fix'd; only HYPERMNESTRA is fuppos'd to have liv'd fome time before, and SAPHO long after, all the reft. THE THE PREFACE, T By Mr. DRY D E N. HE life of Ovid being already written in our language before the tranflation of his Metamorphofes, I will not prefume fo far upon, myself, to think I can add any thing to Mr. Sandys his undertaking. The English reader may there be fatisfied, that he flourished in the reign of Auguftus Cæfar; that he was extracted from an ancient family of Roman knights; that he was born to the inheritance of a fplendid fortune; that he was defign'd to the ftudy of the law, and had made confiderable progrefs in it, before he quited that profeffion, for this of poetry, to which he was more naturally form'd. The caufe of his banishment is unknown; because he was himself A 4 unwil unwilling further to provoke the emperor, by afcribing it to any other reafon than what was pretended by Auguftus, which was the lafciviousnefs of his elegies, and his Art of Love. 'Tis true, they are not to be excus'd in the severity of manners, as being able to corrupt a larger empire, if there were any, than that of Rome: yet this may be faid in behalf of Ovid, that no man has ever treated the paffion of love with fo much delicacy of thought, and of expreffion, or fearch'd into the nature of it more philofophically than he. And the emperor who condemn'd him, had as little reafon as another man to punish that fault with fo much feverity, if at least he were the author of a certain Epigram, which is afcrib'd to him, relating to the cause of the first civil war betwixt himself and Mark Antony the triumvir, which is more fulfome than any paffage I have met with in our poet. To pafs by the naked familiarity of his expreffions to Horace, which are cited in that author's life, I need only mention one notorious act of his, in taking Livia to his bed, when she was not only married, but with child by her hufband then living. But deeds, it feems, may be juftified by arbitrary power, when words are queftion'd in a poet. There is another gu:fs of the Grammarians, as far from truth as the first from reafon; they will have him banish'd for fome favours, which they fay he receiv'd from Julia the daughter of Auguftus, whom they think he celebrates under the name of Corinna in his Elegies: But he, who will obferve the verfes which are made to that miftrefs, may gather from the whole contexture of them, that Corinna was not a wo man |