To Amaranth, the young and fair, Said Thyrsis, once, with serious air,-- 'O, if you knew, like me, a certain ill, With which we men are harm'd, As well as strangely charm'd, No boon from Heaven your heart could like it fill! Please let me name it in your ear,-- A harmless word,--you need not fear. Would I deceive you, you, for whom I bear The tenderest sentiments that ever were?' Then Amaranth replied, 'What is its name? I beg you, do not hide' ''Tis LOVE.'--' The word is beautiful! reveal Its signs and symptoms, how it makes one feel.'-- 'Its pains are ecstacies. So sweet its stings, The nectar-cups and incense-pots of kings, Compared, are flat, insipid things. One strays all lonely in the wood-- Leans silent o'er the placid flood, And there with great complacency, A certain face can see-- 'Tis not one's own--but image fair, Retreating, Fleeting, Meeting, Greeting, Following everywhere. For all the rest of human kind, One is as good, in short, as blind. There is a shepherd wight, I ween, Well known upon the village green, Whose voice, whose name, whose turning of the hinge Excites upon the cheek a richer tinge-- The thought of whom is signal for a sigh-- The breast that heaves it knows not why-- Whose face the maiden fears to see, Yet none so welcome still as he.'-- Here Amaranth cut short his speech: 'O! O! is that the evil which you preach? To me I think it is no stranger; I must have felt its power and danger.' Here Thrysis thought his end was gain'd, When further thus the maid explain'd: ''Tis just the very sentiment Which I have felt for Clidamant!' The other, vex'd and mortified, Now bit his lips, and nearly died. Like him are multitudes, who when Their own advancement they have meant, Have play'd the game of other men. [20] _Mdlle. de Sillery_.--Gabrielle-Françoise Brulart de Sillery, niece of La Fontaine's friend and patron, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld (author of the _Maximes_). She married Louis de Tibergeau, Marquis de La Motte-au-Maine, and died in 1732. [21] _Italian wit_.--Referring to his Tales, in which he had borrowed many subjects from Boccaccio.--Translator. XIV.--THE FUNERAL OF THE LIONESS.[22]