````Molbter admotâ sobcitare manu. ```Sed postquam nullas consurgere posse per artes, ````Immemoremque sui procubuisse videt; ```Quid me ludis? ait; quis te, male sane, jubebat ````Invxtum nostro ponere membra toro? ```Aut te trajectis Ææa venefica lanis ````Devovet, aut abo lassus amore venis. ```Nec mora; desiluit tunicâ velata recinctâ: ````Et decuit nudos proripuisse pedes. ```Neve suæ possent intactam scire ministrae, ````Dedecus hoc sumtâ dissimulavit aquâ. ELEGY VIII. _He laments that he is not received by his mistress, and complains that she gives the preference to a wealthy rival._ |And does any one still venerate the liberal arts, or suppose that soft verses have any merit? Genius once was more precious than gold; but now, to be possessed of nought is the height of ignorance. After my poems [591] have proved very pleasing to my mistress, it is not allowed me to go where it has been allowed my books. When she has much bepraised me, her door is shut on him who is praised; talented _though I be_, I disgracefully wander up and down. Behold! a Knight gorged with blood, lately enriched, his wealth acquired [592] through his wounds, [593] is preferred before myself. And can you, my life, enfold him in your charming arms? Can you, my life, rush into his embrace? If you know it not, that head used to wear a helmet; that side which is so at your service, was girded with a sword. That left hand, which thus late [594] the golden ring so badly suits, used to bear the shield; touch his right, it has been stained with blood. And can you touch that right hand, by which some person has met his death? Alas! where is that tenderness of heart of yours? Look at his scars, the traces of his former fights; whatever he possesses, by that body was it acquired. [595] Perhaps, too, he will tell how often he has stabbed a man; covetous one, will you touch the hand that confesses this? I, unstained, the priest of the Muses and of Phoebus, am he who is singing his bootless song before your obdurate doors. Learn, you who are wise, not what we idlers know, but how to follow the anxious troops, and the ruthless camp; instead of good verses hold sway over [596] the first rank; through this, Homer, hadst thou wished it, she might have proved kind to thee. Jupiter, well aware that nothing is more potent than gold, was himself the reward of the ravished damsel. [597] So long as the bribe was wanting, the father was obdurate, she herself prudish, the door-posts bound with brass, the tower made of iron; but after the knowing seducer resorted to presents, [598] she herself opened her lap; and, requested to surrender, she did surrender.