Sabines

The Art of Love Aviseth you, and put me out of blame, An eke man shall not make earnest of game.

Chaucer ah rustic ruder than gothic congreve scis wetis hoc uni lusum mihi carmen et istos ut non laudandos sectamen esse iocos after the experiences recorded in the amores it is small wonder that our poet felt himself an expert in the ways of love he now writes therefore what is in form a didactic poem one that the historian of literature must put on the same shelf with virgil's georgics and the de rerum natura of lucretius as the subject of the new poem is still fit matter for elegy ovid makes no change in his metre had he commenced in the heroic verse that virgil and lucretius had employed cupid would have smiled again as the beginning of the amores pictures him and stolen away a foot from every line the art of love was preceded by a little work which must have created some excitement among roman beauties on the art of cosmetic de medicamine faciei only a fragment of this poem is preserved it opens with a panegyric on culture of which agriculture was the only sort appreciated in primitive days when tatius ruled the buxom sabine dame for feats of spinning known to rustic fame with country dainties piled the groaning shelf and dressed her corn land better than herself but these mid-victorian virtues are outgrown the rising generation in rome as possibly in any age has changed all that for tender mothers bear us tender girls who dress in gold and crimp their fragrant curls or cut them off or wave or bang or part in game complexions with a stroke of art o matre molli filia molior ovid has found his clientele and shown himself a connoisseur perhaps he was in collusion with the beauty shops of his time his lines have the ring of metrical advertisement like andrew lang's poem on matrimony at all events ovid's scholarship is profound he doubtless flowed on for many more verses than those that chance has transmitted to us the art of love is no less scholarly the title ars amatoria suggests not merely a course in intrigue but a text-book of the subject a companion volume to an ars grammatica or an ars the poem opens with a panegyric on art which is needed in all the walks of life the skipper needs it on the deep the driver needs it in his speeding car the lover needs it above all ce sont des regles explains moliere's heroine to her rustic uncle tant en bonne gantrie on ne saurait dispenser it is no light task for the poet to instruct cupid still he is a boy after all so then for the invocation except that none is necessary the poet has been blessed with no special inspiration from the muses his subject is true it is also highly moral for he sings only of love sanctioned by the law so matrons long of skirt and high of brow of aunt there is nothing that concerns you here this is the demi-monde with its battles of love where all is fair the reader breathes a sigh of relief nothing to shock us here as in the amores the poet proceeds to a formal division of his subject matter a how to find her b how to win her c how to keep her nothing could be more comprehensive the first article can best be followed by an expert in topography for to show just where the willing maiden may be met ovid takes us all over rome along colonnades to the temples especially of the oriental and liberal divinities to the ancient forum and the fora lately added to the theatre ah there's fine hunting-ground as ants to grain and bees to flowers high to scenic pictures do our damsels fly a double reason brings them to see they come and come they to be seen all praise to romulus founder of rome and first patron of the stage the poet diverts us into the tale of the stolen sabines so brilliantly and rapidly told that as in a simile of homer's we are transported from the main scene of action into a different world which is its own excuse for existence You, Romulus, knew how your men to pay.

Grant me such wage, and I'll enlist to-day, ends the poet.

He would have relished the by-scene of a worthy Sabine householder, as Xavier de Maistre pictures him, who after the event exclaims in despair, Dieu immortel, pourquoi n'ai-je point amené ma femme à la fête? So much for where to find her.

He then ordered the intended celebration to be proclaimed among the neighboring nations, while his people exerted themselves in making the most magnificent preparations that their knowledge and abilities allowed, in order to engage attention and raise expectation.

Great numbers of people assembled, induced in some measure by a desire of seeing the new city, especially those whose countries lay nearest, the Kynanensians, Christominians, and Atumnations, and especially the whole multitude of the Sabines came with their wives and children.

They were hospitably invited to the different houses, and when they viewed the situation and the fortifications and the city crowded with houses, they were astonished at the rapid increase of the Roman power.

When the show began, and every person's thoughts and eyes were attentively engaged on it, then, according to the preconcerted plan, on a signal being given, the Roman youth ran different ways to carry off the young women.

To these persuasions was added the soothing behavior of their husbands themselves, who urged, in extenuation of the violence they had been tempted to commit, the excess of passion and the force of love, arguments than which there can be none more powerful to assuage the irritation of the female mind.

The women who had been forcibly carried off soon became reconciled to their situation, but their parents, still more than at first, endeavored to rouse their several states to revenge, employing both complaints and tears, and wearing the dress of mourners.

Nor did they confine their demands of vengeance within the limits of their own states, but made joint applications from all quarters to Titus Tatius, king of the Sabines, the embassies being addressed to him as the person of the highest renown in all those parts.

The people who were the principal sufferers by outrage were the Kynanensians, the Christominians, and the Atumnations.

No forms were absolutely necessary, the best evidence of marriage being cohabitation.

In plebeian marriages, which were not conducted by conferiatio or coemptio, the symbol of capture was used, and Festus says that this sign indicated the good fortune of Romulus in the rape of the Sabines.

Probably, however, it was a relic of the very ancient custom of actual capture common to all primeval and savage people.

When the Roman bridegroom adopted this symbol, he and his friends at a prearranged time went to the house of the bride and carried off with feigned force and the arms of her nearest female relation.