Tell me to whom mad'st thou that heedless oath?"

"To Venus," answer'd she; and, as she spake,

Forth from those two tralucent cisterns brake

A stream of liquid pearl, which down her face

Made milk-white paths, whereon the gods might trace

To Jove's high court. He thus replied: "The rites

In which Love's beauteous empress most delights,300

Are banquets, Doric music, midnight revel,

Plays, masks, and all that stern age counteth evil.

Thee as a holy idiot doth she scorn;