[NOTE 72.]
Several lovers made their addresses to her, &c.
This passage has been elegantly and chastely softened by an ingenious French writer, who flourished about the year 1650. I shall subjoin in this, and other subsequent notes, the various alterations made by this judicious editor, together with the original passages: the lines he has introduced are beautifully written, and a close imitation of the style of Terence: I cannot doubt but they will be considered worthy of a perusal: they are a proof of a laudable delicacy, which was but too rarely to be met with in many of the poets of both England and France, in the 17th century.
The original passage runs thus:—
“Primùm hæc pudicè vitam, parcè, ac duriter
Agebat, lana ac tela victum quæritans:
Sed postquam amans accessit, pretium pollicens,
Unus, et item alter, ita ut ingenium est omnium
Hominum ab labore proclive ad libidinem:
Accepit conditionem, dein quæstum occipit.”
Which is altered by the French translator to the following:—