and, worn out with fatigue, I sought my couch, but I could not snatch a
wink of sleep for the evil adventures which had befallen me kept running
through my brain and, brooding upon them, I came to the conclusion that
no one could be so abjectly unfortunate. "Has Fortune, always inimical
to me, stood in need of the pangs of love, that she might torture me more
cruelly still," I cried out; "unhappy wretch that I am! Fortune and Love
have joined forces to bring about my ruin. Cruel Eros himself had never
dealt leniently with me, loved or lover I am put to the torture! Take
the case of Chrysis: she loves me desperately, never leaves off teasing
me, she who despised me as a servant, because, when she was acting as her
mistress's go-between, I was dressed in the garments of a slave: she, I
say) that same Chrysis, who looked with contempt upon your former lowly
lot, is now bent upon following it up even at the peril of her life; (she
swore that she would never leave my side on the day when she told me of
the violence of her passion: but Circe owns me, heart and soul, all
others I despise. Who could be lovelier than she?) What loveliness
had Ariadne or Leda to compare with hers? What had Helen to compare with
her, what has Venus? If Paris himself had seen her with her dancing
eyes, when he acted as umpire for the quarreling goddesses, he would have
given up Helen and the goddesses for her! If I could only steal a kiss,
if only I might put my arms around that divine, that heavenly bosom,
perhaps the virility would come back to this body and the parts, flaccid
from witchcraft would, I believe, come into their own. Contempt cannot
tire me out: what if I was flogged; I will forget it! What if I was
thrown out! I will treat it as a joke! Only let me be restored to her
good graces!

At rest on my pallet, night's silence had scarce settled down

To soothe me, and eyes heavy-laden with slumber to lull