Vênus visita Esculápio para pedir-lhe que tire um espinho de seu pé – Edward John
Passionate Centurie of Love
Thomas Watson
In time long past, when in Diana’s chase
A bramble bush prick’d Venus in the foot,
Old AEsculapius help’d her heavy case
Before the hurt had taken any root:
Wherehence although his beard were crisping hard
She yielded him a kiss for his reward.
My luck was like to his this other day,
When she, whom I on earth do worship most,
For kissing me vouchsafed thus to say,
Take this for once, and make thereof no boast:
Forthwith my heart gave sign of joy by skips,
As though our souls had join’d by joining lips.
And since that time I thought it not amiss
To judge which were the best of all these three;
Her breath, her speech, or that her dainty kiss,
And (sure) of all the kiss best liked me:
For that was it, which did revive my heart
Oppress’d and almost dead with daily smart.