His eyes have seen his numerous rivals yield; Let him too share the rigour of the field, Since, by their fates untaught, his own he courts, And thus with ruin insolently sports. Yet for what crime shall he his death receive? Is it a crime with me to wish to live? Shall his kind passion his destruction prove? Is this the fatal recompense of love? So fair a youth destroy’d, would conquest shame, And nymphs eternally detest my fame. Still why should nymphs my guiltless fame upbraid? Did I the fond adventurer persuade? Alas! I wish thou wouldst the course decline, Or that my swiftness was excell’d by thine. See what a virgin’s bloom adorns the boy! Why wilt thou run, and why thyself destroy? Hippomenes! oh that I ne’er had been By those bright eyes unfortunately seen! Ah! tempt not thus a swift untimely fate; Thy life is worthy of the longest date.’