Drawing upon a highly respected epic of the ancient Roman poet-scholar Lucretius, Jonathan Swift early in the eighteenth century continued the long literary effort to enlighten men. Swift wrote poems about Cassinus and Peter, and Strephon and Chloe. Though brilliant, they were social failures.
Cassinus and Peter were sophomores at the University of Cambridge. Witty young men steeped in classical learning, they enjoyed idle friendship, playing flutes and smoking pipes with each other in their rooms and discussing beloved women. One day Peter found Cassinus disheveled and distraught. With deep concern, Peter sympathetically inquired about Cassinus’s troubles. Cassinus explained that his beloved Caelia had betrayed him:
Cassinus and Peter were sophomores at the University of Cambridge. Witty young men steeped in classical learning, they enjoyed idle friendship, playing flutes and smoking pipes with each other in their rooms and discussing beloved women. One day Peter found Cassinus disheveled and distraught. With deep concern, Peter sympathetically inquired about Cassinus’s troubles. Cassinus explained that his beloved Caelia had betrayed him:
Oh Peter! Beauty’s but a Varnish,
Which Time and Accidents will tarnish:
But, Caelia has contriv’d to blast
Those Beauties that might ever last.
Nor can Imagination guess,
Nor Eloquence Divine express,
How that ungrateful charming Maid,
My purest Passion has betray’d.
Which Time and Accidents will tarnish:
But, Caelia has contriv’d to blast
Those Beauties that might ever last.
Nor can Imagination guess,
Nor Eloquence Divine express,
How that ungrateful charming Maid,
My purest Passion has betray’d.