Book II, Elegy 23

I that once thought fit to shun this path trod by the vulgar herd, now find pleasure even in a draught from the common tank. Will any free-born man give money to another's slave to bring him the promised message of his mistress, and ask forever, "What shady colonnade now shields her from the sun?" or "Whither wend her footsteps on the Campus Martius?"

And then, when thou hast endured all the Herculean labours whereof fame tells, to receive a letter saying, "Hast thou any present for me?" or to win the privilege of facing a scowling guardian, or oft lie hid a prisoner in some foul hovel, how costly is the night of joy that comes but once in the whole year! Perish the lovers that prefer the secrecy of closed doors!

On the other hand, she that walks at large, her cloak cast back from her head, and gladdens the eye, hedged in by no threatening guardian, she who treads the Sacred Way in loose shoes besmirched with mire, and makes no delay if any accost her, she will never put thee off, nor ask in chattering voice for that which thy niggard father will complain he has given so oft. She will not say: "I am afraid: haste thee, rise, I pray thee: unhappy man, 'tis to-day my husband returns from the country." Let the girls, that Euphrates and Orontes have sent for my delight, be all my joy: I hate those shamefaced thefts of love. Since no lover hath any freedom left him, no man that would be free will seek to love.