Remedia Amoris

Ovid's The Remedy of Love turns the poet of desire into a sharp-eyed physician of passion, addressing Cupid and the afflicted with wit, urgency, and moral force. Rather than glorifying romance, it treats obsessive love as a malady that can lead to despair, self-destruction, and emotional ruin, and promises relief through discipline, self-knowledge, and timely action. The speaker urges lovers to act before desire hardens, to withdraw gradually, and to avoid places, people, and habits that rekindle longing. He recommends vigorous occupation—law, public affairs, military service, farming, gardening, travel, and country life—as the best antidote to idle obsession. The poem also offers psychological strategies for breaking love's spell: focus on a beloved's flaws, remember betrayals, expose cosmetics and ornament as illusion, and let one passion be displaced by another. Mythic examples from Circe and Medea, along with tragic stories of separation and loneliness, reinforce the warning that magic, pleading, or dramatic confrontation cannot conquer desire. Playful yet severe, the work blends practical counsel, pastoral imagery, and a defense of poetic freedom into a memorable handbook for escaping love's power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.