TO LESBIA

(V.)

LIVING, Lesbia, we should e'en be loving.
Sour severity, tongue of eld maligning,
All be to us a penny's estimation.

Suns set only to rise again to-morrow.

We, when sets in a little hour the brief light,
Sleep one infinite age, a night for ever.

Thousand kisses, anon to these an hundred,
Thousand kisses again, another hundred,
Thousand give me again, another hundred.

Then once heedfully counted all the thousands,
We'll uncount them as idly; so we shall not
Know, nor traitorous eye shall envy, knowing
All those myriad happy many kisses.

ROBINSON ELLIS.

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TO THE SAME

(VII.)

DOST thou, Lesbia, ask that I

Say how many of thy kisses

Would my craving satisfy,

Yes, would surfeit me with blisses?

1 Information as to the exact number of blessings of any kind was supposed to enable an enemy to exert an evil influence.

Count the grains of sand besprent

O'er Cyrene's1 spicy plain,

'Twixt old Battus' 2 monument

And the sweltering Hammon's fane.

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Count the silent stars of night,

That be ever watching, when

Lovers tasting stol'n delight

Dream not of their silent ken.

When these numbers thou hast told,
And hast kisses given as many,
Then I may, perchance, cry hold!
And no longer wish for any.

But, my love, there's no amount
For a rage like mine too vast,
Which a curious fool may count,
Or with tongue malignant blast.

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SIR THEODORE MARTIN.

TO HIMSELF

ON LESBIA'S INCONSTANCY

(VIII.)

Ан, poor Catullus, learn to put away
Thy childish things.

The lost is lost, be sure; the task essay
That manhood brings.

1 A city in Libya.

2 The founder of Cyrene.

3 A name under which Jupiter was worshipped in Africa.

Fair shone the skies on thee when thou to fare
Wast ever fain

Where the girl beckon'd, lov'd as girl shall ne'er Be lov'd again.

Yes, fain thou wast for merry mirth; and she-
She ne'er said nay.

Ah, gayly then the morning smil❜d on thee
Each happy day.

Now, she saith nay; but thou be strong to bear,
Harden thy heart;

Nor nurse thy grief, nor cling to her so fair,

So fixt to part.

Farewell! I've learn'd my lesson: I'll endure,
Nor try to find

Words that might wake thy ruth, or even cure
Thy poison'd mind.

Yet will the time come when thy heart shall bleed,
Accursed one,

When thou shalt come to eld with none to heed,
Unwooed, unwon.

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Who then will seek thee? Who will call thee fair? Call thee his own?

Whose kisses and whose dalliance wilt thou share? Be stone, my heart, be stone.

R. Y. TYRRELL.

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VARUS' MISTRESS

(X.)

VARUS, whom I chanced to meet
The other evening in the street,
Engaged me there, upon the spot,
To see a mistress he had got.
She seem'd, as far as I can gather,
Lively and smart, and handsome rather.
There, as we rested from our walk,
We enter'd into different talk

As, how much might Bithynia bring?
And had I found it a good thing?

I answer'd, as it was the fact,

The province had been stript and sack'd ;

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That there was nothing for the praetors,
And still less for us wretched creatures,
His poor companions and toad-eaters.

"At least," says she, "you bought some fellows
To bear your litter; for they tell us,
Our only good ones come from there.”
I chose to give myself an air;
"Why, truly, with my poor estate,

The difference was n't quite so great
Betwixt a province, good or bad,
That where a purchase could be had,
Eight lusty fellows, straight and tall,
I should n't find the wherewithal
To buy them." But it was a lie;
For not a single wretch had I
No single cripple fit to bear
A broken bedstead or a chair.

She, like a strumpet, pert and knowing,

Do lend me, pray, those slaves of thine!"
I answer'd "It was idly said,
They were a purchase Cinna made
(Caius Cinna, my good friend) —
It was the same thing in the end,
Whether a purchase or a loan -
I always used them as my own;
Only the phrase was inexact-
He bought them for himself, in fact.
But you have caught the general vice
Of being too correct and nice,
Over curious and precise;
And seizing with precipitation

The slight neglects of conversation."

TO FABULLUS

(XIII.)

J. HOOKHAM FRERE.

You dine with me, Fabullus mine,
On Friday next, at half-past two:
And I can promise that you'll dine

As well as man need wish to do;

If you bring with you, when you come,
A dinner of the very best,

And lots of wine and mirth, and some
Fair girl to give the whole a zest.

But bring all these you must, I vow,

If you're to find yourself in clover,

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1 An Egyptian divinity, whose cult was fashionable in Catullus'

time.