The Poems and Fragments of Catullus Part 19

Aufilena, the fair, if kind, is a favourite ever; Asks she a price, then yields frankly? the price is her own.

You, that agreed to be kind, now vilely the treaty dishonour, Give not at all, nor again take;--'tis a wrong to a wrong.

Not to deceive were n.o.ble, a chast.i.ty ne'er had a.s.sented, 5 Aufilena; but you--blindly to grasp at a gain, Yet to withhold the effects,--'tis a greed more loathly than harlot's Vileness, a wretch whose limbs ply to the l.u.s.ts of a town.

CXI.

One lord only to love, one, Aufilena, to live for, Praise can a bride nowhere goodlier any betide; Yet, when a niece with an uncle is even mother or even Cousin--of all paramours this were as heinous as all.

CXII.

Naso, if you show much, your company shows but a very Little; a man you show, Naso, a woman in one.

CXIII.

Pompey the first time consul, as yet Maecilia counted Two paramours; reappears Pompey a consul again, Two still, Cinna, remain; but grown, each unit an even Thousand. Truly the stock's fruitful: adultery breeds.

CXIV.

Rightly a lordly demesne makes Firman Mentula count for Wealthy! the rich fine things, then the variety there!

Game in plenty to choose, fish, field, and meadow with hunting; Only the waste exceeds strangely the quant.i.ty still.

Wealthy? perhaps I grant it; if all, wealth asks for, is absent. 5 Praise the demesne? no doubt; only be needy the man.

CXV.

Acres thirty in all, good gra.s.s, own Mentula master; Forty to plough; bare seas, arid or empty, the rest.

Poorly methinks might Croesus a man so sumptuous equal, Counted in one rich park owner of all he can ask.

Gra.s.s or plough, big woods, much mountain, mighty mora.s.ses; 5 On to the farthest North, on to the boundary main.

Vastness is all that is here; yet Mentula reaches a vaster-- Man? not so; 'tis a vast mountainous ominous He.

CXVI.

Oft with a studious heart, which hunted closely, requiring Skill great Battiades' poesies haply to send, Laying thus thy rage in rest, lest everlasting Darts should reach me, to wound still an a.s.sailable head:

Barren now I see that labour of any requital, 5 Gellius; here all prayers fall to the ground, nor avail.

No; but a robe I carry, the barbs, thy folly, to m.u.f.fle; Mine strike sure; thy deep injury _they_ shall atone.

FRAGMENTS.

II.

Here I give to be thine a fair grove, an holy, Priapus, Where thy Lampsacus holds thee in chamber seemly, Priapus; G.o.d, in every city, thou, most ador'd on a sea-sh.o.r.e h.e.l.lespontian, eminent most of oystery sea-sh.o.r.es.

IV.

Rapidly the spirit in an agony fled away.

V.

Where yon lucent mast-top, a cup of silver, arises.

NOTES.

VIII. 2.

_Lost is the lost, thou know'st it, and the past is past._

I am indebted for this expression to a translation of this poem by Dr.

J.A. Symonds, the whole of which I should have quoted here, had it not been unfortunately mislaid.

XIV. 20.

_Plague-prodigy._

Proves a plague-prodigy to G.o.d and man.

BROWNING, _Ring and Book_, v. 664.

XVII. 26.

_Rondel._

The round plate of iron which, according to Rich, Companion to the Latin Dictionary, p. 609, formed the lower part of the sock worn by horses, mules, &c., when on a journey, and, unlike our horse-shoes, was removable at the end of it.

XXII. 11.

_Looby_

a clown.