THOUGH fifty years, and more, had flown away,
FRANK never kept his bed a single day;
Knew nought of doctors, but to call them prigs,
And point his finger at their bushy wigs.
But, HUGH! a retrospect were we to cast,
On all the tedious days in suff'ring past;
To trace each anxious sigh, and painful groan,
From fever, asthma, or the racking stone,
And set them off 'gainst hours of ease and pleasure-
How dwarf-like would appear life's lessen'd measure!
SEXAGESIMA, Martiane, messis
Acta est, et puto jam secunda Cottæ.
Nec se tædia lectuli calentis
Expertum meminit die vel uno.
Ostendit digitum, sed impudicum,
Alconti, Dasioque, Symmachoque.
At nostri bene computentur anni,
Et quantum terricæ tulere febres,
Aut languor gravis, aut mali dolores,
A vita meliore separentur:
The melancholy truth would then be told,
That we are infants, though appearing old>
They greatly err, who speak from HOMER's page,
Of NESTOR'S, or of PRIAM's, lengthen'd age:
Our life consists not in the years we tell;
That's mere Existence-Life is being well.
EPIGRAM 43. BOOK V.
THE wealth we heap up with increas'd desire,
By thieves is plunder'd, or consum'd by fire;
By knavish bankruptcies our views are crost,
Or what we lent at interest is lost;
Our crops have fail'd, our rents been thrown away
By a false stew'rd, on mistresses, or play;
Infantes sumus, et senes videmur.
Etatem Priamique, Neftorisque
Longam qui putat esse, Martiane,
Multum decipiturque, falliturque,
Non est vivere, sed valere, vita.
CALLIDUS effracta nummos fur auferet area.
Prosternet patrios impia flamma Lares.
Debitor usuram pariter, sortemque negabit.
Non reddet sterilis semina jacta seges,
Dispensatorem fallax spoliabit amica.
Or we our richly-laden ships deplore, Found'ring at sea, or wreck'd upon the shore: Thus Fortune's grasp o'er all we have extends, Save what we gen'rous give to grateful friends.
EPIGRAM 59. BOOK V.
YES, I will live to-morrow, HENRY cries; But, HENRY! when will that to-morrow rise? Instruct us where, or how it may be found! Under the Line, or near the frozen Sound? NESTOR or PRIAM was not half so oldName us the price, and where it can be sold.
Mercibus extructas obruet unda rates. Extra fortunam est quidquid donatur amicis. Quas dederis, solas semper habebis opes.
CRAS te victurum, cras dicis, Postume, semper:
Dic mihi cras istud, Postume, quando venit?
Quam longe cras istud, ubi est, aut unde petendum?
Numquid apud Parthos, Armeniosque latet?
Jam cras istud habet Priami vel Nestoris annos,
Cras istud quanti dic mihi possit emi?
Cras vives: hodie jam vivere, Postume, serum est;
Ille sapit, quisquis, Postume, vixit heri.
You'll live to-morrow, still you fondly say;
Alas! 'tis late enough to live to-day.
Far wiser he, in pleasures unalloy'd,
Who now can say, I yesterday enjoy'd.
TO A FRIEND,
With a Hint for a Suit of Clothes.
WHEN from my cottage all in vain,
I strove to keep the wind and rain,
You gave me tiles to mend my roof,
And made it wind and water proof:
Now Boreas swells his piercing note,
And chills me through my thread-bare coat.
Thus if my suit you still deny,
My house is better off than I.
CUM pluvias, madidumque Jovem perferre negaret,
Et rudis hibernis villa nataret aquis,
Plurima quæ posset subitos effundere nimbos,
Muneribus venit tegula missa tuis.
Horridus ecce sonat Boreæ stridore December:
Stella tegis villam, non tegis agricolam.
EPIGRAM 53. BOOK II.
FOR independence, what a farce to sigh!
When all your actions give your tongue the lie.
Are you in earnest ?-Dine not with the great;
Flattery's the tax for eating off of plate.
POMPOSO for his ven'son never court;
Go, dine at home on steaks, drink humble Port :
Coarse be your coat, like mine-your mistress willing,
And dropping a low curtesy for a shilling:
If in your cottage then, once plaister'd white,
You'r happy, though you scarcely stand upright;
Resigning luxuries to those who need 'em,
You'll realise by deeds your wish for freedom.
VIS fieri liber? mentiris, Maxime, non vis:
Sed fieri si vis, hac ratione potes.
Liber eris, cœnare foris si, Maxime, nolis:
Veientana tuam si domat uva sitim:
Si ridere potes miseri chrysendeta Cinnæ:
Contentus nostra si potes esse toga.
Si plebeia Venus gemino tibi vincitur asse:
Si tua non rectus tecta subire potes:
Hæc tibi si vis est, si mentis tanta potestas,
Liberior Partho vivere rege potes.
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