7

Nudis juncta sororibus.

Insanire juvat. Cur Berecyntiae.
Cessant flamina tibiae?

Cur pendet tacita fistula cum lyra?
Parcentes ego dexteras

Odi. Sparge rosas. Audiat invidus
Dementem strepitum Lycus,

Et vicina seni non habilis Lyco.
Spissa te nitidum coma

Puro te similem, Telephe, Vespero,
Tempestiva petit Rhode:

Me lentus Glycerae torret amor meae.

XX.

NON vides quanto moveas periclo
Pyrrhe, Gaetulae catulos leaenae ?
Dura post paullo fugies inaudax
Proelia raptor :

Cum per obstantes juvenum catervas
Ibit insignem repetens Nearchum :
Grande certamen tibi praeda cedat
Major, an illi.

In the meantime, while you your nimble arrows
Handle, her formidable teeth she sharpens,
While the fight's umpire, underneath his naked
Foot, is depicted

Holding the prize, and fanned by gentle breezes
Breathed on his neck sprinkled with scented tresses.
Such was Nireus, or he who from the wat❜ry
Ida was ravished.

Addressed to the jar containing the wine intended for Corvinus, at a supper to which he had invited himself at Horace's house.

O HONEST jar! whose birth takes date,
Like mine, from Manlius' consulate,
Whether complaints or jokes they be,
Wrangling, or love's insanity,

Or quiet sleep that dwell with thee;
Beneath whatever brand 'tis thine
To bottle up choice Massic wine,
For happy day like this thou'rt fit:
Come down; Corvinus orders it,
And thy more mellow juice emit.
Though steeped in all Socratic learning,
From thee, he will not, shocked, be turning.

The elder Cato, oft' 'tis said,

His virtue's fire with liquor fed.

Interim, dum tu celeres sagittas

Promis, haec dentes acuit timendos:

Arbiter pugnae posuisse nudo

Sub pede palmam

Fertur, et leni recreare vento

Sparsum odoratis humerum capillis :
Qualis aut Nireus fuit, aut aquosa
Raptus ab Ida.

O NATA mecum consule Manlio,
Seu tu querelas, sive geris jocos,
Seu rixam, et insanos amores,

Seu facilem, pia testa, somnum ;

Quocunque lectum nomine Massicum Servas, moveri digna bono die, Descende, Corvino jubente, Promere languidiora vina.

Non ille, quamquam Socraticis madet Sermonibus, te negliget horridus. Narratur et prisci Catonis

Saepe mero caluisse virtus.

With Bacchic mirth thou layest bare

Wise men's deep counsel and their care.
Thou bring'st back hope to minds forlorn
And vigour; and the poor man's horn
Upliftest so, that, after thee,
No dread of angered majesty

Or of a soldier's arms has he

With thee shall Bacchus linger, still,
And Venus (so she gladly will),
And Graces, slow to disunite,
And living lanterns, shining bright,
Till Phoebus put the stars to flight.

Horace, for some reason or other, thought fit to dedicate a pine to Diana. Mr. Macleane pleasantly ridicules the ingenuity which certain commentators have wasted in guessing what the reason was: Sanadon and Dacier inferring, in genuine French fashion, from the second line of this Ode, that it must have been the safe delivery of a child by one of the poet's numberless mistresses -'une de ses maitresses.'

VIRGIN protectress of the woods and mountains,
Goddess triform, who, thrice invoked by youthful
Women in labour, hearest, and from dying
Savest the suppliants;

Thine be this pine o'ershadowing my villa,
Which, with joy, I, ere every year's completion,
Will with the blood of side-stroke-planning porker

Fail not to honour.

Tu lene tormentum ingenio admoves
Plerumque duro: tu sapientium
Curas et arcanum jocoso
Consilium retegis Lyaeo.

Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis,
Viresque; et addis cornua pauperi,
Post te neque iratos trementi

Regum apices, neque militum arma.

Te Liber, et, si laeta aderit, Venus,
Segnesque nodum solvere Gratiae,
Vivaeque producent lucernae,

Dum rediens fugat astra Phoebus.

XXII. AD DIANAM.

MONTIUM custos nemorumque, Virgo,

Quae laborantes utero puellas
Ter vocata audis, adimisque leto,
Diva triformis:

Imminens villae tua pinus esto,
Quam per exactos ego laetus annos
Verris obliquum meditantis ictum

Sanguine donem.