Supposed to be sung by a lover under the window of his mistress, who, in a cold night, refuses him admission.

IF, Lyce, married to outlandish mate,

Thy drink far Tanais were, it still might grate
Against thy heart that at thine obdurate

Door, I lie shivering in the northern blast.

Hark with what din the portal creaks, and how
Trees, that within thy pretty dwelling grow,
Rebellow to the winds: and the fall'n snow,
How Jupiter with his pure breath has glassed.

Disdain, to Venus hateful, lay aside,

Lest back, with rolling wheel, the hawser slide.
Not a Penelope in prudish pride

Did thy Tyrrhenian sire engender thee.

Ah! though as yet unmoved by gifts or prayers,

Or violet pallor of thy followers,

Or by the love thy smitten husband bears
To singing wench, nor tenderer thou be

Than rigid oak, nor softer aspect wear
Than Moorish serpent, yet thy suppliants spare:
Not always will this frame avail to bear
Thy threshold's and the sky's inclemency.

X. AD LYCEN.

EXTREMUM Tanain si biberes, Lyce,
Saevo nupta viro, me tamen asperas
Porrectum ante fores objicere incolis
Plorares Aquilonibus.

Audis quo strepitu janua, quo nemus
Inter pulchra satum tecta remugiat
Ventis? et positas ut glaciet nives
Puro numine Juppiter?

Ingratam Veneri pone superbiam,
Ne currente retro funis eat rota.
Non te Penelopen difficilem procis
Tyrrhenus genuit parens.

O quamvis neque te munera, nec preces,
Nec tinctus viola pallor amantium,

Nec vir Pieria pellice saucius
Curvat; supplicibus tuis

Parcas, nec rigida mollior aesculo,
Nec Mauris animum mitior anguibus.
Non hoc semper erit liminis aut aquae
Caelestis patiens latus.

This is commonly inscribed 'Ad Mercurium,' which, as Mr. Macleane says, 'is plainly wrong and calculated to mislead.' Mercury disappears after the first two lines, and thenceforward it is the lute, if anything, that is addressed.

MERCURY, 'neath whose discipline Amphion
Lured the rocks on with imitative carol;
Cithern, thou too who with thy fibrils seven
Deftly discoursest:

Stamm'ring erewhile, and pleasing not, yet welcome, Now at the boards of rich men and in temples, Measures dictate whereto her ear reluctant

Lyde must tender;

Who in broad mead now like a three-year filly
Playfully frisks, and shrinks away from contact,
Taking no part in nuptials, and unripe for
Mettlesome husband.

Thine to lead tigers and attendant forests:
Thine to stay 'tis the swiftly flowing rivers;
Nay, to thy wheedling Cerberus surrendered,
Tophet's puge porter,

Though, around his terrific head, a rampart
Five score of serpents garrison, and though his
Triple-tongued muzzle loathsome breath and venom
Ever is belching.

XI. AD TESTUDINEM.

MERCURI (nam te docilis magistro
Movit Amphion lapides canendo)
Tuque, testudo, resonare septem
Callida nervis :

Nec loquax olim, neque grata, nunc et
Divitum mensis et amica templis,

Dic modos, Lyde quibus obstinatas
Applicet aures:

Quae, velut latis equa trima campis, Ludit exsultim, metuitque tangi, Nuptiarum expers, et adhuc protervo Cruda marito.

Tu potes tigres comitesque silvas
Ducere, et rivos celeres morari:
Cessit immanis tibi blandienti
Janitor aulae

Cerberus; quamvis furiale centum
Muniant angues caput ejus, atque
Spiritus teter saniesque manet

Ore trilingui.

Even Ixion, and with grudging aspect

Tityus, on thee smiled, and for a little

Dry their urn stood, while thy sweet song shed balm on Danaus' daughters.

Let of their sin, and of its famed requital,
Lyde be told, and of the barrel emptied

With the stream pouring through its open bottom :
Told of the final

Doom for their crimes reserved for them in Orcus,
Wretches for what worse thing could they accomplish?
Wretches, who could with unrelenting poniard
Murder their bridegrooms!

One of the many, one alone deserving
Marital torch, was to her faithless father
Splendidly false, and is throughout all ages
Great among virgins.

She who Arise' cried to her youthful husband,
'Rise up, lest lengthened sleep be cast upon thee
Whence thou fear'st not; my father disappo nt, and
Infamous sisters,

Who, as she-lions each a young bull seizing,
Tear them-ah me!-in pieces: I, of gentler
Mood, will not strike thee, neither here in bondage
Will I retain thee.