XI.

E PODE

AD AMICOS COMICOS UT HYEMEM HILARITER TRADUCANT.

HORRIDA tempeftas cœlum contraxit, & imbres
Nivefque deducunt Jovem. Nunc mare, nunc fylvæ
Threicio Aquilone, fonant. Rapiamus amici
Occafionem de die: dumque virent genua,
Et decet, obducta folvatur fronte fenectus.
Tu vina Torquato move Confule preffa meo.
Cætera mitte loqui: deus hæc fortaffe benigna
Reducet in fedem vice. Nunc & Achæmenia
Ferfundi nardo juvat, & fide Cyllenea

Levare diris pectora follicitudinibus:

Nobilis ut grandi cecinit centaurus alumno,
Invicte mortalis, dea Nate puer Thetide,

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

A dreadful tempeft has contracted the face of the heavens, and the rains and fnows bring down the atmosphere: one while the fea, at another the woods, refound with the north winds from Thrace. My friends, let us take a hint from the day, and, while our knees are youthful, and it is feemly, let an appearance of old age be banished from the clouded forehead. Do you bring forth the wine that was preffed when my Torquatus was conful. Omit to converse about other Providence, perhaps, will reinftate these our affairs by an indulgent change. Now it is our pleasure, both to be bedewed with Achemenian nard, and to ease our breasts of dire anxiety, with the mercurial lyre. In fuch fort as the

matters.

noble

E FODE XI.

TO HIS HUMOUROUS FRIENDS, THAT THEY WOULD PASS THE WINTER MERRILY.

THE fkies with horrid tempests frown,

And even in fnow and rain come down,
The woods and rough profound

Roar with the north wind, fresh from Thrace,
My friends let us the hint embrace,

And while our knees are found

Let us in feemly fort preclude
The thought of four folicitude,-

Bring wine of Manlian date ;-
All other matters we forbear,

For heav'n, perhaps, these hours of care,
With joy fhall reinftate.

Now is the pleasure and the time,
With odours of the Perfian clime,
Our bodies to perfume;

And with the Cyllenean lyre,
To ease our breaft of horrors dire,

Left they our frames confume.

Thus the great Centaur to his ward,
Sung lectures, "O unconquer'd lord,

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

noble Centaur fung to his mighty pupil; infuperable man, thou youth that waft born of the goddess Thetis, the land of

Affaracus

Te manet Affaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi
Findunt Scamandri flumina, lubricus & Simois,
Unde tibi reditum certo fubtemine Parcæ'

Rupere: nec mater domum cærula te revehet,
Illic omne malum Vino cantuque levato,
Deformis ægrimonia dulcibus alloquiis.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

Affaracus awaits thee, which the cold ftreams of little Scamander. and smooth-gliding Simois divide; from whence the fates have broken off your return, by a thread altogether determinate; nor fhall your Carulean parent re-conduct you home. There alleviate every evil with wine, and finging, those sweet confolations of ugly melancholy.

"Whose birth from Thetis rofe; "The land of Phrygia thee expects, "Where cool Scamander's ftream directs "Its course, and Simois flows. "From whence (the fates have spun it so) "You shall not be allow'd to go

"Home with your blue-ey'd queen;

"There thou the ills of every day,
"With mufick and with wine, allay
"Th' alloquial charms of spleen."

EPODE

MOLLIS inertia cur tantam diffuderit imis

Oblivionem fenfibus,

Pocula Lethæos ut fi ducentia fomnos

Arente fauce traxerim,

Candide Mæcenas, occidis fæpe rogando.

Deus deus nam me vetat

Inceptos, olim promiffum carmen, jambos

Ad umbilicum adducere.

Ureris ipfe mifer, quod fi non pulchrior ignis
Accendit obfeffam Ilion,

Gaude forte tuâ me libertina neque uno
Contenta Phryne macerat.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

O candid Mæcenas, you kill me by fo often enquiring, why a foft fluggishness has diffused fuch a degree of oblivion on my inmoft fenfes, as if I had drank with a thirsty throat cups that bring on Lethean fleep. For a god, a god hinders me from finishing off those Iambics I had begun, and which were verfes I promised you. You are miserably inflamed yourfelf; but if a brighter flame did not fet befieged Troy on fire, rejoice in your lot. Phryne, a freed-woman, not content with a fingle lover, reduces me to a skeleton.