Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos Matura virgo, & fingitur artibus Mox juniores quærit adulteros Dedecorum pretiofus emptor, Antiochum, Annibalemque dirum: Matris ad arbitrium recifos Tempus agens abeunte curru. PPOSE INTERPRETATION. has taken its rife, has fpread like a deluge upon the country. and people. The ripe maiden is fond of being taught the Ionic ftep, and even now is formed with regard to her limbs, and premeditates inceftuous love from her very childhood. Anon she seeks after younger adulterers, amidst her husband's cups; nor does the pick and choose him to whom she may give by ftealth her unlawful blifs when the candles are removed; but being bid, fhe rifes before folks, not without her husband's being conscious of it, whether it be a broker that Our virgins, now no longer fhy, Are proud th' Ionic ftep to try, And move by leud prescription in their bloom, And meditate on incest from the mother's womb. Soon, when her husband's at his wine, To younger finners fhe'll incline, Nor care with whom the lawless blifs the prove, In hafty stealth, when once the candles they remove. But, not without her confort's leave, She boldly rifes to receive Some broker, that will buy her to his arms, Or Spanish dupe, that pays full dearly for her charms. 'Twas not a race from fires like these That ftain'd with Punic blood the seas, To turn the glebe, and carry clubs of oak, PROSE INTERPRETATION. that calls for ber, or the mafter of a Spanish veffel, the extravagant purchaser of her disgrace. They were not a race of youths fprung from parents like thefe that dyed the main with Punic gore, and flew Pyrrhus, and the great Antiochus, and the redoubted Hannibal; but the manly iffue of ruftic foldiers, skilled to turn the glebe with Sabine fpades, and to bear clubs cut out of the woods, pursuant to the command of an auftere mother, when the fun changed the fhadows of the mountains, and took the yokes from the fatigued oxen, bringing Damnofa quid non imminuit dies? PROSE INTERPRETATION. bringing on the acceptable hours with his receding car. What does not deftructive time impair! The age of our fa thers What does not mould'ring time impair! And we, far worse than them, about to fill PROSE INTRRPRETATION. thers worse than that of our grandfires, brought forth us ftill more impious, about to produce an iffue yet more degenerate than ourselves. VOL. I. S ODE Confolatur eam de viri fui abfentiâ mæftam, monetque ut fidem conjugalem ei datam fervet. QUID fles, Afterie, quem tibi candidi Primo reftituent vere Favonii, Thynâ merce beatum Conftanti juvenem fide Gygen? Ille notis actus ad Oricum, Infomnisl achrymis agit. Atqui follicitæ nuntius hofpitæ, Tentat mille vaser modis. Ut Prœtum mulier perfida credulum Maturare necem, refert. PROSE INTERPRETATION. O Afterie! why do you fhed tears for Gyges, whom the favourable zephyrs fhall reftore to you at the commencement of fpring, enriched with Bithynian merchandize, and with his faith inviolate? He, forced as far as Oricum by the fouthern gales, after rifing of the mad conftellation of the goat, fpends the cold nights without fleep, but not without abundance of tears; but the meffenger of his bufy landlady artfully tempts him by a thousand ftratagems, telling him that fome Chloe fighs for him, and is confumed with flames. fuch as yours. He mentions how a treacherous woman drove the credulous Protus to expedite the death of the too chaste Bellerophon: I. |