Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos

Matura virgo, & fingitur artibus
Jam nunc, & incestos amores
De tenero meditatur ungui.

Mox juniores quærit adulteros
Inter mariti vina: neque eligit,
Cui donet impermissa raptim
Gaudia, luminibus remotis:
Sed juffa coram non fine confcio
Surgit marito, feu vocat inftitor,
Seu navis Hifpanæ magifter,

Dedecorum pretiofus emptor,
Non his juventus orta parentibus
Infecit æquor fanguine Punico:
Pyrrhumque & ingentem cecidit

Antiochum, Annibalemque dirum:
Sed rufticorum mafcula militum
Proles, Sabellis docta ligonibus
Verfare glebas, & feveræ

Matris ad arbitrium recifos
Portare fuftes, fol ubi montium
Mutaret umbras, & juga demeret
Bobus fatigatis, amicum

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,
Slew Pyrrhus and Antiochus the Great,
And beat Hamilcar's fon at fuch a glorious rate;
But a rough set of manly blades,
And skilful with the Sabine spades

To turn the glebe, and carry clubs of oak,
Such as their rigid mothers from the wood bespoke.
What hour the fun the fhades enlarg'd,
And from the yoke the steers discharg'd,
Fatigu'd with toil, and urg'd with rapid flight
The time for friendly fleep, or neighbourly delight.

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?
Ætas parentum pejor avis, tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Progeniem vitiofiorem.

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!
Worfe than their fires our fathers were,

And we, far worse than them, about to fill
The world with bafer men, and more degen❜rate ftill.

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,
Poft infana Capræ fydera, frigidas
Noctes non fine multis

Infomnisl achrymis agit.

Atqui follicitæ nuntius hofpitæ,
Sufpirare Chloen, & miferam tuis
Dicens ignibus uri,

Tentat mille vaser modis.

Ut Prœtum mulier perfida credulum
Falfis impulerit criminibus, nimis.
Cafto Bellerophonti

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.