Why does he skulk, as authors fay

Of Thetis' fav'rite heir,

Left a man's habit should betray,
And force him to his troops away,

The work of death to fhare?

ODE

D 4

AD THALIAR CHUM.

Quo magis fævit hymes, eo magis voluptati indulgendum.

VIDES ut alta ftet nive candidum

Soracte: nec jam fuftineant onus
Sylvæ laborantes: geluque
Flumina conftiterint acuto ?
Diffolve frigus ligna fuper foco
Large reponens: atque benignius
Deprome quadrimum Sabinâ
O Thaliarche merum diotâ.
Permitte divis cætera: qui fimul
Stravere ventos æquore fervido
Depræliantes, nec cupreffi,
Nec veteres agitantur orni.
Quid fit futurum cras, fuge quærere: &
Quem fors dierum cunq; dabit, lucro
Appone: nec dulces amores
Sperne puer, neque tu choreas:

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

You obferve how the mountain Soracte ftands all white with fnow, nor can the labouring woods fuftain the weight any longer, and the rivers ftagnate with the keen froft. Thaw the cold, liberally piling up billets on the hearth; and produce, O Thaliarchus, in a more bountiful spirit than ufual, wine of four years old out of the Sabine jar. Submit the reft to the Gods, who having once compofed the winds battling with the boiling ocean, neither the cypruffes nor aged ashes are fhaken Shun to enquire what may happen on the morrow;

and

TO THALIAR CHUS.

The greater the violence of the winter, the more we should indulge in feftivity.

SEE high Soracte, white with fnow,

Still more and more a mountain grow, Nor can the lab'ring woods their weight fuftain, And motionless with froft the fharpen'd ftreams remain. Diffolve the cold, a roufing fire

Upon the focial hearth aspire,

And four years old with bountiful defign Bring in the Sabine jar the long-expected wine. Leave to th' immortal Gods the rest,

For when they fhall have once fupprest

The winds, that on the boiling furge contend, Nor cypress shakes a leaf, nor yon old afh-trees bend. Enquire not of to-morrow's fate,

And whatsoever chance await,

Turn to account, nor fly from fweet amours, Nor let the dance be fhunn'd by fuch address as yours.

*

* The pronoun Tʊ being empha- that Thaliarchus was an excellent tical in the original, it is likely dancer.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

and whatever be the colour of the day that deftiny bestows upon you, fet it up to account; nor disdain, now a youth, the fweets of love, nor the dances, as you are fo good a

performer,

Donec virenti canities abeft

Morofa, nunc & campus & areæ,
Lenefque fub noctem fufurri
Compofitâ repetantur horâ:
Nunc & latentis proditor intimo
Gratus puellæ rifus ab angulo,
Pignufque direptum lacertis,
Aut digito male pertinaci.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

performer, as long as morofe grey hairs keep off from your green age. Now let both the Campus Martius and the tenis-courts, and foft whispers at dusk be repeated at the

fet

While yet your vig'rous years are green,

Nor peevish age brings on the spleen,
By turns the field, the tenis-court repeat,
And whispers foft at night for affignations meet.
Now glad to hear the damfel raise

The laugh, that her retreat betrays,

Steal from her arm the pledge for theft difpos'd,' Or from her finger force, with fham-resistance clos'd,

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

fet hour: now too the acceptable laugh, the betrayer of the hiding damfel from the inmoft corner, and the pledge ravished from her arms or finger but faintly tenacious.

ODE