Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK THREE

I've always been ready and zealous in office,
But yet you esteem me no more than a novice.
My toga-I bought it myself-has worn thin:
Don't you think now my time of discharge might begin?
XXXVII
A MEAN TRICK
RICH friends, 'tis your fashion to get in a passion
With humble dependants, or feign it.
Though not very nice, 'tis a saving device,
Economy bids you retain it.
XXXVIII
LIFE IN ROME
Martial: What motive, Sextus, brings you up to town?
Some idle hope of fortune or renown?
Sextus: I'll be a pleader: all our courts shall know
I am more eloquent than Cicero.
Martial: So Civis thought and Atestinus too,
-You know them-but their rent is overdue.
Sextus: If that should fail, my verses might atone;
They're worthy Virgil's pen, as you will own.
Martial: The man is mad; our Virgils you may meet
And threadbare Ovids, cowering in the street.
Sextus: I'll find a patron-others have beforeMartial: And all have starved excepting three or four.
Sextus: I mean to live here-tell me how I can.
Martial: By luck alone, if you're an honest man.
XXXIX
ONE EYE BETTER THAN NONE
As fair as Ida's swan is he
Lycoris dotes upon.
Well can that one-eyed beldame see
Tho' half her sight is gone!
85