Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK FIVE

LIII
TO BASSUS
FOR Pelops or Andromache
Your style is quite unsuited,
Your 'Colchian Queen' and 'Niobe '
Are tragedy diluted.
You ought to find Deucalion
A subject sympathetic,
Or is not fire-doomed Phaethon
Still apter-and prophetic?
LIV, FEAT OF MIEMORY
HE spoke your name without his note-book's aid,
The first impromptu speech he ever made!
* LV
A DIALOGUE
WHOM dost thou carry, queen of birds? 'Tis Jove.
Why does he grasp no lightning? He's in love.
With whom? A boy. And why with visage meek
Dost thou look back? Of Ganymede I speak.
LVI
A PRACTICAL EDUCATITON
LONG have you pondered what employ
Or training you should give your boy;
Firstly, a cultured education
To-day is reckoned sheer damnation;
All classic authors are a curse,
Bacon is ruin, Milton worse,
If he loves rhyme, he must forgo it,
Good Lord! he might become a poet!
If art be naught and money allWhy, train him for the Music Hall,
Or if he's dull of intellect
Make him a tout or architect.
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