Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

V
TO CAECILIANUS
AT vast expense I bought my farm and grounds;
Can you oblige me with a thousand pounds?
That silence means I may not pay-'tis true,
And that is why I stooped to beg of you.
VI
THE SUPERN UMIER.4 RY
IN Comedy are actors three, no more,
And though on Paula's stage are gallants four,
She does not violate the rules of Art,
For one of these has not a speaking part.
VII
EASY BONDS
SoIE thirty days ago not more, we saw
Enacted once again the Julian law
And outward decency restored: since then
Has Telesilla married husbands ten!
This oft-played farce is ' marriage '! I confess
A demi-mondaine would offend me less.
VIII
A PRUDENT FATHER
OF praetors two and of tribunes four,
Of pleaders and poets half a score,
All asked for a sage's girl to wife.
He sought to give her an easy life,
So he made a prudent if hasty plan,
And married her off to a broker's man.
* IX
THE SLEEPING SPECTA TOR
AT the theatre in slumber your cyclids you close
And grumble when Ocean disturbs your repose.
168