Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK EIGHT

XXXIV
AN OLD MIASTER
A GENUINE' old master' this,
And it would be, as I infer,
An even more authentic Mys,
If you were not that master, Sir.
XXXV
DEPTH TO DEPTH
IT is very strange, as it seems to me,
That you and your wife should not agree,
Since each is as vile as vile can be.
* XXXVI
ONr DOMITIAN'S PALACE
No longer now need foreign Memphis prate
Of her high pyramids and regal state.
How small a part of thy Palatial Hall,
Doth Egypt make, earth's fairest sight of all.
You'ld fancy there the seven hills to espy
And Pelion on Ossa's not so high.
It pierces heaven, rising through the cloud,
And 'mid the stars its bright peaks thunder loud,
And take their fill of Phoebus' hidden light
Ere e'en Circeii has the sun in sight.
Yet though with heaven it may equal be,
It is not great enough, dear Sire, for thee.
XXXVII
TRUE KINDNESS
You gave him back his bond, but why
Should you suppose you gave thereby
The money that was due?
He owed the hundred pounds before?
To please him lend him twenty more —
And keep the I 0 U.
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