Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

* LXVIII
TO ENTELLUS
E'EN those who've seen Alcin6us' domains
Prefer the country that your house contains.
Lest jealous winter should the clusters sear
And frost consume the gifts of Bacchus there,
Your vineyard blooms 'neath a transparent lid,
Its lucky grapes roofed over yet unhid.
So shine a maiden's limbs through bombasine,
So are the pebbles in clear water seen.
What power will nature not allow to skill!
You make grim winter to be autumn still.
LXIX
LAUDATOR TEMPORIS ACTI
ALL save the ancient poets you decry,
The living cannot gain your approbation;
Excuse me-'tis not worth my while to die,
Even to earn your valued admiration.
LXX
TO NERVA
GENTLE is Nerva, and his tongue doth shrink
Too modestly to show her proper skill,
And he that might have drained Permessus' rill
Constrained his thirst and sipped the very brink;
And though his brow wear but a sprig of bay,
And though he will not woo the breeze of fame,
Yet him doth learned Nero's verse acclaim
And greet him the Tibullus of to-day.
* LXXI
TO POSTUlMIANUS
FOUR pounds' weight of silver ten winters ago
You sent as my present, I'ld have you to know.
Next year I hoped more, or at least just the same,
But to my disgust 'twas but two pounds that came.
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