Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

BOOK TEN

I
PREFACE
AM I too big to suit your mind?
Is ' finis ' long delayed?
Read but few epigrams, and find
How short I can be made!
Choose the quatrains and couplets-see
The columns end with theseFor so a bulky tome may be
As little as you please.
* II
AN A4POLOGY AS PREFACE
IN too great haste I published Volume Ten:
Behold it here revised with careful pen.
Some things you'll recognise in their new dress,
But of the pieces most, you'll find, are fresh.
Be kind to both, dear reader; for of old
Rome said to me-' Your readers are your gold.
By them the stream of Lethe you'll survive,
By them the better part of you will live.'
The wild fig splits Messalla's marbles through,
And Crispus' steeds are shattered quite in two:
But books are helped by time nor hurt by thieves,
Memorials that death uninjured leaves.
III
TO PRISCUS
SLAVES' jargon, filthy venomn, he doth spit,
The scenes of Billingsgate it might befit,
Pedlars who prowl the slums for broken glass
Would scorn to give a sulphur match for it.
He calls it mine to sully my repute,
The slinking knave is easy to refute;
Would parrots copy quails, would Canus take
The squealing bagpipes for the mellow flute?
Far from my books be that degraded fame,
They soar on jewelled wings unmarred of shame;
'Twill cost me nothing if I hold my peaceThen wherefore toil to win a sullied name?
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