Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

Which is the better, a fox to snare
That wounds your hounds with his poisoned teeth,
Or to draw full nets from the deeps beneath
And set them again for a leaping hare?
Here is your keeper-he looks quite vain
Having caught a badger-oh dainty dish!
You dwell by the coast, Rome sends you fish,
Have you any commands for the Spanish main?
* XXXVIII
CALENUS AND SULPICIA
FOR fifteen years, Calenus, by your side,
Sulpicia has lived, a blooming bride.
O nights of bliss, whose each immortal hour
Is marked by pearls from distant India's shore.
What conflicts and what rivalry of love
Has your bed witnessed and the lamp above!
These fifteen years alone you hold as life,
Nor count the days before you had a wife.
For if kind Fate would turn again the page
One day surpasses four times Nestor's age.
XXXIX
THE OLD SERPENT
LESBIA, in owning you were born
When Charles was King, you are forsworn;
And if 'twas Charles Martel you meant,
You lie again: it's evident
That one with your experience must
Have sprung with Adam from the dust!
* XL
INNOCENT A.l USEMENVTS
I WAS told that my Polla had taken a fancy
To intimate talks all alone with a Nancy.
I ventured upon them one evening to call,
And I found that he was not a Nancy at all.
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