Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

XLV
POET'S PADDING
LEST all overlook so tiny a book
And brevity lead to its loss,
I will not refuse such padding to use
As ' Tov 68'dra!LEt/3to/Evos.'
* XLVI
FESTINA LENTE
WHEN you say-' Quick: let's get it over'I feel myself a languid lover.
It's only when you bid me wait
That I dash from the starting-gate.
If you are in such haste to go
You'd better tell me to be slow.
XLVII
TO DIA UL US
Now leechcraft forsaking you try undertaking
And furnish the funerals of men,
So your trade is the same tho' you alter the nameFor you always provided them then.
* XLVIII
THE HARE AND THE LIONS;
THE bull was not spared by that wide-open maw;
But the hare gambols lightly and frisks in his jaw,
Running now all the swifter, escaped from the foe,
And something of leonine courage doth show.
She was never more safe in the loneliest fen,
Never more sure of life in the depths of her den.
If you wish, wanton hare, from the greyhound to liy,
Then the jaws of the lion will refuge supply.
I6