Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookread. 80 Ye fling the shuttle with a female grace, And spin more subtly than Arachne's race; Cowered o'er your labor, like the squalid jade, That plies the distaff, to a block belayed. "Why Hister's freedman heired his wealth, and why 85 His consort, while he lived, was bribed so high, I spare to tell; the wife that, swayed by gain, Can make a third in bed, and near complain, Must ever thrive: on secrets jewels wait: Then wed, my girls; be silent, and--be great!" 90 "Yet these are they, who, fierce in Virtue's cause, Consign our venial frailties to the laws; And, while with partial aim their censure moves, Acquit the vultures, and condemn the doves!" She paused: the unmanly zealots felt the sway 95 Of conscious truth, and slunk, abashed, away. But how shall vice be shamed, when, loosely drest, In the light texture of a cobweb vest, You, Creticus, amid the indignant crowd At Procla and Pollinea rail aloud?-- 100 These, he rejoins, are "daughters of the game." Strike, then;--yet know, though lost to honest fame, The wantons would reject a veil so thin, And blush, while suffering, to display their skin. "But Sirius glows; I burn." Then, quit your dress; 105 'Twill thus be madness, and the scandal less. O! could our legions, with fresh laurels crowned, And smarting still from many a glorious wound, Our rustic mountaineers (the plow laid by, For city cares), a judge so drest descry, 110 What thoughts would rise? Lo! robes which misbecome A witness, deck the awful bench of Rome; And Creticus, stern champion of the laws, Gleams through the tissue of pellucid gauze! Anon from you, as from its fountain-head, 115 Wide and more wide the flagrant pest will spread; As swine take measles from distempered swine, And one infected grape pollutes the vine. Yes, Rome shall see you, lewdlier clad, erewhile, (FOR NONE BECOME, AT ONCE, COMPLETELY VILE,) 120 In some opprobrious den of shame, combined With that vile herd, the horror of their kind, Who twine gay fillets round the forehead; deck With strings of orient pearl the breast and neck; Soothe the GOOD GODDESS with large bowls of wine, 125 And the soft belly of a pregnant swine.-- No female, foul perversion! dares appear, For males, and males alone, officiate here; "Far hence," they cry, "unholy sex, retire, Our purer rites no lowing horn require!" 130 --At Athens thus, involved in thickest gloom, Cotytto's priests her secret torch illume; And to such orgies give the lustful night, That e'en Cotytto sickens at the sight. With tiring-pins, these spread the sooty dye, 135 Arch the full brow, and tinge the trembling eye; Those bind their flowing locks in cawls of gold, Swill from huge glasses of immodest mould, Light, filmy robes of azure net-work wear; And, by their Juno, hark! the attendants swear! 140 This grasps a mirror--pathic Otho's boast (Auruncan Actor's spoil), where, while his host, With shouts, the signal of the fight required, He viewed his mailed form; viewed, and admired! Lo, a new subject for the historic page, 145 A MIRROR, midst the arms of civil rage!-- To murder Galba, was--a general's part! A stern republican's--to dress with art! The empire of the world in arms to seek, And spread--a softening poultice o'er the cheek! 150 Preposterous vanity! and never seen, Or in the Assyrian or Egyptian queen, Though one in arms near old Euphrates stood, And one the doubtful fight at Actium viewed. Nor reverence for the table here is found; 155 But brutal mirth and jests obscene go round: They lisp, they squeal, and the rank language use Of Cybele's lewd votaries, or the stews: Some wild enthusiast, silvered o'er with age, Yet fired by lust's ungovernable rage, 160 Of most insatiate throat, is named the priest, And sits fit umpire of th' unhallowed feast; Why pause they here? Phrygians long since in heart, Whence this delay to lop a useless part? Gracchus admired a cornet or a fife, 165 And, with an ample dower, became his wife. The contract signed, the wonted bliss implored, A costly supper decks the nuptial board; And the new bride, amid the wondering room, Lies in the bosom of the accursed groom!-- 170 Say now, ye nobles, claims this monstrous deed, The Aruspex or the Censor? Can we need More expiations?--sacrifices?--vows? For calving women, or for lambing cows? The lusty priest, whose limbs dissolved with heat, 175 What time he danced beneath the Ancilia's weight, Now flings the ensigns of his god aside, And takes the stole and flammea of a bride! Father of Rome! from what pernicious clime, Did Latian swains derive so foul a crime? 180 Tell where the poisonous nettle first arose, Whose baneful juice through all thy offspring flows. Behold! a man for rank and power renowned, Marries a man!--and yet, with thundering sound, Thy brazen helmet shakes not! earth yet stands, 185 Fixed on its base, nor feels thy wrathful hands! Is thy arm shortened? Raise to Jove thy prayer-- But Rome no longer knows thy guardian care; Quit, then, the charge to some severer Power, Of strength to punish in the obnoxious hour. 190 "To-morrow, with the dawn, I must attend In yonder valley!" Why so soon? "A friend Takes HIM a husband there, and bids a few"-- FEW, yet: but wait awhile; and we shall view Such contracts formed without or shame or fear, 195 And entered on THE RECORDS OF THE YEAR! Meanwhile, one pang these passive monsters find, One ceaseless pang, that preys upon the mind; They can not shift their sex, and pregnant prove With the dear pledges of a husband's love: 200 Wisely confined by Nature's steady plan, Which counteracts the wild desires of man. For them, no drugs prolific powers retain, And the Luperci strike their palms in vain. And yet these prodigies of vice appear, 205 Less monstrous, Gracchus, than the net and spear, With which equipped, you urged the unequal fight, And fled, dishonored, in a nation's sight; Though nobler far than each illustrious name That thronged the pit (spectators of your shame), 210 Nay, than the Prætor, who the SHOW supplied, At which your base dexterity was tried. That angry Justice formed a dreadful hell, That ghosts in subterraneous regions dwell, That hateful Styx his sable current rolls, 215 And Charon ferries o'er unbodied souls, Are now as tales or idle fables prized; By children questioned, and by men despised: YET THESE, DO THOU BELIEVE. What thoughts, declare, Ye Scipios, once the thunderbolts of war! 220 Fabricius, Curius, great Camillus' ghost! Ye valiant Fabii, in yourselves an host! Ye dauntless youths at fatal Cannæ slain! Spirits of many a brave and bloody plain! What thoughts are yours, whene'er, with feet unblest, 225 An UNBELIEVING SHADE invades your rest? --Ye fly, to expiate the blasting view; } Fling on the pine-tree torch the sulphur blue, } And from the dripping bay, dash round the lustral dew. } And yet--to these abodes we all must com |