Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookr age has mellowed and improved their juice. How homely this! and yet this homely fare A senator would, once, have counted rare; When the good Curius thought it no disgrace O'er a few sticks a little pot to place, 120 With herbs by his small garden-plot supplied-- Food, which the squalid wretch would now deride, Who digs in fetters, and, with fond regret, The tavern's savory dish remembers yet! Time was, when, on the rack, a man would lay 125 The seasoned flitch, against a solemn day; And think the friends who met, with decent mirth, To celebrate the hour which gave him birth, On this, and what of fresh the altars spared (For altars then were honored), nobly fared. 130 Some kinsman, who had camps and senates swayed, Had thrice been consul, once dictator made, From public cares retired, would gayly haste, Before the wonted hour, to such repast, Shouldering the spade, that, with no common toil, 135 Had tamed the genius of the mountain soil.-- Yes, when the world was filled with Rome's just fame, And Romans trembled at the Fabian name, The Scauran, and Fabrician; when they saw A censor's rigor even a censor awe, 140 No son of Troy e'er thought it his concern, Or worth a moment's serious care, to learn, What land, what sea, the fairest tortoise bred, Whose clouded shell might best adorn his bed.-- His bed was small, and did no signs impart 145 Or of the painter's or the sculptor's art, Save where the front, cheaply inlaid with brass, Showed the rude features of a vine-crowned ass; An uncouth brute, round which his children played, And laughed and jested at the face it made! 150 Briefly, his house, his furniture, his food, Were uniformly plain, and simply good. Then the rough soldier, yet untaught by Greece To hang, enraptured, o'er a finished piece, If haply, 'mid the congregated spoils 155 (Proofs of his power, and guerdon of his toils), Some antique vase of master-hands were found, Would dash the glittering bauble on the ground; That, in new forms, the molten fragments dress'd, Might blaze illustrious round his courser's chest, 160 Or, flashing from his burnished helmet, show (A dreadful omen to the trembling foe) The mighty sire, with glittering shield and spear, Hovering, enamored, o'er the sleeping fair, The wolf, by Rome's high destinies made mild, 165 And, playful at her side, each wondrous child. Thus, all the wealth those simple times could boast, Small wealth! their horses and their arms engross'd; The rest was homely, and their frugal fare, Cooked without art, was served in earthen ware: 170 Yet worthy all our envy, were the breast But with one spark of noble spleen possess'd. THEN shone the fanes with majesty divine, A present god was felt at every shrine! And solemn sounds, heard from the sacred walls, 175 At midnight's solemn hour, announced the Gauls, Now rushing from the main; while, prompt to save, Stood Jove, the prophet of the signs he gave! Yet, when he thus revealed the will of fate, And watched attentive o'er the Latian state, 180 His shrine, his statue, rose of humble mould, Of artless form, and unprofaned with gold. Those good old times no foreign tables sought; From their own woods the walnut-tree was brought, When withering limbs declared its pith unsound, 185 Or winds uptore, and stretched it on the ground. But now, such strange caprice has seized the great, They find no pleasure in the costliest treat, Suspect the flowers a sickly scent exhale, And think the ven'son rank, the turbot stale, 190 Unless wide-yawning panthers, towering high-- Enormous pedestals of ivory, Formed of the teeth which Elephantis sends, Which the dark Moor, or darker Indian, vends, Or those which, now, too heavy for the head, 195 The beasts in Nabathea's forest shed-- The spacious ORBS support: then they can feed, And every dish is delicate indeed! For silver feet are viewed with equal scorn, As iron rings upon the finger worn. 200 To me, forever be the guest unknown, Who, measuring my expenses by his own, Remarks the difference with a scornful leer, And slights my humble house and homely cheer. Look not to me for ivory; I have none: 205 My chess-board and my men are all of bone; Nay, my knife-handles; yet, my friend, for this, My pullets neither cut nor taste amiss. I boast no artist, tutored in the school Of learned Trypherus, to carve by rule; 210 Where large sow-paps of elm, and boar, and hare, And phœnicopter, and pygargus rare, Getulian oryx, Scythian pheasants, point, The nice anatomy of every joint; And dull blunt tools, severing the wooden treat, 215 Clatter around, and deafen all the street. My simple lad, whose highest efforts rise To broil a steak in the plain country guise, Knows no such art; humbly content to serve, And bring the dishes which he can not kerve. 220 Another lad (for I have two to-day), Clad, like the first, in homespun russet gray, Shall fill our earthen bowls: no Phrygian he, No pampered attribute of luxury, But a rude rustic:--when you want him, speak, 225 And speak in Latin, for he knows not Greek. Both go alike, with close-cropp'd hair, undress'd, But spruced to-day in honor of my guest; And both were born on my estate, and one Is my rough shepherd's, one, my neatherd's son. 230 Poor youth! he mourns, with many an artless tear, His long, long absence from his mother dear; Sighs for his little cottage, and would fain Meet his old playfellows, the goats, again. Though humble be his birth, ingenuous grace 235 Beams from his eye, and flushes in his face; Charming suffusion! that would well become The youthful offspring of the chiefs of Rome.-- He, Persicus, shall fill us wine which grew Where first the breath of life the stripling drew, 240 On Tibur's hills;--dear hills, that many a day Witnessed the transports of his infant play. But you, perhaps, expect a wanton throng Of Gaditanian girls, with dance and song, To kindle loose desire; girls, that now bound } 245 Aloft with active grace, now, on the ground, } Quivering, alight, while peals of praise go round. } Lo! wives, beside their husbands placed, behold, What could not in their ear, for shame, be told; Expedients of the rich, the blood to fire, 250 And wake the dying embers of desire. Behold? O heavens! they view, with keenest gust, These strong provocatives of jaded lust; With every gesture feel their passions rise, And draw in pleasure both at ears and eyes! 255 Such vicious fancies are too great for me. Let him the wanton dance unblushing see, And hear the immodest terms which, in the stews, The veriest strumpet would disdain to use, Whose drunken spawlings roll, tumultuous, o'er 260 The proud expansion of a marble floor: For there the world a large allowance make, And spare the folly for the fortune's sake.-- Dice, and adultery, with a small estate, Are damning crimes; but venial, with a great; 265 Venial? nay, graceful: witty, gallant |