TO CALVUS ANENT DEAD QUINTILIA.If to the dumb deaf tomb can aught or grateful or pleasing(Calvus!) ever accrue rising from out of our dule,Wherewith yearning desire renews our loves in the bygone,And for long friendships lost many a tear must be shed;Certès, never so much for doom of premature death-dayMust thy Quintilia mourn as she is joyed by thy love.

ON AEMILIUS THE FOUL.Never (so love me the Gods!) deemed I 'twas preference matterOr Aemilius' mouth choose I to smell or his . . . .Nothing is this more clean, uncleaner nothing that other,Yet I ajudge . . . . cleaner and nicer to be;For while this one lacks teeth, that one has cubit-long tushes,Set in their battered gums favouring a muddy old box,Not to say aught of gape like wide-cleft gap of a she-muleWhenas in summer-heat wont peradventure to stale.Yet has he many a motte and holds himself to be handsome—Why wi' the baker's ass is he not bound to the mill?Him if a damsel kiss we fain must think she be readyWith her fair lips . . . .

TO VICTIUS THE STINKARD.Rightly of thee may be said, an of any, (thou stinkingest Victius!)Whatso wont we to say touching the praters and prigs.Thou wi' that tongue o' thine own, if granted occasion availestBrogues of the cowherds to kiss, also their . . . .Wouldst thou undo us all with a thorough undoing (0 Victius!)Open thy gape :—thereby all shall be wholly undone.

TO JUVENTIUS.E'en as thou played'st, from thee snatched I (0 honied Juventius!)Kisslet of savour so sweet sweetest Ambrosia unknows.Yet was the theft nowise scot-free, for more than an hour IClearly remember me fixt hanging from crest of the Cross,Whatwhile I purged my sin unto thee nor with any weepingTittle of cruel despite such as be thine could I 'bate.For that no sooner done thou washed thy liplets with manyDrops which thy fingers did wipe, using their every joint,Lest of our mouths conjoined remain there aught by the contactLike unto slaver foul shed by the butterèd bun. Further, wretchedmost me betrayed to unfriendliest Love-godNever thou ceased'st to pain hurting with every harm,So that my taste be turned and kisses ambrosial erstwhileEven than hellebore-juice bitterest bitterer grow.Seeing such pangs as these prepared for unfortunate lover,After this never again kiss will I venture to snatch.

ON CAELIUS AND QUINTIUS.Caelius Aufilénus and Quintius Aufiléna,Love to the death, both swains bloom of the youth Veronese,This woo'd brother and that sue'd sister: so might the matterClaim to be titled wi' sooth fairest fraternalest tie.Whom shall I favour the first? Thee (Caelius!) for thou hast provèdSingular friendship to us shown by the deeds it has done,Whenas the flames insane had madded me, firing my marrow:Caelius! happy be thou; ever be lusty in love.

ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER.Faring thro' many a folk and plowing many a sea-plainThese sad funeral-rites (Brother!) to deal thee I come,So wi' the latest boons to the dead bestowed I may gift thee,And I may vainly address ashes that answer have none,Sithence of thee, very thee, to deprive me Fortune behested,Woe for thee, Brother forlore! Cruelly severed fro' me.Yet in the meanwhile now what olden usage of forbearsBrings as the boons that befit mournfullest funeral rites,Thine be these gifts which flow with tear-flood shed by thy brother,And, for ever and aye (Brother!) all hail and farewell.

TO CORNELIUS.If by confiding friend aught e'er be trusted in silence,Unto a man whose mind known is for worthiest trust,Me shalt thou find no less than such to secrecy oath-bound,(Cornelius!) and now hold me an Harpocrates.

TO SILO.Or, d'ye hear, refund those ten sestertia (Silo!)Then be thou e'en at thy will surly and savage o' mood:Or, an thou love o'er-well those moneys, prithee no longer