Priapeia
Priaepia
by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers
- Wont the Priapi of old were to have both Naiads and Dryads
- And the stiff vein of the God all had what causes to droop;
- Now there's naught of the kind; now so fulfilled my desire is
- Fain am I left to believe every Nymph to be dead.
- Vile thing 'twere to be done, but lest I burst me with straining
- Sickle unhanding I mistress must make of my hand.
- At holy offering to the Lustful God
- Hired was a harlot for a slender price
- To meet the common wants of commonweal;
- And for as many men one night outworked
- So many willow yards she'll give to thee.
- Thief, for first thieving shalt be swived, but an
- Again arrested shalt be irrumate;
- And, shouldst attempt to plunder time the third,