Hasten, papyrus! greet you well
That tender poet, my sweet friend
Caecilius--speedily I send,
As speedily my message tell:
That he should for Verona make
All haste--and quit his Larian Lake,
And Novum Comum--for I would
Some certain thoughts he understood
And purposes, that now possess
A friend of mine; and his no less.
And if he takes me rightly, say
His coming will devour the way,
Though that fair girl should bid him stay,
And round his neck her arms should throw,
And cry, Oh, do not, do not go!--
That girl, who, if the truth be told,
E'en in her heart of hearts doth hold
And cherish such sweet love--since he
First read to her of Cybele,
"Great Queen of Dindymus" the tale
Begun. Oh, then she did inhale
The living breath of love, whose heat
Into her very life doth eat.
Thy passion I can well excuse,
Fair maid! more learn'd than the tenth muse,
The Lesbian maid--nor couldst thou fail
To find for love an ample plea,
In that so nobly open'd tale
Of the great Goddess Cybele.
CURATE.--What's all this?--the "tenth muse!" where is she in the Latin?
AQUILIUS.--_Sapphica musa_, Doctor. That is Sappho, is it not? and pray
was Sappho one of the _nine_ muses? No; then of course she was the
_tenth_--and was not she "the Lesbian maid?"
CURATE.--Well, I admit it--you have vindicated your muse fairly, and I
will not pronounce against her, though tempted by an apt quotation from
the mouth of Bacchus, in the _Frogs_ of Aristophanes.
"[Greek: Aute poth e Mouo ouk elesbiazen ou]."
For your muse is certainly a Lesbian; but you have omitted "misellae,"
which shows that the passion was not returned.
GRATIAN.--I don't see that; for she throws her arms about his neck. But
neither of you have well spoken the "millies euntem revocet," the
calling him back after departure, and that is very good too. I see the
note upon _Sapphica Musa_, speaks of various interpretations to the
passage; but adopts this--that the maiden loving Caecilius has more sense
(is that _doctior_? I doubt) than Sappho, who loved a youth too stupid
ever to write a line; but this maid did not love till she had read the
commencement of his poem. I don't see the necessity for thinking the
passion hopeless either, because of the comparison with Sappho. Few
Roman maidens took the Leucadian leap.
CURATE.--It is very odd, and might first appear a mark of their good
manners--that the Romans never mention "old maids." I fear there was
another cause. I suppose the omission may be accounted for by the state
of society, which was not favourable to their existence at all; for then
a man could put away his wife at any moment, and for any plea, most
women must have managed to get a husband for a long or a short time.
AQUILIUS.--The only ancient old maids were the Fates and Furies--of the
latter, the burden of the song was--
"Oh no, we never mention them,
Their names are never heard!"
GRATIAN.--Come back to your duty: we are wandering, and leaving Catullus
behind. What are we to have now?
AQUILIUS.--An attack upon one Egnatius, who, having white teeth, took
care to show them upon all occasions. He was not, however, celebrated
for his tooth-powder. He is a fair mark for the wit of our author. The
arrow of his satire was occasionally keen enough and free to fly.