SCENE--_The interior of a classic Country Villa. Present--An aged,
illustrious, but retired, Statesman and Leader, engaged now in
thrumming a lyre. To him enter his youthful successor, with certain
scrolls._
_Senex_ (_eagerly_). My _dear_ PRIMULA! _So_ glad you have come! The
very man I wished to see. Be seated.
_Juvenis_ (_depositing scrolls_). A thousand thanks. Delighted to see
you looking so well, my dear GLADSTONIUS.
_Senex_ (_cheerily_). Never better, thank the gods!--_and_ the
ocularius!
[_Twangles nimbly._
_Juvenis._ Ah! CINCINNATUS, in retirement, pleased himself with the
plough; _your_ recreation was wont to be the axe or the banjo; _now_ I
perceive it is the--harp!
_Senex_ (_sharply_). Not at all, PRIMULA, not at all. _This_ is not a
harp!
[_Plays and sings._
Poscimur. Si quid vacui sub umbra
Lusimus tecum, quod et hunc in annum
Vivat et plures, age, dic Latinum,
Barbite, carmen.
* * * * *
O decus Phoebi et dapibus supremi
Grata testudo Jovis, O laborum
Dulce lenimen mihi cunque salve
Rite vocanti.
_Juvenis_ (_astounded_). Charming, I'm sure!
_Senex_ (_beaming_). Think so? I fear you
flatter.
_Juvenis._ Not at all. You may say, with
your new favourite--
"Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseres,
Sublimi feriam sidera vertice."
_Senex_ (_modestly_). Very pretty! But I fear the ever-youthful Muses
may disdain an Old Man's belated wooing.
_Juvenis_ (_slily_). Even a _Grand_ Old Man's?
_Senex_ (_shuddering_). Nay, no more of that, an' you love me. By the
way, I wanted to consult you on a little musical matter.
_Juvenis_ (_dubiously_). Ah! Concerning yon Hibernian Harp, I presume?
_Senex_ (_impatiently_). Dear me, no! The Hibernian Harp be--jangled.
As, indeed, it is, and unstrung into the bargain.
_Juvenis_ (_relieved_). Why, have you then, like the _other_ Minstrel
Boy, "torn its chords asunder"?
_Senex._ Well, no, not that exactly. I fear its native thrummers will
spare others that trouble. But--ahem!--it is the Horatian Lyre that
interests me at present.
_Juvenis._ I see:--
"Quem virum aut heroa lyra vel acri
Tibia sumis celebrare, Clio?
Quem deum? Cujus recinet jocosa Nomen imago,
Aut in umbrosis Heliconis oris
Aut super Pindo gelidove in Hæmo?"
_Senex_ (_musingly_). Hum! I have not yet tried the Tibia--the shrill
pipe--but I _may_.
_Juvenis._ Doubtless; and you are quite equal to it.
_Senex_ (_drily_). Thanks! But I've no wish, my dear PRIMULA, "to play
the _rôle_ of elderly _Narcissus_." At present my part is only that of
_Echo_--to the Venusian's vibrant voice.
[_Muses._
_Juvenis_ (_taking advantage of the opportunity_). Well, my dear
GLADSTONIUS, there are one or two little matters upon which I want to
take your opinion. For example, CÆCILIUS----
_Senex_ (_quickly_). "CÆCILIUS, who provoked the populace to such a
degree, that CICERO could hardly restrain them from doing him violence."
Do you want me to play the part of CICERO?
_Juvenis_ (_taken aback_). Well--ahem!--hardly _that_, perhaps. But----
_Senex_ (_interrupting him_). My dear PRIMULA, as I have already said in
response to an appeal from a friend of the modern ORBILIUS (_not_ like
HORACE'S pedagogue, "_Plagosus_," though), "After a contentious life of
fifty-two years, I am naturally anxious to spend the remainder of my
days in freedom from controversy."
_Juvenis._ Oh! Quite so--of course. But ahem!--the people are a little
pressing----
_Senex._ Eh? To hurtful measures? What says AUGUSTUS's "pleasant
mannikin" again, _à propos_?
[_Thrums._
Justum et tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni,
Mente quatit solida neque Auster,
Dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae,
Nec fulminantis magna manus Jovis
Si fractus illabitur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinæ.
_Juvenis._ Doubtless. One such as yourself, "retired from business,"
like your beloved HORACE on his Sabine farm.
"Ille potens sui
Lætusque deget, cui licet in diem
Dixisse Vixi;"