"Convivae certe tui dicunt, Bibamus moriendum est."--Senec. _Controv._
xiv.
6. "Be not thou afraid though one be made rich, or if the glory of his
house be increased; for he shall carry nothing away with him when he
dieth, neither shall his pomp follow him."--Ps. xlix. 16, 17.
"How loved, how honoured once, avails thee not;
To whom related, or by whom begot:
A heap of dust alone remains of thee.
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."--Pope.
"Divesne, prisco natus ab Inacho,
Nil interest, an pauper, et infima
De gente sub divo moreris,
Victima nil miserantis Orci."--Hor. _Carm._, lib. II. iii.
The following close parallelism between Ben Jonson and Horace, though a
little wide of your correspondent's suggestion, is also worthy of notice. I
have never before seen it remarked upon. It would, perhaps, be more correct
to describe it as a plagiarism than as a parallelism:
"_Mosca._ And besides, Sir,
You are not like the thresher that doth stand
With a huge flail, watching a heap of corn,
And, hungry, dares not taste the smallest grain,
But feeds on mallows, and such bitter herbs;
Nor like the merchant, who hath filled his vaults
With Romagnia, and rich Candian wines,
Yet drinks the lees of Lombard's vinegar:
You will lie not in straw, whilst moths and worms
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Feed on your sumptuous hangings and soft beds;
You know the use of riches."--Ben Johnson, _The Fox_.
"Si quis ad ingentem frumenti semper acervum
Prorectus vigilet cum longo fuste, neque illinc
Audeat esuriens dominus contingere granum,
Ac potius foliis parcus vescatur amaris:
Si, positis intus Chii veterisque Falerni
Mille cadis--nihil est, tercentum millibus, acre
Potet acetum; age, si et stramentis incubet, unde--
Octoginta annos natus, cui stragula vestis,
Blattarum ac tinearum epulae, putrescat in arca."--Hor. _Sat._, lib. II.
iii.