Prima nocte domum claude, neque in vias Sub cantu querulae despice tibiae:

Et te saepe vocanti

Duram, difficilis mane

VIII. AD MAECENATEM.

MARTIIS caelebs quid agam Kalendis,
Quid velint flores et acerra turis
Plena, miraris, positusque carbo in
Caespite vivo,

Docte sermones utriusque linguae.
Voveram dulces epulas, et album
Libero caprum, prope funeratus
Arboris ictu.

Hic dies, anno redeunte festus,
Corticem adstrictum pice dimovebit
Amphorae fumum bibere institutae
Consule Tullo.

Sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici
Sospitis centum: et vigiles lucernas
Perfer in lucem: procul omnis esto
Clamor et ira.

Truce to disquiet for the state's well-being:
Routed are Dacian Cotison's battalions:
To himself hostile, suicidal conflict
Is the Mede waging.

Subject now are, although by tardy conquest,
Cantabri, ancient foes on Spanish seaboard.
Scythians too are for retreat preparing
With their bows slackened.

Since at ease, then, about the public welfare,
Let not too much private affairs engross you:
Gladly accept what gifts the present offers,
Bus'ness postponing.

Mr. Macleane quotes from Buttmann the following very sufficient reason for departing from the usual editorial practice of representing Horace as one of the interlocutors in this 'incomparable dialogue': The ancients had the skill to construct such poems so that each speech tells us by whom it is spoken, but we let the editors treat us all our lives as schoolboys, and interline such dialogues, after the fashion of our plays, with the names. Το their sedulity we are indebted for the alternation of the lyrical name Lydia with the name Horatius in this exquisite work of art; and yet even in an English poem we should be offended at seeing Collins by the side of Phyllis.'

As long as I to thee was dear,

And no more favoured youth drew near,
Round thy white neck his arms to fling,
More blest I lived than Persia's king.

Mitte civiles super urbe curas:
Occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen :
Medus infestus sibi luctuosis
Dissidet armis ;

Servit Hispanae vetus hostis orae
Cantaber, sera domitus catena :
Jam Scythae laxo meditantur arcu
Cedere campis.

Negligens, ne qua populus laboret,
Parce privatus nimium cavere :
Dona praesentis cape laetus horae, et
Linque severa.

IX. DIALOGUS.

DONEC gratus eram tibi,

Nec quisquam potior brachia candidae

Cervici juvenis dabat;

Persarum vigui rege beatior.

As long as none thou lovedst more,
Nor Chloe, Lydia ranked before,
I, Lydia, lived, of brilliant name,
Outshining Roman Ilia's fame.

Now Cretan Chloe o'er me reigns,
Skilled lyrist, warbler of sweet strains,
For whom I fear not life to give
So the fates let her spirit live.

Me, Calais, son of Thurian sire,
Of Ornith, fires with mutual fire.
A twofold death will I endure
So that boy's life the fates ensure.

What if revived first love again
The severed bind with brazen chain,
And, fair-haired Chloe spurned, my door
Open to Lydia, as before?

Though he is lovelier than a star,
Thou light as cork, and stormier far
Than Adria foul,-with thee will I
Delight to live, consent to die.

Donec non alia magis

Arsisti, neque erat Lydia post Chloën, Multi Lydia nominis

Romana vigui clarior Ilia.

Me nunc Cressa Chloë regit,

Dulces docta modos, et citharae sciens;

Pro qua non metuam mori,

Si parcent animae fata superstiti.

Me torret face mutua

Thurini Calaïs filius Ornyti; Pro quo bis patiar mori,

Si parcent puero fata superstiti.

Quid, si prisca redit Venus,
Diductosque jugo cogit aëneo?

Si flava excutitur Chloë,

Rejectaeque patet janua Lydiae ?

Quamquam sidere pulchrior

Ille est; tu levior cortice, et improbo

Iracundior Hadria;

Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens.

N