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Cruore rubros obstetrix pannos lavit,
Utcunque fortis exfilis puerpera.

CANIDIAE RESPONSIO.

QUID obferatis auribus fundis preces ?

Non faxa nudis furdiora navitis

Inultus ut tu riferis Cotyttia

Neptunus alto tundit hibernus falo..

55

Vulgata, facrum liberi Cupidinis ?

Et Efquilini pontifex venefici.

Impune et Urbem nomine impleris meo?

бо

Quid proderit ditaffe Pelignas anus

Velociufve mifcuiffe toxicum,

Si [a] tardiora fata te votis manent ?
Ingrata mifero vita ducenda eft, in hoc,
Novis ut ufque fuppetas doloribus.
Optat quietem Pelopis [b] infidi pater,
Egens benignae Tantalus femper dapis;
Optat Prometheus obligatus aliti:
Optat fupremo collocare Sifyphus
In monte faxum: fed vetant leges Jovis.
Voles modo altis defilire turribus,
Modo enfe pectus Norico recludere;
Fraftraque vincla gutturi innectes tuo,

[a] Sed tardiora fata.
[b] Pelopis infidus pater.

65

70

Faftidiofa

wombia fruitful one; and, whenever you bring forth, you fpring up with unabated vigour.

CANIDIA's ANSWER.

WHY do you pour forth your intreaties to ears. that are obftinately fhut up against them? The wintry ocean, with its briny tempefts, does not lafh rocks more deaf to the cries of the naked mariners. What fhall you, without being made an example of, deride the Cotyttian† mysteries, facred to unrestrained love, which were divulged by you? And fhall you, affuming the office of Pontiff, with regard to my Efquilian incantations, fill the city with my name, unpunished? What will it avail me to have enriched the Pelignian forcereffes, with my charms, and to have prepared poison of more expedition than others, if a flower fate awaits you than is agreeable to my wifhes? An irksome life fhall be protracted by you, wretch as you are, only for this purpose, that you may perpetually be able to endure new tortures. Tantalus, the fire of the perfidious Pelops, always in want of that plenteous banquet, which is always before him, wifhes for refpite: Prometheus, chained to the vulture, wishes for reft: Sifyphus wishes to place the ftone upon the fummit of the mountain: but the laws of Jupiter forbid. Thus you, in hopes of relief, fhall defire at one time to leap down from an high tower, at another to lay open your breaft with the Noric fword; and, grieving with your tedious indifpofition, fhall tie nooses about your neck in vain. For

† Cotytto, or Cotys, was the goddess of impurity.

Faftidiofa triftis aegrimonia.

Vectabor humeris tunc ego inimicis eques :
Meaeque terra cedet infolentiae.

An quae movere cereas imagines,
(Ut ipfe nofti curiofus) et polo

Deripere lunam vocibus [a] poffim meis,
Poffim crematos excitare murtuos,
Defiderique temperare poculum;

Plorem artis in te [b] nil valentis exitum ?'

75

80

QUINTI

[a] Vocibus poffum meis, poffum.

[b] Nullum habentis exitum.

For I at that time will ride on your odious fhoulders; and the whole earth fhall acknowledge my unexampled power. What fhall I, who can give motion to waxen images (as you yourself, inquifitive as you are, were convinced of) and snatch the moon from heaven by my incantations; I, who can raise the dead after they are burned, and duly prepare the potion of love; Shall I bewail the fuccefslefs event of my art having no efficacy upon you.

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QUINTI

HORATII FLACCI

CARMEN SECULARE.*

POETA AD POPULUM.

LIB. 3.ODI profanum vulgus, et arceo.

ODE I.

Favete linguis carmina non prius
Audita Mufarum facerdos
Virginibus puerifque canto.

*The Secular Poem. The Poet to the People.

AD

In conformity to the opinion of M. SANADON, and many other ingenious editors of our author, it is here thought proper to collect together in one view, the several parts the Secular Ode may be supposed to have originally coufifted of. Whether or no the generality of competent judges of antiquity and Horatian elegance, be convinced that this is the form in which its author wrote, and Rome admired it; most, I believe, will allow, that in this condi tion every part is confiftent, each divifion adds dignity to the whole, and that there arifes a poem which is at once the finest monument of heathen worship, and perhaps the nobleft fpecimen of lyric poetry that is any where remaining. Tranflations of the feveral parts will be found by the references in the margin.

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