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SIX

THE

SATIRES

OF

PERSIUS.

PROLOGUS.

NEC fonte labra prolui Caballino :
Nec in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso
Memini, ut repente sic Poëta prodirem.
Heliconiadasque, pallidamque Pyrenen
Illis remitto, quorum imagines lambunt
Hederæ sequaces: ipse semipaganus
Ad sacra vatum carmen affero nostrum.
Quis expedivit psittaco suum xaïge,
Picasque docuit nostra verba conari ?
Magister artis, ingeniique largitor
Venter, negatas artifex sequi voces.
Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi,.
Corvos poëtas, et poëtrias picas
Cantare credas Pegaseium melos.

PROLOGUE.

NE'ER did I taste Castalia's stream;
Nor yet on fork'd Parnassus dream,
That I should feel a poet's fire,
Or blow the lute, or string the lyre.
I leave the Muse's magic ground
To bards profess'd, with laurel crown'd.
The gift I offer to the Nine,

A rustic wreath, to grace their shrine.
What taught the parrot to cry, hail ?
What taught the chattering pie his tale?
Hunger; that sharpener of the wits,
Which gives e'en fools some thinking fits.
Did rooks and pies but know the pleasure
Of heaping high a golden treasure ;
And would their music money bring,
Even rooks and pies would shortly sing.

THE

SATIRES OF PERSIUS.

SATIRE I.

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