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If to our scorn he can himself expose,
In drunken riot at the midnight shows;
Not all the splendour of a noble name
Shall hide the folly, or conceal the shame.
Look at thyself, examine well thy mind,
To pride, to sloth, to luxury, resign'd;
Vicious, yet weak, and arrogant, yet mean,
Retire unequal to this troubled scene;
Live not of power the tyrant and the fool,

Nor scourge that empire which thou canst not rule."

THE

SATIRES OF PERSIUS.

SATIRE V.

SATIRA V.

AD ANNÆUM CORNUTUM, CUJUS FUIT AUDITOR.

VATIBUS

V. I-18.

ATIBUS hic mos est, centum sibi poscere voces,
Centum ora et linguas optare in carmina centum :
Fabula seu moesto ponatur hianda tragœdo,
Vulnera seu Parthi ducentis ab inguine ferrum.
Quorsum hæc aut quantas robusti carminis offas
Ingeris, ut par sit centeno gutture niti?
Grande locuturi, nebulas Helicone legunto:
Si quibus aut Prognes, aut si quibus olla Thyestæ
Fervebit, sæpe insulso cœnanda Glyconi.
Tu neque anhelanti, coquitur dum massa camino,
Folle premis ventos; nec clauso murmure raucus
Nescio quid tecum grave cornicaris inepte,
Nec stloppo tumidas intendis rumpere buccas.
Verba togæ sequeris, junctura callidus acri,
Ore teres modico, pallentes radere mores
Doctus, et ingenuo culpam defigere ludo.

Hinc trahe quæ dicas: mensasque relinque Mycenis
Cum capite et pedibus: plebeiaque prandia noris.

SATIRE V.

PERSIUS AND CORNUTUS.

V. I-18.

PERSIUS.

POETS, whene'er they sing, do still invite
An hundred tongues to utter what they write:
Whether the tragic Muse the tale rehearse,
Or deeds in arms be told in epic verse.

C. But wherefore thus? for what bombast of thine
Must all these hundred tongues in concert join?
Let him for sounding words and fustian seek,
Who loves on themes of import high to speak;
Who all his sense in lofty language shrouds,
And gropes in Helicon amidst the clouds.
If such there be, who loving things obscure,
Horrors delight, and Progne's feasts allure;
Who sit well pleased where Glyco is the guest,
And share the banquet for Thyestes dress'd;
It is not thine to brood o'er dark designs,
Or utterance give to empty sounding lines.
But thee the Muses and the arts engage,
Well taught to lash the vices of the age;
F

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