TO AUFILENA. I LIKE girls, Aufilena, of consciences nice, For the favours they grant who are honestly paid; But you, who have cheated, and taken the price Of the love you withhold, are an infamous jade. 'Tis an honest girl's part, what she's promised, to do; 'T were a modest one's not to have promised the deed: But she who can jilt, while she pockets like you The money for favours she will not concede, Commits a base fraud, which would shame and disgrace The lowest and worst of the prostitute race. THE GROWTH OF ADULTERY. TO CINNA. WHEN Pompey was Rome's Consul first, 'Twas but with two adulterers curst; And, Cinna, when again he reign'd, Those two, still unreform'd, remain’d. But, ah! so skill'd their trade to teach, A thousand then had sprung from each. For easier much can love be grown TO MAMUR`ra. ON HIS ESTATE. JUSTLY, Mamurra, does your Formian land All rural wealth, all wholesome fruits abound, And means your farm's abundance, not your own. TO GELLIUS. GELLIUS, I oft in thought debated, Whether I should the poem send I from Callimachus translated, I hoped it might have soothed your hate, But vain I find is all my toil; So still my cloak your darts shall foil; While you shall keenly smart with mine. |