Medulla Poetarum Romanorum Or, the Most Beautiful and Instructive Passages of the Roman Poets. Being a Collection, (Disposed under proper Heads,) Of such Descriptions, Allusions, Comparisons, Characters, and Sentiments, as may best serve to shew the Religion, Learning, Politicks, Arts, Customs, Opinions, Manners, and Circumstances of the Antients. With Translations of the same in English Verse. By Mr. Henry Baker |
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Inclinations of Men Different. |
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 | Medulla Poetarum Romanorum |  |
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Inclinations of Men Different.
Men diff'rent Things admire and approve:
Odes You like best; Iambics Others love:
Whilst a third Sort in Satyr's Rage delight:
Sharp Salt alone can please their Appetite.
Three Friends by me are sent for to a Feast,
A diff'rent Palate too has ev'ry Guest.
What shall, what shall I not provide? when You
For what They like a strong Aversion shew;
And chuse what's hateful to the other two.—
Odes You like best; Iambics Others love:
Whilst a third Sort in Satyr's Rage delight:
Sharp Salt alone can please their Appetite.
Three Friends by me are sent for to a Feast,
A diff'rent Palate too has ev'ry Guest.
What shall, what shall I not provide? when You
For what They like a strong Aversion shew;
And chuse what's hateful to the other two.—
Pollux on Foot, on Horseback Castor fights:
As many Men, so many their Delights.—
Who's Temper's serious, and their Humour sad,
As many Men, so many their Delights.—
They think all blithe and merry Men are mad:
They who are merry, and whose Humour's free,
Abhor a sad and serious Gravity:
They who are slow and heavy, can't admit
The Friendship of a quick and ready Wit.
The slothful hate the busy active Men,
And are detested by the same again.
They whose free Humour prompts them to be gay,
To drink all Night and revel all the Day,
Abhor the Man that can his Cups refuse.—
Nature is ever various in her Frame:
Each has a diff'rent Will, and few the same.
The greedy Merchants, led by Lucre, run
To the parch'd Indies, and the rising Sun:
From thence hot Pepper, and rich Drugs they bear,
Bart'ring for Spices their Italian Ware.
The lazy Glutton safe at Home will keep,
Indulge his Sloth, and batten with his Sleep.
One bribes for high Preferment in the State,
A second shakes the Box, and sits up late:
Another shakes the Bed, dissolving there,
Till Knots upon his gouty Joints appear,
And Chalk is in his crippled Fingers found:
Rots like a doddard Oak, and peice-meal falls to Ground.
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And his past Years, that in a Mist were spent.—
For Men of diff'rent Inclinations are;
Tho' born, perhaps, beneath one common Star.
In Mind and Manners Twins oppos'd we see
In the same Sign, almost the same Degree.
One, frugal, on his Birth-Day fears to dine,
Does at a Penny's Cost in Herbs repine,
And hardly dares to dip his Fingers in the Brine:
Prepar'd as Priest of his own Rites to stand,
He sprinkles Pepper with a sparing Hand.
His jolly Brother opposite in Sense,
Laughs at his Thrift: and lavish of Expence,
Quaffs, crams, and guttles, in his own Defence.—
Some view, with a delighted Eye,
Thick Clouds of Dust around them fly,
While their contending Chariots roll,
And nicely shun th' Olympic Goal:
Where Races, won, and Palms bestow'd,
Exalt a Hero to a God.
Thick Clouds of Dust around them fly,
While their contending Chariots roll,
And nicely shun th' Olympic Goal:
Where Races, won, and Palms bestow'd,
Exalt a Hero to a God.
This is of high Preferment proud,
And Honours given by the Crowd:
That plows his own paternal Fields,
With what the Lybian Harvest yields
Content: nor by the Hopes of Gain
Can'st Thou e'er tempt him from the Plain:
Or draw his fearful Soul to ride
In feeble Ships, and stem the Tide.
And Honours given by the Crowd:
That plows his own paternal Fields,
With what the Lybian Harvest yields
Content: nor by the Hopes of Gain
Can'st Thou e'er tempt him from the Plain:
Or draw his fearful Soul to ride
In feeble Ships, and stem the Tide.
The Merchant toss'd on angry Seas,
Commends his Farm, and rural Ease:
Yet rigs his shatter'd Bark once more,
Untaught, unable to be poor.
Commends his Farm, and rural Ease:
Yet rigs his shatter'd Bark once more,
Untaught, unable to be poor.
There are who quaff, (or careless laid
Beneath the wilding-Apple's Shade,
Or where the rising Fountains play,)
Old Massic Wine throughout the Day.
And Many be, whom Camps delight,
And Battles, that fond Mothers fright:
Who in the Fife's, and Clarion's Voice,
The Symphony of War, rejoyce.
Beneath the wilding-Apple's Shade,
Or where the rising Fountains play,)
Old Massic Wine throughout the Day.
And Many be, whom Camps delight,
And Battles, that fond Mothers fright:
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The Symphony of War, rejoyce.
The Hunter bears bleak Cold and Wet,
Unmindful of his lovely Spouse:
Whether the Stag the Beagles rouse,
Or the wild Boar has broke the Net.—
Some vex the Deep with Oars, and rush to Arms:
Unmindful of his lovely Spouse:
Whether the Stag the Beagles rouse,
Or the wild Boar has broke the Net.—
Sollicit Favour in the Courts of Kings.
One Spoils, from wretched, ruin'd Cities seeks:
To quaff on Gems, and snore on Tyrian Dye:
This buries Wealth, and broods o'er hoarded Gold:
That doats with Fondness on the Rostrum's Fame:
Another on th' Applauses of the Cirque,
And Theaters: for doubled is th' Applause:
The People and the Fathers both concur:
He, set agape, stands ravish'd at the Sound.
Some triumph, reeking in their Brother's Blood:
And change for Exile their sweet native Homes,
And seek a Soil warm'd by another Sun.—
The savage Lioness pursues the Wolf:
The Wolf the Goat: the Goat the Trefoil's Flowers:
Thee, Corydon, Alexis: All their Love.—
By Flocks the Wolf is dreaded: soaking Show'rs
By the ripe Harvests: by the Trees the Wind:
By Me, my Amaryllis' angry Frown.
Grateful is Dew to springing Corn: sweet Brouze
To new-wean'd Kids: the bending Sallow's Leaves
To pregnant Yews: Amyntas sole to Me.—
| Medulla Poetarum Romanorum | |