Ex otio Negotium :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ex otio Negotium

Or, Martiall his epigrams Translated. With Sundry Poems and Fancies, By R. Fletcher

Fletcher, R.

[epigraph]

MARTIALL

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In Sextum Epig. 44.

Whether I've bought a freeze coat or a boy,
For three or four times double the pound Troy,
Forthwith the us'rer Sextus, which ye know
To be my antient neighbour-friend in show,
In care, least I should borrow of him, fears
And whispers to himself, but by my eares,
I to Secundus owe seaven thousand pounds,
To Phœbus four, eleven Philetus sounds;
Whiles I have not one farthing in my chest:
O my conceited friend's ingenious jest!
Sextus 'tis hard to give a flat denyal,
When thou art askd: much more before the tryal.