Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/109


 * U. Forgive my vehemence, and kindly state

The meaning of the fable you narrate.
 * T. When he, the Parthian's dread, whose blood comes down

E'en from Æneas' veins, shall win renown By land and sea, a marriage shall betide Between Coranus, wight of courage tried, And old Nasica's daughter, tall and large, Whose sire owes sums he never will discharge. The duteous son-in-law his will presents, And begs the sire to study its contents: At length Nasica, having long demurred, Takes it and reads it through without a word; And when the whole is done, perceives in fine That he and his are simply left—to whine.
 * Suppose some freedman, or some crafty dame

Rules an old driveller, you may join their game: Say all that's good of them to him, that they, When your back's turned, the like of you may say This plan has merits; but 'tis better far To take the fort itself, and end the war.
 * A shrewd old crone at Thebes (the fact occurred

When I was old) was thus by will interred: Her corpse was oiled all over, and her heir Bore it to burial on his shoulders bare: He'd stuck to her while living; so she said She'd give him, if she could, the slip when dead. Be cautious in attack; observe the mean, And neither be too lukewarm, nor too keen. Much talk annoys the testy and morose,