Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/128

118 from his own verses to Diodati that he had incurred Rustication, a temporary dismission into the country, with perhaps the loss of a term. Me tenet urbs refluâ quam Thamesis alluit undâ,
 * Meque nec invitum patria dulcis habet.

Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,
 * Nec dudum vetiti me laris angit amor.—

Nec duri libet usque minas perferre magistri,
 * Cæteraque ingenio non subeunda meo.

Si sit hoc exilium patrias adiisse penates,
 * Et vacuum curis otia grata sequi,

Non ego vel profugi nomen sortemve recuso,
 * Lætus et exilii conditione fruor.

I cannot find any meaning but this, which even kindness and reverence can give to the term vetiti laris, "a habitation from which he is excluded," or how exile can be otherwise interpreted. He declares yet more, that he is weary of enduring the threats of a rigorous master, and something else, which a temper like his cannot undergo. What was more than threat was probably punishment. This poem, which mentions his exile, proves likewise that it was not perpetual, for it concludes with a resolution of returning Rh