Page:The poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Francis Warre Cornish.djvu/159

 Ca rm.

I — C V

If ever any secret whatsoever was entrusted in confidence by a faithful friend, the loyalty of whose heart was fully known, you will find both that I am consecrated by their rite, Cornelius, and you may think that I am become a very Harpocrates.

Prithee, Silo, either give me back the ten sestertia, and then you may be as violent and overbearing as you like; or, if the money gives you pleasure, don't try, I beg, to ply your trade and be at the same time violent and overbearing.

Do you think that I ever could have spoken ill of my life, her who is dearer to me than both my eyes? I could never have done it; nor, if I could help it, would I be so ruinously in love. But you and Tappo make out everything to be prodigious.

Mentula strives to climb the Piplean mount: the Muses with pitchforks drive him out headlong.