Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/116

Half dead, they scurry round the room, poor things,
While the whole house with barking mastiffs rings.
Then says the rustic: "It may do for you,
This life, but I don't like it; so adieu:
Give me my hole, secure from all alarms,
I'll prove that tares and vetches still have charms."

 

 

SATIRE VII.

Jamdudum ausculto.

Davus.Horace.

Davus.

'VE listened long, and fain a word would say,
But, as a slave, I dare not.
H. Davus, eh?
D. Yes, Davus, true and faithful, good enough,
But not too good to be of lasting stuff.
H. Well, take December's licence: I'll not balk
Our fathers' good intentions: have your talk.
D. Some men there are take pleasure in what's ill
Persistently, and do it with a will:
The greater part keep wavering to and fro,
And now all right, and now all wrong they go.