Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

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Lesbia doth but rail, rail ever upon me, nor endeth

Ever. A life I stake, Lesbia loves me at heart.

Ask me a sign? Our score runs parallel. I that abuse her

Ever, a life to the stake, Lesbia, love thee at heart.

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Lightly methinks I reck if Cæsar smile not upon me:

Care not, whether a white, whether a swarth-skin, is he.

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Mentula—wanton is he; his calling sure is a wanton's.

Herbs to the pot, 'tis said wisely, the name to the man.

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Nine times winter had end, nine times flush'd summer in harvest,

Ere to the world gave forth Cinna, the labour of years,

Zmyrna; but in one month Hortensius hundred on hundred

Verses, an unripe birth feeble, of hurry begot.

Zmyrna to far Satrachus, to the stream of Cyprus, ascendeth;

Zmyrna with eyes unborn study the centuries hoar.

Padus her own ill child shall bury, Volusius' annals;

In them a mackerel oft house him, a wrapper of ease.

Dear to my heart be a friend's unbulky memorial ever;

Cherish an Antimachus, weighty as empty, the mob.

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If to the silent dead aught sweet or tender ariseth,

Calvus, of our dim grief's common humanity born;

When to a love long cold some pensive pity recals us,

When for a friend long lost wakes some unhappy regret;

Not so deeply, be sure, Quintilia's early departing

Grieves her, as in thy love dureth a plenary joy.

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Asks some booby rebuke, some prolix prattler a judgment?

Vettius, all were said verily truer of you.

Tongue so noisome as yours, come chance, might surely on order

Bend to the mire, or lick dirt from a beggarly shoe.

Would you on all of us, all, bring, Vettius, utterly ruin?

Speak; not a doubt, 'twill come utterly, ruin on all.

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Dear one, a kiss I stole, while you did wanton a-playing,

Sweet ambrosia, love, never as honily sweet.

Dearly the deed I paid for; an hour's long misery waning

Ended, as I agoniz'd hung to the point of a cross,

Hoping vain purgation; alas! no potion of any

Tears could abate that fair angriness, youthful as you.

Hardly the sin was in act, your lips did many a falling

Drop dilute, which anon every finger away

Cleansed apace, lest still my mouth's infection abiding

Stain, like slaver abhorr'd breath'd from a foul fricatrice.

Add, that a booty to love in misery me to deliver

You did spare not, a fell worker of all agonies,

So that, again transmuted, a kiss ambrosia seeming

Sugary, turn'd to the strange harshness of harsh hellebore.

Then such dolorous end since your poor lover awaiteth,

Never a kiss will I venture, a theft any more.

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Quintius, Aufilena; to Caelius, Aufilenus;

Lovers each, fair flower either of youths Veronese.

One to the brother bends, and one to the sister. A noble

Friendship, if e'er was true friendship, a rare brotherhood.

Ask me to which I lean? You, Caelius: yours a devotion

Single, a faith of tried quality, steady to me;

Into my inmost veins when love sank fiercely to burn them.

Mighty be your bright love, Caelius, happy be you!

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Borne o'er many a land, o'er many a level of ocean,

Here to the grave I come, brother, of holy repose,

Sadly the last poor gifts, death's simple duty, to bring thee;

Unto the silent dust vainly to murmur a cry.

Since thy form deep-shrouded an evil destiny taketh

From me, O hapless ghost, brother, O heavily ta'en,

Yet this bounty the while, these gifts ancestral of usance

Homely, the sad slight store piety grants to the tomb;

Drench'd in a brother's tears, and weeping freshly, receive them;

Yea, take, brother, a long Ave, a timeless adieu.

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If to a friend sincere, Cornelius, e'er was a secret

Trusted, a friend whose soul steady to honour abides;

Me to the same brotherhood doubt not to be inly devoted,

Sworn upon oath, to the last secret, an Harpocrates.

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Briefly, the sesterces all, give back, full quantity, Silo,

Then be a bully beyond exorability, you:

Else, if money be all, O cease so lewdly to practise

Bawd, yet bully beyond exorability, you.

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What? should a lover adore, yet cruelly slander adoring?

I my lady, than eyes goodlier easily she?

Nay, I rail not at all. How rail, so blindly desiring?

Tappo alone dare brave all that is heinous, or you.

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Mentula toils, Pimplea, the Muses' mountain, ascending:

They with pitchforks hurl Mentula dizzily down.

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Walks with a salesman a beauty, your eyes that beauty discerning?

Doubt not your eyes speak true; Sir, 'tis a beauty to sell.

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If to delight man's wish, joy e'er unlook'd for, unhop'd for,

Falleth, a joy were such proper, a bliss to the soul.

Then 'tis a joy to the soul, like gold of Lydia precious,

Lesbia mine, that thou com'st to delight me again.

Com'st yet again long-hop'd, long-look'd for vainly, returnest

Freely to me. O day white with a luckier hue!

Lives there happier any than I, I only? a fairer

Destiny? Life so sweet know ye, or aught parallel?

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Loathly Cominius, if e'er this people's voice should arraign thee,

Hoary with all unclean infamy, worthy to die;

First should a tongue, I doubt not, of old so deadly to goodness,

Fall extruded, of each vulture a hungry regale;

Gouged be the carrion eyes some crow's black maw to replenish,

Stomach a dog's fierce teeth harry, a wolf the remains.

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Think you truly, belov'd, this bond of duty between us,

Lasteth, an ever-new jollity, ne'er to decease?

Grant it, Gods immortal, assure her promise in earnest;

Yea, be the lips sincere; yea, be the words from her heart.

So still rightly remain our lovers' charter, a life-long

Friendship in us, whose faith fades not away to the last.

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Aufilena, the fair, if kind, is a favourite ever;

Asks she a price, then yields frankly? the price is her own.

You, that agreed to be kind, now vilely the treaty dishonour,

Give not at all, nor again take;—'tis a wrong to a wrong.

Not to deceive were noble, a chastity ne'er had assented,

Aufilena; but you—blindly to grasp at a gain,

Yet to withhold the effects,—'tis a greed more loathly than harlot's

Vileness, a wretch whose limbs ply to the lusts of a town.

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One lord only to love, one, Aufilena, to live for,

Praise can a bride nowhere goodlier any betide;

Yet, when a niece with an uncle is even mother or even

Cousin—of all paramours this were as heinous as all.

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Naso, if you show much, your company shows but a very