MARTIAL, Lib. I. Ep. lvi.
"Vota tui breviter," &c.
WELL then, Sir, you shall know how far extend
The prayers and hopes of your poetic friend.
He does not palaces nor manors crave,
Would Be no lord, but lefs a lord would Have;
The ground he holds, if he his own can call,
He quarrels not with Heaven because 'tis fmall:
Let gay and toil fome greatness others please,
He loves of homely littlenefs the ease.
Can any man in gilded rooms attend,
And his dear hours in humble vifits spend,
When in the fresh and beauteous fields he may
With various healthful pleafures fill the day?
If there be man (ye gods !) I ought to hate,
Dependance and attendance be his fate;
Still let him busy be, and in a crowd,
And very much a slave, and very proud:
Thus he perhaps powerful and rich may grow;
No matter, O ye gods! that I'll allow :
But let him peace and freedom never see;
Let him not love this life, who loves not me!
MARTIAL, Lib. II. Ep. liii.
"Vis fieri liber?" &c.
WOULD you be free? 'Tis your chief with, you fay; Come on; I'll fhew thee, friend, the certain way;
If to no feasts abroad thou lov't to go,
While bounteous God does bread at home bestow;
If thou the goodness of thy cloaths dost prize
By thine own ufe, and not by others' eyes;
If (only safe from weathers) thou canft dwell
In a small house, but a convenient shell;
If thou, without a figh, or golden wish,
Canft look upon thy beechen bowl and dish;
If in thy mind fuch power and greatnefs be,
The Perfian king's a flave compar'd with thee.
MARTIAL, Lib. II. Ep. Ixviii.
" Quod te nomine?" &c.
THAT I do you with humble bows no more,
And danger of my naked head, adore;
That I, who "Lord and master,” cry'd erewhile,
Salute you, in a new and different style,
By your own name, a scandal to you now ;.
Think not that I forget myself or you:
By lofs of all things, by all others fought,
This freedom, and the freeman's hat, is bought.
A lord and master no man wants, but he
Who o'er himself has no authority;
Who does for honours and for riches ftrive,
And follies, without which lords cannot live.
If thou from fortune doft no fervant crave,
Believe it, thou no mafter need'ft to have.
FREEDOM with Virtue takes her feat;
Her proper place, her only scene,
Is in the golden mean,
She lives not with the poor nor with the great.
The wings of thofe Neceffity has clipt,
And they 're in Fortune's bridewell whipt
To the laborious task of bread;
These are by various tyrants captive led.
Now wild Ambition with imperious force
Rides, reins, and fpurs, them, like th' unruly horfe;
And fervile Avarice yokes them now,
Like toilfome oxen, to the plough;
And fometimes Luft, like the misguided light,
Draws them through all the labyrinths of night.
If any few among the great there be
From these insulting paffions free,
Yet we ev'n thofe, too, fetter'd fee
By cuftom, bufinefs, crowds, and formal decency;.
And, wherefoe'er they stay, and wherefoe'er they go,
Impertinencies round them flow:
These are the fmall uneafy things
Which about greatnefs ftill are found,
And rather it moleft than wound:
Like gnats, which too much heat of summer brings; But cares do fwarm there, too, and those have stings: As, when the honey does too open lie,
A thousand wafps about it fly:
Nor will the mafter ev`n to fhare admit;
The master stands aloof, and dares not taste of it.
'Tis morning; well; I fain would yet sleep on;
You cannot now; you must be gone
To court, or to the noify hall:
Befides, the rooms without are crowded all;
The stream of business does begin,
And a fpring-tide of clients is come in.
Ah cruel guards, which this poor prifoner keep!
Will they not fuffer him to sleep?
Make an escape; out at the poftern flee,
And get fome bleffed hours of liberty:
With a few friends, and a few dishes, dine,
And much of mirth and moderate wine.
To thy bent mind fome relaxation give,
And steal one day out of thy life to live.
Oh happy man (he cries) to whom kind Heaven
Has fuch a freedom always given !
Why, mighty madman, what should hinder thee
From being every day as free?
In all the freeborn nations of the air,
Never did bird a spirit so mean and fordid bear,
As to exchange his native liberty
Of foaring boldly up into the sky,
His liberty to fing, to perch, or fly,
When, and wherever he thought good,
And all his innocent pleasures of the wood,
For a more plentiful or conftant food.
Nor ever did ambitious rage
Make him into a painted cage,
Or the false forest of a well-hung room,
For honour and preferment, come.
Now, bleffings on you all, ye heroic race,
Who keep your primitive powers and rights fo well,
Though men and angels fell.
Of all material lives the highest place
To you is justly given;
And ways and walks the nearest heaven.
Whilft wretched we, yet vain and proud, think fit
To boaft, that we look up to it. Ev'n to the universal tyrant, Love,
You homage pay but once a year :
None fo degenerous and unbirdly prove,
As his perpetual yoke to bear;
None, but a few unhappy houshold fowl,
Whom human lordship does control;
Who from their birth corrupted were
By bondage, and by man's example here.
He's no fmall prince, who every day
Thus to himself can fay;
Now will I fleep, now eat, now fit, now walk,
Now meditate alone, now with acquaintance talk ;
This I will do, here I will stay,
Or, if my fancy call me away,
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