The Poetaster eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 208 pages of information about The Poetaster.

The Poetaster eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 208 pages of information about The Poetaster.

Virg. 
   These pills can but restore him for a time,
   Not cure him quite of such a malady,
   Caught by so many surfeits, which have fill’d
   His blood and brain thus full of crudities: 
   ’Tis necessary therefore he observe
   A strict and wholesome diet.  Look you take
   Each morning of old Cato’s principles
   A good draught next your heart; that walk upon,
   Till it be well digested:  then come home,
   And taste a piece of Terence, suck his phrase
   Instead of liquorice; and, at any hand,
   Shun Plautus and old Ennius:  they are meats
   Too harsh for a weak stomach. 
   Use to read (But not without a tutor) the best Greeks,
   As Orpheus, Musaeus, Pindarus,
   Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theocrite,
   High Homer; but beware of Lycophron,
   He is too dark and dangerous a dish. 
   You must not hunt for wild outlandish terms,
   To stuff out a peculiar dialect;
   But let your matter run before your words. 
   And if at any time you chance to meet
   Some Gallo-Belgic phrase; you shall not straight. 
   Rack your poor verse to give it entertainment,
   But let it pass; and do not think yourself
   Much damnified, if you do leave it out,
   When nor your understanding, nor the sense
   Could well receive it.  This fair abstinence,
   In time, will render you more sound and clear: 
   And this have I prescribed to you, in place
   Of a strict sentence; which till he perform,
   Attire him in that robe.  And henceforth learn
   To bear yourself more humbly; not to swell,
   Or breathe your insolent and idle spite
   On him whose laughter can your worst affright.

Tib.  Take him away.

Cris.  Jupiter guard Caesar!

Virg. 
   And for a week or two see him lock’d up
   In some dark place, removed from company;
   He will talk idly else after his physic. 
   Now to you, sir. [to Demetrius.] The extremity of law
   Awards you to be branded in the front,
   For this your calumny:  but since it pleaseth
   Horace, the party wrong’d, t’ intreat of Caesar
   A mitigation of that juster doom,
   With Caesar’s tongue thus we pronounce your sentence. 
   Demetrius Fannius, thou shalt here put on
   That coat and cap, and henceforth think thyself
   No other than they make thee; vow to wear them
   In every fair and generous assembly,
   Till the best sort of minds shall take to knowledge
   As well thy satisfaction, as thy wrongs.

Hor. 
   Only, grave praetor, here, in open court,
   I crave the oath for good behaviour
   May be administer’d unto them both.

Virg. 
   Horace, it shall:  Tibullus, give it them.

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The Poetaster from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.