The Haunch of Venison.
While thus I debated, in reverie centred,
An acquaintance-a friend, as he call'd himself-enter'd; An underbred, fine-spoken fellow was he,
And he smiled as he looked at the venison and me. "What have we got here? Why, this is good eating! Your own, I suppose-or is it in waiting?"
"Why, whose should it be?" cried I, with a flounce; "I get these things often"-but that was a bounce: "Some lords, my acquaintance, that settle the nation, Are pleased to be kind—but I hate ostentation.” "If that be the case, then," cried he, very gay, "I'm glad to have taken this house in my way. To-morrow you take a poor dinner with me;
No words-I insist on 't-precisely at three:
We'll have Johnson and Burke-all the wits will be
My acquaintance is slight, or I'd ask my Lord Clare.
And, now that I think on 't, as I am a sinner,
We wanted this venison to make out a dinner.
What say you-a pasty? it shall and it must,
And my wife, little Kitty, is famous for crust.—
Here, porter, this venison with me to Mile-end ;-
No stirring, I beg, my dear friend, my dear friend!"
Thus snatching his hat, he brush'd off like the wind,
And the porter and eatables follow'd behind.
Du hast des Reichen Gut, des Armen Herz und Harm ;
Den Erben bist du reich, dir selber bist du arm.
Stabam ego sic curas meditans, et totus in illis,
Qvom qvidam incurrit notus mihi nomine tantum,
Non qvod non velit ille meis se adscribere amicis,
Nec satis ut loqvitur simplex, neqve factus ad unguem :
Et dixit ridens, ut me spectatqve ferinam,
Heus bone, numqvid habes? euge, haec lautissuma coena
Anne tuum hoc an nunc domino debetur opimo?
Qvid? rogitas? clamo, et Fert nobis unus et alter
Talia dona dies, Parthis mendacior addo:
Principibus placuisse viris mihi contigit; est qvi
Nos amat et. . . . sed sum iactantior. Inruit ille:
Fortunatus ego, has cui iam devertere ad aedes
Contigerit: tu cras mecum coenaveris: hora
Nona erit: edixi: ne pugna fortis; habebis
Virgilium Variumqve: utinam mihi notior esset
Maecenas: sed erit flos ac facundia Romae.
Qvin venit in mentem (paene excidit) hic mihi cervus,
Hic erat in votis, coenae caput ut foret illi.
Qvid fieri censes? crustumne? Catullula nostra
Haec coqvit ut nemo melius: decrevimus ergo:
Ocius hanc pueri (tu ut sis tranqvillior oro,
Nunqvam hodie effugies) medias auferte Carinas.
Tuqve vale mea cura; vale dulcissume rerum.
Dixit et evasit: pueri atqve ferina seqvuntur.
Croesi divitias qvi iungis moribus Iri,
Dives es heredi, pauper es ipse tibi.
The Beggar Maid.
Her arms across her breast she laid;
She was more fair than words can say:
Bare-footed came the beggar maid
Before the King Cophetua.
In robe and crown the king stept down
To meet and greet her on her way.
"It is no wonder," said the lords,
"She is more beautiful than day."
As shines the moon in clouded skies,
She in her poor attire was seen:
One praised her ancles, one her eyes,
One her dark hair and lovesome mien :
So sweet a face, such angel grace,
In all that land had never been.
Cophetua swore a royal oath:
This beggar maid shall be my queen.
Grabschrift des Neodars.
Neodar, seiner Freunde Plage,
Ruht hier, und hört zu fragen auf.
Das Fragen war sein Lebenslauf,
Und er verschied in einer Frage.
Du fragst bei diesem Leichenstein:
Ward er durch Fragen klug?-Uch! nein.
Ibat ut ambabus positis ad pectora palmis,
Candorem eximium verba referre negant.
Nuda pedes et opem poscens in rebus egenis
Cophetua coram rege puella venit.
Destituit solium rex ostro insignis et auro,
Itqve salutatum qvae prope carpit iter.
Nec mirum, dixere duces; pulcerrima qvamvis
Alma dies, alma pulcrior illa die.
Qvalis in obducto sublucet Cynthia caelo,
Veste sub obscura cernere talis erat.
Virginis hic suras, alter laudavit ocellos,
Ille nigros crines osqve cupidineum.
Nam dulcis facies divinaqve gratia formae,
Qualis in his nunqvam finibus ante fuit.
Cophetuas iurat, sceptrum testatus et orbem,
Ex inopi coniux virgine regis erit.
Epitaphium Percunctatoris
Interrogator hic, sodalium pestis,
Interrogare desinit Polysperchon.
Interroganti vita longa manarat:
Interrogantem vox reliqvit extrema.
Interrogaris forte, doctus et prudens
Interrogando sitne factus: Haudqvaqvam.
Leon. I know not; if they speak but truth of her, These hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour, The proudest of them shall well hear of it.
Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,
Nor age so eat up my invention,
Nor fortune made such havoc of my means,
Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,
But they shall find, awaked in such a kind,
Both strength of limb and policy of mind,
Ability in means, and choice of friends,
To quit me of them throughly.
And let my counsel sway you in this case.
Your daughter here the princes left for dead :
Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
And publish it that she is dead indeed;
Maintain a mourning ostentation;
And on your family's old monument
Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites
That appertain unto a burial.
That there is falsehood in his looks
I must and will deny:
They say their master is a knave;
And sure they do not lie.
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