Satires - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1802 Excerpt: ...my friend. Our matrons then were chaste, When huswifery, that gave no hour to waste, Short, hasty slumbers, long, laborious days, Hands still employ'd the Tuscan wool to tease, Their husbands arm'd, and anxious for the State, And Carthage hovering near the Colline gate, Conspir'd to keep all thoughts of ill aloof, And banish'd vice far from their lowly roof. Now, all the evils of long peace are ours; Luxury, more terrible than hostile powers, Her baleful influence wide around has hurl'd, And well aveng'd thy cause, O conquer'd world! Yes, since the good old poverty is fled, Vice, like a deluge, o'er the State has spread Now, shame to Rome! in every street is found Th' effeminate Sybarite, with roses crown'd, The rank Miletan, and the Tarentine, Lewd, petulant, and reeling ripe with wine. Riches, the ready pander to all sin, Brought foreign manners, foreign vices in; Enervate riches, and with sensual art Sapp'd every home-bred virtue of the heart; Yes, every:--for what cares the drunken dame, (Take head or tail; to her 'tis much the same.) Who at deep midnight, on fat oysters sups, And froths with unguents her Falernian cups; Ver. 473. And froths with unguents her Falernian cups;. This most extravagant custom of pouring precious ointments jnto their wine, and drinking them off together, is mentioned in terms of great indignation by the Elder Pliny, (lib. xxxi.) At, Hercules, jam quidam ttiam in potu addunt unguent a,--ut odore prodigo fruantur, ex utraque parte corporis, exteriori scilicet et interiori! It was then, we see, confined to a few; but it swiftly spread, with every other vicious excess, and when Martial wrote was common enough. "Hac licet in gemma, quae servat nomina Cosmi, "Luxuiiose bibas, si foliata sitis." Cosmus seems to have b...