Chapter LXXIII: Of an Ingrate

Cease thou of any to hope desirèd boon of well-willing,
Or deem any shall prove pious and true to his dues.
Waxes the world ingrate, no deed benevolent profits,
Nay full oft it irks even offending the more:
Such is my case whom none maltreats more grievously bitter, 5
Than does the man that me held one and only to friend.

Cease thou to wish to merit well from anyone in aught, or to think any can become honourable. All are ingrate, naught benign doth avail to aught, but rather it doth irk and prove the greater ill: so with me, whom none doth o'erpress more heavily nor more bitterly than he who a little while ago held me his one and only friend.

LXXIIII.

Gellius audierat patruom obiurgare solere,
Siquis delicias diceret aut faceret.
Hoc ne ipsi accideret, patrui perdepsuit ipsam
Vxorem et patruom reddidit Harpocratem.
Quod voluit fecit: nam, quamvis inrumet ipsum 5
Nunc patruom, verbum non faciet patruos.

LXXIIII.

OF GELLIUS.

Wont was Gellius hear his uncle rich in reproaches,
When any ventured aught wanton in word or in deed.
Lest to him chance such befall, his uncle's consort seduced he,
And of his uncle himself fashioned an Harpocrates.
Whatso he willed did he; and nowdays albe his uncle 5
---- he, no word ever that uncle shall speak.

Gellius had heard that his uncle was wont to be wroth, if any spake of or practised love-sportings. That this should not happen to him, he kneaded up his uncle's wife herself, and made of his uncle a god of silence. Whatever he wished, he did; for now, even if he irrumate his uncle's self, not a word will that uncle murmur.

LXXVII.

Rufe mihi frustra ac nequiquam credite amico
(Frustra? immo magno cum pretio atque malo),
Sicine subrepsti mei, atque intestina perurens
Ei misero eripuisti omnia nostra bona?
Eripuisti, heu heu nostrae crudele venenum 5
Vitae, heu heu nostrae pestis amicitiae.
Sed nunc id doleo, quod purae pura puellae
Savia conminxit spurca saliva tua.
Verum id non inpune feres: nam te omnia saecla
Noscent, et qui sis fama loquetur anus. 10