3–5
DAMOETAS
“How lean my bull amid the fattening vetch!
Alack! alack! for herdsman and for herd!
It is the self-same love that wastes us both.”
MENALCAS
“These truly—nor is even love the cause—
scarce have the flesh to keep their bones together
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some evil eye my lambkins hath bewitched.”
DAMOETAS
“Say in what clime—and you shall be withal
my great Apollo—the whole breadth of heaven
opens no wider than three ells to view.”
MENALCAS
“Say in what country grow such flowers as bear
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the names of kings upon their petals writ,
and you shall have fair Phyllis for your own.”
PALAEMON
Not mine betwixt such rivals to decide:
you well deserve the heifer, so does he,
with all who either fear the sweets of love,
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or taste its bitterness. Now, boys, shut off
the sluices, for the fields have drunk their fill.
MENALCAS
Why, Mopsus, being both together met,
you skilled to breathe upon the slender reeds,
I to sing ditties, do we not sit down
