Kitap 3
PropertiusSextus Aurelius Propertius was a native of Umbria, that rude part of Italy; so that we find genius and politeness are not confined to places. He was very much esteemed by Maecenas, and his works are still extant., Gallus, and TibullusEvery body who is the least acquainted with antiquity, knows he was one of the first wits of the Augustan age, and a man of gallantry and profusion, wasting his estate, even while he was in his youth, on his extravagancies and pleasures. Horace speaks of him as his friend; and Ovid reckons him amongst the best writers of his time. read,
And let Varronian verse to these succeed.
Then mighty Maro's work with care peruse;
Of all the Latians boards the noblest muse,
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Even I, 'tis possible, in after-days,
May 'scape oblivion, and be nam'd with these.
My labour'd lines, some readers may approve,
Since I've instructed either sex in love.
Whatever book you read of this soft art,
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Read with a lover's voice and lover's heart.
Tender epistles too, by me are fram'd,
A work before unthought of, and unnam'd.
Such was your sacred will, 0, tuneful nine!
Such thine Apollo, and Lycreus, thine!
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Still unaccomplish'd may the maid be thought,
Who gracefully to dance was never taught:
That active dancing may to love engage,
Witness the well-kept dancers of the stage.The Romans were great encouragers of their dancers and mimes; some of them grew very eminent, such as Roscius Amerinus, for whom Cicero pronounced that fine oration; some of them also grew prodligiously rich, as Clodius Aesopus, of whose luxury Pliny makes mention; and Horace in the third satire of his second book, speaks of the son of this Aesopus, who swallowed a pearl of great price in one of his frolics.
Of some odd trifles I'm asham'd to tell,
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Tho' it becomes the sex to trifle well;
