s, Jove's chief taster, standing by
For the disastrous Fates excuses made.
They had much tow to spin, and lint to dry,
And they were also busy baking bread.
The cellarman, Silenus, kept away,
To water the domestics' wine, that day.

On starry benches sit the famous warriors
Of the immortal kingdom, in a ring;
Now drums and cymbals, echoing to the barriers,
Announce the coming of the gorgeous king;
A hundred pages, valets, napkin-carriers
Attend, and their peculiar offerings bring.
And after them, armed with his club so hard,
Alcides, captain of the city guard.

With Jove's broad hat and spectacles arrived
The light-heeled Mercury; in his hand he bore
A sack, in which, of other means deprived,
He damned poor mortals' prayers, some million score;
Those he disposed in vessels, well contrived,
Which graced his father's cabinet of yore;
And, wont attention to all claims to pay,
He regularly signed them twice a day.

Then Jove himself, in royal habit dressed,
With starry diadem upon his head,
And o'er his shoulders an imperial vest
Worn upon holidays.--The king displayed
A sceptre, pastoral shape, with hooked crest:
In a rich jacket too was he arrayed,
Given by the inhabitants of Sericane,
And Ganymede held up his splendid train.

--A. Tassoni

A MODEL YOUNG LADY OF ANTIQUITY

(Pliny, the Younger, writes the following in a letter relative to
the death of Minicia Marcella, the daughter of his friend, Fundanus.)

Tristissimus haec tibi scribo, Fundani nostri filia minore defuncta,
qua puella nihil umquam festivius, amabilius, nec modo longiore vita
sed prope immortalitate dignius vidi. Nondum annos quattuor decem
impleverat, et iam illi anilis prudentia, matronalis gravitas erat, et
tamen suavitas puellaris cum virginali verecundia. Ut illa patris
cervicibus inhaerebat! Ut nos amicos paternos et amanter et modeste
complectabatur! ut nutrices, ut paedagogos, ut praeceptores, pro suo
quemque officio diligebat! quam studiose, quam intellegenter lectitabat!
ut parce custoditeque ludebat! Qua illa temperantia, qua patientia, qua
etiam constantia novissimam valetudinem tulit! Medicis obsequebatur,
sororem, patrem adhortabatur, ipsamque se destitutam corporis viribus
vigore animi sustinebat. Duravit hic illi usque ad extremum nec aut
spatio valetudinis aut metu mortis infractus est, quo plures
gravioresque nobis causas relinqueret et desiderii et doloris. O triste
plane acerbumque funu