more obscenely write _tumens_, thus changing the
"fear-full" bridegroom into the "swollen" bridegroom.

v. 123. It was usual for the mirthful friends of the newly married couple
to sing obscene songs called _Fescennine_, which were tolerated on this
occasion.

v. 124. _Nec nuces pueris_. This custom of throwing nuts, such as walnuts
or almonds, is of Athenian origin; some say it was meant to divert the
attention from the raptures of the bride and bridegroom, when in bed, by
the noise they, and the scrambling boys, made on the floor. For _nuces_,
referring to the use of boys, see Verg. Eclogue 8.

v. 125. _Concubinus_. By the shamelessness of this passage, it would seem
to be quite a usual thing amongst the youthful Roman aristocracy to possess
a bedfellow of their own sex.

v. 137. "This coarse imitation of the Fescennine poems," says Dunlop
(History of Roman Literature), "leaves on our minds a stronger impression
of the prevalence and extent of Roman vices than any other passage in the
Latin classics. Martial, and Catullus himself elsewhere, have branded their
enemies; and Juvenal, in bursts of satiric indignation, has reproached his
countrymen with the blackest crimes. But here, in a complimentary poem to a
patron and intimate friend, these are jocularly alluded to as the venial
indulgence of his earliest youth."

C. lxii. v. 39, _et seq._ Thus exquisitely rendered by Spenser, Faery
Queen, b. ii. c. 12:

The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay:
"Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,
In springing flowre the image of thy day!
Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she
Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestie,
That fairer seemes the lesse ye see her may!
Lo see soone after how more bold and free
Her bared bosome she doth broad display;
Lo! see soone after how she fades and falls away!

"So passeth, in the passing of a day,
Of mortal life the leafe, the bud, the flowre;
Ne more doth flourish after first decay,
That erst was sought to deck both bed and bowre
Of many a lady, and many a paramoure!
Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime,
For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre;
Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time,
Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime."

C. lxiii. v. 23. Women devoted to the service of Bacchus or of Cybele; for
many things were common to the rights of bot