Our wife Forefathers took their Measures right,
Nor wreak'd on Fornicators all their spight,
But left a Limbo for the Sodomite.

}

}

If you Commiffion-Courts must needs erect
For Manners, put the Teft to your own Sect.
But you by Number think your felves fecure,
While our thin Squadron must the Brunt endure.
With Grief I must confefs our Mufter's few,
And much with Civil Broils impair'd, while you
Are to the Dev'l and to each other true.
Your Penal Laws against Us are enlarg'd,

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On whom no Crimes, like what you act, are charg'd.
Flavia may now and then turn up for Bread,
But chaftly with Catulla lies a-bed.

Your Hifpo acts both Sexes parts, before

A Fornicator, and behind a Whore:

We ne'er invade your Walks; the Clients Caufe
We leave to your confounding, and the Laws.
If now and then an Amazonian Dame
Dares fight a publick Prize, 'tis fure lefs fhame,
Than to behold your unnerv'd Sex fet in
To Needle-Work, and like a Damfel spin.
How Hifter's Bondman his fole Heir became,
And his conniving Spouse fo rich a Dame,

Is known; that Wife with Wealth muft needs be sped,
Who is content to make a Third in Bed.

You Nymphs that would to Coach and Six arrive,
Marry, keep Counsel, and y'are fure to thrive!
Yet these Obnoxious Men, without Remorse,
Against our Tribe will put the Laws in force,
Clip the Dove's Wing, and give the Vulture course.
Thus spoke the Matron- The convicted Crew
From fo direct a Charge like Lightning flew.
It must be fo-- Nor, vain Metellus, fhall
From Rome's Tribunal, thy Harangues prevail

'Gainft

'Gainft Harlotry, while thou art clad fo thin,
That through thy Cobweb-Robe we fee thy Skin
As thou Declaim'ft--- ·Fabulla is, you say,
A Whore -------I own it; fo's Carfinia;
Rank Prostitutes, therefore without remorfe
Punish the Strumpets, give the Law its course:
But when y'ave fentenc'd them, Metellus, know
They'd blush t'appear fo loofly Dreft as you.
You fay the Dog-Star reigns, whofe fultry Fire
Melts you to death ev'n in that light Attire;
Go naked then, 'twere better to be mad,
(Which has a priv❜ledge) than fo lewdly clad!
How wou'd our Mountain Sires, return'd from Plow
Or Battel, fuch a Silken Judge allow?

Canft thou restore old Manners, or retrench
Rome's Pride, who com'ft tranfparent to the Bench?
This Mode in which thou fingly do'st appear,
By thy Example fhall get footing here,
Till it has quite deprav'd the Roman Stock,
As one infected Sheep confounds the Flock.
Nor will this Crime, Metellus, be thy worst,
No Man e'er reach'd the heights of Vice at firft:
For Vice like Virtue by Degrees must grow;
Thus from this wanton Drefs, Metellus, thou
With thofe 5 polluted Priefts at laft fhalt join,
Who female Chaplets round their Temples twine,
And with perverted Rites profane the Goddess' Shrine..
Where fuch vile Practices 'twixt Males are paft,
As makes our Matrons lewd Nocturnals chaft.

Suppos'd to be the College of Priefts, appointed by Domitian to Celebrate the Quinquatria to Minerva.

6 Perverted Rites. Becaufe hereWomen are excluded from the Myfteries, as Men were elsewhere from Ceres's Worship.

Coty

Cotyttus 7 Orgies fcarce are more obscene,

For thus th' Effeminate Priests themselves demean.
With Jet-black Pencils one his Eye-brows dyes,
And adds new Fire to his lafcivious Eyes:
Another in a Glafs-Priapus fwills,

While twifted Gold his platted Treffes fills;
A Female Robe, and to compleat the Farce,
His 8 Servant not by Jove but Juno fwears.
One holds a Mirrour, pathick Otho's Shield,
In which he view'd before he march'd to Field,
Nor Ajax with more Pride his feven-fold Targe did wield.
Oh Noble Subject for new Annals fit,

In mufty Fame's Records unmention'd yet!
A Looking-Glafs must load th' Imperial Car,
The most important Carriage of the War!
Galba to kill he thought a Gen'ral's Part,
But, as a Courtier, us'd the nicest Art
To keep his Skin from Tan: before the Fight
Wou'd paint, and fet his foil'd Complexion right.
A Softnefs which Semiramis ne'er knew,

When once he had the Field and Foe in view,
Nor Egypt's Queen, when she from Actium flew.
No chaft Discourse their Festivals afford,

Obsceneness is the Language of their Board:
Soft lifping Tones, taught by fome bald-pate Prieft,
For skilful Palate, Mafter of the Feaft.
A Pack of Proftitutes; unnerv'd, and rife
For th' operation of a 9 Phrygian. Knife.

}

7 Cotyttus' Origies. The God-nary Effeminacy, it being the defs of Impudence worshipp'd Cuftom for only Women to at Athens. A Strumpet in her fwear by Goddeffes; the Men Life-time, that us'd to Dance by Jove, Hercules, &c. naked with most Obscene Geftures.

8 An Inftance of Extraordi

9 Alluding to the Priests of the Phrygian Goddeffes, who were caftrated.

For

For from fuch Pathicks 'twere but just to take
Thofe Manly Parts, of which no ufe they make.
Gracchus, 'tis faid, gave to his Trumpeter
Four Hundred Sefterces: ----For what? ----In Dow's.
The Motion's lik'd, the Parties are agreed;
And for Performance feal a formal Deed:
Guests are bespoke, a Wedding-Supper made,
The wonted Joy is wifht, that done -----
The He-Bride in his Bridegroom's Arms is laid'
O Peers of Rome! need thefe ftupendious Times
A 10 Cenfor or Arufpex for fuch Crimes?
The Prodigy lefs Monftrous wou'd appear,
If Women Calves, or Heifers Lambs fhou'd bear!
In Bridal Robe and Veil the Pathick's dreft,
Who I bore the pondrous Shield at Mars his Feaft.
12 Father of Rome, fay what detefted Clime
Taught Latian Shepherds fo abborr'd a Crime?
Say, thundring Mars, from whence the Nettle fprung
Whofe Venom firft thy Noble Offspring stung?
Behold! a Man by Birth and Fortune great
Weds with a Man; yet from th' Etherial Seat
No ratling of thy Brazen Wheels we hear,
Nor is Earth pierc'd with thy avenging Spear!
Oh! if thy Jurifdiction (Mars) falls fhort
To punish Mischief of so vast import,
Complain to Jove, and move the higher Court:
For fhame redrefs this Scandal, or refign
Thy Province to fome Pow'r that's more Divine.

to Viz. The One to punish, the Other to Expiate fuch Un

natural Crimes.

11 He means one of the Salii, or Priefts of Mars, who carry'd his Shield and Implements,

W

and was brawny enough to Dance under them at his Feftival. Caleftia Martis Arma. ferunt Salii. Ov. Fast. 3.

12 Mars Father of Romulus, who founded Rome.

To-Morrow early in Quirinus' Vale

A must attend--- Why? Thereby hangs a Tale,
I Male Friend's to be marry'd to a Male,
'Tis true, the Wedding's carry'd privately,
The Parties being at prefent fomewhat fhy;
But that they own the Match, e'er-long you'll hear,
And fee it in the Publick Regifter.

But one fore Grief does thefe He-Brides perplex;
Though they debafe, they cannot change their Sex;
Nor yet, by help of all their wicked Art,

Bring Offsprings to fecure their Husband's Heart.
Nature too much i'th' dire Embrace is forc'd,
And ne'er joins Influence with Defires fo curs'd:
Incestuous Births, and Monsters may appear,
But teeming Males not Earth nor Hell can bear.
Yet Gracchus, thou degen'rate Son of Fame,
Thy Pranks are ftigmatiz'd with greater Blame:
Theirs was a private, thine an open Shame.
Who like a Fencer on a Publick Stage,
Haft made thy felf the Scandal of the Age.
Nor can Rome's Nobleft Blood with thine compare,
While thou mak'ft Paftime for the Theatre.

To what dire Cause can we affign these Crimes,
But to that reigning Atheism of the Times?
Ghofts, Stygian Lakes, and Frogs with creaking Note,
And Charon wafting Souls in leaky Boat,

Are now thought Fables, to fright Fools conceiv'd,
Or Children, and by Children fcarce believ'd.
Yet give thou Credit. What can we fuppofe
The Temperate Curii, and the Scipio's,
What will Fabricius or Camillus think,
When they behold, from their Elifium's brink,
An Atheist Soul to laft Perdition fink?

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How will they from th' affaulting Banks rebound,
And wish for Sacred Rites to purge th' unhallow'd Ground.