Page:Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry of Horace - Coningsby (1874).djvu/80

O, when the stomach's pricked by hunger's stings,
We seldom hear of scorn for common things!
"Great fishes on great dishes! how I gloat
Upon the sight!" exclaims some harpy-throat.
Blow strongly, blow, good Auster, and ferment
The glutton's dainties, and increase their scent!
And yet, without such aid, they find the flesh
Of boar and turbot nauseous, e'en though fresh,
When, gorged to sick repletion, they request
Onions or radishes to give them zest.
Nay, e'en at royal banquets poor men's fare
Yet lingers: eggs and olives still are there.
When, years ago, Gallonius entertained
His friends with sturgeon, an ill name he gained.
Were turbots then less common in the seas?
No: but good living waxes by degrees.
Safe was the turbot, safe the stork's young brood,
Until a prætor taught us they were good.
So now, should some potential voice proclaim
That roasted cormorants are delicious game,
The youth of Rome (there's nothing too absurd
For their weak heads) will take him at his word.
But here Ofellus draws a line, between
A life that's frugal and a life that's mean:
For 'tis in vain that luxury you shun,
If straight on avarice your bark you run.
Avidienus—you may know him—who
Was always call'd the Dog, and rightly too,
On olives five-year-old is wont to dine,
And, till 'tis sour, will never broach his wine: