’Tis but the shadow of a name that is left. I cannot call it a coat of beaver, not though Beaver swear it is one. It cost six shillings. Now you know what it is like. If you don’t believe me, believe the price.
XI. (XCI.)
On the Tomb of a Beauty.
Fate allows not beauty a long life: sudden is the end of all that is noble and pre-eminent. Here lies a lovely woman: hers was the beauty of Venus and hers the illwill of Heaven for a gift so rare.
XII. (LXXXIV.)
Quintius’ Baths.
Stay awhile and bathe in these waters, traveller; then set forth again upon thy journey refreshed.
[67] Claudian is, I think, punning on castor=a beaver, and Castor, the name of the owner of the coat. But castor in l. 2 might be taken to refer either to the god or to the animal.
lympharum dominum nimium miraberis, hospes,