Thanks to the gods! I leave a stock behind me

Of healthy dithyrambics, fully form'd,

A credit to their years;—not one among them

Without a graceful chaplet on his head:—

These to the Muses' keeping I bequeath,

(We long were fellow-nurslings,) and with them

Be Bacchus and fair Venus in commission.—

Thus far, Sir, for my testament:—for respite,

I look not for it, mark, at Charon's hand,

(Take me, I would be understood to mean