Talis apud Sophoclem nostra puella sedet.
Night-crows on tombs, owl sits on carcass dead,
So lies a wench with Sophocles in bed.
[6244]Amplexus suos fugiunt puellae,
Omnis horret amor Venusque Hymenque.
Seneca therefore disallows all such unseasonable matches, habent enim maledicti locum crebrae nuptiae. And as [6245]Tully farther inveighs, “'tis unfit for any, but ugly and filthy in old age.” Turpe senilis amor, one of the three things [6246]God hateth. Plutarch, in his book contra Coleten, rails downright at such kind of marriages, which are attempted by old men, qui jam corpore impotenti, et a voluptatibus deserti, peccant animo, and makes a question whether in some cases it be tolerable at least for such a man to marry,—qui Venerem affectat sine viribus, “that is now past those venerous exercises,” “as a gelded man lies with a virgin and sighs,” Ecclus. xxx. 20, and now complains with him in Petronius, funerata est haec pars jam, quad fuit olim Achillea, he is quite done,
[6247]Vixit puellae nuper idoneus,
Et militavit non sine gloria.
[6248]Alecto———
Ipsa faces praefert nubentibus, et malus Hymen