Host, bring us forth good wine and strong,
In cella quod est optimum!
We brethren will our sport prolong
Ad noctis usque terminum.
Whoso to snarl or bite is fain,
Ut canes decet rabidos,
Outside our circle may remain,
Ad porcos eat sordidos,
Hurrah! my lads, we'll merry make!
Levate sursum pocula!
God's blessing on all wine we take,
In sempiterna saecula!
Two lyrics of distinguished excellence, which still hold their place in the Commersbuch, cannot claim certain antiquity in their present form. They are not included in the Carmina Burana; yet their style is so characteristic of the Archipoeta, that I believe we may credit him with at least a share in their composition. The first starts with an allusion to the Horatian tempus edax rerum.
TIME'S A-FLYING.
No. 48.
Laurel-crowned Horatius,
True, how true thy saying!
Swift as wind flies over us
Time, devouring, slaying.
Where are, oh! those goblets full
Of wine honey-laden,
Strifes and loves and bountiful
Lips of ruddy maiden?
Grows the young grape tenderly,
And the maid is growing;
But the thirsty poet, see,
Years on him are snowing!
What's the use on hoary curls
Of the bays undying.
If we may not kiss the girls,
Drink while time's a-flying?
The second consists of a truly brilliant development of the theme which our Herrick condensed into one splendid phrase—"There's no lust like to poetry!"