e positively
that he was the author of the metrical portion. Indeed, he made no
secret of it among his intimates. For some reason or other, however,
he did not wish to have his name publicly associated with it; so the
following passage was inserted in the preface: "The name of Sir Richard
Burton has been inadvertently connected with the present work. It is,
however, only fair to state that under the circumstances he distinctly
disclaims having taken any part in the issue." We have no other ground
for the assumption, but this passage seems to point to a quarrel of
some kind. It certainly does not alter the fact that every page bears
evidence of Burton's hand. The preface then goes on to say that "a
complete and literal translation of the works of Catullus, on the
same lines and in the same format as the present volume, is now in
preparation." A letter, however, written [621] by Burton to Mr. W. F.
Kirby, sets the matter entirely at rest. "I am at present," he says,
"engaged in translating the Priapeia, Latin verse, which has never
appeared in English, French, or German garb; it will have the merit of
novelty."

The Priapeia, in its Latin form Priapeia sine Diversoreun poetarum in
Priapum Lusus, is a work that has long been well known to scholars, and
in the 16th and 17th centuries editions were common. The translation
under consideration is entitled "Priapeia, or the Sportive Epigrams of
divers Poets on Priapus: the Latin text now for the first time Englished
in verse and prose (the metrical version by Outidanos) [Good for
Nothing], with Introduction, Notes, Explanatory and Illustrative and
Excursus, by Neaniskos [a young man]," whose name, we need hardly say,
is no secret.

The image of Priapus, the god of fruitfulness, was generally a grotesque
figure made of rough wood painted red and carrying a gardener's knife
and a cornucopia. Placed in a garden it was supposed to be a protection
against thieves. "In the earliest ages," observes the writer of the
preface, "the worship of the generative energy was of the most simple
and artless character... the homage of man to the Supreme Power, the
Author of Life.... Afterwards the cult became depraved. Religion became
a pretext for libertinism." Poets wrote facetious and salacious epigrams
and affixed them to the statues of the god--even the greatest writers
lending their pens to the "sport"--and eventually some nonentity
collected these scattered verses and made them into a bo