r bed."

Not simple enough for Catullus; neither is this--a rather affected
line--

"Laughs every dimple in the cheek of home."

GRATIAN.--No, that won't do--it is a conceit. One would imagine it
borrowed or translated from some Italian poet.

AQUILIUS.--The "loosened limbs o'er all the wished-for bed," strikes me
as rather of the ludicrous, and not unlike the description of himself by
Berni in his fanciful palace, where he ordered a bed, adjoining that of
the French cook's, which was to be large enough to swim in--"Come si fa
nel mare."

GRATIAN.--Now then, Mr Curate, let us have your version.

CURATE.

TO THE PENINSULA OF SIRMIO.

All hail to thee, delightful Sirmio!
Of all peninsulas and isles the gem,
Which lake or sea in its fair breast doth show
With either Neptune's arms encircling them.
What joy to find that Thynia, and that plain
Bithynian gone, and see thee safe again!
Charming it is to rest from care and cumber,
When the mind throws its burden, and we come
Wearied with pains of foreign travel home,
And in the bed so longed for sink to slumber.
This pays for all the toil, this quiet after--
Joy, my sweet Sirmio, for thy master's sake,
Make merry, frolic wavelets of my lake--
Laugh on me, all ye stores of home-bred laughter.

GRATIAN.--I don't like "the mind _throws_ its burden:" lays it down is
better--there is more weariness in it. You must alter that expression,
or we see the mind like the "iniquae mentis ascellus," dropping back its
ears, and _throwing_ its not agreeable and easy-sitting rider. Why not--

"When the mind lays its burden down, to come?"

But I see you have both of you translated away from the Latin the _Lydiae
undae_. How comes it so?

AQUILIUS.--The reasons given for the word meaning Lydian seem to be
insufficient; because it is said the Benacus resembles the Lydian rivers
Hermus and Pactolus in having gold; or because the Benacus was in the
district of the Thusci, who came from the Lydians. I adopted a
conjecture once thrown out--and I think it was by the most accomplished
scholar, W. S. Landor, that _Lydiae_ is the adjective of the word
_Ludius--ludiae undae_, or _Lydiae undae_, the same thing, for that ludius
is, as the dictionary tells us, "a Lydis, qui erant optimi saltatores."
If so, _Lydiae_ would mean the sportive, or "dancing waters of the lake."

CURATE.--I took this hint from Aquilius, though I