GRATIAN.--More attractive metal. CURATE.--Not at all attractive; for there is considerable difficulty, and as I suppose a corrupted text, before we reach six lines. Here I let the bird loose. Sparrow, minion of my dear, Little animated toy, Whom the fair delights to bear In her bosom lapt in joy. Whom she teases and displeases, With her white forefinger's end, Thus inviting savage biting From her tiny feather'd friend. Image burning of my yearning, When at fondness she would play; Thus she takes her aught that makes her Pensive moments glide away. 'Tis a balm for her soft sorrow, Tranquillising beauty's breast; Would I might her plaything borrow, So to lull my cares to rest. I would prize it, as the maiden Prized the golden apple thrown, Which displacing her in racing, Loosed at last her virgin zone. AQUILIUS.--Here lies the difficulty: "Quum desiderio meo nitenti Carum nescio quid lubet jocari, (Ut solatiolum sui doloris Credunt, quum gravis acquiescet ardor.") Another edition has it: "Credo ut gravis acquiescat ardor." GRATIAN.--Leave it to OEdipus--make sense of it, and we must not be too nice. AQUILIUS.--Well, then, it possibly means, that she passes off the pain of the bite with a little coquetry and action, as we move about a limb pretty briskly when it tingles. GRATIAN.--O, the cunning--argumentum ad hominem. AQUILIUS.--Thus I venture-- AD PASSEREM LESBIAE. Little sparrow, gentle sparrow, Whom my Lesbia loveth so; Her sweet playmate, whom she petteth, And she letteth To her bosom come and go. Loving there to hold thee ever, Her forefinger to thy bill, Oft she pulleth and provoketh; And she mocketh, Till you bite her harder still. Then new beauty glistening o'er her, Pain'd and blushing doth she feign, Some sweet play of love's excesses, And caresses More to soothe or hide her pain. Would thou wert my pretty birdie, Plaything--playmate unto me, Knowing when her loss doth grieve me, To relieve me, For she seeks relief from thee. Birdie, thou shouldst be such treasure As the golden apple thrown, Was to Atalanta, spying Which in flying, Cost the loosening of her zone. CURATE.--That may be a possible translation of the difficulty, if the text be somewhat amended; but who ever heard of a hurt from the peck of a sparrow? GRATIAN.--I'll take you into our aviary to-morrow, and you shall try on your own rough-work finger the peck of a bullfinch; and I think you may grant that Lesbia's finger was a little softer. Who would trust the tenderness of a Curate's forefinger, case-hardened as it is with his weekly steel-pen work, and deadened by the nature of it, against all Lesbias and their sparrows. Lesbia's forefinger was the very pattern of a forefinger, soft to touch as to feel--that did no work. I dare to say Shakspeare was thinking of such a one, when he said,