Priapeia

Priaepia

by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers

  1. Fain am I left to believe every Nymph to be dead.
  2. Vile thing 'twere to be done, but lest I burst me with straining
  3. Sickle unhanding I mistress must make of my hand.
  1. At holy offering to the Lustful God
  2. Hired was a harlot for a slender price
  3. To meet the common wants of commonweal;
  4. And for as many men one night outworked
  5. So many willow yards she'll give to thee.
  1. Thief, for first thieving shalt be swived, but an
  2. Again arrested shalt be irrumate;
  3. And, shouldst attempt to plunder time the third,
  4. This and that penalty thou shalt endure,
  5. Being both pedicate and irrumate.
  1. We all show special notes of bodily shape:
  2. Long-haired is Phoebus, arm-strong Hercules,