12. To Faustinus -
So may the Emperor read me with calm brow
And to my jests his wonted favour show,
E'en whom I justly hate I ne'er revile,
Nor strive for glory with a scoffing smile.
Yet what avails it? Knaves to me assign
Their own scurrilities and call them mine,
And shrinking cowardly from the honest light
Under my name breathe out their snakish spite.
My jests you know are harmless, that I swear
By Fame's bright spirit, and by the Muses dear
And by thy love, kind reader, who by me
Art judged a god, from cruel envy free.
And to my jests his wonted favour show,
E'en whom I justly hate I ne'er revile,
Nor strive for glory with a scoffing smile.
Yet what avails it? Knaves to me assign
Their own scurrilities and call them mine,
And shrinking cowardly from the honest light
Under my name breathe out their snakish spite.
My jests you know are harmless, that I swear
By Fame's bright spirit, and by the Muses dear
And by thy love, kind reader, who by me
Art judged a god, from cruel envy free.
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