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031 - Book 4 Chapter III · Last Days of Pompeii

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  Speaker 1: Book four, Chapter three of Last Days of Pompeii. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or a volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Christine Blashford. Last Days of
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  Speaker 1: Pompey by Edward G. Bulwerllitton, Book four, Chapter three, A
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  Speaker 1: Fashionable Party and a dinner Ala mode in Pompeii. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: Sallust and Glaucus were slowly strolling towards the House of Diomed.
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  Speaker 1: Despite the habits of his life, Sallust was not devoid
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  Speaker 1: of many estimable qualities. He would have been an active friend,
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  Speaker 1: a useful citizen, in short, an excellent man, if he
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  Speaker 1: had not taken it into his head to be a philosopher.
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  Speaker 1: Brought up in the schools in which Roman plagiarism worshiped
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  Speaker 1: the echo of Grecian wisdom, he had imbued himself with
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  Speaker 1: those doctrines by which the later Epicureans corrupted the simple
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  Speaker 1: maxims of their great master. He gave himself altogether up
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  Speaker 1: to pleasure, and imagined there was no sage like a
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  Speaker 1: boon companion. Still, however, he had a considerable degree of learning,
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  Speaker 1: wit and good nature, and the hearty frankness of his
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  Speaker 1: very vices seemed like virtue itself, beside the utter corruption
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  Speaker 1: of Clodius and the prostrate effeminacy of Lapidus. And therefore
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  Speaker 1: Glaucus liked him the best of his companions, and he,
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  Speaker 1: in turn, appreciating the nobler qualities of the Athenian, loved
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  Speaker 1: him almost as much as a cold murana or a
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  Speaker 1: bowl of the best for Learnian. This is a vulgar
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  Speaker 1: old fellow, this diomed, said sallust, But he has some
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  Speaker 1: good qualities in his cellar, and some charming ones in
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  Speaker 1: his daughter. True, Glaucus, but you are not much moved
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  Speaker 1: by them. Methinks I fancy Clodius is desirous to be
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  Speaker 1: your successor. He is welcome at the banquet of Julia's beauty.
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  Speaker 1: No guest, be sure, is considered a muscer. You are severe,
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  Speaker 1: but she has indeed something of the Corinthian about her.
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  Speaker 1: They will be well matched. After all, what good natured
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  Speaker 1: fellows we are to associate with? That gambling good for
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  Speaker 1: nought pleasure unites strange varieties, answered Glaucus. He amuses me
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  Speaker 1: and flatters, but then he pays himself well. He powders
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  Speaker 1: his with gold dust. You often hint that he plays unfairly.
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  Speaker 1: Think you so, really, my dear Glaucus, a Roman noble
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  Speaker 1: has his dignity to keep up. Dignity is very expensive.
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  Speaker 1: Clodius must cheat like a scoundrel in order to live
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  Speaker 1: like a gentleman. Haha. Well, of late, I have renounced
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  Speaker 1: the dice, ah Sallust. When I am wedded to Ione,
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  Speaker 1: I trust I may yet redeem a youth of follies.
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  Speaker 1: We are both born for better things than those in
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  Speaker 1: which we sympathize, now born to render our worship in
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  Speaker 1: nobler temples than the stye of Epicurus. Alas returned Sallust
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  Speaker 1: in rather a melancholy tone. What do we know more
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  Speaker 1: than this? Life is short? Beyond the grave all is dark.
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  Speaker 1: There is no wisdom like that which says, enjoy bye Bacchus.
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  Speaker 1: I doubt sometimes if we do enjoy the utmost of
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  Speaker 1: which life is capable. I am a moderate man, returned Sallust,
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  Speaker 1: and do not ask the utmost. We are like malefactors
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  Speaker 1: and intoxicate ourselves with wine and muh as we stand
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  Speaker 1: on the brink of death. But if we did not
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  Speaker 1: do so, the abyss would look very disagreeable. I own
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  Speaker 1: that I was inclined to be gloomy until I took
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  Speaker 1: so heartily to drinking. That is a new life, my Glaucus. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: but it brings us next morning to a new death.
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  Speaker 1: Why the next morning is unpleasant? I own, But then
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  Speaker 1: if it were not so, one would never be inclined
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  Speaker 1: to read. I study betimes, because by the gods I
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  Speaker 1: am generally unfit for anything else till noon fie, sighed
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  Speaker 1: the n Shah. The fate of Pentheus to him who
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  Speaker 1: denies Bacchus, well Sallust, with all your faults, you are
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  Speaker 1: the best profligate I ever met, And verily, if I
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  Speaker 1: were in danger of life, you are the only man
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  Speaker 1: in all Italy who would stretch out a finger to
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  Speaker 1: save me. Perhaps I should not if it were in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of supper. But in truth we Italians are
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  Speaker 1: fearfully selfish. So are all men who are not free,
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  Speaker 1: said Glaucus, with a sigh. Freedom alone makes men sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: to each other. Freedom, then, must be a very fatiguing
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  Speaker 1: thing to an epicurean, answered Sallust. But here we are
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  Speaker 1: at our hosts. As Diomed's villa is one of the
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  Speaker 1: most considerable in point of size of any yet discovered
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  Speaker 1: at Pompeii, and is moreover built much according to the
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  Speaker 1: specific instructions for a suburban villa laid down by the
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  Speaker 1: Roman architect. It may not be uninteresting briefly to describe
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  Speaker 1: the plan of the apartments through which our visitors passed.
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  Speaker 1: They entered then by the same small vestibule at which
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  Speaker 1: we have before been presented to the aged medan, and
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  Speaker 1: passed at once into a colonnade technically termed the peristyle.
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  Speaker 1: For the main difference between the suburban villa and the
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  Speaker 1: town mansion consisted in placing in the first the said
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  Speaker 1: colonnade in exactly the same place as that which in
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  Speaker 1: the town mansion was occupied by the atrium. In the
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  Speaker 1: center of the peristyle was an open court which contained
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  Speaker 1: the impluvium. From this peristyle descended a staircase to the offices.
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  Speaker 1: Another narrow passage on the opposite side communicated with a garden.
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  Speaker 1: Various small apartments surrounded the colonnade, appropriated probably to country visitors.
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  Speaker 1: Another door to the left on entering communicated with a
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  Speaker 1: small triangular portico, which belonged to the baths, and behind
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  Speaker 1: was the wardrobe, in which were kept the vests of
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  Speaker 1: the holiday suits of the slaves, and perhaps of the master.
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  Speaker 1: Seventeen centuries afterwards were found those relics of ancient finery,
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  Speaker 1: calcigned and crumbling, kept longer alas than their thrifty lord foresaw.
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  Speaker 1: Return we to the peristyle, and endeavour now to present
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  Speaker 1: the reader a coud'oya of the whole suite of apartments
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  Speaker 1: which immediately stretched before the steps of the visitors. Let
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  Speaker 1: him then first imagine the columns of the portico hung
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  Speaker 1: with festoons of flowers, the columns themselves in the lower
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  Speaker 1: part painted red, and the walls around glowing with various frescoes. Then,
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  Speaker 1: looking beyond a curtain three parts drawn aside, the eye
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  Speaker 1: caught the tablinum or saloon, which was closed at will
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  Speaker 1: by glazed doors, now slid back into the walls. On
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  Speaker 1: either side of this tablenum were small rooms, one of
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  Speaker 1: which was a kind of cabinet of gems, and these apartments,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the tablenaum, communicated with a long gallery
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  Speaker 1: which opened at either end upon terraces and between the terraces,
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  Speaker 1: and communicating with the central part of the gallery was
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  Speaker 1: a hall in which the banquet was that day prepared.
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  Speaker 1: All these apartments, though almost on a level with the street,
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  Speaker 1: were one story above the guard sudden, and the terraces
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  Speaker 1: communicating with the gallery were continued into corridors raised above
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  Speaker 1: the pillars, which to the right and left skirted the garden.
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  Speaker 1: Below beneath, and on a level with the garden ran
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  Speaker 1: the apartments we have already described as chiefly appropriated to Julia.
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  Speaker 1: In the gallery then just mentioned, Diomed received his guests.
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  Speaker 1: The merchant affected greatly the man of letters, and therefore
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  Speaker 1: he also affected a passion for everything Greek. He paid
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  Speaker 1: particular attention to Glaucus. You will see, my friend, said he,
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  Speaker 1: with a wave of his hand, that I am a
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  Speaker 1: little classical here, a little socropian a. The hall in
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  Speaker 1: which we shall sup is borrowed from the Greeks. It
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  Speaker 1: is an achus size chene noble, Sallust, they have not
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  Speaker 1: I am told this sort of apartment in Rome, oh,
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  Speaker 1: replied Sallust, with a half smile. You Pompeians combine all
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  Speaker 1: that is most eligible in Greece, and in Rome, may
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  Speaker 1: you Diomed combine the viands as well as the architecture.
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  Speaker 1: You shall see. You shall see, my Sallust, replied the merchant.
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  Speaker 1: We have a taste at Pompeii, and we have also money.
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  Speaker 1: They are two excellent things, replied Sallust. But behold the
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  Speaker 1: lady Julia. The main difference, as I have before remarked,
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  Speaker 1: in the manner of life observed among the Athenians and Romans,
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  Speaker 1: was that with the first, the modest woman rarely or
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  Speaker 1: never took part in entertainments. With the latter, they were
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  Speaker 1: the common ornaments of the banquet, but when they were
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  Speaker 1: present at the feast, it usually terminated at an early hour.
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  Speaker 1: Magnificently Robed in white, interwoven with pearls and threads of gold,
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  Speaker 1: the handsome Julia entered the apartment, scarcely had she received
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  Speaker 1: the salutation of the two guests. Here Panzer and his wife,
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  Speaker 1: Lapidus Clodius and the Roman senator entered almost simultaneously. Then
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  Speaker 1: came the widow Fulvia, then the poet Fulvius, like to
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  Speaker 1: the widow in name, if in nothing else. The warrior
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  Speaker 1: from Herculaneum, accompanied by his umbra, next stalked in. Afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: the less eminent of the guests Ione, yet tarried. It
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  Speaker 1: was the mode among the courteous ancients to flatter whenever
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  Speaker 1: it was in their power. Accordingly, it was a sign
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  Speaker 1: of ill breeding to seat themselves immediately on entering the
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  Speaker 1: house of their host. After performing the salutation, which was
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  Speaker 1: usually accomplished by the same cordial shake of the right
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  Speaker 1: hand which we ourselves retain, and sometimes by the yet
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  Speaker 1: more familiar embrace, they spent several minutes in surveying the
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  Speaker 1: apartment and admiring the bronzes, the pictures, or the furniture
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  Speaker 1: with which it was adorned, a mode very impolite, according
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  Speaker 1: to our refined English notions, which place good breeding in indifference.
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  Speaker 1: We would not for the world express much admiration of
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  Speaker 1: another man's house, for fear it should be thought we
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  Speaker 1: had never seen anything so fine before. A beautiful statue
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  Speaker 1: this of Bacchus, said the Roman senator. A mere trifle,
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  Speaker 1: replied diomed Wat charming paintings, said fulvia mere trifles, answered
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  Speaker 1: the owner. Exquisite. Candelabra, cried the warrior. Exquisite echoed his umbra.
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  Speaker 1: Trifles Trifles, reiterated the merchant. Meanwhile, Glaucus found himself by
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  Speaker 1: one of the windows of the gallery, which communicated with
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  Speaker 1: the terraces, and the fair Julia by his side. Is
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  Speaker 1: it an Athenian virtue? Glaucus, said the merchant's daughter, to
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  Speaker 1: shun those whom we once sought, Fair Julia. No, yet,
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  Speaker 1: methinks it is one of the qualities of Glaucus. Glaucus
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  Speaker 1: never shuns a friend, replied the Greek, with some emphasis
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  Speaker 1: on the last word. May Julia rank among the number
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  Speaker 1: of his friends. It would be an honor to the
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  Speaker 1: emperor to find a friend in one so lovely. You
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  Speaker 1: evade my question, returned the enamored Julia. But tell me,
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  Speaker 1: is it true that you admire the Neapolitan Ione? Does
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  Speaker 1: not beauty constrain our admiration? Ah, subtle Greek, Still, do
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  Speaker 1: you fly the meaning of my words? But say, shall
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  Speaker 1: Julia be indeed your friend? If she will so favor me?
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  Speaker 1: Blessed be the gods. The day in which I am
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  Speaker 1: thus honored shall be ever marked in white. Yet even
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  Speaker 1: while you speak, your eye is resting, Your color comes
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  Speaker 1: and goes. You move away involuntarily. You are impatient to
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  Speaker 1: join Ione, for at that moment Ione had entered, and
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  Speaker 1: Glaucus had indeed betrayed the emotion noticed by the jealous beauty.
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  Speaker 1: Can admiration to one woman make me unworthy the friendship
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  Speaker 1: of another sanction? Not so, o, Julia, the libels of
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  Speaker 1: the poets on your sex, Well, you are right, or
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  Speaker 1: I will learn to think so, Glaucus. Yet one moment
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  Speaker 1: you are to wed Ione, Is it not so? If
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  Speaker 1: the fates permit, such is my blessed hope. Except then
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  Speaker 1: from me, in token of our new friendship, a present
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  Speaker 1: for your bride. Nay, it is the custom of friends,
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  Speaker 1: you know, always to present to bride and bridegroom some
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  Speaker 1: such little marks of their esteem and favoring wishes. Julia,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot refuse any token of friendship from one like you.
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  Speaker 1: I will accept the gift as an omen from fortune herself.
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  Speaker 1: Then after the feast, when the guests retire, you will
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  Speaker 1: descend with me to my apartment and receive it from
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  Speaker 1: my hands, Remember, said Julia, as she joined the wife
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  Speaker 1: of Panza and left Glaucus to seek Ione. The widow
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  Speaker 1: Fulvia and the spouse of the ideal were engaged in
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  Speaker 1: high and grave discussion. Oh, Folvia, I assure you that
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  Speaker 1: the last account from Rome declares that the frizzling mode
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  Speaker 1: of dressing the hair is growing antiquated. They only now
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  Speaker 1: wear it built up in a tower like Julius, or
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  Speaker 1: arranged as a helmet the gallery and fashion like mine.
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  Speaker 1: You see, it has a fine effect, I think, I
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  Speaker 1: assure you. Vespius. Vespius was the name of the Herculaneum.
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  Speaker 1: Hero admires it greatly, and nobody wears the hair like
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  Speaker 1: Yon Neapolitan in the Greek way. What parted in front
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  Speaker 1: with the knot behind? Oh no, how ridiculous it is.
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  Speaker 1: It reminds one of the statue of Diana. Yet this
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  Speaker 1: Ione is handsome, eh so the men say, But then
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  Speaker 1: she is rich. She is to marry the Athenian. I
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  Speaker 1: wish her joy. He will not be long faithful. I
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  Speaker 1: suspect those foreigners are very faithless, Oh, Julia, said Fulvia,
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  Speaker 1: as the merchant's daughter joined them. Have you seen the
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  Speaker 1: tiger yet? No? Why all the ladies have been to
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  Speaker 1: see him. He is so handsome. I hope we shall
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  Speaker 1: find some criminal or other for him. And the lion
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  Speaker 1: replied Julia, your husband, turning to Panzer's wife, is not
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  Speaker 1: so active as he should be in this matter. Why really,
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  Speaker 1: the laws are too mild, replied the Dame of the helmet.
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  Speaker 1: There are so few offenses to which the punishment of
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  Speaker 1: the arena can be awarded. And then too, the gladiators
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  Speaker 1: are growing effeminate. The stoutest bestiari declare they are willing
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  Speaker 1: enough to fight a boar or a bull, but as
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  Speaker 1: for a lion or a tiger, they think the game
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  Speaker 1: too much. In earnest, they are worthy of a miter,
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  Speaker 1: replied Julia in disdain. Oh have you seen the new
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  Speaker 1: house of fulv the dear poet, said Panzer's wife. No
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  Speaker 1: is it handsome, very such good taste. But they say,
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  Speaker 1: my dear, that he has such improper pictures. He won't
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  Speaker 1: show them to the women. How ill bred those poets
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  Speaker 1: are always odd, said the widow. But he is an
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  Speaker 1: interesting man. What pretty verses he writes. We improve very
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  Speaker 1: much in poetry. It is impossible to read the old stuff. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I declare, I am of your opinion, returned the lady
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  Speaker 1: of the helmet. There is so much more force and
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  Speaker 1: energy in the modern school. The warrior sauntered up to
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  Speaker 1: the ladies. It reconciles me to peace, said he, when
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  Speaker 1: I see such faces. Oh, you heroes are ever flatterers,
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  Speaker 1: returned fulvia hastening to appropriate the compliments specially to herself.
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  Speaker 1: By this chain, which I received from the Emperor's own hand,
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  Speaker 1: replied the warrior, playing with a short chain which hung
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  Speaker 1: around the neck like a collar, instead of descending to
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  Speaker 1: the breast, according to the fashion of the peaceful, by
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  Speaker 1: this chain, you wrong me. I am a blunt man.
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  Speaker 1: A soldier should be. So how do you find the
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  Speaker 1: ladies of Pompei, generally, said Julia, by Venus, most beautiful?
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  Speaker 1: They favor me a little, it is true, and that
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  Speaker 1: inclines my eyes to double their charms. We love a warrior,
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  Speaker 1: said the wife of Panza. I see it, by Hercules,
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  Speaker 1: it is even disagreeable to be too celebrated in these cities.
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  Speaker 1: At Herculaneum, they climb the roof of my atrium to
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  Speaker 1: catch a glimpse of me through the compluvium. The admiration
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  Speaker 1: of one's citizens is pleasant at first, but burthensome afterwards, True, true, Ovespius,
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  Speaker 1: cried the poet, joining the group. I find it so myself, you,
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  Speaker 1: said the stately warrior, scanning the small form of the
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  Speaker 1: poet with ineffable disdain. In what legion have you served?
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  Speaker 1: You may see my spoils my ex uva in the
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  Speaker 1: forum itself, returned the poet, with a significant glance at
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  Speaker 1: the women. I have been among the tent companions, the
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  Speaker 1: contubernales of the great Manchuan himself. I know no general
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  Speaker 1: from Mantua, said the warrior gravely. What campaign have you
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  Speaker 1: served that of Helicon? I never heard of it, Nay, Vespius,
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  Speaker 1: he does, but joke, said Julia, laughing joke by mars
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  Speaker 1: Am I a man to be joked. Yes, Mars himself
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  Speaker 1: was in love with the mother of jokes, said the poet,
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  Speaker 1: a little alarmed, know then, o Vespius, that I am
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  Speaker 1: the poet Fulvius, it is I who make warriors immortal.
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  Speaker 1: The gods forbid, whispered Sallus to Julia. If Vespius were
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  Speaker 1: made immortal, what a specimen of tiresome Braggadoccio would be
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  Speaker 1: transmitted to posterity. The soldier looked puzzled, when to the
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  Speaker 1: infinite relief of himself and his companions, the signal for
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  Speaker 1: the feast was given. As we have already witnessed at
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  Speaker 1: the House of Glaucus, the ordinary routine of a Pompeian entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: The reader is spared any second detail of the courses
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  Speaker 1: and the manner in which they were introduced. Diomed, who
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  Speaker 1: was rather ceremonious, had appointed a nomenclator or a pointer
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  Speaker 1: of places to each guest. The reader understands that the
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  Speaker 1: festive board was composed of three tables, one at the
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  Speaker 1: center and one at each wing. It was only at
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  Speaker 1: the outer side of these tables that the guests reclined.
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  Speaker 1: The inner space was left untenanted for the greater convenience
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  Speaker 1: of the waiters or ministry. The extreme corner of one
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  Speaker 1: of the wings was appropriated to Julia, as the lady
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  Speaker 1: of the feast. That next her to Diomed. At one
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  Speaker 1: corner of the center table was placed the Ideal at
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  Speaker 1: the opposite corner, the Roman and senator. These were the
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  Speaker 1: posts of honor. The other guests were arranged so that
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  Speaker 1: the young gentlemen or lady should sit next each other,
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  Speaker 1: and the more advanced in years be similarly matched. An
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  Speaker 1: agreeable provision enough, but one which must often have offended
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  Speaker 1: those who wished to be thought still young. The chair
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  Speaker 1: of Ione was next to the couch of Glaucus. The
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  Speaker 1: seats were veneered with tortoise shell and covered with quilts
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  Speaker 1: stuffed with feathers and ornamented with costly embroideries. The modern
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  Speaker 1: ornaments of apernae or plateau were supplied by images of
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  Speaker 1: the gods wrought in bronze, ivory and silver. The sacred
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  Speaker 1: salt cellar and the familiar lares were not forgotten. Over
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  Speaker 1: the table and the seats, a rich canopy was suspended
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  Speaker 1: from the ceiling. At each corner of the table were
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  Speaker 1: lofty candelabra, For though it was early noon, the room
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  Speaker 1: was darkened, while from tripods placed in different parts of
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  Speaker 1: the room distilled the odor of merh and frankincense. And
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  Speaker 1: upon the abacus or sideboard, large vases and various ornaments
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  Speaker 1: of silver were arranged, much with the same ostentation, but
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  Speaker 1: with more than the same taste that we find displayed
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  Speaker 1: at a modern feast. The custom of grace was invariably
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  Speaker 1: supplied by that of libations to the gods, and Vesta,
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  Speaker 1: as queen of the household, gods usually received first that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: graceful homage. This ceremony being performed, the slaves showered flowers
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: upon the couches and the floor, and crowd each guest
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: with rosy garlands intricately waven with ribbons tied by the
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: rind of the linden tree, and each intermingled with the
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: ivy and the amethyst, supposed preventives against the effect of wine.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: The wreaths of the women only were exempted from these leaves,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: for it was not the fashion for them to drink
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: wine in public. It was then that the President Diomed
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: thought it advisable to institute a basilius or director of
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the feast, an important office sometimes chosen by lot, sometimes
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: as now by the master of the entertainment. Diomed was
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: not a little puzzled as to his election. The invalid
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Senator was too grave and too infirm for the proper
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: fulfillment of his duty. The ideal Panzer was adequate enough
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to the task. But then to choose the next in
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: official rank to the Senator was an affront to the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Senator himself. While deliberating between the merits of them the others,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: he caught the mirthful glance of Sallust, and by a
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: sudden inspiration, named the jovial Epicure to the rank of
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: director or arbiter Bebendi. Sallust received the appointment with becoming humility.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I shall be a merciful king, said he, to those
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: who drink deep to a recusant Minos himself shall be
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: less inexorable. Beware the slaves handed round basins of perfumed water,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: by which levation the feast commenced, And now the table
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: groaned under the initiatory course. The conversation, at first desultory
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and scattered, allowed Ione and Glaucus to carry on those
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: sweet whispers which are worth all the eloquence in the world.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Julia watched them with flashing eyes. How soon shall her
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: place be mine? Thought she? But Clodius, who sat in
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the center table so as to observe well the countenance
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: of Julia, guessed her pique and resolved to profit by it.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: He addressed her across the table in set phrases of gallantry,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: And as he was of high birth and of a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: showy person, the vain Julia was not so much in
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: love as to be insensible to his attentions. The slaves
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: in the interim were constantly kept upon the alert by
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: the vigilant Sallust, who chased one cut by another with
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: a celerity which seemed as if he were resolved upon
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: exhausting those capacious cellars, which the reader may yet see
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: beneath the house of Diomed. The worthy merchant began to
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: repent his choice as Amphora. After Amphora was pierced and emptied,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the slaves, all under the age of manhood, the youngest
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: being about ten years old. It was they who filled
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the wine. The eldest, some five years older, mingled it
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: with water, seemed to share in the zeal of Sallust,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and the face of Diomed began to glow as he
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: watched the provoking complacency with which they seconded the exertions
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: of the king of the feast. Pardon me, o, senator,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: said Sallust, I see you flinch. Your purple hem cannot
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: save you. Drink, by the gods, said the senator, coughing,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: My lungs are already on fire. You proceed with so
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: miraculous a swiftness that Phaeton himself was nothing to you.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I am infirm, Oh pleasant, Sallust, you must exonerate me.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Not I by vesta, I am an impartial monarch. Drink.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The poor senator, compelled by the laws of the table,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: was forced to come alas every cup was bringing him
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: nearer and nearer to the Stygian pool gently gently, my king,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: grown diomed, we already begin to treason interrupted sallust no
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: stern brutus here no interference with royalty. But our female
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: guests lover toper did not ariadne dote upon Bacchus. The
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: feast proceeded, the guests grew more talkative and noisy. The
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: dessert or last cause was already on the table, and
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the slaves bore around water with mer and hysop for
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the finishing elevation. At the same time, a small circular
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: table that had been placed in the space opposite the guests,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: certainly and as by magic, seemed to open in the
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: center and cast up a fragrant shower, sprinkling the table
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and the guests, while as it ceased, the awning above
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: them was drawn aside, and the guests perceived that a
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: rope had been stretched across the ceiling, and that one
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: of those nimble dancers for which POMPEII was so celebrated,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: and whose descendants add so charming a grace to the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: festivities of Astley's or Vauxhall, was now treading his airy
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: measures right over their heads. This apparition removed, but by
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: a chord from one's pericranium, and indulging the most vehement leaps,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: apparently with the intention of alighting upon that cerebral region,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: would probably be regarded with some terror by a party
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: in Mayfair. But our Pompeian revelers seemed to behold the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: spectacle with delighted curiosity and applauded in proportion as the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: dancer appeared with the most difficulty to misfalling upon the
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: head of whatever guest he particularly selected to dance above.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: He paid the senator indeed the peculiar compliment of literally
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: falling from the rape and catching it again with his hand,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Just as the whole party imagined. The skull of the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Roman was as much fractured as ever that of the poet,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: whom the eagle took for a tortoise at length, to
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the great relief of at least Ione, who had not
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: much accustomed herself to this entertainment, the dancer suddenly paused,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: as a strain of music was heard from without. He
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: danced again, still more wildly. The air changed. The dancer
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: paused again. No, it could not dissolve the charm which
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: was supposed to possess him. He represented one who by
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a strange disorder is compelled to dance, and whom only
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: a certain era of music can go at length. The
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: musician seemed to hit on the right tune. The dancer
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: gave one leap, swung himself down from the rope, alighted
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: on the floor, and vanished. One art now yielded to another,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: And the musicians, who were stationed without on the terrace
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: struck up a soft and mellow air, to which were
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: sung the following words, made almost indistinct by the barrier
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: between and the exceeding lowness of the minstrel z. E
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: best of music should be low. Hark through these flowers.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Our music sends its greeting to your loved halls, where
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Silas shuns. The day when the young god his cretan nymph,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: was meeting, he taught Pan's rustic pipe. This gliding lay
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: soft as the dews of wine shed in this banquet hour.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: The rich libation of sound stream divine a reverent harp
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: to aphrodite, poor wild rings, the trump of ranks to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: glory marching. Music's sublimer bursts for war are meet, but
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: sweet lips murmuring and o wreaths are arching. Find the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: low whispers like their own most sweet steel, mylulled music,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: steel like woman's half heard tone, so that whoe'er shall
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: hear shall think to feel in thee the voice of
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: lips that love his own. At the end of that song,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Ione's cheek blushed more deeply than before, and Glaucus had
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: contrived under cover of the table to steal her hand.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: It is a pretty song, said Fulvius, patronizingly. Ah, if
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you would oblige us, murmured the wife of Panza. Do
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: you wish Fulvius to sing? Asked the king of the feast,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: who had just called on the assembly to drink the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: health of the Roman senator, a cup to each letter
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of his name, can you ask? Said the matron, with
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a complimentary glance at the poet. Sallust snapped his fingers
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and whispering the slave who came to learn his orders.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: The latter disappeared and returned in a few moments with
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a small harp in one hand and a branch of
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: myrtle in the other. The slave approached the poet and,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: with a low reverence, presented to him the harp. Alas
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I cannot play, said the poet, then you must sing
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: to the myrtle. It is a Greek fashion. Diomed loves
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: the Greeks. I love the Greeks. You love the Greeks.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: We all love the Greeks. And between you and me,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: this is not the only thing we have stolen from them. However,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I introduced this custom. The king sing subject sing. The poet,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: with a bashful smile, took the myrtle in his hands,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and after a short prelude, sang as follows in a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: pleasant and well tuned voice, the coronation of the loves.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: The merry loves one holiday, were all at gambles madly,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: but loves too long can seldom play without behaving sadly.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: They laughed, they toyed, they romped about, and then for
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: change they all fell out. Fie fie, how can they quarrel?
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So my lesbian are are for shame? Love methinks tis
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: scarce an hour ago when we did just the same
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: love the loves tis thought were free till then they
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: had no king or laws. Dear, But gods like men
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: should subject be, say all the ancient sores, dear. And
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: so our crew resolved for quiet to choose a king
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: to curb their riot. A kiss ah What a grievous
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: thing for both methinks twould be child if I should
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: take some prudish king and cease to be so free child.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Among their toys a casque they found it was the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: helm of airies, with horrent plumes. The crest was crowned.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: It frightened all the laries. So fine a king was
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: no They placed the helmet on the throne, My girl,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Since valor wins the world, they chose a mighty master.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But thy sweet flag of smiles, unfelled, would win the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: world much faster. The cask soon found the loves too
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: wild a troop for him to school them. For warriors
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: know how one such child has I contrived to fool them.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: They plagued him so that in despair he took a
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: wife the plague to share. If kings themselves thus find
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the strife of earth and shared severe, girl, why just
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: to have the ills of life come? Take your partner here, girl,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: within that room the bird of love the whole affair
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: had died. Then the monarch hailed the royal dove and
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: placed her by his side. Then what mirth amidst the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: loves was seen? Long live? They cried our king and
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Queen ah Lesbia, with that thrones were mine and crowns
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: to deck that brow love. And yet I know that
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: heart of thine for me is thrown in now love.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: The urchins hoped to tease the mate as they had
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: teased the hero, but when the dove in judgment sate,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: they found her worse than NERO each look a frown,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: each word O loure. The little subjects shook with awe
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: in thee I find the same deceit too late, alas
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: a learner, for where a mien more gently sweet, and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: where a tyrant sterner. This song, which greatly suited the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: gay and lively fancy of the Pompeians, was received with
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: considerable applause, and the widow insisted on crowning her namesake
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: with the very branch of myrtle to which he had sung.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: It was easily twisted into a garland, and the immortal
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Fulvius was crowned amidst the clapping of hands and shouts
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: of io triumph. The song and the harp now circulated
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: round the party, a new myrtle branch being handed about,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: stopping at each person who could be prevailed upon to sing.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: The sun began now to decline, though the revelers, who
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: had worn away several hours, perceived it not in their
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: darkened chamber, and the senator, who was tired, and the warrior,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: who had to return to herculaneum, rising to depart, gave
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the signal for the general dispersion. Tarry yet a moment,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: my friends, said diomed, if you will go so soon,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: you must at least take a share in our concluding game.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: So saying, he motioned to one of the ministry, and
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: whispering him, the slave went out and presently returned with
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: a small bowl containing various tablets, carefully sealed and apparently
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: exactly similar. Each guest was to purchase one of these
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: at the nominal price of the lowest piece of silver.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And the sport of this lottery, which was the favorite
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: diversion of Augustus, who introduced it, consisted in the inequality
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and sometimes the incongruity of the prizes, the nature and
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: amount of which were specified within the tablets. For instance,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the poet, with a wry face, drew one of his
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: own poems. No physician, ever less, willingly swallowed his own draft.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: The warrior drew a case of bodkins, which gave rise
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: to certain novel witticisms relative to Hercules and the die staff.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: The widow Fulvia obtained a large drinking cup, Julia a
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: gentleman's buckle, and Lapidus a lady's patch box. The most
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: appropriate lot was drawn by the gambler Clodius, who reddened
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: with anger on being presented to a set of cogged dice.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: A certain damp was thrown upon the gaiety, which these
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: various lots created By an accident that was considered ominous.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Glaucus drew the most valuable of all the prizes, a
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: small marble statue of fortune of Grecian workmanship. On handing
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: it to him, the slaves suffered it to drop, and
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: it broke in pieces. A shiver went round the assembly,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and each voice cried spontaneously on the gods to avert
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: the omen. Glaucus alone, though perhaps as superstitious as the rest,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: affected to be unmoved. Sweet Neapolitan, whispered he tenderly to Ione,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: who had turned pale as the broken marble itself. I
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: accept the omen. It signifies that in obtaining thee fortune
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: can give no more. She breaks her image when she
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: blesses me with thine in order to divert the impression
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: which this incident had occasioned in an assembly which, considering
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the civilization of the guests, would seem miraculously superstitious, if
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: at the present day in a country party we did
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: not often see a lady grow hypochondriacal on leaving a room,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: last of thirteen Sallus, now crowning his cup with flowers,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: gave the health of their host. This was followed by
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a similar compliment to the Emperor, and then with a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: parting cup to Mercury to send them pleasant slumbers. They
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: concluded the entertainment by a last libation, and broke up
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the party. Carriages and litters a little used in Pompeii,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: partly owing to the extreme narrowness of the streets, partly
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: to the convenient smallness of the city. Most of the guests,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: replacing their sandals which they had put off in the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: banquet room, and enduring their cloaks, left the house on foot,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: attended by their slaves. Meanwhile, having seen Ione depart, Glaucus,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: turning to the staircase which led down to the rooms
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of Julia, was conducted by a slave to an apartment
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: in which he found the merchant's daughter, already seated. Glaucus
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: said she, looking down, I see that you really love Ione.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: She is indeed beautiful. Julia is charming enough to be generous,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: replied the Greek. Yes, I love Ione amidst all the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: youth who caught you. May you have one worshiper as
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: sincere I pray the gods to grant it. See Glaucus,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: these pearls are the present I destined to your bride.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Made Juno give her health to wear them, so saying,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: she placed a case in his hand containing a row
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: of pearls of some size and price. It was so
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: much the custom for persons about to be married to
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: receive these gifts that Glaucus could have little scruple in
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: accepting the necklace, though the gallant and prouder Athenian inly
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: resolved to requite the gift by one of thrice its value. Julia, then,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: stopping short his thanks, poured forth some wine into a
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: small bowl. You have drunk many toastes with my father,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: said she, smiling one now with me, health and fortune
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to your bride. She touched the cup with her lips,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and then presented it to Glaucus. The customary etiquette required
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: that Glaucus should drain the whole contents. He accordingly did so. Julia,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: unknowing the deceit which Nydia had practiced upon her, watched
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: him with sparkling eyes. Although the witch had told her
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: that the effect might not be immediate, she yet sanguinely
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: trusted to an expeditious operation in favor of her charms.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: She was disappointed when she found Glaucus coldly replaced the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: cup and conversed with her in the same unmoved but
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: gentle tone as before. And though she detained him as
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: long as she decorously could do, no change took place
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: in his manner. But tomorrow, thought she, exultingly, recovering her disappointment.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow alas for Glaucus, alas for him. Indeed, end of
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: chapter three,