Till: BIRTHDAY. 145 



subsisted.* In her eighty-sixth year Livia felt the approach of death. 

 The tidings were conveyed to Capreae ; but Tiberius, sunk in his 

 debaucheries, and possibly afraid to trust at Rome his hateful person, 

 or ashamed to shew a body bearing the impressions of disease, ex- 

 cused himself from his attendance on his dying mother. She expired 

 in evident disgust at his unnatural neglect. Caligula, her grandson, 

 the future emperor of Rome, pronounced her funeral oration, and 

 placed her ashes in the mausoleum of Augustus. The character of 

 Livia can only be established by the facts related in her life. It is 

 hardly requisite to controvert the flattering impertinence which 

 founds her virtue on the necessary intervals of her iniquity. She 

 never shrunk from crime when it ensured or even promised any ob- 

 ject of extreme solicitude : her capacity was vast, her mind decisive, 

 and her spirit bold ; hypocrisy was her prevailing art, though utterly 

 inadequate to choke the sins of her ambition, which were marked 

 with persecution, cruelty, revenge, and bloodshed. 



THE BIRTHDAY. 



MY trembling fingers touch the lyre once more, 



Trembling with dread of all they must deplore; 



For each sad echo works a sadder spell, 



To draw reluctant memory from her cell. 



And my worn bosom, which with sighs must strive, 



Both wails, and wonders, as again revive 



Those strains so soft, so sweet, that mock our ear, 



With all that flatters, and forsakes us here. 



Hark it is Hope, whose charming preludes ring, 



And pleas'd, we play upon the treacherous string ! 



Hark it is Joy's full diapason float 



And how eritranc'd, and eager, is the note ! 



Oh, spare me spare me be oblivion mine 



If I remember shall I not repine ? 



Can the weak mortal stem the double care 



Of all that time must banish time must bear. 



Our pearls lie melted in life's acid cup, 



And shall we love it as we lift it up ? 



No ! red ripe lips whose dimples long to laugh, 



Change to a pensive paleness as they quaff; 



And eyes, like suns, weep that their fervid noon 



Has warm'd too little and has past too soon ! 



L.P. 



* 'Inula ' (officinis 'Enula Compana') per se stomacho inimicissima ; eadem 

 <lulcibus mixtis saluberrima. Pluribus modis austeritate yictagratiam invenit 

 * * defectus prsecipue stomachi excitat, illustrata maxime Juliae Augustae 

 (Liviae) quotidiano cibo." Plin. Nat. Hist. I. 19, c. 29. Doctor Hooper says, 

 "It was formerly in high estimation in dyspepsia, pulmonary affections, and 

 uterine obstructions, but is now fallen into disuse." Med. Die. The wine al- 

 luded to was the produce of the grape planted along the Adriatic Sea, or Gulf 

 of Venice, upon a stony and rugged hill, not far from the source of the Tima- 

 vus, and was thought to have received some of its valuable qualities from the 

 vapours of the sea. 



M.M. No. 104. U 



