28

To Priapus

Obscenis, peream, Priape, si non
uti me pudet improbisque verbis.
sed cum tu posito deus pudore
ostendas mihi coleos patentes,
cum cunno mihi mentula est vocanda.

Priapus! perish I an words obscene
And wicked terms to use I'm not ashamed:
But whenas thou, a god (bylaying shame),
To me displayest bollocks evident,
With Coynte the Prickle I must baldly name.

May I die,[2] Priapus, if I do not blush to make use of lewd and impure words; but when you, a deity without shame, display to me your balls in all openness, I must call a tool a tool, a coynte a coynte.

[1. Thy mouth shall serve as the instrument of thy punishment.

2. A favourite formula of oath amongst the Romans.]