Ode X
To the beautiful boy Ligurinus (cf. 4.1.33). Youth's a stuff will not endure. For the vein of sentiment, cf. Anth. Pal. 12.186, 12.35, and Shakspere's Sonnet, 'When forty winters shall besiege thy brow.' and his 'Look in thy glass and tell that face thou viewest.' Old translation in Musarum Deliciae, Vol. I. p.181.
muneribus: Homer's gifts of Aphrodite (Il.3.54).
insperata: unexpected.--pluma: apparently down, of the first beard. Bentley's bruma would be prettily illustrated by Heine's 'Es liegt der heisse Sommer Auf deinen Wängelein; Es liegt der Winter, der kalte, In deinem Herzchen Klein. Das wird sich bei dir ändern, Du Vielgeliebte meins! Der Winter wird auf den Wangen, Der Sommer in Herzen sein' (Nauck).
umeris involitant: the long hair usualiy shorn on the assumption of the toga virilis (cf. Juv. 3.186). Cf. 3.20.14; 2.5.23; Epode 11.28; and Pindar's Jason, Pyth. 4.82, 'nor were the bright locks of his hair shorn from him, but over all his back ran rippling down.'--deciderint: i.e. under the scissors.
flore . . . rosae: cf. on 3. 29. 3.--est . . . prior: outvies.
Some editors read Ligurine, taking verterit as intransitive. --hispidam: cf. on 2.9.1; the opposite of lēvis, 4.6.28.
speculo: by means of=in. Cf. Lais' 'dedication of her mirror,' Anth. Pal. 6. 1.--alterum: changed; cf. Ronsard, 'Jeune beaué, mais trop outrecuidée| Des presens de Venus,| Quand tu voirras ta peau toute ridée| Et tes cheveaux chenus,|Contre le temps et contre toy rebelle, Diras en te tançant:| Que ne pensois-je alors que j'estois belle |Ce que je vay pensant?' Cf. also Auson. Ep. 13.5; Herrick, 62, 164.
incolumes: fresh, unwrinkled. Cf. Shaks. Son. 68, 'Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn.'
