It was in the bawdy, riotous
play of the Lupercalia
where young men,
dressed down to nothing
but grease and skin,
would strike with goat-hide thongs
the bare backs of women
who wished to conceive
in the coming year
That Mark Anthony,
the leader of the Luperci,
thrice offered Caesar a kingly crown
that Anthony in his eulogy
tells us Caesar thrice refused,
thus denying the claim of his assassins
that Caesar was ambitious.
The tale may be true.
Beyond Shakespeare,
there are accounts by others
who saw all this live.
‘February’ comes from februa,
Latin for the goat-hide straps
the greased down ‘wolves’, the Luperci,
used to drive young women mad
and into spring.
