SATIRE XIV. ARGUMENT. younger than in our riper years. From hence he descends to a Satire on avarice, which he esteems to be of worse example than any other of the vices which he mentions before; and concludes with limiting our desires within reasonable bounds. THERE are many things, Fuscinus, worthy of unfavourable report, And fixing a stain which will stick upon splendid things, Which parents themselves shew, and deliver to their children. If the destructive die pleases the old man, the heir wearing the bulla 4 Will play too, and moves the same weapons in his little dice-box. Nor does the youth allow any relation to hope better of him, Who has learnt to peel the funguses of the earth, To season a mushroom, and, swimming in the same sauce, To immerse beccaficos, a prodigal parent, gaming, wherewith the gamesters attack each other, each with an intent to ruin and destroy the opponent. See sat. i. 92, note. 5. Little dice-box.] Master, being too young to play with a large dice-box, not being able to shake and manage it, has a small one made for him, that he may begin the science as early as possible. See AINSW. Fritillus. 6. Nor does the youth allow, &c.] The poet, having mentioned the bringing up children to be gamesters, here proceeds to those who are early initiated into the science of gluttony. Such give very little room to their family to hope that they will turn out better than the former. Et canâ monstrante gulâ. Cum septimus annus Mitem animum, et mores, modicis erroribus æquos which feed on figs, now called beccaficos, or fig-peckers; they are to this day esteemed a great dainty. It was reckoned a piece of high luxury to have these birds dressed, and served up to table, in the same sauce, or pickle, with funguses of various kinds. 9. A prodigal parent.] Nebulo signifies an unthrift, a vain prodigal; and is most probably used here in this sense. See AINSW. Nebulo, No. 2. 10. A grey throat, &c.] Gula is, literally, the throat or gullet; but, by met. may signify a glutton, who thinks of nothing but his gullet. So yarng,' the belly, is used to denote a glutton; and the apostle's quotation from the Cretan poet, Tit. i. 12. yasıges agya, instead of slow bellies, which is nonsense, should be rendered lazy gluttons, which is the undoubted sense of the phrase. Cana gula here, then, may be rendered an hoary glutton-i. e. the old epicure, his father setting the example, and shewing him the art of luxurious cookery. 10. The seventh year, &c.] When he is turned of seven years of age, a time when the second set of teeth, after shedding the first, is not completed, and a time of life the most flexible and docile. 12. Tho' you should place, &c.] Though a thousand of the gravest and most learned tutors were placed on each side of him, so as to pour their instructions into both his ears, at the same time, yet they would avail nothing at all towards 10 15 20 25 reclaiming him.—q. d. The boy having gotten such an early taste for gluttony, will never get rid of it, by any pains which can be taken with him for that purpose. The philosophers and learned teachers wore beards; and were therefore called barbati. They thought it suited best with the gravity of their appearance. PERS. sat. iv. 1. 1, calls Socrates, barbatum magistrum. See Hon. lib. ii. sat. iii. 1. 35, and note. 13. He would desire, &c.] He would never get rid of his inclination to gluttony. 13, 14. With a sumptuous preparation.] With a number of the most delicious provisions, dressed most luxuriously, and served up in the most sumptuous And a grey throat shewing him. When the seventh year 10 Has passed over the boy, all his teeth not as yet renewed, Tho' you should place a thousand bearded masters there, Here as many, he would desire always to sup with a Sumptuous preparation, and not to degenerate from a great kitchen. Does Rutilus teach a meek mind and manners, kind to small errors, 15 19 And the souls of slaves, and their bodies, does he think Delight? Do you expect that the daughter of Larga should not be souls are made up of the same elements as ours, who are their masters? Does he suppose them to be of the same flesh and blood, and to have reasonable souls as well as himself? Sat. vi. 221. 18: Or does he teach to be cruel.] Instead of setting an example of meekness, gentleness, and forbearance, does he not teach his children to be savage and cruel, by the treatment which he gives his slaves. 18, 19. In the bitter sound of stripes.] He takes a pleasure in hearing the sound of those bitter stripes, with which he punishes his slaves. 19. Compares no Siren, &c.] The song of a Siren would not, in his opinion, be so delightful to his ears, as the crack of the whips on his slaves' backs. 20. The Antiphates and Polyphemus, &c.] Antiphates was a king of savage people near Formiæ, in Italy, who were eaters of man's flesh. Polyphemus the Cyclops lived on the same diet. See VIRG. Æn. iii. 620, et seq. Rutilus is here likened to these two monsters of cruelty, insomuch as that he was the terror of the whole family, which is the sense of laris in this place. 21. Then happy.] It was a matter of joy to him. -As often as any one.] i. e. Of his slaves. 25 -The tormentor, &c.] Comp. sat. vi. 479, and note. 22. Is burnt, &c.] Burnt with an hot iron on his flesh, for some petty theft, as of two towels or napkins. These the Romans wiped with after bathing. 23. What can he advise, &c.] What can a man, who is himself so barbarous, as to be affected with the highest pleasure at hearing the rattling of fetters, when put on the legs or bodies of his slaves what can such a father persuade his son to, whom he has taught so ill by his example? In 24. Branded slaves--a rustic prison.] Ergastulum-lit. signifies a workhouse, a house of correction, where they confined and punished their slaves, and made them work. Sometimes (as here, and sat. vi. 150.) it means a slave. scriptus-a-um, signifies marked, branded; inscripta ergastula, branded slaves; comp. 1. 22, note. q. d. Whom the sight of slaves branded with hot irons, kept in a workhouse in the country, where they are in fetters (1. 23.) and which is therefore to be looked on as a country-gaol, affects with wonderful delight. may suppose the ergastula something like our bridewells. We 25. Larga.] Some famous lady of that day; here put for all such characters. Filia, quæ nunquam maternos dicere mochos Forsitan hæc spernant juvenes, quibus arte benignâ, Sed reliquos fugienda patrum vestigia ducunt; 25. Should not be, &c.] When she has the constant bad example of her mother before her eyes. Comp. sat. vi. 239, 240. 26. Who never, &c.] Who could never repeat the names of all her mother's gallants, though she uttered them as fast as possibly she could, without often taking breath before she got to the end of the list, so great was the number. Comp. sat. x. 223, 4. 28. Privy, &c.] She was a witness of all her mother's lewd proceedings, and was privy to them; which is the meaning of conscia in this place. See sat. iii. 1. 49. 29. Now.] i. e. Now she is grown something bigger, she does as her mother did. -She dictating.] The mother instructing, and dictating what she shall say. -Little tablets.] Cerna signifies wax, but as they wrote on thin wooden tablets smeared over with wax, ceras, per met. means the tablets or letters themselves. See sat. i. 1. 63. Some understand by ceras pusillas, small tablets, as best adapted to the size of her hand, and more proper for her age, than large ones. As the boy (1. 5.) had a little dice-box to teach her gaming, so this girl begins with a little ta 30 35 40 blet, in order to initiate her into the science of intrigue. But, perhaps, by pusillas ceras the poet means what the French would call petits billets-doux. 30. She fills.] i. e. Fills with writing. -The same pimps, &c.] Cinædus is a word of detestable meaning; but here cinædis seems to denote-pimps, or people who go between the parties in an intrigue. The daughter employs the same messengers that her mother did, to carry her little love-letters. 31. So nature commands, &c.] Thus nature orders it, and therefore it naturally happens, that examples of vice, set by those of our own family, corrupt the soonest. 32. When they possess minds, &c.] When they insinuate themselves into the mind, under the influence of those who have a right to exercise authority over us. See AINSW. Auctor, No. 6. 33. One or two.] Unus et alter--here and there one, as we say, may be found as exceptions, and who may reject, with due contempt, their parents' vices, but then they must be differently formed from the generality. 34. By a benign art, &c.] Prometheus, one of the Titans, was feigned by the poets, to have formed men of clay, and An adulteress, who never could say over her mother's gallants, So quickly, nor could join them together with so much speed, As that she must not take breath thirty times? privy to her mother Was the virgin now, she dictating, little tablets She fills, and gives them to the same pimps to carry to the gallant. 30 So nature commands; more swiftly and speedily do domestic But the footsteps of their fathers which are to be avoided, lead the rest, And the path of old wickedness, long shewn, draws them. Abstain therefore from things which are to be condemned: for of this at least There is one pow'rful reason, lest those who are begotten by us Should follow our crimes; for in imitating base and wicked 40 Things we are all docile; and a Catiline You may see among every people, in every clime: But neither will Brutus, nor uncle of Brutus, be any where. Nothing filthy, to be said, or seen, should touch these thresholds, put life into them by fire stolen from heaven. The poet here says, that, if one or two young men are found who reject their father's bad example, it must be owing to the peculiar favour of Prometheus, who, by a kind exertion of his art, formed their bodies, and particularly the parts about the heart (præcordia), of better materials than those which he employed in the formation of others. 36. Footsteps, &c.] As for the common run of young men, they are led, by the bad example of their fathers, to tread in their fathers' steps, which ought to be avoided. 37. Path of old wickedness, &c.] And the beaten track of wickedness, constantly before their eyes, draws them into the same crimes. 38. Abstain therefore, &c.] Refrain therefore from ill actions; at least we should do this, if not for our own sakes, yet for the sake of our children, that they may not be led to follow our vicious examples, and to commit the same crimes which they have seen in us. 40. In imitating, &c.] Such is the condition of human nature, that we are all more prone to evil than to good, and, for this reason, we are easily taught to imitate the vices of others. 41. A Catiline, &c.] See sat. viii. 231. Vicious characters are easily to be met with, go where you may. 43. Brutus.] M. Brutus, one of the most virtuous of the Romans, and the great assertor of public liberty. -Uncle of Brutus.] Cato of Utica, who was the brother of Servilia, the mother of Brutus, a man of severe virtue. So prone is human nature to evil, so inclined to follow bad example, that a virtuous character, like Brutus or Cato, is hardly to be found any where, while profligate and debauched characters, like Catiline, abound all the world over; this would not be so much the case, if parents were more careful about the examples which they set their children. 44. Filthy.] Indecent, obscene. -Should touch, &c.] Should approach those doors, where there are children, lest they be corrupted. Therefore |