DECIMI JUNII JUVENALIS AQUINATIS SATIR Æ. SATIRA X. ARGUMENT. The Poet's design in this Satire, which deservedly holds the first rank among all performances of the kind, is to represent the various wishes and desires of mankind, and to shew the folly of them. He mentions riches, honours, eloquence, fame for martial achievements, long life, and beauty, and gives instances of their having proved ruinous to the OMNIBUS in terris, quæ sunt a Gadibus usque *This Satire has been always admired; Bishop Burnet goes so far, as to recommend it (together with Persius) to the serious perusal and practice of the divines in his diocese, as the best common places for their sermons, as the storehouses and magazines of moral virtues, from whence they may draw out, as they have occasion, all manner of assistance for the accomplishment of a virtuous life. The tenth Satire (says Crusius in his Lives of the Roman Poets) is inimitable for the excellence of its morality, and sublime sentiments. 5 THE SATIRES OF JUVENAL. SATIRE X.* ARGUMENT. possessors of them. He concludes, therefore, that we should leave it to the gods to make a choice for us, they knowing what is most for our good. All that we can safely ask is health of body and mind: possessed of these, we have enough to make us happy, and therefore it is not much matter what we want besides. IN all lands, which are from Gades to The East and the Ganges, few can distinguish True good things, and those greatly different from them, the cloud' Of error removed: for what, with reason do we fear, Or desire? what do you contrive so prosperously, that you 5 real and best interests, as distinguished from those which are deceitful and imaginary. 4. What, with reason, &c.] According to the rules of right and sober reason. 5. So prosperously, &c.] Tam dextro pede-on so prosperous a footing-with ever such hope and prospect of success, that you may not repent your endeavour (conatus) and pains to accomplish it, and of your desires and wishes being fully completed and answered?—votique peracti. The right and left were ominous Conatûs non poeniteat, votique peracti? Dî faciles. Nocitura togâ, nocitura petuntur Viribus ille Confisus periit, admirandisque lacertis. Sed plures nimiâ congesta pecunia curâ Strangulat, et cuncta exsuperans patrimonia census, body on which we stand-sometimes means the foundation of any thing-a plot for building;-so, in a moral sense, those conceptions and contrivances of the mind, which are the foundations of human action, on which men build for profit or happiness :-this seems to be its meaning here. 7. The easy gods, &c.] The gods, by yielding to the prayers and wishes of mankind, have often occasioned their ruin, by granting such things as in the end proved hurtful. So that, in truth, men, by wishing for what appeared to them desirable, have, in effect, themselves wished their own destruction. 8. By the gown, &c.] Toga here being opposed to militia, may allude to the gown worn by the senators and magistrates of Rome; and so, by meton. signify their civil offices in the government of the state. q. d. Many have wished for a share in the government and administration of civil affairs, others for high rank and post of command in the army, each of which have been attended with damage to those who have eagerly sought after them. 9. A fluent copiousness, &c.] Many covet a great degree of eloquence; but how fatal has this proved to possessors of it! Witness Demosthenes and Cicero, who both came to violent deaths;-the 10 15 20 former driven, by the malice of his enemies, to poison himself; the latter slain by order of M. Antony. See KEYSLER's Travels, vol. ii. p. 342, note. 10. To his strength, &c.] Alluding to Milo, the famous wrestler, born at Croton, in Italy, who, presuming too much on his great strength, would try whether he could not rend asunder a tree which was cleft as it grew in the forest; it yielded at first to his violence, but it closed presently again, and, catching his hands, held him till the wolves devoured him. 12, Destroys.] Lit. strangles. Met. ruins, destroys. The poet is here shewing, that, of all things which prove ruinous to the possessors, money, and especially an overgrown fortune, is one of the most fatal and yet, with what care is this heaped together! 13. Exceeding, &c.] i. e. Beyond the rate of a common fortune. 14. A British whale.] A whale found in the British seas. 16. Longinus.] Cassius Longinus, put to death by Nero: his pretended crime was, that he had, in his chamber, an image of Cassius, one of Julius Cæsar's murderers; but that which really made him a delinquent was his great wealth, which the emperor seized. May not repent of your endeavour, and of your accomplished wish? The easy gods have overturned whole houses, themselves Wishing it. Things hurtful by the gown, hurtful by warfare, Are asked a fluent copiousness of speech to many And their own eloquence is deadly.-He, to his strength 10 But money, heap'd together with too much care, destroys As much as a British whale is greater than dolphins. Therefore in direful times, and by the command of Nero, 15 A whole troop Longinus, and the large gardens of wealthy Seneca, Surrounded, and besieged the stately buildings of the Laterani The soldier seldom comes into a garret. Tho' you should carry a few small vessels of pure silver, 19 Going on a journey by night, you will fear the sword and the pole, And tremble at the shadow of a reed moved, by moon-light. AN EMPTY TRAVELLER WILL SING BEFORE A ROBber. Commonly the first things prayed for, and most known at all temples, 16. Seneca, &c.] Tutor to Nero-supposed to be one in Piso's conspiracy, but put to death for his great riches. Sylvanus the tribune, by order of Nero, surrounded Seneca's magnificent villa, near Rome, with a troop of soldiers, and then sent in a centurion to acquaint him with the emperor's orders, that he should put himself to death. On the receipt of this, he opened the veins of his arms and legs, then was put into a hot bath; but this not finishing him, he drank poison. 17. Surrounded.] Beset-encompassed. -Laterani.] Plautius Lateranus had a sumptuous palace, in which he was beset by order of Nero, and killed so suddenly, by Thurius the tribune, that he had not a moment's time allowed him to take leave of his children and family. He had been designed consul. 18. The soldier, &c.] Cœnaculum signifies a place to sup in an upper chamber-also a garret, a cockloft in the top of the house, cominonly let to poor people, the inhabitants of which were too poor to run any risk of the emperor's sending soldiers to murder them for what they have. not so rich as to become an object of the emperor's avarice and cruelty, yet you can't travel by night, with the paltry charge of a little silver plate, without fear of your life from robbers, who may either stab you with a sword, or knock you down with a bludgeon, in order to rob you. 20. Pole.] Contus signifies a long pole or staff also a weapon, wherewith they used to fight beasts upon the stage. It is probable that the robbers about Rome armed themselves with these, as ours, about London, arm themselves with large sticks or bludgeons. 21. Tremble, &c.] They are alarmed at the least appearance of any thing moving near them, even the trembling and nodding of a bulrush, when its shadow appears by moonlight. 22. Empty traveller, &c.] Having nothing to lose, he has nothing to fear, and therefore has nothing to interrupt his jollity as he travels along, though in the presence of a robber. 23. Temples, &c.] Where people go to make prayers to the gods, and to implore the fulfilment of their desires and 19. Tho' you should carry, &c.] Though wishes. |