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Is punished; suffers the night of Pelides mourning

His friend; he lies on his face, then presently on his back:
For otherwise he could not sleep: To SOME

A QUARREL CAUSES SLEEP: but tho' wicked from years

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285

And heated with wine, he is aware of him whom a scarlet cloak
Commands to avoid, and a very long train of attendants,
Besides a great number of lights, and a brazen lamp.
Me whom the moon is wont to attend, or the short light
Of a candle, the wick of which I dispose and regulate,
He despises: know the preludes of a wretched quarrel,
If it be a quarrel where you strike and I only am beaten.
He stands opposite, and bids you stand; it is necessary to obey; 290
For what can you do, when a madman compels, and he
The stronger? "Whence come you,” he exclaims,

"vinegar,

"with whose

"With whose bean, swell you? What cobbler with you "Sliced leek, and a boiled sheep's head, hath eaten?

only the rich and noble could afford to wear those which were dyed in scarlet. Coccus signifies the shrub which produced the scarlet grain, and coccinus implies what was dyed with it of a scarlet colour.

285. Brazen lamp.] This sort of lamp was made of Corinthian brass: it was very expensive, and could only fall to the share of the opulent.

286. Me whom the moon, &c.] Who walk by moon-light, or at most, with a poor, solitary, short candle, which I snuff with my fingers-such a one he holds in the utmost contempt.

298. Know the preludes, &c.] Attend a little, and hear what the preludes are of one of these quarrels, if that can properly be called a quarrel, where the beating is by the assailant only.

Rixa signifies a buffeting, and fighting, which last seems to be the best sense in this place, viz. if that can be called fighting, where the battle is all on one side.

290. He stands opposite.] Directly in your way, to hinder your passing-and orders you to stop.

291. What can you do, &c.] You must submit, there's no making any resistance; you are no match for such a furious man.

292. With whose vinegar, &c.] Then he begins his taunts, in hopes to pick a quarrel. Where have you been? with whose sour wine have you being filling yourself?

293. With whose bean, &c.] Conchis means a bean in the shell, and thus boiled- -a common food among the lower sort of people, and very filling, which is implied by tumes.

What cobbler.] He now falls foul of your company, as well as your entertainment."

294. Sliced leek.] Sectilis signifies any thing that is or may be easily cut asunder. But see sat. xiv. 1. 133, note.

Nil mihi respondes? aut dic, aut accipe calcem :
Ede ubi consistas: in quâ te quæro proseuchâ?
Dicere si tentes aliquid, tacitusve recedas,
Tantundem est: feriunt pariter: vadimonia deinde
Irati faciunt. Libertas pauperis hæc est:
Pulsatus rogat, et pugnis concisus adorat,

Ut liceat paucis cum dentibus inde reverti.

Nec tamen hoc tantum metuas: nam qui spoliet te Non deerit, clausis domibus, postquam omnis ubique Fixa catenatæ siluit compago

tabernæ.

Interdum et ferro subitus grassator agit rem,

Armato quoties tutæ custode tenentur

Et Pontina palus, et Gallinaria pinus.

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300

305

294. A boiled sheep's head.] Vervex particularly signifies a we ther sheep.-Labra, the lips, put here, by synec. for all the flesh about the jaws.

295. A kick.] Calx properly signifies the heel-but by meton. a spurn or kick with the heel.

296. Where do you abide.] Consisto signifies to abide, stay, or keep in one place-here I suppose it to allude to taking a constant stand, as beggars do, in order to beg: as if the assailant, in order to provoke the man more, whom he is wanting to quarrel with, meant to treat him as insolently as possible, and should say "Pray "let me know where you take your stand for begging?"-This idea seems countenanced by the rest of the line..

-In what begging-place, &c.] Proseucha properly signifies a place of prayer, (from the Gr. goruxo,) in the porches of which beggars used to take their stand. Hence by met. a place where beggars stand to ask ahms of them who pass by.

298. They equally strike.] After having said every thing to insult and provoke you, in hopes of your giving the first blow, you get nothing by not answering; for their determination is to beat you -therefore either way, whether you answer, or whether you are silent, the event will be just the same it will be all one.

Then angry, &c.] Then, in a violent passion, as if they had been beaten by you, instead of your being beaten by them-away they go, swear the peace against you, and make you give bail, as the aggressor, for the assault.

299. This is the liberty, &c.] So that, after our boasted freedom, a poor man at Rome is in a fine situation-All the liberty which he has, is, to ask, if beaten, and to supplicate earnestly, if bruised unmercifully with fisty-cuffs, that he may return home, from the place where he was so used, without having all his teeth beat out of his head and perhaps he is to be prosecuted, and ruined at law, as the aggressor.

302. Yet neither, &c.] Umbritius, as another reason for retiring from Rome, describes the perils which the inhabitants are in from house and street-robbers.

"Do you answer me nothing!-either tell or take a kick:

"Tell where you abide-in what begging-place shall I seek you ?"you should attempt to say any thing, or retire silent,

If

It amounts to the same: they equally strike: then, angry, they
Bind you over. This is the liberty of a poor man.
Beaten he asks, bruised with fists he entreats,
That he may return thence with a few of his teeth.

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Yet neither may you fear this only: for one who will rob you will

not

Be wanting, the houses being shut up, after, every where, every Fixed fastening of the chained shop hath been silent :

And sometimes the sudden footpad with a sword does your busi

ness,

As often as, with an armed guard, are kept safe

Both the Pontinian marsh, and the Gallinarian pine;

305

303. The houses being shut up.] The circumstance mentioned here, and in the next line, mark what he says to belong to the alia et diversa pericula noctis, 1, 268.

304. The chained shop.] Taberna has many significations; it denotes any house made of boards, a tradesman's shop, or warehouse; also an inn or tavern. By the preceding domibus he means private houses. Here, therefore, we may understand tabernæ to denote the shops and taverns, which last were probably kept open longer than private houses or shops; yet even these are supposed to be fastened up, and all silent and quiet within.-This marks the lateness of the hour, when the horrid burglar is awake and abroad, and when there is not wanting a robber to destroy the security of the sleeping inhabitants.

Compago signifies a joining or closure, as of planks, or boards, with which the taberna were built-fixa compago denotes the fixed and firm manner in which they were compacted or fastened together-Inductâ etiam per singulos asseres grandi catena-Vet. Schol. -" with a great chain introduced through every plank"-in order to keep them from being torn asunder, and thus the building broken open by robbers.

The word siluit, here, shews that the building is put for the inhabitants within. Meton. The noise and hurry of the day was over, and they were all retired to rest.

305. The sudden footpad.] Grassator means an assailant of any kind, such as highwaymen, footpads, &c. One of these may leap on a sudden from his lurking-place upon you, and do your business by stabbing you. Or perhaps the poet may here allude to what is very common in Italy at this day, namely, assassins, who suddenly attack and stab people in the streets late at night.

307. Pontinian marsh.] Strabo describes this as in Campania, a champain country of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples; and Suet. says, that Julius Cæsar had determined to dry up this marsh—it was a noted harbour for thieves.

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Sic inde huc omnes tanquam ad vivaria currunt.
Quâ fornace graves, quâ non incude catena?
Maximus in vinclis ferri modus, ut timeas, ne
Vomer deficiat, ne marræ et sarcula desint.
Felices proavorum atavos, felicia dicas
Secula, quæ quondam sub regibus atque tribunis
Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam.

His alias poteram, et plures subnectere causas :
Sed jumenta vocant, et sol inclinat; eundum est:
Nam mihi commotâ jamdudum mulio virgâ
Innuit: ergo vale nostri memor; et quoties te
Roma tuo refici properantem reddet Aquino,

Me quoque ad Helvinam Cererem, vestramque Dianam

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315

320

307. Gallinarian pine.] i. e. Wood, by synec. This was situ ated near the bay of Cuma, and was another receptacle of robbers. When these places were so infested with thieves, as to make the environs dangerous for the inhabitants, as well as for travellers, a guard was sent there to protect them, and to apprehend the offenders; when this was the case, the rogues fled to Rome, where they thought themselves secure-and then these places were rendered safe.

308. As to vivaries.] Vivaria are places where wild creatures live, and are protected, as deer in a park, fish in a stew-pond, &c. The poet may mean here, that they are not only protected in Rome, but easily find subsistence, like creatures in vivaries. See sat. iv. l. 51.

What Rome was to the thieves, when driven out of their lurking places in the country, that London is to the thieves of our time.This must be the case of all great cities.

309. In what furnace, &c.] In this and the two following lines, the poet, in a very humourous hyperbole, describes the numbers of thieves to be so great, and to threaten such a consumption of iron in making fetters for them, as to leave some apprehensions of there being none left to make ploughshares, and other implements of husbandry. 312. Our great-grandfathers, &c.] i. e. Our ancestors of old time proavorum atavos-old grandsires, or ancestors indefinitely. 313. Kings and tribunes.] After the expulsion of the kings, tribunes, with consular authority, governed the republic.

314. With one prison.] Which was built in the forum, or markei-place, at Rome, by Ancus Martius, the fourth king. Robberies, and the other offences above mentioned, were then so rare, that this one gaol was sufficient to contain all the offenders.

315. And more causes.] i. e. For my leaving Rome.

316. My cattle call.] Summon me away. It is to be supposed, that the carriage, as soon as the loading was finished, (seel. 10.) had set forward, had overtaken Umbritius, and had been some time waiting for him to proceed.

Thus from thence hither all run as to vivaries.

In what furnace, on what anvil are not heavy chains? The greatest quantity of iron (is used) in fetters, so that you may fear, lest

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The ploughshare may fail, lest hoes and spades may be wanting. You may call our great-grandfathers happy, happy

The ages, which formerly, under kings and tribunes,

Saw Rome content with one prison.

To these I could subjoin other and more causes,

But my cattle call, and the sun inclines, I must go:

For long since the muleteer, with his shaken whip,

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Hath hinted to me: therefore farewell mindful of me: and as often

as

Rome shall restore you, hastening to be refreshed, to your Aqui

num,

Me also to Helvine Ceres, and to your Diana,

316. The sun inclines.] From the meridian towards its setting.

Sentis

Inclinare meridiem

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HOR. lib. iii. od. xxviii. 1. 5.

317. The muleteer.] Or driver of the mules, which drew the carriage containing the goods, (see l. 10.) had long since given a hint, by the motion of his whip, that it was time to be gone. This Umbritius, being deeply engaged in his discourse, had not adverted to till now.

318. Mindful of me.] An usual way of taking leave. See HoR. lib. iii. ode xxvii. 1. 14.

Et memor nostri Galatea vivas,

319. Hastening to be refreshed.] The poets, and other studious persons, were very desirous of retiring into the country from the noise and hurry of Rome, in order to be refreshed with quiet and

repose.

HOR. lib. i. epist. xviii. l. 104.

Me quoties reficit gelidus Digentia rivus, &c.

See also that most beautiful passage-O Rus, &c.-lib, jį. sat. vi. 1. 60-2.

Your Aquinum.] A town in the Latin way, famous for having been the birth-place of Juvenal, and to which, at times, he. retired.

320. Helvine Ceres.] Helvinam Cererem-Helvinus is used by Pliny, to denote a sort of flesh-colour. AINSW. Something perhaps approaching the yellowish colour of corn. Also a pale red-colourHelvus. AINSW. But we may understand Ceres to be called Helvinus or Elvinus, which was near Aquinum. Near the fons Helvi, nus was a temple of Ceres, and also of Diana, the vestiges of which are said to remain till this day.

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