Et cui per mediam nolis occurrere noctem, 55 Frivola. Quod cum ita sit, tu Gætulum Ganymedem 60 Quando vocatus adest calidæ, gelidæve minister? Quodque aliquid poscas, et quod se stante recumbas. 65 MAXIMA QUÆQUE DOMUS SERVIS EST PLENA SUPERBIS. Ecce alius quanto porrexit murmure panem Vix fractum, solidæ jam mucida frusta farinæ, Quæ genuinum agitent, non admittentia morsum. rands. Or who, like a running footman, ran before his master's horses and carriages. Getulia was a country of Africa, where the inhabitants were blacks, or, as we call them, negroes. 53. The bony hand of a black Moor, &c.] A great, hideous, and raw-boned Moor, so frightful as to terrify people who should happen to meet with him in the night-time, when travelling among those mansions of the dead, which are in the Latin way. See sat. i. 1. 171.—He might be taken for some hideous spectre that haunts the monuments. 56. A flower of Asia.] The master of the feast has for his cupbearer an Asiatic boy, beautiful, and blooming as a flower, and who had been purchased at an immense price. The poet here exhibits a striking contrast. Comp. 1. 53. 57. Tullus and Ancus.] The third and fourth of the Roman kings, whose whole fortunes did not amount to what Virro gave for this Asiatic boy. 58. Not to detain you.] i. e. To be short, as we say. Comp. sat. iii. 1. 183. Trifles, &c.] The price given for this boy was so great, as to make the wealth of all the ancient Roman kings frivolous and trifling in comparison of it. The poet means, by this, to set forth the degree of luxury and expense of the great men in Rome. 59. Ganymede.] The poet alludes to the beautiful cup-bearer of Jupiter, and humourously gives his name to the Getulian negro foot boy, mentioned 1. 52, 3.-Respice-look back at the Ganymede behind you, and call to him, if you want to be helped to some drink. 61. To mingle, &c.] It was the office of the cup-bearer to pour the wine into the cup in such proportion, or quantity, as every one chose. This was called miscere. So MART. lib. xiii, epigr. 108. Misceri debet hoc a Ganymede merum. And whom you would be unwilling to meet at midnight, While you are carried thro' the monuments of the hilly Latin way. A flower of Asia is before him, purchased at a greater price, And, not to detain you, all the trifles of the Roman 55 Kings. Which since it is so, do thou the Getulian Ganymede Look back upon, when you are thirsty: a boy bought for so many 60 Thousands knows not to mingle [wine] for the poor: but his form, his age, Are worthy disdain. When, does he come to you? When, being called, does he attend [as] the minister of hot or cold water? For he scorns to obey an old client; And that you should ask for any thing, or that you should lie down, himself standing. EVERY VERY GREAT HOUSE IS FULL OF PROUD SERVANTS. Behold, with what grumbling another has reached out bread, 65 62. Worthy disdain.] q. d. His youth and beauty justify his contempt: they deserve that he should despise such guests. 63. When does he attend-] Adest-lit. when is he present? As the minister.] To serve you with-to help you to-cold or hot water. Both these the Romans, especially in winter-time, had at their feasts, that the guests might be served with either, as they might choose. 64. He scorns, &c.] This smart favourite looks down with too much contempt on such a poor needy spunger, as he esteems an old hanger-on upon his master to be, to think of giving him what he calls for. He is affronted that such a one should presume to expect his attendance upon him, and that he should be standing at the table as a servant, while the client is lying down at his ease, as one of the guests. 66. Every very great house, &c.] And, therefore, where can you find better treatment, than you do at Virro's, at any of the tables of the rich and great? 67. Has reached out, &c.] When you have called for bread, it has indeed been brought, but with what an ill-will have you been served-how has the slave that reached, or held it out for you to take, murmured at what he was doing! 68. Hardly broken.] With the utmost difficulty broken into pieces. Of solid meal.] Grown into hard, solid lumps, by being so old and stale, and now grown mouldy. 69. Will shake a grinder.] Genuinus-from gena, the cheek Sed tener, et niveus, mollique siligine factus 70 75 Aspice, quam longo distendat pectore lancem, 80 what we call the grinders, are the teeth next the cheeks, which grind food. So far from being capable of being bitten, and thus divided, it would loosen a grinder to attempt it. 70, Soft flour.] The finest flour, out of which the bran is en tirely sifted, so that no hard substance is left. 71. To restrain, &c.] Don't let the sight of this fine white, and new bread, tempt you to filch it-mind to keep your hands to yourself. 72. The butler.] Artopta-Gr. agrors-from apres, bread, and OTT, to bake-signifies one that bakes bread-a baker. Or artopta may be derived from agros, bread, and oTToua, to see—i. e. `an inspector of bread-a pantler, or butler-one who has the care and oversight of it. This I take to be the meaning here. q. d. Have all due respect to the dispenser of the bread; don't offend him by put ting your hand into the wrong basket, and by taking some of the fine bread. -Suppose yourself, &c.] But suppose you are a little too 'bold, and that you make free with some of the fine bread, there's one remains upon the watch, who will soon make you lay it down again, and chide you for your presumption. 74. Wilt thou, &c.] The words of the butler on seeing the poor client filch a piece of the white bread, and on making him lay it down again. The accustomed baskets.] i. e. Those in which the coarse bread is usually kept--and do not mistake, if you please, white for brown. 75. Filled.] Fed-satisfied. 76. Well, this has been, &c.] The supposed words of Trebius, vexed at finding himself so ill repaid for all his services and attendances upon his patron. q. d. "So this is what I have been toiling "for-for this I have got out of my warm bed, leaving my wife, at "all hours of the night, and in all weathers," &c. 77. The adverse mount.] The Esquiline hill had a very steep ascent, which made it troublesome to get up, if one were in haste It must be supposed to have lain in the parasite's way to his patron's house, and, by its steepness, to have been a hindrance to his speed. But the tender and white, and made with soft flour, Is kept for the master. Remember to restrain your right hand: 70 A little knavish; there remains one who can compel you to lay it down. "Wilt thou, impudent guest, from the accustomed baskets "Be filled, and know the colour of your own bread?" "Well, this has been that, for which often, my wife being left, See with how long a breast, a lobster, which is brought 75 80 Hence he calls it adversum montem. Adversus signifies oppositeadversum may mean, that it was opposite to the parasite's house. 77-8. The cold Esquilie.] Its height made it very bleak and cold at the top, especially in bad weather. See sat. iii. l. 71. ~ 78. The vernal air.] Vernus Jupiter-The Romans called the air Jupiter. See HOR. lib. i. Od. i. 1. 25.-The air, in the spring of the year, is often fraught with storms of hail and rain, with which the poor parasite often got wet to the skin, in his nightly walks to attend on his patron. "A pretty business, truly, to suffer all this for the sake of being "invited to supper, and then to be so treated!" All this Juvenal represents as the treatment which Trebius would meet with, on being invited to Virro's house to supper-and as the mournful complaints which he would have to make on finding all his attendances and services so repaid-therefore Trebius was sadly mistaken in placing his happiness in living at the tables of the great, and in order to this to take so much pains. Comp. 1. 2. 80. With how long a breast, &c.] Such a length is his chest, or forepart, as to fill the dish, so as to seem to stretch its size. A lobster.] Squilla.-It is hardly possible to say, with precision, what fish is here meant. Mr. BOWLES translates it-a sturgeon, and says, in his note, "The authors, whom I have the op'portunity to consult, are not agreed what fish is meant: I have "translated it a sturgeon, I confess at random, but it may serve as "well." See trans. of Juv. by DRYDEN, and others. AINSWORTH calls it a lobster without legs. HOR. lib. ii. sat. viii. 412. seems to use squillas for prawns or shrimps. Affertur squillas inter muræna natantes In patina porrecta. In a large dish an out-stretch'd lamprey lies FRANCIS Perhaps what we call a shrimp, or prawn, may be the pinnothera, or pinnophylax, of PLIN. iii. 42.-the squilla parva. The shrimp is a sort of lobster in miniature; and if we understand the word parva to distinguish it from the fish which is simply called Quæ fertur domino, squilla; et quibus undique septa Ipse Venafrano piscem perfundit: at hic, qui Propter quod Romæ cum Bocchare nemo lavatur ; Mullus erit domino, quem misit Corsica, vel quem 85 00 squilla, the latter may probably signify a lobster, particularly here, from what is remarked of the tail (1. 82.) which is the most delicious part of a lobster. 81. Asparagus.] Asparagis, plur. may here denote the young shoots, or buds, of various herbs.-See AINSW. Asparagus, No. 2. With these it was perhaps usual to garnish their dishes. 82. With what a tail, &c.] What a noble tail he displays-with what contempt does he seem to look down upon the rest of the banquet, when lifted on high, by a tall slave, over the heads of the guests, in order to be placed on the table. 84. A crab.] Cammarus-a sort of crab-fish, called also Gammarus-a very vile food, as we may imagine by its being opposed to the delicious squilla, which was set before the master of the feast. Shrunk.] I think Holyday's rendering of constrictus nearest the sense of the word, which lit. signifies straitened--narrow.Crabs, if kept long out of water, will waste and shrink up in the shell, and when boiled will be half full of water; so lobsters, as every day's experience evinces. Farnaby explains it by semiphlenus-half-full, or spent, as he calls it, which conveys the same idea. This sense also contrasts this fish with the plumpness of the foregoing. Comp. 1. 80-3. With half an egg.] To mix with it when you eat it—a poor allowance. Many construe constrictus in the sense of paratus --coctus-conditus, and the like-q. d.. dressed or seasoned with half an egg. 85. Funeral supper, &c.] The Romans used to place, in a small dish on the sepulchres of the dead, to appease their manes, milk, honey, water, wine, flowers, a very little of each; which circumstances, of the smallness of the dish and of the quantity, seem to be the reason of this allusion. A little platter.] Patella is itself a diminutive of patera; but the poet, to make the matter the more contemptible, adds exigua. This is a contrast to the lancem, 1. 80.-which signifies a great broad plate-a deep dish to serve meat up in. 86. He.] Virro, the master of the feast. |