In an old woman: as often as intervenes that wanton Zan xai Juxn, words just now left under the coverlet You use in public: for what passion does not a soft and lewd 195 Word excite? It has fingers.-Nevertheless, that all Desires may 200 subside (though you may say these things softer Than Emus, and Carpophorus) your face computes your years. If one, contracted, and joined to you by lawful deeds, You are not about to love, of marrying there appears no Cause, nor why you should lose a supper, and bride-cakes, To be given to weak stomachs, their office ceasing; nor that Which is given for the first night, when the Dacic in the happy dish, And the Germanic shines with the inscribed gold. If you have uxorious simplicity, your mind is devoted 205 202. To weak stomachs.] To the guests who have raw and queasy stomachs, in order to remove the flatulency and indigestion occasioned by eating too copiously at the entertainment. Their office ceasing.] Labente officio.-It was so much reckoned a matter of duty to attend the marriage-entertainments of friends, that those, who were guests on the occasion, were said ad officium venire. Labente officio here means the latter end of the feast, when the company was going to break up, their duty then almost being ended-it was at this period that the bride-cakes were carried about and distributed to the company. See sat. ii. l. 132-5. 203. The Dacic.] Dacicus-a gold coin, having the image of Domitian, called Dacicus, from his conquest of the Dacians. The happy dish.] Alluding to the occasion of its being put to this use. 204. Germanic.] This was also a gold coin with the image of Domitian, called Germanicus, from his conquest of the Germans. A considerable sum of these pieces was put into a broad plate, or dish, and presented by the husband to the bride on the wedding night, as a sort of price for her person. This usage obtained among the Greeks, as among the Jews, and is found among many eastern nations. See PARKII. Heb. Lex. 7, No. 3.-Something of this kind was customary in many parts of England, and perhaps is so still, under the name of dow-purse. Inscribed gold.] i. e. Having the name and titles of the emperor stamped on it. 205. Uxorious simplicity.] So simply uxorious-so very simple as to be governed by your wife. - 206. Submit your head, &c.] Metaph. from oxen who quietly submit to the yoke. See 1, 43, and note. 207. Who can spare a lover.] Who will not take the advantage of a man's affection for her to use him ill. 208. Tho' she should burn, &c.] Though she love to distraction, Et spoliis: igitur longe minus utilis illi crimine servus "Pone crucem servo:" "meruit quo "Supplicium? quis testis adest? quis detulit? audi, "Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est.' "O demens, ita servus homo est? nil fecerit, esto: "Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas." Imperat ergo viro: sed mox hæc regna relinquit, Permutatque domos, et flammea conterit: inde Avolat, et spreti repetit vestigia lecti. 210 215 220 225 she takes delight in plaguing and plundering the man who loves her. 209-10. Less useful to him, &c.] The better husband a man is, the more will she tyrannize over liim; therefore an honest man, who would make a good husband, will find that, of all men, he has the least reason to marry, and that a wife will be of less use to him than to a man of a different character. 213. She.] Hæc-this wife of yours. Will give affections.] Direct your affections-dictate to you in what manner you shall respect, or ill-treat, your friends-whom you are to like, and whom to dislike. 214. Whose beard your gate hath seen. n.] An old friend, who used always to be welcome to your house, ever since the time he had first a beard on his chin. 215. To make a will, &c.] q. d. Panders, prize-fighters, and gladiators, have liberty to make their wills as they please, but your wife will dictate yours, and name not a few of her paramours, your rivals, to enjoy your estate.-N. B. All the Romans, even the most inferior and most infamous sort of them, had the making wills. DRYD. power of 216. The amphitheatre.] Arenæ-metonym. the gladiators belonging to it. 218." Set up, &c."] Crucifixion was the usual way of putting slaves to death, and of this the masters had the power-here the wife bids her husband do it, only out of caprice. "For what crime, &c."] The words of the husband remonstrating against this piece of wanton barbarity. 219. " Hear."] Attend-mark what I say. 220. "No delay," &c.] Surely where the death of a fellow-creaturės depending, the matter should be well considered, and not And spoils of a lover: therefore a wife is by far less useful 210 Nothing if she opposes: nothing, if she be unwilling, will be bought: When there is liberty to pimps and fencers to make a will, 215 Not one rival only will be dictated as your heir. "Set up a cross for your slave:"-" for what crime has the slave "deserved "Punishment? what witness is there? who accused ?-hear"No delay is ever long concerning the death of a man." 220 "O madman!-so, a slave is a man! be it so he has done no "thing, "This I will-thus I command-let my will stand as a reason." Therefore she governs her husband: but presently leaves these realms, : And changes houses, and wears out her bridal veils from thence She flies away, and seeks again the footsteps of her despised bed. 225 hastily transacted-no delay, for deliberation, should be thought long. 221. "O madman, &c."] The words of the imperious wife, who insists upon her own humour to be the sole reason of her actions. She even styles her husband a fool, or madman, for calling a slave a man. She seems to deny the poor slave human nature and human feelings, such is her pride and savage cruelty! 223. She governs, &c.] Therefore, in this instance, as in all others, it is plain that she exercises a tyranny over her husband, "Leaves these realms."] i. e. Her husband's territories, over which she ruled, in order to seek new conquests, and new dominion over other men. 224. Changes houses.] She elopes from her husband to others— and so from house to house, as often as she chose to change from man to man. - Wears out her bridal veils.] The flameum was a bridal veil, with which the bride's face was covered, during the marriage ceremony: it was of a yellow, or flame-colour-whence its name. She divorced herself so often, and was so often married, that she even wore out, as it were, her veil, with the frequent use of it. 225. She flies away, &c.] The inconstancy and lewdness of this woman was such, that, after running all the lengths which the law allowed, by being divorced eight times, she leaves her paramours, and even comes back again to the man whom she first left. And seeks again.] Traces back the footsteps which once led her from his bed. Ornatas paulo ante fores, pendentia linquit Vela domûs, et adhuc virides in limine ramos. Quinque per autumnos: titulo res digna sepulchri. Nil rude, nil simplex rescribere: decipit illa Nulla fere causa est, in quâ non fœmina litem 230 235 240 226. The doors-adorned, &c.] See before, 1. 52, and note-i. e. She lives but a very short time with each of her husbands, quitting them, as it were, while the marriage garlands, veils, &c. were hanging about the doors. 228. Eight husbands-in five autumns.] The Roman law allowed eight divorces-beyond that was reckoned adultery. 66 Of these divorces Seneca says-De Beneficiis, c. xvi. "Does any body now blush at a divorce, since certain illustrious and no"ble women compute their years, not by the number of consuls, "but by the number of husbands they have had?” Tertullian says, Apol. c. vi. "Divorce was now looked upon as 66 one fruit of marriage." When Martial is satirizing Thelesina as an adulteress, he represents her as having exceeded the number of divorces allowed by law. Aut minus, aut certe non plus tricesima lux est, Lib. v. ep. vii. 229. The title of a sepulchre.] Such actions as these, like other great and illustrious deeds, are well worthy to be recorded by a monumental inscription. Iron.-It was usual, on the sepulchres of women, to mention the number of husbands to which they had been married. 230. Mother-in-law.] The poet seems willing to set forth the female sex, as bad, in every point of view. Here he introduces one as a mother-in-law, disturbing the peace of the family, carrying on her daughter's infidelity to her husband, and playing tricks for this purpose. 231. She teaches.] Instructs her daughter. To plunder, &c.] Till the poor husband is stripped of all he has. The doors, a little before adorned, the pendent veils Of the house she leaves, and the boughs yet green at the threshold. 230 To write back nothing ill bred or simple: she deceives Is silent, impatient of delay, and prepares for the attempt. Morals, or other than what she has herself? moreover, it is profitable There is almost no cause in which a woman has not stirr'd up 240 232. A corrupter.] A gallant who writes billets-doux, in order to corrupt her daughter's chastity. 233. Nothing ill bred or simple.] To send no answers that can discourage the man from his purpose, either in point of courtesy or contrivance. 233-4. She deceives keepers, &c.] She helps on the amour with her daughter, by either deceiving, or bribing, any spies which the husband might set to watch her. 235. Archigenes.] The name of a physician.-The old woman shams sick, and, to carry on the trick, pretends to send for a physician, whom the gallant is to personate. Throws away the heavy clothes.] Pretending to be in a violent fever, and not able to bear the weight and heat of so many bedclothes. 236. Mean while, &c.] The old woman takes this opportunity to secrete the adulterer in her apartment, that when the daughter comes, under a pretence of visiting her sick mother, he may accomplish his design. 238. A mother should infuse, &c.] It is not very likely that such a mother should bring up her daughter in any better principles than her own. 239. It is profitable, &c.] Since, by having a daughter as base as herself, she has opportunities of getting gain, and profit, by assisting in her prostitution, being well fee'd by her gallants.-He next attacks the litigiousness of women. 241. Almost no cause.] No action at law, which a woman has not fomented. If she be not defendant, she will be plaintiff, 1. 242. 242. Manilia, &c.] An harlot, whom Hostilius Mancinus, the Curule Edile, prosecuted for hitting him with a stone. 243. Compose, and form libels.] The libelli in the courts of law |