Is filled, get some wood quickly, and what You compose, Telesinus, give to the husband of Venus: Or shut up, and bore thro' with the moth your books laid by. 23 Wretch, break your pens, and blot out your watched battles, That you may become worthy of ivy, and a lean image, 30 As much to admire, as much to praise witty men, As boys the bird of Juno. But your age, patient of the sea, 35 forsaken, Himself makes verses, and yields to Homer alone, Because a thousand years [before him.] But if, with the desire of fame Inflamed, you repeat your verses, Maculonus lends a house; 34. Then.] When you grow old. 40 Weariness, &c.] You'll be too feeble, in body and mind, to endure any labour, and become irksome even to yourself. 35. Hates both itself and its Terpsichore.] Your old age, however learned, clothed in rags, will curse itself, and the Muse that has been your undoing Terpsichore was one of the nine Muses, who presided over dancing and music: she is fabled to have invented the harp-here, by meton. lyric poetry may be understood. 36. His arts, &c.] The artifices which your supposed patron will use, to have a fair excuse for doing nothing for you. 37. The temple, &c.] There was a temple of the Muses at Rome which was built by Martius Philippus, where poets used to recite their works. Augustus built a library, and a temple to Apollo, on Mount Palatine, where the poets used also to recite their verses, and where they were deposited. See PERS. prol, 1. 7. and Hor. lib. i. epist. iii. I. 17. Among the tricks made use of by these rich patrons, to avoid giving any thing to their poor clients, the poets, they affected to make verses so well themselves, as not to stand in need of the poetry of others; therefore they deserted the public recitals, and left the poor retainers on Apollo and the Muses to shift as they could. 38. Yields to Homer alone.] In his own conceit; and this only upon account of Homer's antiquity, not as thinking himself Homer's inferior in any other respect. 39. If with the desire of fame, &c.] If you don't want to get money by your verses, and only wish to repeat them for the sake of applause. 40. Maculonus, &c.] Some rich man will lend you his house, Ac longe ferrata domus servire jubetur, In quá sollicitas imitatur janua portas. Hunc, qualem nequeo monstrare, et sentio tantum, 45 50 55 41. Strongly barr'd.] Longe-lit. exceedingly-very muchq. d. If you are thought to want money of him for your verses, the doors of his house will be barred against you, and resemble the gates of a city when besieged, and under the fear and anxiety which the besiegers occasion; but if you profess only to write for fame, he will open his house to you, it will be at your service, that you may recite your verses within it, and will procure you hearers, of his own freedmen and dependents, whom he will order to applaud you. 43. He knows how to place, &c.] Dare-lit. to give.—q. d. He knows how to dispose his freedmen on the farthest seats behind the rest of the audience, that they may begin a clap, which will be followed by those who are seated more forward. Ordo is a rank or row any thing, so of benches or seats. of 44. And to dispose, &c.] How to dispose his clients and followers, so as best to raise a roar of applause-euge !-bene !-bravo! as we say, among your hearers. All this he will do, for it costs him nothing. 46. The stairs, &c.] These were for the poet to ascend by into his rostrum, and were fastend to a little beam, or piece of wood, which was hired for the purpose. 47. The orchestra, &c.] The orchestra at the Greek theatres was the part where the chorus danced--the stage. Among the Romans it was the space between the stage and the common seats, where the senators and nobles sat to see plays acted. The poor poet is here supposed to make up such a place as this for the reception of the better sort, should any attend his recitals; but this was made up of hired chairs, by way of seats, but which were to be returned as soon as the business was over. 48. Yet we still go on. n.] Hoc agimus-lit. we do this-we still pursue our poetical studies. Hoc agere is a phrase signifying to And the house strongly barr'd is commanded to serve you, He knows how to place his freedmen, sitting in the extreme part None of these great men will give as much as the benches may cost, 45 And the stairs which hang from the hired beam, And the orchestra, which is set with chairs, which are to be carried back. Yet we still go on, and draw furrows in the light Dust, and turn up the shore with a barren plough. 50 Holds you in a snare many an incurable ill habit of writing Possesses, and grows inveterate in the distemper'd heart. But the excellent poet, who has no common vein, Who is wont to produce nothing trifling, nor who 55 Him (such a one I can't shew, and only conceive) mind, attend to, what we are about. See TER. And. act. I. sc. ii. 1. 12. So before, 1. 20.-hoc agite, O Juvenes. 48. Draw furrows, &c.] We take much pains to no purpose, like people who should plough in the dust, or on the sea shore. Comp. sat. i. 157, note. 50. Would leave off] Discedas-if you would depart from the occupation of making verses. Custom of ambitious evil.] Evil ambition, which it is so customary for poets to be led away with. 51. An incurable ill habit.] Cacoethes (from Gr. xaxos, bad, and nos, a custom or habit) an evil habit. -Many are got into such an itch of scribbling, that they cannot leave it off.-Cacoethes also signifies a boil, an ulcer, and the like. 52. Grows inveterate, &c.] It grows old with the man, and roots itself, as it were, by time, in his very frame. 53. No common vein.] Such talents as are not found among the generality. 54. Nothing trifling.] Expositum-common, trifling, obviousnothing in a common way. 55. Trivial verșe, &c.] Trivialis comes from trivium, a place where three ways meet, a place of common resort: therefore I conceive the meaning of this line to be, that such a poet as Juvenal is describing writes nothing low or vulgar; such verses as are usually sought after, and purchased by the common people in the street. The word feriat is here metaphorical. Ferio literally signifies to strike, or hit; thus to coin or stamp money-hence to compose or make (hit off, as we say) verses which, if done by a good poet, may be said to be of no common stamp. Moneta is the stamp, or impression, on moneyhence, by metaph. a style in writing. : Anxietate carens animus facit, omnis acerbi 60 65 70 57. A mind, &c.] i. e. Such a poet is formed by a mind that is void of care and anxiety. 58. Impatient. That hates all trouble, can't bear vexation. Desirous of woods.] Of sylvan retirement, 59. Fountains of the Muses. Called Aonides,, from their supposed habitation in Aonia, which was the hilly part of Beotia, and where there were many springs and fountains sacred to the Muses. Of these fountains good poets were, in a figurative sense, said to drink, and by this to be assisted in their compositions. 59-60. In the Pierian cave, &c.] Pieria was a district of Macedon, where was a cave, or den, sacred to the Muses. 60. Thyrsus.] A spear wrapt about with ivy, which they carried about in their hands at the wild feasts of Bacchus, in imitation of Bacchus, who bore a thyrsus in his hand. The meaning of this passage is, that, for a poet to write well, he should be easy in his situation, and in his circumstances: for those who are harassed with poverty and want cannot write well, either in the more sober style of poetry, or in the more enthusiastic and flightly strains of composition. By sana paupertas, the poet would insinuate, that no poor poet, that had his senses, would ever attempt it. 62. Horace is satisfied, &c.] It might be objected, that Horace was poor when he wrote, therefore Juvenal's rule won't hold, that a poor poet can't well write. To this Juvenal would «True, answer, Horace was poor, considered as to himself; but then remember "what a patron he had in Mecenas, and how he was enabled by "him to avoid the cares of poverty. When he wrote his fine Ode "to Bacchus, and uttered his sprightly-Eva or Euhoe-he, doubt"less, was well sated with good cheer." See lib ii. ode xix. 1. 5—8. 64. The lords of Cirrha and Nisa.] Apollo and Bacchus, the tutelar gods of poets. Cirrha was a town of Phocis, near Delphos, where Apollo had an oracle. A mind free from anxiety makes; of every thing displeasing Sober, and void of money, (which night and day the body wants,) It is the work of a great mind, not of one that is amazed about 60 65 70 The silent trampet have groan'd nothing disastrous.' Do we require That Rubrenus Lappa should not be less than the ancient buskin, Nisa, a den in Arabia, where Bacchus was educated by the nymphs, when sent thither by Mercury. From hence Bacchus was called Dionysius ex A105, and Nisa; Gr. Acovulos. 65. Carried on.] i. e. Inspired, and assisted. 66. Not of one, &c.] q. d. It is the work of a great and power. ful mind, above want, not of one that is distracted about getting a blanket for his bed, to fix the eye of the imagination, so as to conceive and describe horses and chariots, and godlike appearances, in such a manner as to do justice to these sublime subjects of heroic verse. See VIRG. Æn. xii. 1. 326, 7. 68. And what an Erinnys.] How Alecto looked when she astonished the Rutulian king Tarnus-when she filled him with terror, by throwing her torch at him. Æn. vii. 1. 456, 7. Erinnys is a name common to the three furies of hell, of which Alecto was one. 70. All the snakes would have fallen, &c.] q. d. Had Virgil been poor, and without his pleasures and conveniences, he never would have been able to describe, in the manner he has done, the snaky tresses of Alecto. See En. vii. 1. 450. All this had been lost to us. 71. The silent trumpet.] Surdus not only means to express one who does not hear, but that also which gives no sound. 1. 194. Juvenal alludes to Æn. vii. 1. 519, 20, 1. See sat. xiii. 72. Rubrenus Lappa, &c.] An ingenious, but poor and miserable tragic poet, who lived in Juvenal's time. Less than the ancient buskin.] Not inferior to the old writers of tragedy. Cothurno, per metonym. put here for the tragic poets, as it often is for tragedy. |