One leaving high Sicyon, but another, Amydon, He from Andros, another from Samos, another from Tralles, or Alabanda, Seek the Esquiliæ, and the hill named from an osier; The bowels, and future lords, of great families. A quick wit, desperate impudence, speech Ready, and more rapid than Isæus. Say-what do you 70 Think him to be? He has brought us with himself what man you please: Grammarian, Rhetorician, Geometrician, Painter, Anointer, Augur, Rope-dancer, Physician, Wizard: he knows all things. A hungry Greek will go into heaven, if you command. 75 These two parts of Rome may stand (by synec.) for Rome itself; or perhaps these were parts of it where these foreigners chiefly settled. 72. The bowels, &c.] Insinuating themselves, by their art and subtlety, into the intimacy of great and noble families, so as to become their confidents and favourites, their vitals as it were, insomuch that, in time, they govern the whole: and, in some instances, become their heirs, and thus lords over the family possessions. See sat. ii. 58, notes. The wheedling and flattering of rich people, in order to become their heirs, are often mentioned in Juvenal-such people were called captatores. 73. A quick wit.] Ingenium velox-Ingenium is a word of many meanings perhaps, here, joined with velox, it might be rendered, a ready invention. Desperate impudence.] That nothing can abash or dismay. 73-4. Speech ready.] Having words at will. 74. Isæus.] A famous Athenian orator, preceptor of DemostheTorrentior, more copious, flowing with more precipitation and fulness, more like a torrent. nes. Say, &c.] Now by the way, my friend, tell me what you imagine such a man to be-I mean of what calling or profession, or what do you think him qualified for? 75. What man, &c.] Well, I'll not puzzle you with guessing, but at once inform you, that, in his own single person, he has brought with him every character that you can imagine: in short, he is a jack of all trades. As the French say-C'est un valet à tout faire. Or, as is said of the Jesuits-Jesuitus est omnis homo. 76. Anointer.] Aliptes, (from Gr. λaw, to anoint,) he that anointed the wrestlers, and took care of them AINSW. 77. He knows all things.] Not only what I have mentioned, but so versatile is his genius, that nothing can come amiss to him, There is nothing that he does not pretend to the knowledge of. 78. A hungry Greek.] The diminutive Græculus iş sarcastical, q. d. Let my little Grecian be pinched with hunger, he would undertake any thing you bade him, however impossible or improbablelike another Dædalus, he would even attempt to fly into the air. Ad summum non Maurus erat, nee Sarmata, nec Thrax, 80 85 Quid!-quod adulandi gens prudentissima laudat Et longum invalidi collum cervicibus æquat Herculis, Antæum procul a tellure tenentis Miratur vocem augustam, quâ deterius nec 90 79. In fine, &c.] Ad suntmum-upon the whole, be it observed, that the Greeks of old were a dexterous people at contrivance; for the attempt at flying was schemed by Dædalus, a native of Athens. No man of any other country has the honour of the invention. 81. The splendid dress.] Conchylia-shell-fish-the liquor thereof made purple, or scarlet colour: called also murex.--Conchylium, by meton. signifies the colour itself; also garments dyed therewith, which were very expensive, and worn by the nobility and other great people. Shall not I fly, fugiam, avoid the very sight of such garments, when worn by such fellows as these, who are only able to wear them by the wealth which they have gotten by their craft and imposition? 81-2. Sign before me.] Set his name before mine, as a witness to any deed, &c. which we may be called upon to sign. 82. Supported by a better couch, &c.] The Romans lay on couches at their convivial entertainments-these couches were ornamented more or less, some finer and handsomer than others, which were occupied according to the quality of the guests. The middle couch was esteemed the most honourable place, and so in order from thence. Must this vagabond Greek take place of me at table, says Umbritius, as if he were above me in point of quality and consequence? As we should say-Shall he sit above me at table? HOR. lib. ii. sat. viii. 1. 20-3. describes an arrangement of the company at table. 83. Brought to Rome.] Advectus-imported from a foreign country, by the same wind, and in the same ship, with prunes, and little figs, from Syria. These were called coctona, or cottana, as supposed, from Heb. up little. MART. lib. xiii. 28. parva cottana. Syria peculiares habet arbores, in ficorum genere. Caricas, et minores ejus generis, quæ coctana vocant. PLIN. lib. xiii. c. 5. Juvenal means to set forth the low origin of these people; that they, at first, were brought out of Syria to Rome, as dealers in small and contemptible articles. Or he may mean, that as slaves they made a part of the cargo, in one of these little trading vessels. See sat. i. 110, 11. In fine-he was not a Moor, nor Sarmatian, nor Thracian, Who assumed wings, but born in the midst of Athens. Shall I not avoid the splendid dress of these? before me shall he Sign? and supported by a better couch shall he lie at table, Brought to Rome by the same wind as plumbs and figs? Is it even nothing that our infancy the air Of Aventinus drew, nourished by the Sabine berry? What!-because a nation, most expert in flattery, praises The speech of an unlearned, the face of a deformed friend. And equals the long neck of the feeble, to the neck of Hercules, holding Antæus far from the earthAdmires a squeaking voice: not worse than which, 85. Aventinus, &c.] One of the seven hills of Rome; so called from Avens, a river of the Sabines. AINSW. Umbritius here, with a patriotic indignation at the preference given to foreigners, asksWhat is there no privilege in having drawn our first breath in Rome? no pre-eminence in being born a citizen of the first city in the world, the conqueror and mistress of all those countries from whence these people came? Shall such fellows as these not only vie with Roman citizens, but be preferred before them? Sabine berry.] A part of Italy on the banks of the Tiber, once belonging to the Sabines, was famous for olives, here called bacca Sabina. But we are to understand all the nutritive fruits and produce of the country in general. Pro specie genus. Syn. In contradistinction to the pruna et coctona, 1. 83. 86. What!] As if he had said-What! is all the favour and preference which these Greeks meet with, owing to their talent for flattery?-are they to be esteemed more than the citizens of Rome, because they are a nation of base sycophants? 87. The speech, &c.] Or discourse, talk, conversation, of soma ignorant, stupid, rich patron, whose favour is basely courted by the most barefaced adulation. Face of a deformed, &c.] Persuading him that he is handsome; or that his very deformities are beauties. 88. The long neck, &c.] Compares the long crane-neck of some puny wretch, to the brawny neck and shoulders (cervicibus) of Hercules. 89. Holding, &c.] This relates to the story of Antæus, a giant of prodigious strength, who, when knocked down by Hercules, recovered himself by lying on his mother earth; Hercules therefore held him up in his left hand, between earth and heaven, and with his right hand dashed his brains out. 90. Admires a squeaking voice.] A squeaking, hoarse, croaking kind of utterance, as if squeezed in its passage by the narrowness of the throat-this he applauds with admiration. Not worse, &c.] He assimilates the voice so commended, to the harsh screaming sound of a cock when he crows; or rather to the noise which he inakes when he seizes the hen, on approaching to VOL. I. Ille sonat, quo mordetur gallina marito ! Hæc eadem licet et nobis laudare: sed illis Creditur. An melior cum Thaïda sustinet, aut cum Uxorem comœdus agit, vel Dorida nullo Cultam palliolo ? mulier nempe ipsa videtur, Non persona loqui: vacua et plana omnia dicas 95 100 tread her, when he nips her comb in his beak, and holds her down under him. This must be alluded to by the mordetur gallina, &c. Claverius, paraph. in Juv. iv. reads the passage: Illa sonat, quum mordetur gallina marito. worse than which neither Doth that sound, when a hen is bitten by her husband. Meaning-that voice which was so extolled with admiration by the flatterer, was as bad as the screaming which a hen makes when trodden by the cock, who seizes and bites her comb with his beak, which must be very painful, and occasion the noise which she makes. However this reading may be rather more agreeable to the fact, yet there does not seem to be sufficient authority to adopt it. 92. We may praise also.] To be sure we Romans may flatter, but without success; we shall not be believed: the Greeks are the only people in such credit as to have all they say pass for truth. 93. Whether is he better when he plays, &c.] Sustinet-sustains the part of a Thais, or courtezan, or the more decent character of a matron, or a naked sea nymph: there is no saying which a Grecian actor excels most in-he speaks so like a woman, that you'd swear the very woman seems to speak, and not the actor. Persona signifies a false face, a mask, a vizor, in which the Grecian and Roman actors played their parts, and so by meton. became to signify an ac tor. This passage shews, that women's parts were represented by men : for which these Greeks had no occasion for any alteration of voice ; they differed from women in nothing but their sex. 94. Doris, &c.] A sea nymph represented in some play. See AINSW. Doris. Palliolum was a little upper garment; the sea nymphs were usually represented naked, nullo palliolo, without the least covering over their bodies. Palliolum, dim. of pallium. 98. Yet neither will Antiochus.] This person, and the others mentioned in the next line, were all Grecian comedians; perhaps Hamus, from the epithet molli, may be understood to have been peculiarly adapted to the performance of female character He utters, who, being husband, the hen is bitten! These same things we may praise also: but to them Credit is given. Whether is he better when he plays Thais, or when The comedian acts a wife, or Doris with no Cloak dressed? truly a woman herself seems to speak, Not the actor: you would declare It was a real woman in all respects. Yet neither will Antiochus, nor admirable there will Either Stratocles, or Demetrius, with soft Hamus, be: 95 The nation is imitative. Do you laugh? with greater laughter 100 sweats. All these, however we may admire them at Rome, would not be at all extraordinary in the country which they came from-illic-for all the Grecians are born actors; there is therefore nothing new, or wonderful, there, in representing assumed characters, however well: it is the very characteristic of the whole nation to be personating and imitative. See AINSW. Comodus-a-um. 100. Do you laugh?] The poet here illustrates what he had said, by instances of Grecian adulation of the most servile and meanest kind. If one of their patrons happens to laugh, or even to smile, for so rideo also signifies, the parasite sets up a loud horse-laugh, and laughs aloud, or, as the word concutitur implies, laughs ready to split his sides, as we say. 101. He weeps, &c.] If he finds his friend in tears, he can humour this too; and can squeeze out a lamentable appearance of sorrow, but without a single grain of it. 102. If in winter-time you ask, &c.] If the weather be cold enough for the patron to order a little fire, the versatile Greek instantly improves on the matter, and puts on a great thick gownendromidem-a sort of thick rug, used by wrestlers, and other gymnasiasts, to cover them after their exercise, lest they should cool too fast. 103. I am hot, &c.] If the patron complains of heat-the other vows that he is all over in a sweat. Shakespeare has touched this sort of character something in the way of Juvenal-Hamlet, act V. sc. ii.-where he introduces the short but well-drawn character of Osrick, whom he represents as a complete temporizer with the humours of his superiors. HAM. Your bonnet to his right use 'tis for the head. HAM. No, believe me, 'tis very cold—the wind is northerly. |