Non sumus ergo pares: melior qui semper, et omni Præterea sanctum nihil est, et ab inguine tutum: OSR. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed, 105 110 HAM. But yet, methinks, it is very sultry, and hot, for my com plexion. OSR. Exceedingly, my lord, it is very sultry, as it were, I can't tell how. But Terence has a full length picture of one of these Grecian parasites, which he copied from Menander. See TER, Eun. the part of Gnatho throughout: than which nothing can be more exquisitely drawn, or more highly finished. This, by the way, justifies Juvenal in tracing the original of such characters from Greece. Menander lived about 350 years before Christ. Terence died about 159 years before Christ. 101. We are not therefore equals.] We Romans are no match for them they far exceed any thing we can attempt in the way of flattery. Better is he, &c.] He who can watch the countenance of another perpetually, and, night and day, as it were, practise an imitation of it, so as to coincide, on all occasions, with the particular look, humour, and disposition of others, is better calculated for the office of a sycophant, than we can pretend to be. 106. Cast from the face, &c.] This was some action of complimentary address, made use of by flatterers. He who did this, first brought the hand to his mouth, kissed his hand, then stretched it out towards the person whom he meant to salute, and thus was understood to throw, or reach forth, the kiss which he had given to his hand. To this purpose Salmasius explains the phrase-a facie jactare manus. This exactly coincides with what we call kissing the hand to one. This we see done frequently, where persons see one another at a distance in crowded public places, or are passing each other in carriages, and the like, where they cannot get near enough to speak together: and this is looked upon as a token of friendly courtesy and civility. The action is performed much in the manner above described, and is common among us. It is so usual to look on this as a token of civility, that it is one of the first things which children, especially of the higher sort, are taught sometimes it is done with one hand, sometimes with both. According to this interpretation, we may suppose, that these flat We are not therefore equals: better is he, who always, and all 105 Cast from the face the hands, ready to applaud, If his friend hath belched well, or rightly made water; If the golden cup hath given a crack, from the inverted bottom. Not the matron of an household, not a virgin daughter, not 110 terers were very lavish of this kind of salutation, towards those whose favour they courted. Bringing the hand to the mouth and kissing it, as a token of respect, is very ancient; we read of it in Job xxxi. 26, 27. as an_action of even religious worship, which the idolators paid to the host of heaven. 107. Hath belched well.] By these ridiculous instances, the poet means to shew that their adulation was of the most servile and abjeet kind. 2 108. If the golden cup, &c.] Trulla signifies a vessel, or cup, to drink with; they were made of various materials, but the rich had them of gold. When the great man had exhausted the liquor, so that the cup was turned bottom upwards before he took it from his mouth, and then smacked his lips so loud as to make a kind of echo from the bottom of the cup, (an action frequent among jovial companions,) this too was a subject of praise and commendation. This passage refers to the Grecian custom of applauding those who drank a large vessel at a draught. Perhaps such parasites looked on such actions as are above men→ tioned, passing before them, as marks of confidence and intimacy, according to that of Martial, lib. x. Nil aliud video quo te credamus amicum, A sense like that of these lines of Martial is given to Juvenal's crepitum dedit by some commentators; but as dedit has the aurea trulla for its nominative case, the sense above given seems to be nearest the truth. Such servile flatterers as these have been the growth of all climes, the produce of all countries. See HoR. Art. Poet. l. 428—33. 109. Moreover, &c.] In this and the two following lines, Umbritius inveighs against their monstrous and mischievous lust. 111. As yet smooth.] Sleek, smooth-faced, not yet having hair on his face.--Sponsus here means a young wooer who is supposed to be paying his addresses to a daughter of the family, in order to marry her; even he can't be safe from the attempts of these vile Greeks. Before chaste.] i, e. Before some filthy Grecian çame into the family. Horum si nihil est, aulam resupinat amici: 115 120 112. He turns the house, &c.] Aula signifies a fore-court, or an hall, belonging to a house: here it is put (by synec.) for the house itself: by catachresis for the family in the house. Resupino is a word rather of an obscene import, and here used metaphorically, for prying into the secrets of the family. See AINSW. Resupino. Holyday observes, that the scholiast reads aviam, (not aulam,) as if these fellows, sooner than fail, would attack the grandmother if there were nobody else. But though this reading gives a sense much to our poet's purpose, yet as it is not warranted by copy, as aulam is, the latter must be preferred. Amici here means-of his patron, who has admitted him into his family. 113. And thence be feared.] Lest they should reveal and publish the secrets which they become possessed of. See before, 1. 50—7. Farnaby, in his note on this place, mentions an Italian proverb, which is much to the purpose. Servo d'altrui si fà, chi dice il suo secreto a chi no 'l sa. "He makes himself the servant of another, who tells his secret to one that knows it not." 114. And because mention, &c.] q. d. And, by the way, as I have begun to mention the Greeks. Pass over, &c.] Transi-imp. of transeo, to pass over or through also to omit or say nothing of-to pass a thing by, or over. Each of these senses is espoused by different commentators. Those who are for the former sense, make the passage mean thus: "Talking of Greeks, let us pass through their schools, so as to see "and observe what is going forward there." 66 The others make the sense to be: Omit saying any thing of "the schools; bad as they may be, they are not worth mentioning, "in comparison of certain other worse things.' I rather think with the former, whose interpretation seems best to suit with the-et audi-in the next sentence. q. d. "As we are "talking of the Grecians, I would desire you to pass from the "common herd, go to the schools, take a view of their philosophers, "and hear what one of their chiefs was guilty of." 115. The schools.] Gymnasia here signifies those places of exer cise, or schools, where the philosophers met for disputation, and for the instruction of their disciples. See AINSW. Gymnasium. If there be none of these, he turns the house of his friend upside down: They will know the secrets of the family, and thence be feared. And because mention of Greeks has begun, pass over The schools, and hear a deed of the greater abolla. 115 A Stoic killed Bareas, an informer his friend, And an old man his disciple, nourished on thất bank, At which a feather of the Gorgonean horse dropped down. 120 115. Adeed.] Facinus, in a bad sense, means a foul act, a villainous deed, a scandalous action. Greater abolla.] Abolla was a sort of cloak, worn by soldiers, and also by philosophers. The abolla of the soldiers was less than the other, and called minor abolla-that of the philosopher, being larger, was called major abolla. Juvenal also uses the word abolla (sat. iv. 76.) for a senator's robe. Here, by meton. it denotes the philosopher himself. 116. Stoic.] One of the straitest sects of philosophers among the Greeks See AINSW. Stoici-orum. Killed, &c.] By accusing him of some crime for which he was put to death. This was a practice much encouraged by the emperors Nero and Domitian, and by which many made their fortunes. See note on sat. i. 32, 3. 66 66 Bareas.] The fact is thus related by Tacitus, Ann. vi. “P. Egnatius (the Stoic above mentioned) circumvented by false testimony Bareas Soranus, his friend and disciple, under Nero." 117. His disciple.] To whom he owed protection. -Nourished on that bank, &c.] By this periphrasis we are to understand, that this Stoic was originally bred at Tarsus, in Cilicia, a province of ancient Greece, which was built by Perseus, on the banks of the river Cydnus, on the spot where his horse Pegasus dropped a feather out of his wing. He called the city Tagros, which signifies a wing, from this event. 118. Gorgonean.] The winged horse Pegasus was so called, because he was supposed to have sprung from the blood of the gorgon Medusa, after Perseus had cut her head off. 119. For any Roman.] We Romans are so undermined and supplanted by the arts of these Greek sycophants, that we have no chance left us of succeeding with great inen. 120. Some Protogenes.] The name of a famous and cruel persecutor of the people under Caligula. See ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. xiv, p. 302, Diphilus.] A filthy favourite and minion of Domitian. Erimanthus.] From es strife, and μavis, a prophet—i. e. a foreteller of strife. This name denotes some notorious informer. The sense of this passage seems to be: "There is now no room Qui gentis vitio nunquam partitur amicum; Solus habet. Nam cum facilem stillavit in aurem Limine summoveor: perierunt tempora longi 125 "for us Romans to hope for favour and preferment, where nothing "but Greeks are in power and favour, and these such wretches as are the willing and obsequious instruments of cruelty, lust and "persecution." 121. Vice of his nation.] (See before, 1. 86.) That mean and wicked art of engrossing all favour to themselves. Never shares a friend.] With any body else. 122. He alone hath him.] Engages and keeps him wholly to himself. He has dropped, &c.] Stillavit-hath insinuated by gentle, and almost imperceptible degrees. Into his easy ear.] i. e. Into the ear of the great man, easily listens to all he says. who 123. The poison of his nature.] Born, as it were, with the malicious propensity of advancing themselves by injuring others. And of his country.] Greece-the very characteristic of which is this sort of selfishness. 124. I am removed, &c.] No longer admitted within my patron's or friend's doors. 125. Past and gone.] Perierunt-lit.-have perished. My long and faithful services are all thrown away, forgotten, perished out of remembrance, and are as if they had never been. No where, &c.] There is no part of the world, where an old client and friend is more readily cast off, and more easily dismissed, than they are at Rome: or where this is done with less ce remony, or felt with less regret. Look round the world, what country will appear, Where friends are left with greater ease than here? DRYDEN. The word jactura signifies any loss or damage, but its proper meaning is, loss by shipwreck, casting goods overboard in a storin. The old friends and clients of great men, at Rome, were just as readily and effectually parted with. 126. What is the office.] Officium-business-employment service. That I may not flatter, &c.] q. d. Not to speak too highly in our own commendation, or as over-rating ourselves and our services. 126, 7. What the merit, &c.] What does the poor client deserve for the assiduous and punctual execution of his office towards his patron, |