Where clifts on either side their points display;
And, after opening in an ampler way,
Afford the pleasing prospect of the bay.
"T is worth your while, O Romans, to regard
The port of Luna, says our learned bard;
Who, in a drunken dream, beheld his soul
The fifth within the transmigrating roll;
Which first a peacock, then Euphorbus was,
Then Homer next, and next Pythagoras;
And last of all the line did into Ennius pass.
Secure and free from business of the state;
And more secure of what the vulgar prate,
Here I enjoy my private thoughts; nor care
What rots for sheep the southern winds prepare:
Survey the neighb'ring fields, and not repine,
When I behold a larger crop than mine:
To see a beggar's brat in riches flow
Adds not a wrinkle to my even brow;
Nor, envious at the sight, will I forbear [cheer;
My plenteous bowl, nor bate my bounteous
Nor yet unseal the dregs of wine that stink
Of cask; nor in a nasty flagon drink;
Let others stuff their guts with homely fare :
For men of different inclinations are; [star.
Though born, perhaps, beneath one common
In minds and manners twins oppos'd we see
In the same sign, almost the same degree:
One, frugal, on his birth-day fears to dine,
Does at a penny's cost in herbs repine,
And hardly dares to dip his fingers in the brine.
Prepar'd as priest of his own rites to stand,
He sprinkles pepper with a sparing hand.
His jolly brother, opposite in sense

Laughs at his thrift; and, lavish of expense,
Quaffs, crams, and guttles, in his own defence.
For me,
I'll use my own; and take my share
Yet will not turbots for my slaves prepare;
Nor be so nice in taste myself to know
If what I swallow be a thrush, or no.
Live on thy annual income; spend thy store;
And freely grind, from thy full threshing floor;
Next harvest promises as much, or more.

Thus I would live ; but friendship's holy band,
And offices of kindness hold my hand:
My friend is shipwreck'd on the Brutian strand,
His riches in the Ionian main are lost;
And he himself stands shivering on the coast;
Where, destitute of help, forlorn, and bare,
He wearies the deaf gods with fruitless prayer.
Their images, the relics of the wreck,
Torn from the naked poop, are tided back
By the wild waves, and rudely thrown ashore,
Lie impotent; nor can themselves restore.
The vessel sticks, and shows her open side,
And on her shatter'd mast the mews in triumph
ride.

.

[store, From thy new hope, and from thy growing Now lend assistance, and relieve the poor.

Come; do a noble act of charity;
A pittance of thy land will set him free
Let him not bear the badges of a wrack,
Nor beg with a blue table on his back :*
Nor tell me that thy frowning heir will say,
"T is mine that wealth thou squander'st thus
away:

What is 't to thee, if he neglect thy urn,
Or without spices lets thy body burn?†
If odours to thy ashes he refuse,
Or buys corrupted cassia from the Jews?
All these, the wiser Bestius will reply,
Are empty pomp, and dead men's luxury:
We never knew this vain expense, before
The effeminated Grecians brought it o'er :
Now toys and trifles from their Athens come;
And dates and pepper have unsinew'd Rome.
Our sweating hinds their salads, now, defile,
Infecting homely herbs with fragrant oil.
But, to thy fortune be not thou a slave:
For what hast thou to fear beyond the grave?
And thou who gap'st for my estate, draw

• Nor beg with a blue table, &c.] The table was painted of the sea colour, which the shipwrecked person carried on his back, expressing his losses thereby, to excite the charity of the spectators.

+ Or without spices, &c.] The bodies of the rich, before they were burnt, were embalmed with spices, or rather spices were put into the urn, with the relics of the ashes.

1 Cæsar salutes &c.] The Cæsar here mentioned is Caius Caligula, who affected to triumph over the Germans, whom he never conquered, as he did over the Britons; and accordingly sent letters, wrapt about with laurels, to the Senate, and the Empress Cæsonia, whom I here call Queen, though I know that name was not used among the Romans; but the word Empress would not stand in that verse, for which reason I adjourned it to another. The dust which was to be swept away from the altars was either the ashes which were left there, after the last sacrifice for victory, or might perhaps mean the dust or ashes which were left on the altars since some former defeat of the Romans by the Germans; glected. after which overthrow, the altars had been ne

§ Cæsonia, wife to Caius Caligula, who afterineffectually, to be married to him, after he had exwards, in the reign of Claudius, was proposed, but

ecuted Messalina for adultery.

The captive Germans, of gigantic size,*
Are rank'd in order, and are clad in frize :
The spoils of kings, and conquer'd camps we
boast,

Their arms in trophies hang on the triumphal post.

Now, for so many glorious actions done
In foreign parts, and mighty battles won :
For peace at home, and for the public wealth,
I mean to crown a bowl to Cesar's health:
Besides, in gratitude for such high matters,
Know I have vow'd two hundred gladiators.†
Say, wouldst thou hinder me from this expense?
I disinherit thee, if thou dar'st take offence.
Yet more, a public largess I design
Of oil and pies, to make the people dine;
Control me not, for fear I change my will.
And yet methinks I hear thee grumbling still,
You give as if you were the Persian king:
Your land does no such large revenues bring.
Well; on my terms thou wilt not be my heir:
If thou car'st little, less shall be my care:
Were none of all my father's sisters left;
Nay, were I of my mother's kin bereft ;
None by an uncle's or a grandame's side,
Yet I could some adopted heir provide.
I need but take my journey half a day
From haughty Rome, and at Aricia stay,
Where fortune throws poor Manius in my way.
Him will I choose: What him, of humble birth,
Obscure, a foundling, and a son of earth?
Obscure? Why pr'y thee what am I? I know
My father, grandsire, and great grandsire too:
If farther I derive my pedigree,

I can but guess beyond the fourth degree.
The rest of my forgotten ancestors
Were sons of earth, like him, or sons of whores.
Yet why wouldst thou, old covetous wretch,
aspire

To be my heir, who might'st have been my sire?
In nature's race, shouldst thou demand of me
My torch, when I in course run after thee?
Think I approach thee like the god of gain,
With wings on head and heels, as poets feign:

• The captive Germans, &c.] He means only such as were to pass for Germans in the triumph; large-bodied men, as they are still, whom the Em press clothed new, with coarse garments, for the greater ostentation of the victory.

+ Know, I have voo'd two hundred gladiators] A hundred pair of gladiators were beyond the purse of a private man to give; therefore this is only a threatening to his heir, that he could do what he pleased with his estate.

1 Shouldst thou demand of me my torch, &c.] Why shouldst thou who art an old fellow, hope to outlive me, and be my heir, who am much younger. He who was first in the course or race, delivered the torch, which he carried, to him who was second.

VOL. I.-25

Thy modern fortune from my gift receive;
Now fairly take it, or as fairly leave.
But take it as it is, and ask no more.
What, when thou hast embezzled all thy store?
Where 's all thy father left? 'T is true, I grant,
Some I have mortgag'd, to supply my want:
The legacies of Tadius too are flown;
All spent, and on the selfsame errand gone.
How little then to my poor share will fall?
Little indeed; but yet that little's all.

Nor tell me, in a dying father's tone,
Be careful still of the main chance, my son;
Put out the principal in trusty hands:
Live of the use; and never dip thy lands:
But yet what's left for me? What's left, my
Ask that again, and all the rest I spend. [friend!
Is not my fortune at my own command?
Pour oil, and pour it with a plenteous hand,
Upon my salads, boy: Shall I be fed
With sodden nettles, and a sing'd sow's head?
'Tis holyday; provide me better cheer;
'Tis holyday, and shall be round the year.
Shall I my household gods and Genius cheat,
To make him rich, who grudges me my meat,
That he may loll at ease; and, pamper'd high,
When I am laid, may feed on giblet pie?
And when his throbbing lust extends the vein,
Have wherewithal his whores to entertain?
Shall I in homespun cloth be clad, that he
His paunch in triumph may before him see?
Go, miser, go; for lucre sell thy soul;
Truck wares for wares, and trudge from pole to
pole:
[gone,

That men may say, when thou art dead and See what a vast estate he left his son! How large a family of brawny knaves, Well fed, and fat as Cappadocian slaves!§ Increase thy wealth, and double all thy store; 'Tis done: now double that, and swell the score;

5 Well fed, and fat as Cappadocian slaves] Who were famous for their lustiness, and being, as we call it, in good liking. They were set on a stall when they were exposed to sale, to show the good habit of their body, and made to play tricks before the buyers, to show their activity and strength.

Then say, Chrysippus, &c.] Chrysippus, the Stoic, invented a kind of argument, consisting of more than three propositions, which is called Sorites, or a heap. But as Chrysippus could never bring his propositions to a certain stint, so neither can a covetous man bring his craving desires to any certain measure of riches, beyond which he could not wish for any more.

And now thou dost with lies the throne invade,
By practice harden'd in thy slandering trade.
Obtending heaven, for whate'er ills befall;
And sputtering under specious names thy gall.
Now Phoebus is provok'd, his rites and laws
Are in his priest profan'd, and I the cause:
Since I detain a slave, my sovereign prize;
And sacred gold, your idol-god, despise.
I love her well: and well her merits claim,
To stand preferr'd before my Grecian dame :
Not Clytemnestra's self in beauty's bloom
More charm'd, or better plied the various loom:
Mine is the maid; and brought in happy hour,
With every household-grace adorn'd,to bless my
nuptial bower.

Yet shall she be restor'd; since public good
For private interest ought not to be withstood,
To save the effusion of my people's blood.
But right requires, if I resign my own,
I should not suffer for your sakes alone;
Alone excluded from the prize I gain'd,
And by your common suffrage have obtain❜d.
The slave without a ransom shall be sent :
It rests for you to make the equivalent

To this the fierce Thessalian prince replied: O first in power, but passing all in pride, Griping, and still tenacious of thy hold, Wouldst thou the Grecian chiefs, though largely soul'd,

Should give the prizes they had gain'd before
And with their loss thy sacrilege restore?
Whate'er by force of arms the soldier got,
Is each his own, by dividend of lot:
Which to resume, were both unjust and base;
Not to be borne but by a servile race.
But this we can: if Saturn's son bestows
The sack of Troy, which he by promise owes;
Then shall the conquering Greeks thy loss re-
store,
[more.

And with large interest make the advantage
To this Atrides answer'd: Though thy boast
Assumes the foremost name of all our host,
Pretend not, mighty man, that what is mine,
Controll'd by thee, I tamely should resign.
Shall I release the prize I gain'd by right,
In taken towns, and many a bloody fight,
While thou detain'st Briseis in thy bands,
By priestly glossing on the god's commands?
Resolve on this, (a short alternative,)
Quit mine, or, in exchange, another give;
Else I, assure thy soul, by sovereign right
Will seize thy captive in thy own despite.
Or from stout Ajax, or Ulysses, bear
What other prize my fancy shall prefer :
Then softly murmur, or aloud complain,
Rage as you please, you shall resist in vain.
But more of this, in proper time and place;
To things of greater moment let us pass.

Most fit thyself to see perform'd the intent For which my prisoner from my sight is sent, (Thanks to thy pious care,) that Phoebus may relent.

At this, Achilles roll'd his furious eyes,
Fix'd on the king askant; and thus replies
O, impudent, regardful of thy own,
Whose thoughts are centred on thyself alone,
Advanc'd to sovereign sway for better ends
Than thus like abject slaves to treat thy friends.
What Greek is he, that, urg'd by thy command,
Against the Trojan troops will lift his hand?
Not I: nor such enforc'd respect I owe;
Nor Pergamus I hate, nor Priam is my foe.
What wrong
from Troy remote, could I sustain,
To leave my fruitful soil, and happy reign,
And plough the surges of the stormy main?
Thee, frontless man, we follow'd from afar ;
Thy instruments of death, and tools of war.
Thine is the triumph; ours the toil alone:
We bear thee on our backs, and mount thee on
the throne.

For thee we fall in fight; for thee redress
Thy baffled brother; not the wrongs of Greece.
And now thou threaten'st with unjust decree,
To punish thy affronting heaven, on me.
To seize the prize which I so dearly bought;
By common suffrage given, confirm'd by lot.
Mean match to thine: for still above the rest,
Thy hook'd rapacious hands usurp the best.
Though mine are first in fight, to force the prey,
And last sustain the labours of the day.
Nor grudge I thee the much the Grecians give;
Nor murmuring take the little I receive.
Yet even this little, thou, who wouldst engross
The whole, insatiate, envy'st as thy loss.
Know, then, for Phthia fix'd is my return:
Better at home my ill-paid pains to mourn,
Than from an equal here sustain the public
[bound,

corn.

The king, whose brows with shining gold were Who saw his throne with sceptred slaves encompass'd round,

Thus answer'd stern: Go, at thy pleasure, go: We need not such a friend, nor fear we such a foe.

There will not want to follow me in fight:
Jove will assist, and Jove assert my right.
But thou of all the kings (his care below)
Art least at my command, and most my foe.