Slave carries; and in running ventilates the fire.— What remains of their bodies? who finds members-who perishes 260 In the manner of the foul. Mean while, the family secure now washes The dishes, and raises up a little fire with the cheek, and makes a found with anointed 258. Upon the crowd.] Agmen denotes a troop or company; alfo a number of people walking together, as in a crowded ftreet. 259. What remains, &c.] If fuch an immenfe mafs fhould, in its fall, light upon any of the people, it must grind them to atoms: no trace of a human body, its limbs, or bones could be found. 261. In the manner of the foul.] i. e. The particles which compofed the body could no more be found, than could the foul which is immaterial; both would feem to have vanished away, and difappeared together. Mean while. Intereà-q. d. While the flave is gone to bring home the provifions, and is crushed to pieces, by the fall of a stone-carriage, in his way. See 1. 264-5 The family.] The fervants of the family (Comp. 1. 264.) fafe at home, and knowing nothing of what had happened, fet about preparing for fupper. 262. The dishes.] Patella fignifies any fort of dish to hold meat.-One washes and prepares the dishes which are to hold the meat when it arrives. Raijes up a little fire, &c.] Another, in order to prepare the fire for warming the water for bathing before fupper, blows it with his mouth. Hence it is faid-buccâ foculum excitat alluding to the diftenfion of the cheeks in the act of blowing. 262-3. With anointed fcrapers.] Strigil-denotes an inftrument for fcraping the body after bathing-It had fome oil put on it, to make it flide with lefs friction over the skin. L Scrapers Strigilibus, pleno & componit lintea gutto. 265 270 Scrapers were made of gold, filver, iron, or the like, which, when gathered up, or thrown down together, made a clattering found. 263. Puts together the napkins.] Lintea-linen napkins, or towels, made ufe of to dry the body after bathing; these he folds and lays in order. A full crufe.] Gutto-a fort of oil-cruet, with a long and narrow neck, which poured the oil, drop by drop, on the body after bathing, and then it was rubbed all over it. 264. These things among the fervants, &c.] Each fervant, in his department, made all the hafte he could, to get things ready against the fupper fhould arrive. But be.] Ille-i. e. The fervulus infelix (which we read of, 1. 253.) in his way home, with his load of provifions, is killed by the fall of a block of ftone upon him. 265. Sits on the bank.] Of the river Styx.-By this account of the deceased, it is very clear, that Juvenal was no Epicurean, believing the foul to perifh with the body, which some have wrongly inferred, from what he fays, 1. 261, more animæ. Comp. Sat. ii. 1. 149-59. A novice.] Juft newly arrived, and now firft beholding fuch a scene. 265-6. The hideous ferryman.] Porthmea-from Gr. oplusus, a ferryman, one who ferries people over the water. Charon, the fabled ferryman of hell, is here meant. 266. Nor does he hope for the boat, &c.] Alnus properly fignifies an alder-tree; but as the wood of this tree was used in making boats, it therefore-by met.fignifies a boat. As the poor deceafed had died a violent death, and fuch a one as diffipated all the parts of his body, fo as that they could not be collected for burial, he could not pafs over the river Styx, but muft remain on its banks an hundred years, which was held to be the cafe of all unburied bodies. See Virg. Æn. vi. 325-29. 365-6. and Hor. Lib. i. Ode xxviii. 35-6. fituation was reckoned to be very unhappy. This 267. Ner Scrapers, and puts together the napkins with a full crufe. These things among the fervants are variously haftened: but he Now fits on the bank, and, a novice, dreads the black 265 Ferryman; nor does he hope for the boat of the muddy gulph, Wretch [that he is]-nor hath he a farthing which he can reach forth from his mouth. Now confider other, and different dangers of the night: What space from high roofs, from whence the brain A pot-sherd ftrikes, as often as, from the windows, cracked and broken 270 267. Nor bath he a farthing, &c.] The triens was a very fmall piece of money-the third part of the as, which was about three farthings of our money. It was a cuftom among the Greeks, to put a piece of money into the mouth of a dead perfon, which was fuppofed to be given to Charon, as his fare, for the paffage in his boat, over the river Styx. This unhappy man, being killed in the manner he was, could not have this done for him. Though Juvenal certainly believed a future ftate of rewards. and punishments (fee Sat. ii. 1. 153.) yet he certainly means here, as he does elsewhere, to ridicule the idle and foolish fuperftitions, which the Romans had adopted from the Greeks, upon thofe fubjects, as well as on many others relative to their received mythology. 268. Now confider, &c.] Umbritius ftill purfues his dif courfe, and adds fresh reafons for his departure from Rome: which, like the former, already given, arife from the dangers which the inhabitants, the poorer fort efpecially, are expofed to, in walking the fireets by night.-Thefe he fets forth with much humour. Other and different dangers.] Befides thofe already mentioned, 1. 196-202. in 269. What space from high roofs.] How high the houses are, and, confequently, what a long way any thing has to fall, from the upper windows into the ftreet, upon people's heads that are paffing by; and therefore must come with the greater force; fomuch that pieces of broken earthen-ware, coming from fuch a height, make a mark in the flint pavement below, and, of courfe, muft dath cut the brains of the unfortunate paffenger on whofe head they may happen to alight. L 2 272. Idle.] Vafa cadunt, quanto percuffum pondere fignent, Et ledant filicem poffis ignavus haberi, 275 280 272. Idle.] Ignavus-indolent-negligent of your affairs. q. d. A man who goes out to fupper, and who has to walk home through the streets at night, may be reckoned very indolent, and careless of his affairs, as well as very improvident, if he does not make his will before he fets out. 274. As many fates.] As many chances of being knocked on the head, as there are open windows, and people watching to throw down their broken crockery into the street, as you pass along. 276. Therefore you should defire, &c.] As the beft thing which you can expect, that the people at the windows would content themselves with emptying the naftiness which is in their pots upon you, and not throw down the pots themselves. Pelvis is a large bason, or veffel, wherein they washed their feet, or put to more filthy uses. 278. One drunken, &c.] Umbritius, among the nightly dangers of Rome, recounts that which arifes from meeting drunken rakes in their cups. ·Drunk and petulant.] We may imagine him in his way from fome tavern, very much in liquor, and very faucy and quarrelfome, hoping to pick a quarrel, that he may have the pleasure of beating fomebody before he gets home-to fail of this, is a punishment to him. 279. The night of Peleides.] The poet humourously compares the uneafinefs of one of thefe young fellows, on miffing a quarrel, to the difquiet of Achilles (the fon of Peleus) on the lofs of his friend Patroclus; and almoft tranflates the defcrip Veffels fall, with what weight they mark and wound 275 by. Therefore you should defire, and carry with you a miser able wish, That they may be content to pour forth broad bafons. One drunken and petulant, who haply hath killed nobody, Is punished; fuffers the night of Pelides mourning His friend; he lies on his face, then presently on his back; For otherwise he could not fleep: To SOME 280 A QUARREL CAUSES SLEEP: but tho' wicked from years And heated with wine, he is aware of him whom a scarlet cloke tion which Homer gives of that hero's restleffness on the occafion. Il. . 1. 10, 11. Αλλοί επι πλέυρας κατακείμενος, αλλοτε δ' αύτε Nunc lateri incumbens, iterum poft paulò fupinus So the poet describes this rake-helly youth, as toffing and tumbling in his bed, first on his face, then on his back (fupinus) thus endeavouring to amuse the restleffness of his mind, under the disappointment of having met with nobody to quarrel with and beat-thus wearying himself, as it were, into fleep. 281. To fome a quarrel, &c.] This reminds one of Prov. iv. 16. For they (the wicked and evil men, ver. 14.) fleep not, except they have done mischief, and their fleep is taken away "unless they cause fome to fall.” 282. Wicked from his years.] Improbus alfo fignifies lewd, rash, violent, prefumptuous. Though he be all thefe, owing to young time of life, and heated also with liquor, yet he takes care whom he affaults. his 283. Afcarlet cloke.] Inftead of attacking, he will avoid any rich man or noble, whom he full well knows from his drefs, as well L 3 |