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known by the wifeft of men, without a divine revelation,-then it has its ufe-ftill more, if it awakens in us a jealousy over ourselves, that we duly improve the fuperior light with which we are bleffed, left the very heathen rife in judgment † against us. If, on the contrary, it tends to make us proud, vain, and conceited, to rest in its attainments as the fummit of wifdom and knowledge; if it contributes to harden the mind against fuperior information, or fills it with that four pedantry which leads to the contempt of othersthen I will readily allow, that all our learning is but "fplendid ignorance and pompous folly."

As to any mistakes or overfights, which the Editor has been guilty of, and which are almoft unavoidable in Jo long and difficult a work as this, he leaves them to the candor and correction of the learned reader, to whom he shall feel himself much obliged for any alterations, which may be thought necessary for the improvement of the work.

Such corrections and additions as occurred to the Editor, on a revifal of the whole when the printing was finished, are collected at the end of each volume, and placed under the heads of the feveral Salires to which they belong.

* 1 Cor. i. 20, 21.

† Luke xii. 47, 48.

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JUVENAL begins this Satire, with giving fome humourous rea

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fons for his writing: fuch as hearing, so often, many poets rehearse their works, and intending to repay them in kind. Next he informs us, why he addicts himself to satire, rather than to other poetry, and gives a fummary and general view of the reigning vices and follies of his time. He

EMPER auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam,
ego auditor tantum ? nunqu
Vexatus toties Fauci Thefeïde Codri?

Impunè ergo mihi recitaverit ille togatas,

Satires] Or Satyrs-concerning this word-See CHAMBERS's Dictionary.

Line 1. Only an bearer.] Juvenal complains of the irkfome recitals, which the fcribbling poets were continually making of their vile compofitions, and of which he was an hearer, at the public affemblies where they red them over. It is to be obferved, that, fometimes, the Romans made private recitals, of their poetry, among their particular friends. They also had public recitals, either in the Temple of Apollo, or in fpacious houfes, which were either hired, or lent, for the purpose, by fome rich and great man, who was highly honoured for this, and who got his clients and dependents together, on the occafion, in order to increase the andience, and to encourage the poet by their applaufes. See Sat. vii. 1. 40-4. Perfius Prolog. 1. 7, and note. Hor. Lib. 1. Sat. iv. 1. 73—4.

Repay.] Reponam, here, is ufed metaphorically; it

alludes

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laments the restraints which the fatyrifts then lay under from a fear of punishment, and professes to treat of the dead, perfonating, under their names, certain living vicious characters. His great aim, in this, and in all his other fatires, is to expofe and reprove vice itself, however fanctified by cuftom, or dignified by the examples of the great.

HALL I always be only a hearer?-fhall I never repay,

SH

Who am teiz'd fo often with the Thefeis of hoarfe

Codrus?

Shall one (Poet) recite his Comedies to me with impunity,

When a

alludes to the borrowing and repayment of money. man repaid money which he had borrowed, he was faid to replace it-reponere. So our poet, looking upon himself as indebted to the reciters of their compofitions, for the trouble which they had given him, speaks, as if he intended to repay them in kind, by writing, and reciting his verses, as they had done theirs. Sat. vii. I. 40-4. Perfius Prolog. 1. 7. Hor. Lib. 1. Sat. iv. 1.73-4.

-

2. Thefeis.] A poem, of which Thefeus was the fubject. Hoarfe Codrus.] A very mean poet: fo poor, that he gave rife to the proverb- Codro pauperior." He is here fuppofed to have made himself hoarfe, with frequent and loud reading his poem.

3. Comedies.] Togatas-fo called from the low and common people, who were the fubjects of them. Thefe wore gowns by which they were diftinguished from perfons of rank.

B 2

There

Hic Elegos? impunè diem confumpferit ingens
Telephus aut fummi plenâ jam margine libri
Scriptus & in tergo necdum finitus Oreftes?

Nota magis nulli domus eft fua, quàm mihi lucus
Martis, & Æoliis vicinum rupibus antrum
Vulcani. Quid agant venti; quas torqueat umbras

5

There were three different forts of Comedy, each denominated from the drefs of the perfons which they reprefented. I. The Togata-which exhibited the actions of the lower fort; and was a fpecies of what we call low comedy.

II. The Prætextata-fo called from the prætexta, a white robe ornamented with purple, and worn by magiftrates and nobles. Hence the comedies, which treated of the actions of fuch, were called prætextatæ. In our time, we should say, genteel comedy.

III. The Palliata-from pallium, a fort of upper garment worn by the Greeks, and in which the actors were habited, when the manners and actions of the Greeks were represented. This was alfo a fpecies of the higher fort of comedy.

It is most probable, that, Terence's plays, which he took from Menander, were reckoned among the palliatæ, and reprefented in the pallium, or Grecian drefs: more efpecially too, as the scene of every play lies at Athens.

4. Elegies.] These were little poems on mournful fubjects, and confifted of hexameter and pentameter verfes alternately. We must despair of knowing the first elegiac poet, fince Horace fays, Art. Poët, 1. 77-8.

--

Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiferit auctor,
Grammatici certant, & adhuc fub judice lis eft.
By whom invented critics yet contend,
And of their vain difputing find no end.

FRANCIS.

Elegies were at firft mournful, yet, afterwards, they were compofed on chearful fubjects. Hor. Ib. 1. 75.-6.

Verfibus imparitèr junctis querimonia primum,
Poft etiam inclufa eft voti fententia compos.
Unequal measures firft were tun'd to flow,
Sadly expreffive of the lover's woe:
But now to gayer fubjects form'd they move,
In founds of pleafure, and the joys of love.

FRANCIS.

4. Bulky Telephus.] Some prolix and tedious play, written on the fubject of Telephus, King of Myfia, who was mortally

wounded

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