And commands a book-cafe to keep original images of Cleanthes. No credit to the countenance: for what ftreet does not abound With grave obfcenes? doft thou reprove base (actions) when thou art A most noted practitioner among the Socratic catamites? 10 15 And more ingenuously, Peribonius: him I to the fates Impute, who in countenance and gait confeffes his disease. this, and in all other paffages, which, like this, muft appear filthy and offenfive in a literal tranflation, I fhall only give a general fenfe. 15. The hair fhorter than the eye-browu.] i. e. Cut fo fhort as not to reach fo low as the eye-brow. This was done to avoid the fufpicion of being what they were, for wearing long hair was looked upon as a fhrewd fign of effeminacy. It was a proverb among the Greeks, that " none who wore long hair were free from the unnatural vices of the Cinadi." May not St. Paul allude to this, 1 Cor. xi. 14. where quais may mean, an infufed habit or cuftom. See Wetftein in loc, and Parkhurst, Gr. and Eng. Lexicon, Quis, N° III. 16. Peribonius.] Some horrid character, who made no secret of his impurities, and, in this, acted more ingenuously, and more according to truth, than these pretended philofophers did. Impute him.] Afcribe all his vile actions. To the fates. To his deftiny, fo that he can't help being what he is. The antients had high notions of judicial aftrology, and held, that perfons were influenced all their lives by the stars which prefided at their birth, fo as to guide and fix their destiny ever after. 17. His difeafe.] His besetting fin (Comp. Sat. ix. 1. 49. n.) or rather, perhaps, a certain disease which was the confequence of his impurities, and which affected his countenance and his gait, fo as to proclaim his fhame to every body he met. What * Horum fimplicitas miferabilis, his furor ipfe Dat veniam : fed pejores, qui talia verbis Clunem agitant: ego te ceventem, Sexte, verebor, 20 25 of this Satire, this disease was, may appear from line 12, 13, part, 18. The fimplicity of thefe.] The undifguifed and open manner of fuch people, who thus proclaim their vice, is rather pitiable, as it may be reckoned a misfortune, rather than any thing else, to be born with such a propensity. See notes on L. 16. --Thefe madness itself, &c.] Their ungovernable madnefs in the fervice of their vices, their inordinate paffion, stands as fome excufe for their practices, at least, comparatively with those who affect to condemn such characters as Peribonius, and yet do the fame that he does. 20. Of Hercules.] This alludes to the ftory of Hercules, who, when he was a youth, uncertain in which way he should go, whether in the paths of virtue, or in thofe of pleasure, was fupposed to fee an apparition of two women, the one Virtue, the other Pleasure, each of which used many arguments to gain him-but he made choice of Virtue, and repulfed the other with the fevereft reproaches. See Xen. Memor. and Cic. de Offic. Lib. i. 21. Sextus.] Some infamous character of the kind above mentioned. 22. Varillus.] Another of the fame ftamp. The poet here fuppofes one of these wretches as gravely and severely reproaching the other. What! fays Varillus, in answer, need I fear any thing you can fay? in what can you make me out to be worse than yourself? 23. Let the ftrait, &c.] Thefe proverbial expreffions mean to expofe the folly and impudence of fuch, who cenfure others. for vices which they themselves practise. See Matt. vii. 3—5. See Hor. Sat. vii. Lib. ii. 1. 40—2. 20 The fimplicity of these is pitiable; these madness itself Let the ftrait deride the bandy-legged-the white the Who could have borne the Gracchi complaining about fedition? Who would not mix heaven with earth, and the fea with heaven, If a thief should displease Verres, or an homicide Milo? If Clodius fhould accuse adulterers, Catiline Cethegus? If three difciples fhould speak against the table of Sylla? 25 This fentiment Is pursued and exemplified in the instances following. 24. The Gracchi.] Caius and Tiberius, tribunes, who raised great disturbances, on their introducing the Agrarian law, to divide the common fields equally among the people. At length they were both flain: Tiberius, as he was making a fpeech to the people, by Publius Nafica; and Caius, by the command of the conful Opimius. 25. Mix heaven with earth.] i. e. Exclaim in the loudeft and strongest terms, like him in Terence. O cœlum! O terra! O maria Neptuni! 26. Verres.] Prætor in Sicily, who was condemned and banished for plundering that province. Milo] He killed P. Clodius, and was unfuccefsfully defended by Tully. 27. Clodius.] A great enemy to Cicero, and the chief promoter of his banishment. This Clodius was a moft debauched and profligate perfon. He debauched Pompeia the wife of Cæfar, and likewise his own fifter. Soon after Cicero's return, Clodius was flain by Milo, and his body burnt in the Curia Hoftilia. Catiline Cethegus.] i. e. If Catiline were to accufe Cethegus. These were two famous confpirators against the ftate: See Salluft. Bell. Catilin. 28. The table of Sylla.] Sylla was a noble Roman of the i Qualis erat nuper tragico pollutus adulter Concubitu: qui tunc leges revocabat amaras up ta family of the Scipios.-He was very cruel, and first set bles of profcription, or outlawry, by which many thousand Romans were put to death in cold blood. 28. Three difciples.] There were two triumvirates, the one confifting of Cæfar, Pompey, and Craffus, the other of Auguftus, Antony, and Lepidus, who followed Sylla's example, and therefore are called difciples, i. e. in cruelty, bloodfhed, and murder. 29. The adulterer.] Domitian. He took away Domitia Longina from her husband Ælius Lamia. A tragical intrigue.] He debauched Julia, the daughter of his brother Titus, though married to Sabinus. After the death of Titus, and of Sabinus, whom Domitian caused to be affaffinated, he openly avowed his paffion for Julia, but was the death of her, by giving her medicines to make her miscarry. See below, 1. 32—3. 30. Recalling laws.] At the very time when Domitian had this tragical intrigue with his niece Julia, he was reviving the fevere laws of Julius Cæfar against adultery, which were afterwards made more fevere by Auguftus. Bitter to all.] Severe and rigid to the laft degree. Many perfons, of both fexes, Domitian put to death for adultery. See Univ. Hift. vol. xv. p. 52. 31. Mars and Venus.] They were caught together by Vulcan, the fabled husband of Venus, by means of a net with which he inclosed them. Juvenal means, by this, to fatirize the zeal of Domitian against adultery in others (while he indulged, not only this, but incest also in his own practice) by faying, that it was fo great, that he would not only punish men, but gods alfo, if it came in his way so to do. 32. Abortives.] Embryos, of which Julia was made to mif carry. 33. Lumps.] Offas, lumps of flesh, crude births, deformed, and fo resembling her uncle Domitian, the incestuous father of them. 34. Juftly 30 Such was the adulterer lately polluted with a tragical 35 34. Fuftly and defervedly.] With the highest reafon and juftice. The most vicious.] Ultima vitia, i. e. ultimi vitiofi, the most abandoned, who are to the utmost degree vicious, fo that they may be termed themselves-vices. The abstract is here put for the concrete. Met. 35. Defpife.] Hold them in the moft fovereign contempt, for their impudence in daring to reprove others for being vicious. The feigned Scauri.] Emilius Scaurus, as defcribed by Salluft, Bell. Jugurth. was a nobleman, bold, factious, greedy of power, honour, and riches, but very artful in difguifing his vices. Juvenal therefore may be fuppofed to call thefe hypocrites fictos, as feigning to be what they were notScauros, as being like E. Scaurus, appearing outwardly grave and fevere, but artfully, like him, concealing their vices. However, I queftion whether the character of Scaurus be not rather to be gathered from his being found among fo many truly great and worthy men-Sat. xi. 1. 90-t. Pliny alfo reprefents him, as a man, fummæ integritatis, of the highest integrity. This idea feems to fuit beft with fictos Scauros, as it leads us to confider thefe hypocrites, as feigning themselves men of integrity and goodness, and as feeming to refemble the probity and severity of manners for which Scaurus was eminent, the better to conceal their vices, and to deceive other people. And being reproved, bite again.] Such hypocrites are not only defpifed by the moft openly vicious for their infincerity, but whenever they have the impudence to reprove vice, even in the most abandoned, these will turn again and retaliate: which is well expreffed by the word remordent. 36. Laronia.] Martial, cotemporary with Juvenal, defcribes a woman of this name, as a rich widow. E Abnegat |