Clamantem toties, ubi nunc lex Julia? dormis? Ante omnes debet Scantinia; respice primùm Abnegat & retinet noftrum Laronia fervum, 40 By what Juvenal represents her to have faid, in the following lines, the feems to have had no fmall fhare of wit. 36. Did not endure.] She could not bear him; she was out of all patience. Sour.] Crabbed, ftern in his appearance. Or torvum may be here put for the adverb torvè torvè clamantem. Græcifm. See above, 1. 3, and note. From among them. i. e. One of thefe diffemblers-one out of this hypocritical herd. 37. Crying out fo often.] Repeating aloud his feeming indignation against vice, and calling down the vengeance of the law against lewdness and effeminacy. Where is the Julian law?] Against adultery and lewdness (fee 1. 30, note) why is it not executed ?-As it then flood, it punished adultery and fodomy with death. Doft thou fleep?] Art thou as regardless of these enormities, as a person faft afleep is of what paffes about him? 38. And thus fmiling.] Laronia could not refrain herself at hearing this, and, with a fmile of the utmost contempt, ready almost at the fame time to laugh in his face, thus jeers him. Happy times! &c.] That have raised up fuch a reformer as thou art, to oppose the evil manners of the age! 39. Rome may now take frame.] Now, to be fure Rome will blufh, and take fhame to herself, for what is practifed within her walls, fince fuch a reprover appears. Irony. 40. A third Cato.] Cato Cenforius, as he was called, from his great gravity and ftrictness in his cenforfhip; and Cato Uti cenfis, fo called from his killing himself at Utica, a city of Africa, were men highly esteemed as eminent moralifts; to thefe, fays Laronia (continuing her ironical banter) heaven has added a third Cato, by fending us fo fevere and refpectable a moralift as thou art. 41. Per Crying out fo often, "Where is now the Julian law? doft "thou fleep?" And thus fmiling: "Happy times! which thee "Oppose to manners: now Rome may take shame: "A third Cato is fallen from heaven :-but yet whence 40 "Do you buy these perfumes which breathe from your rough "Neck? don't be ashamed to declare the mafter of the « shop: But if the ftatutes and laws are difturbed, the Scantinian "Ought before all to be stirred up. Confider first, 41. Perfumes.] Opobalfama-oros Baλoaus-i. e. Succus balfami. This was fome kind of perfumery, which the effeminate among the Romans made ufe of, and of which, it seems, this fame rough-looking reprover finelt very strongly. 42. Your rough neck.] Hairy, and bearing the appearance of a moft philofophic neglect of your perfon. Don't be ashamed, &c.] Don't blufh to tell us where the perfumer lives, of whom you bought thefe fine sweet-fmelling ointments. Here her raillery is very keen, and tends to fhew what this pretended reformer really was, notwithstanding his appearance of fanctity. She may be faid to have smelt him out. 43. Statutes and laws are difturbed.] From that state of fleep in which you seem to represent them, and from which you wish to awaken them. The Roman jurisprudence feems to have been founded on a threefold basis, on which the general law, by which the government was carried on, was established-that is to fay-Confulta patrum, or decrees of the fenate-Leges, which seem to answer to our ftatute-laws and jura, those rules of common juftice, which were derived from the two former, but particularly from the latter of the two, or, perhaps, from immemorial ufage and cuftom, like the common law of EngJand. Hor. Lib. i. Epift. xvi. 1. 41. mentions these three particulars Vir bonus eft quis? Qui confulta patrum, qui leges, juraque fervat. See an account of the Roman laws at large, in Kennet's Roman Antiq. Part ii. Book iii. chap. xxi. & feq. 44. The Scantinian.] So called from Scantinius Aricinus, by whom it was firft introduced to punish fodomy, Others think that this law was fo called from C. Scantinius, who at tempted this crime on the son of Marcellus, and was punished accordingly. E 2 45. Examine Et fcrutare viros: faciunt hi plura; fed illos Tædia non lambit Cluviam, nec Flora Catullam : 45 50 55 45. Examine the men.] Search diligently-fcrutinize into their abominations. Thefe do more things.] They far out-do the other fex; they do more things worthy of fevere reprehenfion. 46. Number defends.] This tends to fhew how common that deteftable vice was. (Comp. Rom. i. 27.) Such numbers were guilty of it, that it was looked upon rather as fashionable than criminal; they feemed to fet the law at defiance, as not daring to attack fo large a body. Battalions joined, c.] A metaphor taken from the Roman manner of engaging. A phalanx properly fignified a difpofition for an attack on the enemy by the foot, with every man's fhield or buckler fo close to another's, as to join them together and make a fort of impenetrable wall or rampart. This is faid to have been firft invented by the Macedonians; phalanx is therefore to be confidered as a Macedonian word. 47. There is great concord, &c.] They are very fond of each other, and ftrongly connected and united, fo that, attacking one, would be like attacking all. 49. Tædia-Flara, &c.] Famous Roman courtezans in Juvenal's time-bad as they were, the men were worse. 51. Do we plead, &c.] Do we women ufurp the province of the men? do we take upon us thofe functions which belong to them? 53. A few wrefle.] A few women there are, who are of fuch a mafculine turn of mind, as to wrestle in public. See Sat. i. 22-3, and notes; and Sat. vi. 245-57, and notes. The reftler's diet.] Prepare themfelves for wreftling as the wrestlers do by feeding on the coliphium-2 zwha loa membra "And examine the men: thefe do more things-but "them 45 Number defends, and battalions joined with a buckler. "There is great concord among the effeminate: there "will not be any <Example fo detestable in our sex; "Tædia careffes not Cluvia, nor Flora Catulla: "Hippo affails youths, and in his turn is affailed. "Do we plead caufes? the civil laws 50 "Do we know? or with any noise do we make a ftir in your courts? "A few wrestle, a few eat wrestler's diet: "You card wool, and carry back in full baskets your finished "Fleeces; you the spindle, big with slender thread, 55 "Better than Penelope do twift, and finer than Arachne, "As does a dirty harlot fitting on a log. membra robufta-a kind of dry diet, which wrestlers used, to make them ftrong and firm-flefhed. See AINSW. 54. You card wool,] You, effeminate wretches, forfake manly exercises, and addict yourselves to employments which are peculiar to women. In baskets.] The calathi were little ofier or wicker baskets, in which the women put their work when they had finished it, in order to carry it back to their employers. 56. Penelope.] Wife of Ulyffes, who, during her husband's abfence, was importuned by many noble fuitors, whofe addreffes the refufed with inviolable conftancy: but, fearing they might take her by force, fhe amufed them, by defiring them to wait, till fhe had finished a web which she was then about: and to make the time as long as poffible, fhe undid during the night what she had done in the day. Arachne.] A Lydian damfel, very skilful in fpinning and weaving. She is fabled to have contended with Minerva, and, being out-done, fhe hanged herself, and was by that god defs changed into a fpider. Ov. Met. Lib, vi. Fab. i. By mentioning these inftances, Laronia ironically commends the great proficiency of the men in carding and spinning both thefe operations feem to be diftinctly marked by the poet. 57. A dirty harlot.] Pellex properly denotes the mistress of a married man. This, and the Greek manλanıç, seem derived from Heb. waha pilgefh, which we render-concubine. E 3 Codex Notum eft, cur folo tabulas impleverit Hister Liberto; dederit vivus cur multa puellæ: Dives erit, magno quæ dormit tertia lecto. бо Tu nube, atque tace: donant arcana cylindros. De nobis poft hæc triftis fententia fertur: 65 Codex-from caudex-literally fignifies a ftump or ftock of a tree-of a large piece of which, a log was cut out, and made an inftrument of punishment for female flaves, who were chained to it on any misbehaviour towards their mistreffes, but especially where there was jealoufy in the cafe; and there they were to fit and work at fpinning or the like. 58. Hifter.] Some infamous character, here introduced by Laronia, in order to illuftrate her argument. Filled his will.] Tabula fignifies any plate or thin material on which they wrote-hence deeds, wills, and other written inftruments, were called tabulæ. So public edicts. See before, 1. 28. With only his freedman.] Left him his fole heir. 59. Why alive, &c.] Why in his life-time he was so very generous, and made fuch numbers of prefents to his wife, here called puellæ, as being a very young girl when he married her: but I fhould rather think, that the arch Laronia has a more fevere meaning in her ufe of the term puellæ, by which she would intimate, that his young wife, having been totally neglected by him, remained ftill-puella, a maiden; Hifter having no defire towards any thing, but what was unnatural with his favourite freedman. It is evident that the poet ufes puella in this fenfe. Sat. ix, 1.74. See note on Sat. ix. 1. 70. 60. She will be rich, &c.] By receiving (as Hifter's wife did) large fums for hufh-money. Who fleeps third, &c.] By this fhe would infinuate, that Hifter caufed his freedman, whom he afterwards made his heir, to lie in the bed with him and his wife, and gave his wife large prefents of money, jewels, &c. not to betray his abominable practices. 61. Do thou marry.] This apoftrophe may be fuppofed to be addreffed to the unmarried women, who might be ftanding by, and liftening to Laronia's fevere reproof of the husbands of that day, and contains a farcafm of the most bitter kind. |