60 "It is known why Hifter filled his will with only "His freedman; why alive he gave much to a wench : "She will be rich, who fleeps third in a large bed. "Do thou marry, and hufh-fecrets bestow gems. "After all this, a heavy fentence is passed against us. "Censure excufes ravens, and vexes doves.. Her, proclaiming things true and manifeft, trembling fled The Stoicides-For what falsehood had Laronia [uttered]? 65 As if she had faid-" You hear what you are to expect; fuch of you as wish to be rich, I advise to marry, and keep their "hufbands fecrets." 61. Secrets bestow gems. Cylindros-thefe were precious ftones, of an oblong and round form, which the women used to hang in their ears. Here they feem to fignify all manner of gems. 62. After all this.] After all I have been faying of the men, I can't help obferving how hardly we women are used. An heavy fenience, &c.] Where we are concerned, no mercy is to be fhewn to us; the heaviest fentence of the laws is called down upon us, and its utmost vengeance is prefscribed against us. 63. Cenfure excufes ravens, &c.] Laronia ends her speech with a proverbial laying, which is much to her purpose. Cenfura here means punishment. The men, who, like ra◄ vens, and other birds of prey, are fo mischievous, are yet excufed; but, alas! when we poor women, who are, comparatively, harmless as doves, when we, through fimplicity and weakness, go aftray, we hear of nothing but punishment. 64. Her proclaiming, &c.] We have here the effect of Laronia's fpeech upon her guilty hearers their confciences were alarmed, and away they flew, they could not stand any longer: they knew what the faid to be true, and not a tittle of it could be denied; fo the fafter they could make their escape, the better: like those fevere hypocrites we read of, John viii. 7-9. Cano fignifies, as ufed here, to report, to proclaim, aloud. 65. The Stoicides.] Stoicida.This word feems to have been framed on the occafion, with a feminine ending, the bet ter to fuit their characters, and to intimate the monstrous effe minacy of thefe pretended Stoics. The Stoics were called Stoici, from go, a porch in Athens, where they used to meet and difpute. They highly commended apathy, or freedom from all paffions. Juvenal, having feverely lafhed the Stoicides, or pretended Stoics, now proceeds to attack, in the perfon of Metellus Cre E 4 ticus, Sed quid Non facient alii, cùm tu multicia fumas, 65 70 ticus, the effeminacy of certain magiftrates, who appeared, even in the feat of justice, attired in a most unbecoming and indecent manner, and fuch as bespake them in the high road to the moft horrid impurities. 66. Will not others do, &c.] q. d. It is no marvel, that we find vice triumphant over people that move in a lefs confpicuous. fphere of life, when plain and apparent fymptoms of it are seen in those who fill the feats of justice, and are actually exhibited by them, before the public eye, in open court. 67. O Creticus.] This magiftrate was defcended from the family of that Metellus, who was called Creticus, from his conqueft of Crete. Juvenal, moft probably, addresses Metellus by this furname of his great ancestor, the more to expose and fhame him, for acting fo unworthy his descent from so brave and noble a person. -Transparent garments.] Multicia, quafi multilicia, of many threads. These were fo finely and curiously wrought, that the body might be seen through them. Thou declaimeft.] Paffeft fentence in the most aggravated terms-Perores. The end of a speech, in which the orator collected all his force and eloquence, was called the peroration but the verb is used in a larger fenfe, and fignifies to declaim and make an harangue against any person or thing. 68. Procule and Pollita.] Names of particular women, who were condemned, on the Julian law, for incontinence, but, fo famous in their way, as to ftand here for lewd women in ge neral. He could condemn fuch in the fevereft manner, when before him in judgment, while he, by his immodeft drefs, fhewed himfelf to be worse than they were. Fabulla.] 69. Carfinia.] Notorious adultereffes. 70. Such But what 65 Will not others do, when thou affumeft tranfparent gar ments, O Creticus, and (the people wond'ring at this apparel) thou declaimest Against the Proculæ and Pollineæ? Fabulla is an adulterefs "burns " But July 70 "I'm very hot"-do your business naked: madness is less fhameful. Lo the habit! in which, thee promulgating ftatutes and laws, The people (with crude wounds just now victorious, 70. Such a gown, &c.] Bad as fuch women may be, and even convicted of incontinence, yet they would not appear in fuch a drefs, as is worn by you who condemn them. Or perhaps this alludes to the cuftom of obliging women, convicted of adultery, to pull off the ftola, or woman's garment, and put on the toga, or man's garment, which ftigmatized them as infamous, but even this was not fo infamous as the transparent dress of the judge. Horace calls a common prostitute togata. Sat. ii. Lib. i. 1. 63. "But July burns," &c.] He endeavours at an excufe, from the heat of the weather, for being thus clad. 71. Do your business, &c.] As a judge. Agere legemfometimes, fignifies, to execute the fentence of the law against malefactors. See AINSWORTH-Ago. Madness is lefs fhameful.] Were you to fit on the bench naked, you might be thought mad, but this would not be fo fhameful; madness might be fome excuse. 72. Behold the habit! &c.] This, and the three following lines, fuppofe fome of the old hardy and brave Romans, juft come from a victory, and covered with fresh wounds (crudis vulneribus)-rough mountaineers, who had left their ploughs, like Cincinnatus, to fight againft the enemies of their country, and on their arrival at Rome, with the enfigns of glorious conqueft, finding fuch an effeminate character upon the bench, bearing the charge of the laws, and bringing them forth in judgment which may be the fenfe of ferentem in this place. 75. What Quid non proclames, in corpore Judicis ifta Foedius hoc aliquid quandoque audebis amictu: 75 80 75. What would not you proclaim, &c.] How would you exclaim! What would you not utter, that could express your indignation and abhorrence (O antient and venerable people) of fuch a filken judge! 76. I ask, would, &c.] q. d. It would be indecent for a private perfon, who only attends as a witnefs, to appear in fuch a drefs-how much more for a judge, who fits in an eminent station, in a public character, and who is to condemn vice of all kinds. 77. Sour and unfubdued.] O Creticus, who pretendeft to ftoicifm, and appearing morofe, fevere, and not overcome by your paffions. Mafter of liberty.] By this, and the preceding part of this line, it should appear, that this effeminate judge was one who pretended to ftoicifm, which taught a great feverity of manners, and an apathy both of body and mind; likewife fuch a li berty of living as they pleafed, as to be exempt from the frailties and paffions of other men. They taught-7 μόνος 8 σοφος ἐλεύθερος—that σε only a wife man was free."-Hence Cic. Quid eft libertas ? poteftas vivendi ut velis. 78. You are transparent.] Your body is feen through your fine garments: fo that with all your ftoicifm, your appearance is that of a fhameless and moft unnatural libertine: a flave to the vileft paffions, though pretending to be master of your liberty of action. Contagion gave this ftain.] You owe all this to the company which you have kept; by this you have been infected. 79. And will give it to more. e.] You will corrupt others by your example, as you were corrupted by the example of thofe whom you have followed. The language here is metaphorical, taken from diftempered cattle, which communicate infection by herding together. 80. Falls What would you not proclaim, if, on the body of a judge, those things 75 You should fee? I afk, would tranfparent garments be come a witness ? Sour and unfubdued, and master of liberty, beholden. 80 O Creticus, you are transparent! contagion gave this stain, 80. Falls by the fcab, &c.] Our English proverb faysOne fcabby fheep mars the whole flock." 81. A grape, &c.] This is alfo a proverbial faying, from the ripening of the black grape (as we call it) which has a blue or livid hue thefe do not turn to that colour all at once and together, but grape after grape, which, the vulgar fuppofed, was owing to one grape's looking upon another, being very near in contact, and fo contracting the fame colour. They had a proverb-Uva uvam videndo varia fit. 83. Nobody was on a fudden, &c.] None ever arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness at first setting out: the workings of evil are gradual, and almost imperceptible at firft; but as the infinuations of vice deceive the confcience, they first blind and then harden it, until the greatest crimes are committed without remorfe. I do not recollect where I met with the underwritten lines; but as they contain excellent advice, they may not be unufeful in this place. O Leoline, be obftinately juft, Indulge no paffion, and betray no trust; The firft crime paft compels us on to more, And guilt proves fate, which was but choice before. They will receive, &c.] By degrees you will go on from one step to another till you are received into the lewd and horrid fociety after mentioned. The poet is now going to expofe a fet of unnatural wretches, who, in imitation of women, celebrated the rites of the Bona Dea. 84. Who at home, &c.] Domi- that is, fecretly, privately, |