Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

The spoil of Auruncian Actor, in which he viewed him

felf

100

Armed, when he commanded the banners to be taken up:

A thing to be related in new annals, and in recent
History, a looking-glass the baggage of civil war!

To kill Galba is doubtlefs the part of a great general,

And to take care of the skin, the perfeverance of the highest

citizen.

105

In the field of Bedriacum to affect the fpoil of the palace, And to extend over the face bread fqueezed with the fingers: Which neither the quivered Semiramis in the Affyrian world, Nor fad Cleopatra did in her Actiacan galley.

doubtless, a most noble piece of generalfhip, worthy a great general; and, to be fure, it was the part of a great citizen to take fo much care of his complexion-it must be allowed worthy the mightiest citizen of Rome, to attend to this with unremitting conftancy!

This action of Otho's, who, when he found Galba, who had promised to adopt him as his fucceffor, deceiving him, in favour of Pifo, destroyed him, makes a strong contraft in the character of Otho in one inftance, bold and enterprizing-in another, foft and effeminate.

105. In the field to affect, &c.] To aim at, to afpire to, the peaceable and fole poffeffion of the emperor's palace, as master of the empire, when engaged in the battle with Vitellius in the field of Bedriacum (between Cremona and Verona) was great and noble ; but how fadly inconfiftent with what follows!

107. To extend over the face, &c.] The Roman ladies used a fort of bread, or pafte, wetted with affes milk. This they preffed and spread with their fingers on the face to cover it from the air, and thus preferve the complexion. See Sat. vi. 1. 461. This was practifed by the emperor Otho.

Otho, at last, being twice defeated by Vitellius, dreading the horrors of the civil war in which he was engaged, killed himfelf to prevent it, when he had fufficient force to try his fortune again.

108. The quivered Semiramis.] The famous warlike queen of Affyria, who, after the death of her husband Ninus, put on man's apparel, and did many warlike actions.

queen

of

109. Sad Cleopatra.] The famous and unfortunate Egypt, who, with M. Anthony, being defeated by Auguftus, in the fea-fight at Actium, fled to Alexandria, and there, deF

fpairing

Hic nullus verbis pudor, aut reverentia mensæ:
Hic turpis Cybeles, & fractâ voce loquendi
Libertas, & crine fenex fanaticus albo

Sacrorum antiftes, rarum ac memorabile magni
Gutturis exemplum, conducendufque magifter.

110

Quid tamen expectant, Phrygio queis tempus erat jam 115
More fupervacuam cultris abrumpere carnem?
Quadringenta dedit Gracchus feftertia, dotem
Cornicini: five hic recto cantaverat ære;

fpairing to find any favour from Auguftus, applied two afps to her breaft, which ftung her to death. She died on the tomb of Anthony, who had killed himself after the lofs of the battle.

109. In the Actiacan galley.] Carina properly fignifies the keel, or bottom of a fhip, but, by fynec. the whole fhip or vef fel. It denotes, here, the fine galley, or veffel, in which Cleopatra was at the battle of Actium; which was richly ornamented with gold, and had purple fails. Regina (Cleopatra) cum aureâ puppe, veloque purpureo, fe in altum dedit. Plin. Lib. xix. c. I. ad fin.

From this, it is probable, that our Shakespear took his idea of the veffel in which Cleopatra, when the first met M. Anthony on the river Cydnus, appeared: the defcription of which is embellished with fome of the fineft touches of that great poet's fancy. See Ant. and Cleop. Act. ii. Sc. ii.

Neither of these women were fo effeminate as the emperor Otho..

110. Here is no modefty, &c.] effeminacy of their actions and

Juvenal having cenfured the drefs, now attacks their man

ner of converfation, at their facrificial feafts.

Reverence of the table.] That is, of the table where they feafted on their facrifices, which, every where elfe, was reckoned facred: here they paid no fort of regard to it.

111. Of filthy Cybele.] Here they indulge themselves in all the filthy converfation that they can utter; like the priests of Cybele, who used to difplay all manner of filthiness and obfcenity before the image of their goddess, both in word and action.

With broken voice.] Perhaps this means a feigned, altered, lifping voice, to imitate the voices of women, or of the priests of Cybele who were all eunuchs.

112. An old fanatic.] Fanaticus (from Gr. Davoμas, appareo) denotes one that pretends to inspiration, vifions, and the like. Such the Galli, or priests of Cybele were called, from

*

Here is no modesty in their discourse, or reverence of the

[merged small][ocr errors]

Here, of filthy Cybele, and of speaking with broken voice,
The liberty; and an old fanatic, with white hair,
Chief priest of facred things, a rare and memorable example
Of an ample throat, and a master to be hired.

But what do they wait for, for whom it is now high time, in the Phrygian

115 Manner, to cut away with knives their fuperfluous flesh? Gracchus gave 400 festertia, a dower

To a horn-blower, or perhaps he had founded with strait braís.

their ftrange geftures and fpeeches, as if actuated or poffeffed by fome spirit which they called divine.

See Virg. n. vi. 1. 46-51. a description of this fanatic infpiration which fhews what the heathen meant, when they fpake of their diviners being-pleni Deo-aflati numine, and the like. See Park. Heb. and Eng. Lex. 8, N° 4.

Such a one was the old white-headed prieft here spoken of. 113. Chief priest of facred things.] Of their abominable rites. and ceremonies, which they performed, in imitation of the women, to the Bona Dea.

114. An ample throat.] A moft capacious fwallow-he fet an example of moft uncommon gluttony.

A mafter to be hired] If any one would be taught the science of gluttony, and of the most beaftly fenfuality, let him hire fuch an old fellow as this, for a mafter to inftruct him. Ter. And. Act i. Sc. ii. 1. 19. has a thought of this kind, Simo fays to Davus

Tum fi magiftrum cepit ad eam rem improbum.

115. What do they wait for, &c.] As they wish to be like the priests of Cybele, and are fo fond of imitating them, why do they delay that operation which would bring them to a perfect resemblance?

117. Gracchus.] It should feem, that, by this name, Juvenal does not mean one particular perion only, but divers of the nobles of Rome, who had fhamefully practifed what he mentions here, and afterwards, 1. 143. gave a dower-dotem dedit-as a wife brings a dower to her husband, fo did Gracchus to the horn-blower.

400 feftertia.] See note, Sat. i. 1. 106. about L. 3125. 118. A born-blower, &c.] A fellow who had been either

[blocks in formation]

Signatæ tabulæ dictum feliciter! ingens
Cœna fedet: gremio jacuit nova nupta mariti.
O Proceres, cenfore opus eft, an harufpice nobis?
Scilicet horreres, majoraque monftra putares,
Si mulier vitulum, vel fi bos ederet agnum?
Segmenta, & longos habitus, & flammea fumit,

120

this, or a trumpeter, in the Roman army, in which the Romans only used wind-inftruments: the two principal ones were, the cornua, or horns, and the tube-trumpets: they both were made of brass: the horns were made crooked, like the horns of animals, which were ufed by the rude antients in battle. The trumpets were ftrait, like ours, therefore Juvenal fuppofing the perfon might have been a trumpeter, fays-recto cantaverat ære. That these two inftruments were made of brafs, and shaped as above mentioned, appears from Ovid, Met. Lib. i. 1.98. Non tuba directi, non æris cornua flexi. See an account of the Roman martial musical inftruments, Kennet, Antiqu. Part ii. book iv. c. 11.

119. The writings.] The marriage-writings. See note on 1. 58.

[ocr errors]

Happily "faid.] They were wifhed joy, the form of which was by pronouncing the word-" feliciter "-I wish you joy, as we fay: this was particularly used on nuptial occa-. fions, as among us.

120. A vaft fupper fet.] A fumptuous entertainment, on the occafion, fet upon the table. Or, ingens cæna may here be used metonymically, to denote the guefts who were invited in great numbers to the marriage fupper: the word fedet is fuppofed equivalent with accumbit. This laft is the interpretation of J. Britannicus, and C. S. Curio: but Holyday is for the first and I rather think with him, as the word fedet is used in a like fenfe, where our poet fpeaks (Sat. i. 1. 95-6.) of fetting the dole-basket on the threshold of the door :

[blocks in formation]

So here for fetting the fupper on the table.

The new-married, &c.] As Sporus was given in marriage to Nero, fo Gracchus to this trumpeter: hence Juvenal humourously calls Gracchus, nova nupta, in the feminine gender. Nubere is applicable to the woman, and ducere to the

man.

[ocr errors]

In the husband's bofom.] i. e. Of the trumpeter, who now was become hufband to Gracchus.

121. O ye nobles.] O proceres! O ye patricians, nobles,

fenators,

The writings were figned: "Happily "-faid :-a vast Supper is fet: the new-married lay in the husband's

bofom.

--

120

O ye nobles! have we occafion for a cenfor, or for a footh

fayer?

What! would you dread, and think them greater prodigies,

If a woman should produce a calf, or a cow a lamb ?
Collars, and long habits, and wedding veils he takes,

fenators, magiftrates of Rome, to whom the government and magiftracy, as well as the welfare of the city is committed! Many of these were guilty of these abominations, therefore Juvenal here farcaftically invokes them on the occafion.

121. A cenfor.] An officer, whofe business it was to inspect and reform the manners of the people. There were two of them, who had power even to degrade knights, and to exclude fenators, when guilty of great mifdemeanours. Formerly they maintained fuch a feverity of manners, that they ftood in awe of each other.

Soothsayer.] Arufpex or harufpex, from haruga-a facrifice (which from Heb. 1, to kill or flaughter) and specioto view. A diviner who divined by viewing the entrails of the facrifices. A foothfayer. When any thing portentous or prodigious happened, or appeared in the entrails of the beasts, it was the office of the harufpex to offer an expiation, to avert the fuppofed anger of the gods.

q. d. Do we, in the midst of all these prodigies of wickednefs, want mof a cenfor for correction, or an harufpex for expiation? For, as the next two lines intimate, we ought not, in all reafon, to be more fhocked or amazed, at the most monftrous or unnatural births, than at these monftrous and unnatural productions of vice.

124. Collars.] Segmenta- collars, ouches, pearl-necklaces worne by women. AINSW. from feco, to cut-fegmen, a piece cut off from fomething: perhaps fegmina may mean pieces of ribbon, or the like, worne as collars, as they often are by women among us.

Long habits.] The ftola, or matron's gown, which reached down to the feet.

Wedding veils.] Flameum or flammeum, from flamma, a flame, because it was of a yellowish or flame-colour. A kind of veil or scarf, put over the brides's face for modefty's fake. He takes. Gracchus puts on, who once had been one

of the Salii.

[blocks in formation]
« PredošláPokračovať »