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Another his Elegies? fhall bulky Telephus waste à day With impunity? or Oreftes-the margin of the whole book already full,

And written on the back too, nor as yet finished ?

No man's houfe is better known to him, than to me The grove of Mars, and the den of Vulcan near The Æolian rocks: what the winds can do: what ghosts

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wounded by the spear of Achilles, but afterwards healed by the ruft of the fame fpear. Ovid. Trift. v. 2. 15.

Waste a day.] In hearing it red over, which took up

a whole day.

5. Or Oreftes.] Another play on the ftory of Oreftes, the fon of Agamemnon and Clytemneftra. He flew his own mother, and Ægyfthus, her adulterer, who had murdered his father, This too, by the description of it in this line, and the next, muit have been a very long and tedious performance. It was usual to leave a margin, but this was all filled from top to bottomit was unusual to write on the outfide, or back, of the parchment; but this author had filled the whole outfide, as well as the infide.

5. Of the whole Book.] Or-of the whole of the book.Liber, primarily fignifies the inward bark or rind of a tree; hence a book or work written, at firft made of barks of trees, afterwards of paper and parchment. Summus is derived from fupremus, hence fummum-i, the top, the whole, the fum,

8. The grove of Mars.] The hiftory of Romulus and Remus, whom Ilia, otherwife called Rhea Sylvia, brought forth in a grove, facred to Mars at Alba: hence Romulus was cailed Sylvius-alfo, the fon of Mars. This, and the other subjects mentioned, were fo dinned perpetually into his ears, that the places described, were as familiar to him as his own house.

8. The den of Vulcan.] The hiftory of the Cyclops and Vulcan, the scene of which was laid in Vulcan's den. See Virg. Æn. viii. 1. 416-22.

9. The Eolian rocks.] On the north of Sicily are seven rocky islands, which were called Æolian, or Vulcanian; one of which was called Hiera, or facred, as dedicated to Vulcan. From the frequent breaking forth of fire and fulphur out of the earth of thefe iflands, particularly in Hiera, Vulcan was fupposed to keep his fhop and forge there.

Here alfo Eolus was fuppofed to confine, and prefide over the winds. Hence these islands are called Æolian. See Virg. En. i. 1. 55-67.

9. What the winds can do.] This probably alludes to fome tedious poetical treatifes, on the nature and operations of the

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winds.

acus; unde alius furtivæ devehat aurum Pelliculæ quantas jaculetur Monychus ornos; Frontonis platani, convulfaque marmora clamant Semper, & affiduo ruptæ lectore columnæ. Expectes eadem à fummo, minimoque poëțâ.

Et nos ergo manum ferulæ fubduximus: & nos Confilium dedimus Syllæ, privatus ut altum Dormiret. Stulta eft clementia, cum tot ubique Vatibus occurras, perituræ parcere chartæ.

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winds. Or, perhaps, to fome play, or poem, on the amours of Boreas and Orithya, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens.

10. Eacus may be tormenting.] Eacus was one of the fabled judges of hell, who with his two affeffors, Minos and Rhadamanthus, were fuppofed to torture the ghofts into a confeffion of their crimes. See Virg. Æn. vi. 1. 566-69.

From whence another, &c.] Alluding to the ftory of Jafon, who stole the golden fleece from Colchis.

11. Monychus.] This alludes to fome play, or poem, which had been written on the battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha. The word Monychus is derived from the Greek povos, folus, and Ovu, ungula, and is expreffive of an horse's hoof, which is whole and entire, not cleft or divided.

The Centaurs were fabled to be half men, and half horses fo that by Monychus we are to understand one of the Centaurs, of fuch prodigious ftrength, as to make ufe of large trees for weapons, which he threw, or darted at his enemies.

12. The plane trees of Fronto.] Julius Fronto, a noble and learned man, at whofe houfe the poets recited their works, before they were red, or performed in public. His houfe was planted round with plane trees, for the fake of their shade.

13. The convuljed marbles.] This may refer to the marble ftatues which were in Fronto's hall, and were almost shaken off their pedestals by the din and noise that were made-or to the marble with which the walls were built, or inlaid; or to the marble pavement; all which appeared, as if likely to be fhaken out of their places, by the inceffant noise of these bawling reciters of their works.

The columns broken.] The marble pillars too were in the fame fituation of danger, from the inceffant noise of these people.

The poet means to exprefs the wearifomeness of the continual repetition of the fame things over and over again, and to cenfure the manner, as well as the matter, of thefe irksome re

petitions;

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Æacus may be tormenting: whence another could convey.

the gold

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Of the ftolen Fleece: how great wild-afh trees Monychus could throw:

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The plane-trees of Fronto, and the convuls'd marbles complain

Always, and the columns broken with the continual reader: You may expect the fame things from the higheft and from the leaft poet,

And I therefore have withdrawn my hand from the ferule;

and I

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Have given counsel to Sylla, that, a private man, foundly He fhould fleep. It is a foolish clemency, when every where fo many

Poets you may meet, to fpare paper, that will perish.

petitions; which were attended with fuch loud and vehement vociferation, that even the trees about Fronto's houfe, as well as the marble within it, had reafon to apprehend demolition. This hyperbole is humourous, and well applied to the fubject.

14. You may expect the fame things, &c.] i. e. The fame fubjects, treated by the worst poets, as by the beft. Here he fatyrizes the impudence and prefumption of thefe fcribblers, who, without genius or abilities, had ventured to write, and expose their verses to the public ear; and this, on fubjects which had been treated by men of a fuperior caft.

15. Have withdrawn my hand, &c.] The ferule was an inftrument of punishment, as at this day, with which fchoolmafters corrected their fcholars, by ftriking them with it over the palm of the hand: the boy watched the ftroke, and, if poffible, withdrew his hand from it.

Juvenal means to fay, that he had been at school, to learn the arts of poetry and oratory, and had made declamations, of one of which the fubject was- Whether Sylla fhould take the dictatorship, or live in eafe and quiet as a private man ?" He maintained the latter propofition.

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Therefore.] i. e. În order to qualify myfelf as a writer and declaimer. His meaning feems to be, that, as all, whether good or bad, wrote poems, why should not he, who had had an education in learning, write as well as they?

48. Paper that will perish.] i. e. That will be deftroyed by

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others,

Cur tamen hoc libeat potius decurrere campo,
Per quem magnus equos Auruncæ flexit alumnus:
Si vacat, & placidi rationem admittitis, edam.
Cum tener uxorem ducat spado: Mævia Tufcum
Figat aprum, & nudâ teneat venabula mammâ:
Patricios omnes opibus cum provocet unus,
Quo tondente gravis juveni mihi barba fonabat:
Cum pars Niliacæ plebis, cum verna Canopi
Crifpinus, Tyrias humero revocante lacernas,
Ventilet æftivum digitis fudantibus aurum,

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others, who will write upon it if I do not; therefore there is no reason why I should forbear to make use of it.

19. In the very field.] A metaphor, taken from the chariotraces in the Campus Martius.

20. The great pupil of Aurunca, &c.] Lucilius, the first and moft famous Roman fatyrift, born at Aurunca, an ancient city of Latium, in Italy.

He means-Perhaps you will afk, "how it is that I can "think of taking the fame ground as that great fatyrift Lucilius-and why I fhould rather chufe this way of writing, "when he fo excelled in it, as to be before all others, not only in point of time, but of ability in that kind of writing?"

21. Hearken to my reafon.] Literally, the verb admitto, fignifies to admit: but it is fometimes ufed with Auribus understood, and then, it denotes attending, or hearkening, to fomething this 1 fuppofe to be the fenfe of it in this place, as it follows the fi vacat.

22. Mavia] The name of fome woman, who had the impudence to fight in the Circus with a Tufcan boar.

The Tufcan boars were reckoned the fierceft.

23. With a naked breaft.] In imitation of an Amazon. Under the name of Mævia, the poet probably means to reprove all the ladies at Rome, who expofed themselves in the pursuit of mafculine exercises, which were fo fhamefully contrary to all female delicacy.

24. The patricians.] The nobles of Rome. They were the defcendents of fuch as were created fenators in the time of Romulus. Of these there were, originally, only one hundredafterwards, more were added to them.

25. Who clipping, &c.] The perfon here meant, is fuppofed to be Licinius the freedman and barber of Auguftus, or perhaps Cinnamus. See Sat. x. 1. 225-6.

Sounded.] Alluding to the found of clipping the beard

But why it should please me rather to run along this very

field,

Through which the great pupil of Aurunca drave his

horses,

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I will tell you, if you have leifure, and kindly hearken to
my reafon.

When a delicate eunuch can marry a wife: Mævia can stick.
A Tufcan boar, and hold hunting-fpears with a naked breaft:
When one can vie with all the patricians in riches,
Who clipping, my beard troublesome to me a youth

founded.

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When a part of the commonalty of the Nile, when a flave of Canopus,

Crifpinus, his fhoulder recalling the Tyrian cloaks,

Can ventilate the fummer-gold on his sweating fingers

with fciffars. Q. D. who with his fciffars clipped my beard, when I was a young man, and firft came under the barber's hands.

26. Part of the commonalty of the Nile.] One of the lowest of the Ægyptians who had come as flaves to Rome.

Crifpinus.] He, from a flave, had been made master of the horse to Nero.

Canopus.] A city of Egypt, addicted to all manner of effeminacy and debauchery-famous for a temple of Serapis, a god of the Egyptians. This city was built by Menelaus, in memory of his pilot, Canopus, who died there, and was afterwards canonized. See Sat. xv. 1. 46.

27. His fhoulder recalling.] Revocante-The Romans ufedr to faften their cloaks round the neck with a loop, but in hot weather, perhaps, ufually went with them loofe. As Juvenal is now fpeaking of the fummer feafon (as appears by the next line) he describes the fhoulder as recalling, or endeavouring to hoift up, and replace the cloak, which, from not being faftened by a loop to the neck, was often flipping away, and Aliding downwards from the fhoulders.

Tyrian cloaks.] i. e. Dyed with Tyrian purple, which was very expenfive. By this he marks the extravagance and luxury of thefe upstarts.

28. Ventilate the fummer-gold, &c.] The Romans were arrived at fuch an height of luxury, that they had rings for the winter, and others for the fummer, which they wore according

to

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