You will enjoy the scab of an apple, which in a trench he gnaws Who is covered with a shield and helmet, and, fearing the whip, Learns from the rough Capella to throw a dart. Perhaps you may think Virro spares expence : 155 He does this that you may grieve: for what comedy-what Mimic is better, than deploring gluttony? therefore all is done, If you know not, that by tears to pour forth vexation You may be compell'd, and long to creek with a press'd 160 grinder. You seem to yourself a free man, and a guest of the great man; He thinks you are taken with the smell of his kitchen, has to expect, if he pursues his plan of attending the tables of the great. A useful lesson is to be drawn from hence by all who affect an intimacy with their superiors, and who, rather than not have the reputation of it, submit to the most insolent treatment; not seeing that every affront which they are forced to endure is only an earnest of still greater. -Virro spares, &c.] Perhaps you will set all this down to a principle of parsimony in the great man, and that, to save expence, Virro lets you fare so ill; but you are mistaken. 157. He does this, &c.] All this is done, (ergo omnia fiunt, 1. 158.) first to vex you, and then to laugh at you. -For what comedy, &c.] There can be no higher comedy, or any buffoon or jester (mimus) more laughable, than a disappointed glutton (gula, lit. throat) bemoaning himself (plorante) with tears of anger and resentment at such ill fare, and gnashing and grating his teeth together, having nothing to put between them to keep them asunder. This, if you know it not already, I now tell you, to be the motive of Virro's treatment of you, when he sends for you to sup with him. 161. A free man, &c.] A gentleman at large, as we say, and think that you are a fit guest for a rich man's table, and that, as such, Virro invites you. 162. He thinks, &c.] He knows you well enough, to suppose that you have no other view in coming but to gormandize, and that therefore the scent of his kitchen alone is what brings you to his house in this he does not guess amiss, for this is certainly the case. Nidor signifies the savour of any thing roasted or burnt. : 163. For who so naked, &c.] So destitute of all things, as after once being so used, would submit to it a second time? This plainly indicates your mean and sordid motives for coming. 164. If the Etruscan gold, &c.] The golden boss, or bulla, brought in among the Romans by the Etrurians, was permitted, at first, only to the children of nobles afterwards to all free-born. It was an ornament, made in the shape of an heart, and worn before the breast, to prompt them to the study of wisdom; they left it off at the age of sixteen. See sat. xiii. 1. 33. 165. The nodus only.] A bulla or boss of leather, a sign or note of freemen, worn by the poorer sort of children, and suspended at the breast by a leathern thong. The meaning of 1. 164, 5. seems to be, that no man, one should think, could bear such treatment a second time, whatever situation of life he himself might be in, whether of a noble, or of a freedman's family. 166. The hope of supping well deceives.] Your love of gluttony gets the better of your reflection, and deceives you into a Semesum leporem, atque aliquid de clunibus apri : 170 pullet, called minor altilis, as distinguishing these smaller dainties from the larger, such as geese, &c. 168. Then with prepared, &c.] Then, with bread ready before you, which remains untouched, as you reserve it to eat with the expected dainties, and ready cut asunder into slices, or, as some, ready drawn out-metaph. from the drawing a sword to be ready against an attack. 169. Ye are silent.] You wait in pa 170 "An half-eaten hare, or something from the buttocks of a boar: "To us will now come the lesser fat fowl"-then with prepared, And untouched, and cut bread, ye are silent. He is wise, who uses you thus: all things, if you can, You also ought to bear: with a shaven crown you will some time Offer your head to be beat, nor will you fear hard Lashes to endure, worthy these feasts, and such a friend. tient expectation of the good things which you imagine are coming to you. 170. He is wise, &c.] Meanwhile, Virro does wisely; he treats you very rightly, by sending none of his dainties to your part of the table; for if you can bear such usage repeatedly, you certainly deserve to bear it. 171. With a shaven crown, &c.] q. d. You will soon be more abject still; like slaves, whose heads are shaven, in token of their servile condition, you will submit to a broken head; you'll not mind an hearty flogging. 173. Worthy these feasts, &c.] Thus you will prove yourself deserving of such scurvy fare as you are insulted with at Virro's table, and of just such a patron as Virro to give it you. SATIRA VI. ARGUMENT. This Satire is almost twice the length of any of the rest, and is a bitter invective against the fair sex. The ladies of Rome are here represented in a very shocking light. The Poet takes CREDO pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam Silvestrem montana torum cum sterneret uxor sæpe Aut aliqua extiterant, et sub Jove, sed Jove nondum Line 1. Saturn.] The son of Cœlum and Vesta. Under his reign in Italy the poets place the Golden Age, when the earth, not forced by plough or harrow, afforded all sorts of grain and fruit, the whole world was common, and without inclosure. 2. Was seen long.] During the whole of the Golden Age. 3. The household god.] Lar signifies a god, whose image was kept within the house, and set in the chimney, or on the hearth, and was supposed to preside over and protect the house and land. 5. The mountain-wife.] Living in dens and caves of the mountains. 5 10 15 7. Cynthia.] Mistress to the poet Propertius. 7,8. Nor thee whose bright eyes, &c.] Meaning Lesbia, mistress to Catullus, who wrote an elegy on the death of her sparrow. The poet mentions these ladies in contrast with the simplicity of life and manners in ancient times. 9. Her great children.] According to Hesiod, in the Golden Age, men were accounted infants, and under the care of their mother, till near an hundred years old. Potanda well suits this idea, for such might rather be said to drink, than to suck. 10. Belching the acorn.] The first race SATIRE VI. ARGUMENT. occasion to persuade his friend Ursidius Posthumus from marriage, at the expence of the whole sex. See Mr. Dryden's Argument. I BELIEVE that chastity, in the reign of Saturn, dwelt Upon earth, and was seen long: when a cold den afforded Small habitations, and fire, and the household-god, 5 And inclosed the cattle, and their masters, in one conmon shelter: Or some, even under Jupiter, but Jupiter not as yet 15 13. And composed out of clay.] Or mud, by Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, one of the Titans. See AINSW. Prometheus. So this poet, sat. xiv. 35. Et melior luto finxit præcordia Titan. See sat. iv. 133. and note. 15. Under Jupiter, &c.] When Jove had driven his father Saturn into banish. ment, the Silver Age began, according to the poets. Jove was the supposed son of Saturn and Ops. 16. Bearded.] The most innocent part of the Silver Age was before Jove had a beard; for when once down grew upon his chin, what pranks he played with Y |