Many have repented the vain and barren chair,

As the exit of Thrasymachus proves, and of Secundus
Carrinas, and him whom poor you saw, O Athens,
Daring to bestow nothing but cold hemlock.

205

Grant, ye gods, to the shades of our ancestors thin earth, and without weight,

210

And breathing crocusses, and perpetual spring upon their urn,
Who would have a preceptor to be in the place of a sacred
Parent. Achilles, now grown up, fearing the rod,
Sang in his paternal mountains; and from whom then
Would not the tail of the harper his master have drawn forth
laughter?

But Ruffus, and others, each of their own young men strike,
Ruffus, who so often called Cicero an Allobrogian.
214
Who brings to the lap of Enceladus, or of the learned Palamon,
Asmuch as grammatical labour has deserved? and yet from this,
Whatever it be, (but it is less than the money of the rhetorician,)
Acœnitus himself, the keeper of the scholar, snips,

And he who manages, breaks off some for himself. Yield, Palæmon,

212. Harper his master.] Chiron is said to have taught music, as well as medicine and astronomy.

213. But Ruffus, &c.] Now, so far from the masters receiving veneration from their scholars, it is a common practice for the scholar to beat the master, as had been the case of Ruffus and others. So PLAUTUS, Bacch. iii. 3. 37. Puer septuennis pædagogo tabula dirum pit caput.

214. Ruffus, &c.] This Ruffus charged Cicero with writing barbarous Latin, like an Allobrogian, or Savoyard. Even this great grammarian could not obtain respect from his scholars.

215. Who brings, &c.] Who pays Enceladus a reward equal to his labours? He was a famous grammarian. Gremio here denotes a loose cavity, or hollow, formed by the doubling of the robe or garment.q. d. A lap, into which things were put. Gr. xoλros. Comp. Luke vi. 38.

―The learned Palamon.] Rhemnius Palamon, a very learned and distinguished grammarian, but who was so conceited, as to say, that learning would live and die with him. See SUET. de Gramm. 23. See sat. vi. 1. 451.

217. Whatever it be, &c.] After all, small as the pay of a grammarian may be, (which at the most is even smaller than that of a rhetorician,) there are sad defalcations from it.

218. Aconitus the keeper, &c.] This Aconitus is a feigned name for some pædagogue, (Gr. was, a boy, and ayw, to lead,) who was a sort of servant, that followed his young master, took care of his behaviour, and particularly attended him to his exercise, and to school.

He is properly called here, discipuli custos. He insisted on having part of the poor grammarian's pay, as a perquisite. The word præmordet is here peculiarly happy, and intimates that the pædagogue, who, perhaps, carried the pay, took a part of it before he delivered it to the master: like a person who is to give a piece of bread to another, and bites a piece off first for himself.

219. He who manages, &c.] Qui dispensat, i. e. dispensator, the steward, or housekeeper; either that belonging to the grammarian, into whose hands the money is paid, retains some part of it for his wages, or the steward of the gentleman who pays it, retains a part of

Et patere inde aliquid decrescere, non aliter, quam
Institor hybernæ tegetis, niveique cadurci :
Dummodo non pereat, mediæ quod noctis ab horâ
Sedisti, quâ nemo faber, quâ nemo sederet,
Qui docet obliquo lanam deducere ferro:
Dummodo non pereat totidem olfecisse lucernas,
Quot stabant pueri, cum totus decolor esset
Flaccus, et hæreret nigro fuligo Maroni.
Rara tamen merces, quæ cognitione Tribuni
Non egeat. Sed vos sævas imponite leges,
Ut præceptori verborum regula constet,
Ut legat historias, auctores noverit omnes,
Tanquam ungues digitosque suos; ut forte rogatus
Dum petit aut thermas, aut Phoebi balnea, dicat
Nutricem Anchise, nomen, patriamque novercæ
Archemori dicat quot Acestes vixerit annos,
Quot Siculus Phrygibus vini donaverit urnas.
Exigite, ut mores teneros ceu pollice ducat,
Ut si quis cerâ vultum facit: exigite, ut sit
Et pater ipsius cœetûs, ne turpia ludant,

:

220

225

230

235

it by way of poundage, or perquisite, to himself. Frangit.-metaph. from breaking something that was entire.

219. Yield, Palamon, &c.] Submit to these abatements, and be glad to have something, though less than your due, as it fares with tradesmen who are willing to abate something in their price, rather than not sell their goods. See AINSW. Institor.

222. Let it not be lost, &c.] Only take care to have something for your trouble; let not all your pains, which you have taken, be thrown away, in rising at midnight to teach your boys; a fatigue that no common mechanic would undergo.

224. To draw out wool, &c.] To comb wool, which they did, as we find by this passage, with a card having crooked teeth made of iron, like those now in

use.

225. To have smelt, &c.] Let it not be for nothing that you have been half poisoned with the stink of as many lamps as you have boys standing round you to say their lessons before it is light, and therefore are each of them with a lamp in his hand to read by.

226, 7. Horace all discolour'd.] With

the oil of the lamps, which the boys, through carelessness, let drop on their books.

227. Black Virgil.] Made black with the smoke of the lamps, which the boys held close to their books, when they were reading and construing their les

sons.

228. Yet pay is rare, which, &c.] Though little is left of the pay to the grammarian, after all the deductions above mentioned, yet it is very rare that they get any thing at all, unless they go to law for it. The tribune here means the judge who tried civil causes.

229. But impose ye, &c.] Though the poor grammarian labours under all these difficulties, be sure, you that send your sons to them, to impose all the task upon them that ye can: make no abatement in his qualifications: expect that he knows every rule of grammar.

231. Read histories, &c.] That he should be a good historian: that he should know all authors at his fingers' ends, ad unguem, as the saying is.

233. The hot baths.] There were thermæ, hot baths, in Rome, as well as cold baths, balnea; to the former they went to sweat, in the other they washed,

And suffer something to decrease from thence, not otherwise

than

220

A dealer in winter-rug, and white blanket.
Only let it not be lost, that from the midnight hour

225

You have sat, in which no smith, in which nobody would sit,
Who teaches to draw out wool with the crooked iron:
Only let it not be lost to have smelt as many lamps
As boys were standing, when all discolour'd was
Horace, and soot stuck to black Virgil.

Yet pay is rare which may not want the cognizance

Of the Tribune.-But impose ye cruel laws,

That the rule of words should be clear to the preceptor: 230 That he should read histories, should know all authors

As well as his own nails and fingers; that, by chance, being ask'd

While he is going to the hot baths, or the baths of Phoebus, he should tell

The nurse of Anchises, the name and country of the step-mother Of Archemorus: should tell how many years Acestes lived: 235 How many urns of wine the Sicilian presented to the Phrygians. Require, that he should form the tender manners as with his thumb,

As if one makes a face with wax: require, that he should be Even a father of his flock, lest they should play base tricks,

Now this poor grammarian was expected to be ready to answer any questions which were asked him, by people whom he met with, when he went either to the one or the other.

233. Phœbus.] The name of some bath-keeper.

234. The nurse of Anchises.] The poet here, perhaps, means to ridicule the absurd curiosity of Tiberius, who used to be often teasing the grammarians with silly and unedifying questions; as, Who was Hecuba's mother? What was the name of Achilles when dressed in woman's clothes? What the Sirens sung? and the like. See Suet. in TIBERIO, cap. lxx.

Such foolish questions might be asked the grammarian, when he met with people at the baths; and he was bound to answer them, under peril of being accounted an ignoramus.

Caieta, the nurse of Æneas, is mentioned, Æn. vii. 1, 2; but there is no mention of the nurse of Anchises: perhaps Juvenal means to ridicule the igno

rance of the querist, as mistaking Anchises for Æneas.

234, 5. Of the step-mother of Archemorus.] For Anchemolus, (see Æn. x. 1. 389.) who seems here meant ; but perhaps the querist may be supposed to call it Archemorus,

235. Acestes.] Æn. i. 199; and Æn. v. 73.

236. The Sicilian.] Meaning Acestes, who was king of Sicily, of his giving wine to the Trojans. See En. i. 199, 200.

237. Require.] Exigite, exact-that, beside his teaching your children, (and, in order to that, he be perfectly learned,) he also should watch over their morals, and form them with as much nicety, care, and exactness, as if he were moulding a face in wax with his fingers. Ducat-metaph. taken from statuaries. Comp. Virg. Æn. vi. 1. 848.

239. A father of his flock.] Require also, that he should be as anxious, and as careful as his scholars, as if he were their father.

-Lest they should play, &c.] Lest they

Ne faciant vicibus. Non est leve tot puerorum Observare manus, oculosque in fine trementes. Hæc, inquit, cures; sed cum se verterit annus, Accipe, victori populus quod postulat, aurum.

And corrupt each other: it is no light matter to watch 240
The conduct of so many boys, and their wanton looks.
These things, says he, take care of-but when the year turns
itself,

Accept a piece of gold, which the people require for a conqueror.

a fencer, or gladiator, came off victorious, the Roman people required the quinque aurei to be given to him by the prætor, tribune, or other person, who gave and presided at the show. This passage is, by some, referred to MART. lib. x. epigr. 74. where he mentions one Scorpus, a famous charioteer, who, by being victor in a chariot-race, carried off, in one hour's time, fifteen sacks full of gold. But this does not seem to agree with what Juvenal says of the gains of the poor grammarian, which the