To season a mushroom, and, swimming in the same sauce, And a grey throat shewing him. When the seventh year 10 Sumptuous preparation, and not to degenerate from a great kitchen. Does Rutilus teach a meek mind and manners, kind to small errors, 15 And the souls of slaves, and their bodies, does he think To consist of our matter, and of equal elements?— Or does he teach to be cruel, who delights in the bitter The Antiphates and Polyphemus of his trembling household- 20 13. He would desire, &c.] He would never get rid of his inclination to gluttony. 13-14. With a sumptuous preparation.] With a number of the most delicious provisions, dressed most luxuriously, and served up in the most sumptuous manner. 14. Not to degenerate, &c.] Either in principle or practice, from the profuse luxury of his father's ample kitchen. So true is that of HOR. Epist. lib. i. epist. ii. 1. 68, 9. Quo semel imbuta est recens, servabit odorem Testa diu. 15. Rutilus.] The name of some master, who was of a very cruel disposition towards his servants. Kind to small errors.] Making allowance for, and excusing small faults. 16. And the souls of slaves, &c.] Does he think that the bodies of slaves consist of the same materials, and that their souls are made up of the same elements as ours, who are their masters? Does he suppose them to be of the same flesh and blood, and to have reasonable souls as well as himself? Sat. vi. 221. 18. Or does he teach to be cruel.] Instead of setting an example of meekness, gentleness, and forbearance, does he not teach his children to be savage and cruel, by the treatment which he gives his slaves? 18-19. In the bitter sound of stripes.] He takes a pleasure in hearing the sound of those bitter stripes, with which he punishes his slaves. 19. Compares no Syren, &c.] The song of a Siren would not, in his opinion, be so delightful to his ears, as the crack of the whips on his slaves' backs. 20. The Antiphates and Polyphemus, &c.] Antiphates was a king of a savage people near Formiæ, in Italy, who were eaters of man's Besh. Polyphemus the Cyclops lived on the same diet. See VIRG. Æn. iii, 620, et seq. Tum felix, quoties aliquis tortore vocato 25 30 Rutilus is here likened to these two monsters of cruelty, inasmuch as that he was the terror of his whole family, which is the sense of laris in this place. 21. Then happy.] It was a matter of joy to him. As often as any one.] i. e. Of his slaves. The tormentor, &c.] Comp. sat. vi. 479, and note. 22. Is burnt, &c.] Burnt with an hot iron on his flesh, for some. petty theft, as of two towels or napkins. These the Romans wiped with after bathing. 23. What can he advise, &c.] What can a man, who is himself so barbarous, as to be affected with the highest pleasure at hearing the rattling of fetters, when put on the legs or bodies of his slaveswhat can such a father persuade his son to, whom he has taught so ill by his example? 24. Branded slaves—a rustic prison.] Ergastulum-lit. signifies a workhouse, a house of correction, where they confined and punished their slaves, and made them work. Sometimes (as here, and sat. vi. 150.) it means a slave.-Inscriptus-a-um, signifies marked, branded; inscripta ergastula, branded slaves-comp. 1. 22, note.--q. d. Whom the sight of slaves branded with hot irons, kept in a workhouse in the country, where they are in fetters (1. 23.) and which is therefore to be looked on as a country-gaol, affects with wonderful delight. We may suppose the ergastula something like our bridewells. 25. Larga.] Some famous lady of that day-here put for all such characters. Should not be, &c.] When she has the constant bad example of her mother before her eyes. Comp. sat. vi. 239, 240. 26. Who never, &c.] Who could never repeat the names of all her mother's gallants, though she uttered them as fast as possibly she could, without often taking breath before she got to the end of the list, so great was the number. Comp. sat. x. 223, 4. 28. Privy, &c.] She was a witness of all her mother's lewd pro Then happy, as often as any one, the tormentor being called, Delight?--Do you expect that the daughter of Larga should not be An adulteress, who never could say over her mother's gallants, 25 So quickly, nor could join them together with so much speed, She fills, and gives them to the same pimps to carry to the gallant. 30 ceedings, and was privy to them; which is the meaning of conscia in this place. See sat. iii. 1. 49. 29. Now.] i. e. Now she is grown something bigger, she does as her mother did. She dictating.] The mother instructing, and dictating what she shall say. Little tablets.] Cera signifies wax-but as they wrote on thin wooden tablets smeared over with wax, ceras, per met. means the tablets or letters themselves. See sat. i. 1. 63. Some understand by ceras pusillas, small tablets, as best adapted to the size of her hand, and more proper for her age, than large ones. As the boy (1. 5.) had a little dice-box to teach him gaming, so this girl begins with a little tablet, in order to initiate her into the science of intrigue. But perhaps, by pusillas ceras the poet means what the French would call petits billets-doux. 30. She fills.] i. e. Fills with writing. The same pimps, &c.] Cinædus is a word of a detestable meaning; but here cindis seems to denote pimps, or people who go between the parties in an intrigue. The daughter employs the same messengers that her mother did, to carry her little love-letters. 31. So nature commands, &c.] Thus nature orders it, and therefore it naturally happens, that examples of vice, set by those of our own family, corrupt the soonest. 32. When they possess minds, &c.] When they insinuate themselves into the mind, under the influence of those who have a right to exercise authority over us. See AINSW. Auctor, No. 6. 33. One or two.] Unus et alter-here and there one, as we say, may be found as exceptions, and who may reject, with due contempt, their parents' vices, but then they must be differently formed from the generality. 34. By a benign art, &c.] Prometheus, one of the Titans, was feigned, by the poets, to have formed men of clay, and put life into them by fire stolen from heaven. 35 Et meliore luto finxit præcordia Titan. Intra que puer est. Si quid Turpe paras, ne tu pueri contempseris annos; 40 45 50 The poet here says, that, if one or two young men are found who reject their father's bad example, it must be owing to the peculiar favour of Prometheus, who, by a kind exertion of his art, formed their bodies, and particularly the parts about the heart (præcordia), of better materials than those which he employed in the formation of others. 36. Footsteps, &c.] As for the common run of young men, they are led, by the bad example of their fathers, to tread in their fathers* steps, which ought to be avoided. 37. Path of old wickedness, &c.] And the beaten track of wickedness, constantly before their eyes, draws them into the same crimes. 38. Abstain therefore, &c.] Refrain therefore from ill actions-at least we should do this, if not for our own sakes, yet for the sake of our children, that they may not be led to follow our vicious examples, and to commit the same crimes which they have seen in us. 40. In imitating, &c.] Such is the condition of human nature, that we are all more prone to evil than to good, and, for this reason, we are easily taught to imitate the vices of others. 41. A Catiline, &c.] See sat. viii. 231. Vicious characters are easily to be met with, go where you may. 43. Brutus.] M. Brutus, one of the most virtuous of the Romans, and the great assertor of public liberty. Uncle of Brutus.] Cato of Utica, who was the brother of Servilia, the mother of Brutus, a man of severe virtue, So prone is human nature to evil, so inclined to follow bad example, that a virtuous character, like Brutus or Cato, is hardly to be found any where, while profligate and debauched characters, like Catiline, abound all the world over-this would not be so much the case, if parents were more careful about the examples which they set their children. 44 Filthy.] Indecent, obscene, . And with better clay, Titan has formed their breasts. 35 But the footsteps of their fathers which are to be avoided, lead the rest, And the path of old wickedness, long shewn, draws them. Abstain therefore from things which are to be condemned: for of this at least There is one pow'rful reason, lest those who are begotten by us You may see among every people, in every clime : But neither will Brutus, nor uncle of Brutus, be any where. 40 Nothing filthy, to be said, or seen, should touch these thresholds, The greatest reverence is due to a boy. If any base thing But let your infant son hinder you about to sin. For if he shall do any thing worthy the anger of the censor, 50 44. Should touch, &c.] Should approach those doors, where there are children, lest they be corrupted. Therefore 45. Far from hence, &c.] Hence far away, begone; a form of speech made use of at religious solemnities, in order to hinder the approach of the profane. So HORACE, lib. iii. gde i, 1. 1, when he calls himself musarum sacerdos, says, Odi profanum vulgus et ar ceo. VIRG. Æn. vi. 258, 9, makes the Sibyl say: Procul, O procul este profani Totoque absistite luco. 45-6. Girls of bawds.] The common prostitutes, who are kept by common panders, or pimps, for fewd purposes. 46. The nightly parasite.] Pernoctans signifies tarrying, or sitting up all night. The parasites, who frequently attended at the tables of great men, used to divert them with lewd and obscene and for this purpose would sit up all night long. songs, 47. Greatest reverence, &c.] People should keep the strictest guard over their words and actions, in the presence of boys; they cannot be under too much awe, nor shew too great a reverence for decency, when in their presence. 48. You go about, &c.] If you intend, or purpose, or set about, to do what is wrong, don't say, "There's nobody here but "my young son, I don't mind him, and he is too young to mind "me:" -rather 66 say, My little boy is here, I will not hurt his "mind by making him a witness of what I purposed to do, therefore "I will not do it before him." 50. Of the censor.] The censor of good manners, or morum ju dex, was an officer of considerable power in Rome, before whom offenders against the peace and good manners were carried and censured. Sat, iv. 1. 12. |