Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Nil vetitum fecisse volet, quem non pudet olto
Per glaciem perone tegi: qui summovet Euros
Pellibus inversis: peregrina, ignotaque nobis

185

Ad scelus atque nefas, quodcunque est, purpura ducit.
Hæc illi veteres præcepta minoribus: at nunc
Post finem autumni mediâ de nocte supinum
Clamosus juvenem pater excitat: accipe ceras,
Scribe, puer, vigila, causas age, perlege rubras
Majorum leges, aut vitem posce libello.
Sed caput intactum buxo, naresque pilosas
Annotet, et grandes miretur Lælius alas.
Dirue Maurorum attegias, castella Brigantûm,

190

195

be seen an invocation to Bacchus and Ceres, and the other rural deities, as the inventors and patrons of agriculture.

185. " Any thing forbidden," &c.] Those who are bred up in poverty and hardship, are unacquainted with the temptations to vice, to which those who are in high life are liable.

186. "Thro' ice to be cover'd," &c.] Pero--a sort of high shoc, made of raw leather, worn by country people as a defence against snow and cold. AINSW.

187. "Inverted skins." The skins of beasts with the wool or hair turned inwards next the body, to defend it from the cold winds, and to keep the wearer warm.

Thus shod and thus clothed were the hardy rustics of old time; they lived in happy ignorance of vice and luxury, and of all offences to the laws.

[ocr errors]

"Purple," &c.] q. d. The Tyrian purple, with which the garments of the rich and great are dyed, is a foreign piece of luxury, and unknown to us. The introduction of this, as well as other articles of foreign luxury, is the forerunner of all manner of vice and wickedness; for when once people cast off a simplicity of dress and manners, and run into luxury and expense, they go all lengths to supply their vanity and extravagance. It cannot be said of any suchnil. vetitum fecisse volet.

189. These precepts, &c.] Such were the lessons which those rustic veterans taught their children, and delivered to the younger part of the community, for the benefit of posterity.

But now. i. e. As matters are now, fathers teach their children very different lessons.

190. After the end of Autumn.] When the winter sets in, and the nights are long and cold.

From the middle of the night.] As soon as midnight is turned. 190-1. The noisy father.] Bawling to wake his son, who is ly ing along on his back (supinum) in his bed fast asleep.

191. "The waxen tablets."] See note on 1. 30.

192.Write."] Pen something that you may get money by. "Watch."] Set up all night at study.

"He will not do any thing forbidden, who is not ashamed

185

"Thro' ice to be cover'd with an high shoe; who keeps off the east

"wind

"With inverted skins. Purple, foreign, and unknown to us,

"Leads to wickedness and villainy, whatsoever it may be.".
These precepts those ancients gave to their posterity: but now,
After the end of Autumn, from the middle of the night, the noisy 190
Father rouses the supine youth: "Take the waxen tablets,

"Write, boy, watch, plead causes, read over the red
"Laws of our forefathers, or ask for a vine by a petition.
"But your head untouched with box, and your hairy nostrils,
"Lelius may take notice of, and admire your huge arms.
"Destroy the tents of the Moors, the castles of the Brigantes,

192. «Plead causes."] Turn advocate-be called to the bar. "Read over," &c.] Study the law.

195

192-3. "The red laws."] So called, because the titles and beginning of the chapters were written in red letters. Hence the written law was called rubrica. See PERS. sat. v. 1. 90.

193. "Ask for a vine," &c.] For a centurion's post in the army -draw up a petition for this.

The centurion, or captain over an hundred men, carried, as an ensign of his office, a stick or batoon in his hand, made out of a vinebranch; as our captains do spontoons, and our serjeants halberds. See sat. viii. 1. 247. note. If a man were to advise another to petition for an halberd, it would be equivalent to advising him to petition to be made a serjeant. So here, the father advising his son to petition for a vine, i. e. vine-branch, is equivalent to his petitioning to be made a centurion..

164. "Untouched with box."] Your rough and martial appearance, owing to your hair lying loose, and not being combed. The Romans made their combs of box-wood.

66

Hairy nostrils."] Another mark of hardiness; for effeminate and delicate people plucked off all superfluous hairs. See sat. ii. 11, 12. where hairiness is mentioned as a mark of hardiness and courage.

195. "Lelius."] Some great general in the army may notice these things as bespeaking you fit for the army.

"Huge arms."] Probably rough with hair. on l. 194.-Ala signifies the armpit, also the arm.

See above, n. 2. -See AINSW.

196. "Destroy the tents of the Moors."] Go and do some great exploit-distinguish yourself in an expedition against the people of Mauritania. Attegia (from ad and tegere, to cover) signifies cottages, huts, cabins, tents, and the like, in which people shelter themselves from the weather.

"Castles of the Brigantes."] Of the inhabitants of Britain. The people of Lancashire, Yorkshire and other northern parts of England, were called Brigantes; they had strong castles.

Ut locupletem aquilam tibi sexagesimus annus
Afferat: aut longos castrorum ferre labores
Si piget, et trepido solvunt tibi cornua ventrem
Cum lituis audita, pares, quod vendere possis
Pluris dimidio, nec te fastidia mercis

200

Ullius subeant ablegandæ Tiberim ultra:
Nec credas ponendum aliquid discriminis inter

Versetur, Dîs atque ipso Jove digna, poëtæ :

Unguenta, et corium: LUCRI BONUS EST ODOR EX RE
QUALIBET. Illa tuo sententia semper in ore

205

UNDE HABEAS QUÆRIT NEMO; SED OPORTET HABERE.

Hoc monstrant vetulæ pueris poscentibus assem:

Hoc discunt omnes ante Alpha et Beta puellæ.
Talibus instantem monitis quemcunque parentem
Sic possem affari: dic, ô vanissime, quis te

197. "That a rich eagle," &c.] The Roman ensign was the figure of an eagle, which was carried at the head of every regiment. The care of this standard was committed to the eldest captain of the regiment, and was a very rich post.

The father is here exhorting his son to go into the army; in order to which, first, he is to petition for the vine-rod, or centurion's post; then he exhorts him to go into service, and distinguish himself against the enemy, that, at sixty years old, he may be the eldest captain, and enrich himself by having the care of the standard, which was very lucrative. Hence Juvenal calls it locupletem aquilam. 198. "Or if to bear," &c.] If you dislike going into a military life. 199, "The horns," &c.] If the cornets and trumpets throw you into a panic at the sound of them, so that you are ready to befoul yourself when you hear martial music.

200. You may purchase," &c.] You may go into trade, and buy goods which you may sell for half as much more as they cost

you.

201. "Nor let the dislike," &c.] Don't be nice about what you deal in, though ever so filthy, though such as must be manufactured on the other side of the Tiber.

202. "Sent away beyond the Tiber."] Tanning, and other noisome trades, were carried on on the other side of the river, to preserve the city sweet and healthy.

203. "Do not believe," &c.] Do not take it into your head that one thing, which you may get money by, is better than another. So do but enrich yourself, let it be the same thing to you, whe ther you deal in perfumed ointments, or stinking hides.

as

you

204. "The smell of gain," &c.] He alludes to the answer made by Vespasian to his son Titus, who was against raising money by a tax on urine.-Titus remonstrated with him on the meanness of such an imposition: but he, presenting to his son the first money that accrued to him from it, asked him whether the smell offended him. ANT. Univ. History, vol. xv. p. 26.

"That a rich eagle to thee the sixtieth year

"May bring or if to bear the long labours of camps

200

"It grieves you, and the horns heard with the trumpets loosen "Your belly, you may purchase, what you may sell "For the half of more, nor let the dislike of any merchandise, "Which is to be sent away beyond the Tiber, possess you. "Do not believe there is any difference to be put between "Ointments and an hide. THE SMELL OF GAIN IS SWEET "FROM ANY THING WHATSOEVER. Let that sentence of the "Be always in your mouth, worthy the gods, and of Jove himself: "NOBODY ASKS FROM WHENCE YOU HAVE, BUT IT BEHOVES YOU

[merged small][ocr errors]

poet 205

This, the old women shew to the boys asking three farthings:
This, all the girls learn before their Alpha and Beta.
Whatsoever parent is instant with such admonitions,

210

I might thus speak to: "Say, (Omost vain man,) who commands

205. "Sentence of the poet," c.] . e. Of the poet Ennius, quoted 1. 207.

206. “Be always in your mouth."] Be always at your tongue's end, as we say.

[ocr errors]

Worthy the gods," ] Juvenal very naturally represents this old covetous fellow, as highly extolling a maxim so exactly suited to his sordid principles.

See MOLIERE's Avare, act iii. sc. v. where the miser is so pleased with a saying which suits his principles, as to want it written in letters of gold.

207. "Nobody asks," &c.]

T' have money is a necessary task,

From whence 'tis got the world will never ask. J. DRYDEN, Jun. And therefore only take care to be rich, nobody will inquire how you came so. The poet, in the next two lines, humourously observes the early implanting this doctrine in the minds of children.

ܐ܂

208, This, the old women, &c.] This maxim, old women, when their children ask them for a trifle to buy playthings, or some trash to eat, always take care to instil into their minds; they take this opportunity to preach up the value of money, and the necessity of having it, no matter how; nobody will trouble their head about that.

The Roman As was about three farthings of our money.

209. This, all the girls, &c.] In short, children of the other sex too are taught this before their A B C. No marvel then, that avarice is so general and so ruling a principle.

210. Is instant.] Takes pains to impress such maxims upon his children.

211, Thus speak to.] Thus address myself to.

Festinare jubet? meliorem præsto magistro
Discipulum: securus abi: vincêris, ut Ajax
Præteriit Telamonem, ut Pelea vicit Achilles.
Parcendum est teneris ; nondum implevere medullas
Nativæ mala nequitia: cum pectere barbam
Cœperit, et longi mucronem admittere cultri,
Falsus erit testis, vendet perjuria summâ
Exiguâ, Cereris tangens aramque pedemque.
Elatam jam crede nurum, si limina vestra
Mortiferâ cum dote subit: quibus illa premetur

215

220

Per somnum digitis? nam quæ terrâque marique

Acquirenda putes, brevior via conferet illi :

Nullus enim magni sceleris labor. Hæc ego nunquam
Mandavi, dices olim, nec talia suasi :

225

Mentis causa malæ tamen est, et origo penes te :

212. "To hasten." Who bid thee be in such a hurry to teach your son such principles? why begin with him so young, and take so much pains?

"I warrant."] So præsto signifies here. See AINSW. Præsto, No. 8.

"The scholar better," &c.] A greater proficient than yourself in avarice, and in every other vice, in which you may instruct him.

213. "Depart secure. "] Make yourself quite secure and easy upon this subject.

As Ajax," &c.] Your son will outdo you in avarice, as much as Ajax surpassed his father Telamon, or as Achilles surpassed his father Peleus, in valour and warlike achievements.

215. "You must spare," &c.] You must make allowance for the tenderness of youth, and not hurry your son on too fast; have patience with him, he'll be bad enough by-and-by.

"Their marrows," &c.] The evil dispositions and propensities with which they were born (mala nativæ nequitia) have not had time to grow to maturity, and to occupy their whole minds, marrow fills the bones. The marrow, which is placed within the bones, like the bowels, which are placed within the body, is often figuratively, and by analogy, made use of to signify the inward mind.

Tully says, Fam. xv. 16. Mihi hæres in medullis-I love you in my heart. And again, Philip. i. 15. in medullis populi Romani, ac visceribus hærebant-they were very dear to the Roman people. 217. "To comb his beard.”] i. e. When he is grown up to ma turity.

"To admit the point," &c.] The edge of a razor-a periphrasis for being shaved. See sat. i. 25; and sat x. 226. 218. "Sell perjuries," &c.] He will forswear himself for a very small price.

219. «Touching both the altar," &c.] It was the custom among

« PredošláPokračovať »