These, in time past, horn-blowers, and on a municipal theatre Kill whom they will, as the people please: thence returned 40 Of the stars I am ignorant of: the funeral of a father to promise saved, by directing the pleasure of the people. See AINSW. Populariter, No. 2. 37. Thence returned, &c.] Their advancement to wealth did not alter their mean pursuits; after returning from, the splendour of the theatre, they contract for emptying bog-houses of their soil and filth. Such were called at Rome-foricarii and latrinarii-with us-nightmen. 38. Why not all things?] Why hire they not the town, not every thing, DRYDEN. 39. Such, as, from low estate.] The poet here reckons the advancement of such low people to the height of opulence, as the sport of fortune, as one of those frolics which she exercises out of mere caprice and wantonness, without any regard to desert. See HoR. lib. i. ode xxxiv. 1. 14-16. and lib. iii. ode xxix. l. 49–52. 40. Fortune.] Had a temple and was worshipped as a goddess. The higher she raised up such wretches, the more conspicuously contemptible she might be said to make them, and seemed to joke, or divert herself, at their expense. See sat. x. 366. 41. I know not to lie.] Dissemble, cant, flatter, say what I do not mean, seem to approve what I dislike, and praise what in my judgment I condemn. What then should I do at Rome, where this is one of the only means of advancement? 42. Ask for.] It was a common practice of low flatterers, to commend the writings of rich authors, however bad, in order to ingratiate themselves with them, and be invited to their houses: they also asked, as the greatest favour, for the loan or gift of a copy, which highly flattered the composers. This may be meant by poscere, in this place. See HoR. Art. Poet. 1. 419-37. an epigram on this subject. Epigr. xlviii. lib. vi. Quod tam grande σows clamat tibi turba togata, Non tu, Pomponi, cæna diserta tua est. Pomponius, thy wit is extoll'd by the rabble, "Tis not thee they commend-but the cheer at thy table. Martial has 42-3. Motions of the stars, &c.] I have no pretensions to skill in astrology. 43. The funeral of a father, &c.] He hereby hints at the profli Nec volo, nec possum: ranarum viscera nunquam 45 50 gacy and want of natural affection in the young men who wished the death of their fathers, and even consulted astrologers about the time when it might happen; which said pretended diviners cozened the youths out of their money, by pretending to find out the certainty of such events by the motions or situations of the planets. This, says Umbritius, I neither can, nor will do. 44. The entrails of toads.] Rana is a general word for all kinds of frogs and toads. The language here is metaphorical, and alludes to augurs inspecting the entrails of the beasts slain in sacrifice, on the view of which, they drew their good or ill omens. Out of the bowels of toads, poisons, charms, and spells, were supposed to be extracted. Comp. sat. i. 70. sat vi. 658. Umbritius seems to say "I never foretold the death of fathers, or of "other rich relations; nor searched for poison, that my predictions "might be made good by the secret administration of it." Comp. sat. vi. 563-7. 45. To carry to a married woman.] I never was pimp, or gobetween, in carrying on adulterous intrigues, by secretly conveying love-letters, presents, or any of those matters which gallants give in charge to their confidents. I leave this to others. 46. I assisting, &c.] No villainy will ever be committed by my advice or assistance. 47. I go forth, &c.] For these reasons I depart from Rome, quite alone, for I know none to whom I can attach myself as a companion, so universally corrupt are the people. 48. Maimed.] Like a maimed limb, which can be of no service in any employment: just as unfit am I for any employment which is now going forward in Rome. A useless body, &c.] As the body, when the right-hand, or any other limb that once belonged to it, is lost and gone, is no longer able to maintain itself by laborious employment, so I, having no inclination or talents, to undergo the drudgery of vice of any kind, can never thrive at Rome. Some copies read-extincta dextra-abl. abs. the right-hand being lost. The sense amounts to the same. 49. Unless conscious.] Who now has any favour, attention, or I neither will, nor can: the entrails of toads I never [sends, 45 Have inspected: to carry a married woman what an adulterer What he commits to charge, let others know: nobody, I assist[as ing, He will be dear to Verres, who Verres, at any time he will, regard shewn him, but he who is conscious, privy to, acquainted with, the wicked secrets of others? 49-50. Fervent mind boils, &c.] Is in a ferment, agitated between telling and concealing what has been committed to its confidence. The words fervens and æstuat are, in this view, metaphorical, and taken from the raging and boiling of the sea, when agitated by a stormy wind. Fervet vertigine pontus. Ov. Met. xi. 549. So, æstuare semper fretum. CURT. iv. 9. AINSW. Estuo, No. 4. Hence æstuans signifies-boiling with any passion, when applied to the mind. Animo æstuante reditum ad vada retulit. Catull. See AINSW. See Is. Ivii. 20. Or we may give the words another turn, as descriptive of the torment and uneasiness of mind which these men must feel, in having become acquainted with the most flagitious crimes in others, by assisting them, or partaking with them in the commission of them, and which, for their own sakes, they dare not reveal, as well as from the fear of those by whom they are intrusted. Who now is lov'd but he who loves the times, DRYDEN. 51. He thinks he owes you nothing, &c.] Nobody will think himself obliged to you for concealing honest and fair transactions, or think it incumbent on him to buy your silence by conferring faYours on you. 53. Verres.] See sat. ii. 26, note. Juvenal mentions him here as an example of what he has been saying. Most probably, under the name of Verres, the poet means some characters then living, who made much of those who had them in their power by being acquainted with their secret villainies, and who, at any time, could have ruined them by a discovery. 54-5. Shady Tagus.] A river of Spain, which discharges itself into the ocean near Lisbon, in Portugal. It was anciently said to have golden sands. It was called opacus, dark, obscure, or shady, from the thick shade of the trees on its banks. VOL. I. Omnis arena Tagi, quodque in mare volvitur aurum, Quæ nunc divitibus gens acceptissima nostris, Estus serenos aureo franges Tago MART. lib. i. epigr. 50. 55 60 Or opacus may denote a dusky turbid appearance in the water. 56. That you should want sleep, &c.] O thou, whoe'er thou art, that may be solicited to such criminal secrecy by the rich and great, reflect on the misery of such flagitious confidence, and prefer the repose of a quiet and easy conscience, to all the golden sands of Tagus, to all the treasures which it can roll into the sea! These would make you but ill amends for sleepless nights, when kept awake by guilt and fear. Accept rewards to be rejected.] i. e. Which ought to be rejected-by way of hush-money, which, so far, poor wretch, from making you happy, will fill you with shame and sorrow, and which, therefore, are to be looked upon as abominable, and to be utterly refused, and laid aside. Ponenda, lit.-to be laid down-but here it has the sense of-abominanda-respuenda-rejicienda-abneganda. See HoR. lib. iii. od. ii. 1. 19. 57. Feared, &c.] The great man who professes himself your friend, and who has heaped his favours upon you in order to bribe you to silence, will be perpetually betraying a dread of you, lest you should discover him. The consequence of which, you may have reason to apprehend, may be his ridding himself of his fears by ridding the world of you, lest you should prove like others-magni delator amici. See sat. i. 33. But whether the great man betrays this fear or not, you may be certain he will be constantly possessed with it; and a much greater proof of this you cannot have, than the pains he takes to buy your silence. When he grows weary of this method, you know what you may expect. Alas! can all the treasures of the whole earth make it worth your while to be in such a situation! Comp. 1. 113. 58. What nation, &c.] Umbritius proceeds in his reasons for re tiring from Rome. Having complained of the sad state of the times, insomuch that no honest man could thrive there, he now attacks the introduction of Grecians and other foreigners, the fondness of the rich and great towards them, and the sordid arts by which they raised themselves. 60. Nor shall shame hinder.] In short, I'll speak my mind with. out reserve, my modesty shall not stand in my way. 0 Romans.] Quirites-this anciently was a name for the Sabines, from the city Cures, or from quiris, a sort of spear used by them: but after their union with the Romans this appellation Tagus the whole sand be, and the gold which is rolled into the sea, 55 That you should want sleep, and should accept rewards to be rejected, Sorrowful, and be always feared by a great friend. And whom I would particularly avoid, I will hasten to confess; A Grecian city: tho' what is the portion of Achæan dregs? 60 was used for the Roman people in general. The name Quirinus was first given to Romulus. See sat. ii. 133. Probably the poet used the word Quirites here, as reminding them of their ancient simplicity of manners and dress, by way of contrast to their present corruption and effeminacy in both; owing, very much, to their fondness of the Greeks and other foreigners, for some time past introduced among them. 61. A Grecian city.] Meaning Rome-now so transformed from what it once was, by the rage which the great people had for the language, manners, dress, &c. of those Greeks whom they invited and entertained, that, as the inferior people are fond of imitating their superiors, it was not unlikely that the transformation might become general throughout the whole city: no longer Roman, but Grecian. Umbritius could not bear the thought. Tho' what is the portion, &c.] Though, by the way, if we consider the multitudes of other foreigners, with which the city now abounds, what, as to numbers, is the portion of Greeks? they are comparatively few. See sat. xiii. 157. Hæc quota pars scelerum, &c. What part is this (i. e. how small a part or portion) of the crimes, &c. -Achæan dregs.] Achæa, or Achaia, signifies the whole country of Greece, anciently called Danaë, whence the Greeks are called, Danaï. AINSW. Dregs-metaph. taken from the foul, turbid, filthy sediment which wine deposits at the bottom of the cask. A fit emblem of these vile Greeks, as though they were the filth and refuse of all Greece. Sometimes the word Achæa, or Achaia, is to be understood in a more confined sense, and denotes only some of that part of Greece called Peloponnesus, (or Pelops' island, now the Morea, anciently divided into Arcadia, and Achaia, of which Corinth was the capital: the inhabitants of this city were proverbially lewd and wicked-xogiaZay was a usual phrase to express doing acts of effeminacy, lewdness, and debauchery-what then must the dregs of Corinth, and its environs have been? See 1 Cor. vi. 9-11, former part. 62. Syrian Orontes.] Orontes was the greatest river of Syria, a large country of Asia. Umbritius had said (at l. 61.) that the por tion of Grecians was small in comparison; he now proceeds to explain himself, by mentioning the inundation of Syrians, and other |