Dare nobly, man, if greatness be thy aim,
And practise what may chains and exile claim:
On Guilt's broad base thy towering fortunes raise,
For Virtue starves-on universal praise;
While Vice controls the penury of Fate,
Bestows the figured vase, the antique plate,
The lordly mansion, and the fair estate!

O! who can see the step-father impure,
The greedy daughter to his bed allure;
See, and suppress his feelings while he sees,
Unnatural brides, and stripling debauchees ?
When crimes like these on every side arise,
Anger shall give what mother-wit denies,
And pour, in Nature and the Nine's despite,
Such strains as I, or Cluvienus, write!

a science, is frequently mentioned by the writers of Juvenal's time, with execration. She had been condemned to die for a thousand crimes; but was kept alive by the besotted Claudius, as an useful instrument of state vengeance: and, at length, employed against the very person whose dark designs she was reserved to facilitate! But so it ever is: the man who formed the brazen bull, first proved its tortures; and, as Shakspeare beaufully observes,

'tis the sport, to have the engineer "Hoist with his own petar."

Nero made use of her afterwards to destroy Britannicus, and, perhaps, Burrhus; but upon the accession of Galba, she was dragged to execution amidst the shouts and insults of the populace.

VER. 110. For Virtue starves-on universal praise ;] This is prettily noticed by Massinger :

in this partial avaricious age
"What price bears honour? virtue? long ago
"It was but praised, and freezed; but now-a-days
""Tis colder far, and has nor love nor praise."

Fatal Dowry, Act II. Sc. i.

E'er since Deucalion, while, on every side, The bursting clouds upraised the whelming tide, Reach'd, in his little skiff, the forked hill,

And sought at Themis' shrine the Immortals' will; When softening stones with gradual life grew

warm,

And Pyrrha show'd the males each virgin charm ;
Whatever wild desires have swell'd the breast,
Whatever passions have the soul possest;
Joy, Sorrow, Fear, Love, Hatred, Transport, Rage,
Shall form the motley subject of my page.

And when could Satire boast so fair a field?
Say, when did Vice a richer harvest yield?
When did fell Avarice so inflame the mind?
And when the lust of play so curse mankind?
For now no more the pocket's stores supply
The boundless charges of the desperate die:
The chest is staked! muttering the steward stands,
And scarce resigns it, at his lord's commands.
Is it a SIMPLE MADNESS, I would know,
To venture countless thousands on a throw,
Yet want the soul a single piece to spare,
To clothe the slave that shivering stands and bare!

VER 122. E'er since Deucalion, &c.] It will be sufficient to observe, for the less learned reader, that Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and reigned in Thessaly. He was the only good man of his time, and therefore, when the rest of the world was swept away by a deluge, he and his wife Pyrrha were preserved, and wafted to mount Parnassus. On the abatement of the waters, they inquired of the Oracle how the earth might be replenished, and were answered, by throwing their mother's bones behind them. Pyrrha revolted at such impiety, but Deucalion satisfied her by proving that their "mother" meant the earth, and her "bones" consequently, the stones. These, therefore, they took up, and

Who call'd, of old, so many seats his own, Or on seven sumptuous dishes supp'd alone?ONCE all were welcomed; Now, a dole awaits The hungry clients, at the outward gates,

flung over their heads; those thrown by Deucalion produced men, those by Pyrrha, women: thus the world was repeopled!

This absurd tale, which is prettily told by Ovid and others, is, as the reader sees, a wretched depravation of sacred history. VER. 144. Who call'd, of old, so many seats his own,

Or on seven sumptuous dishes supp'd alone?-] Juve nal might well ask this; for the ancients did neither. Their usual eating-room was the atrium, or common-hall, which was open to the view of every passer-by; and they had rarely more than two plain dishes. Even the first men of the state, says Val. Max. (lib. 11. c. 5.) were not ashamed to dine and sup there; nor had they any dish which they blushed to expose to the meanest of their fellow-citizens.

The old republicans used to admit the clients, who attended them from the forum, to supper. Under the Emperours, this laudable custom was done away, and a little basket of meat given to each of them to carry home. Nero (Suet. xvi.) ordered a small sum of money to be distributed instead of meat, and Domitian brought back the former practice. Whether any changes were subsequently introduced, is not certainly known, but we here find, that money was again distributed: perhaps, the choice was in the patron. The sum was a hundred quadrantes, pieces something less than a farthing, and making in all about fifteen-pence of our money.

As this is the first passage, in which the names of patron and client occur, it may not be amiss to say a few words on the relative situation of two classes of men, which comprehended nearly all the citizens of Rome. A patron then, was a man of rank and fortune, under whose care the meaner people voluntarily put themselves, and, in consequence of it, were denominated his clients. The patron assisted his client with his influence and advice, and the client, in return, gave his vote to his patron, when he sought any office for himself, or friends. The client owed his patron respect, the patron owed his client protection. Indeed, the early Romans seem to have given a degree of sanctity to the obligation of the patron towards the client. It was expressly enforced by a law of the Twelve Tables: Patronus, si clienti fraudem fecerit, sacer esto, If a patron injure his client, let him be held accursed.

Where all are eyed with trembling, lest they claim The paltry largess, in a borrow'd name. [pares

Known, you receive:" and now the crier preTo call the great Dardanians to their shares;

For those, even those, besiege, with us, the door, And scramble-for the pittance of the poor!

66

Despatch the Prætor first," the steward cries, "And next the Tribune." No; not so,' replies The Freedman, bustling through, first come, is

still

6

First served; and I may claim my right, and will. Though born a slave, ('twere bootless to deny

• What these bored ears betray to every eye,)

And Virgil, many ages after this, places the unjust patron in Tartarus, among the violators of natural and moral decorum :

"Hic quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat,

"Pulsatusque parens, et FRAUS INNEXA CLIENTI.”

The institution of this state of mutual dependance, which commenced with the monarchy, was attended with the happiest effects; and, for the space of six centuries, we find no dissensions or jealousies between the two parties. But as riches and pride increased, new duties were imposed on the clients; they were harassed with constant attendance, and mortified by neglect; in a word, they were little better than slaves.

They had yet other causes of complaint; and Juvenal, who appears, from an epigram addressed to him from Spain by his friend Martial, to have deeply felt the degradation he describes, sometimes speaks of it with pathos, and sometimes with indignation. But of this elsewhere.

VER.150. and now the crier prepares &c.] The old nobility of Rome affected to derive their origin from the great families of Troy. The satire here is very poignant: vain of their rank, they were careless of their actions, and swelling with the dignity of their ancient blood, were mean enough to be found scrambling amongst the poor for a few paltry halfpence!

VER. 158. Though born a slave, &c.] The original is, "Though born near the Euphrates," i. e. in Armenia, or rather in Cappadocia,

• The rents of five good mansions swell my store, A knight's estate! What has your purple more, Than this to boast, if, to Laurentum sped, NOBLE Corvinus tends a flock for bread!Pallas, nor Licinus, had my estate:

Shall I be pass'd then? Let the Tribunes wait.' Yes, let them wait! thine, Riches, be the field!— It is not meet, that he to HONOUR yield, TO SACRED HONOUR, who, with whiten'd feet, Was hawk'd for sale so lately through the street.

whence the Romans were chiefly supplied with domesticks. From the freedman's appeal to the holes, or, as Juvenal contemptuously calls them, the windows, in his ears, it would seem as if the meaner Asiaticks all wore ear-rings at that time; (as, indeed, they still do ;)-and this explains one of Cicero's best jokes. His rival, Octavius, said to him rather rudely, as he was pleading, "I cannot hear what you say.” And yet, replied the orator,

you were wont to have your ears well bored!' A bitter retort; for the family of Octavius, though then ennobled, was supposed to have come originally from beyond sea, in a mean condition.

VER. 164. Pallas, nor Licinus, had my estate:] This is going somewhat too far, for Pallas, in particular, was immeasurably rich. He was the freedman of Claudius, a weak prince, who lavished unbounded wealth upon his favourites, and impoverished himself. When he complained of the emptiness of his treasury, somebody observed, and not badly, as Tacitus remarks, that it would be full enough, if his two freedmen (Pallas and Narcissus) would condescend to take him into their firm.

Pallas outlived Claudius, and was for some time in high favour with Nero, but was involved in the disgrace of Agrippina, and dismissed the court. He was now grown old, but as the strength of his constitution still threatened to disappoint the eager avarice of the Emperour, he broke through all restraint, and put him to death, stamine nondum abrupto, for the very wealth to which he trusted for safety!

The reader will observe, that the satire of Juvenal is incessant: the freedman is made to select for his examples, either an old patrician grown poor, or new men (novi homines) raised to power from nothing.

VER. 168.

who, with whiten'd feet,] There is a