PART OF

JUVENAL'S SIXTH SATIRE.

MODERNISED IN

BURLESQUE VERSE.

DAME Chastity, without dispute,

Dwelt on the earth with good King Brute;
When a cold hut of modern Greenland

Had been a palace for a Queen Anne;
When hard and frugal temp'rance reign'd,
And men no other house contain'd
Than the wild thicket, or the den;

.*

When household goods, and beasts, and men,
Together lay beneath one bough,

Which man and wife would scarce do now;

The rustic wife her husband's bed

With leaves and straw, and beast-skin made.

*The Roman poet mentions Saturn, who was the first King of Italy; we have therefore rendered Brute, the oldest to be found in our Chronicles, and whose history is as fabulous as that of his Italian brother:

Pellibus, haud similis tibi,* Cynthia, nec tibi, cujus Turbavit nitidos extinctus passer ocellos;

Sed potanda ferens infantibus ubera magnis,†
Et sæpe horridior glandem ructante marito.
Quippe aliter tunc orbe novo, cœloque recenti
Vivebant homines; qui rupto robore nati,‡
Compositique luto nullos habuere parentes.
Multa pudicitiæ veteris vestigia forsan,

* Cynthia Propertii, Lesbia Catulli amica. Quarum quidem hanc ineptam, illam delicatulam fuisse innuit noster.

Grangæum quendam hic refutat Lubinus. Qui per magnos, adultæ vel saltem provectioris ætatis pueros, intelligit. Ego tamen cum Grangæo sentio. Nam delicatulis et nobilissimis matronis consuetudinem pueros a matris mammis arcendi objicere vult poeta, ob quam Romanas mulieres, Juvenalis temporibus, sicut et nostræ, infames et reprehensione dignas fuisse ne minimùm quidem dubito.

Rupto robore nati. Sic Virgilius.

Gensque virum truncis, et rupto robore nati.

Hanc fabulam ex eo natam fuisse volunt, quod habitantes in arborum cavitibus exinde egredi solebant. Ridicula sane conjectura, et quæ criticulorum homunculorum hallucinantem geniunculum satis exprimit. Hæc fabula et aliæ quæ de hominis origine extiterunt, ab uno et eodem fonte effluxisse videntur, ab ignorantia scilicet humana cum vanitate conjuncta. Homines enim cùm sui generis originem prorsus ignorarent, et hanc ignorantiam sibi probro verterent, causas varias genitivas, ad suam cujusque regionem accommodatas invenerunt et tradiderunt; alii ab arboribus, alii a luto, alii a lapidibus originem suam ducentes.

Not like Miss Cynthia,* nor that other,
Who more bewail'd her bird than mother;
But fed her children from her bubbies,

Till they were grown up † to great loobies :
Herself an ornament less decent

Than spouse, who smell'd of acorn recent.
For, in the infancy of nature,

Man was a diff'rent sort of creature;
When dirt-engender'd ‡ offspring broke
From the ripe womb of mother oak.
Ev'n in the reign of Jove, perhaps,

*This is the first satirical stroke, in which the poet inveighs against an over affectation of delicacy and tenderness in women:

† Here the poet slily objects to the custom of denying the mother's breast to the infant; there are among us truly conscientious persons, who agree with his opinion.

We have here varied a little from the original, and put the two causes of generation together.

VOL. XI.

M

Aut aliqua extiterant, et sub Jove,* sed Jove nondum
Barbato, nondum Græcis jurare paratis †

Per caput alterius; cum furem nemo timeret
Caulibus, aut pomis, sed aperto viveret horto.
Paulatim deinde ad superos Astræa recessit
Hâc comite; atque duæ pariter fugêre sorores.
Antiquum et vetus est, alienum, Posthume, lectum
Concutere, atque sacri genium contemnere fulcri.
Omne aliud crimen mox ferrea protulit ætas :
Viderunt primos argentea secula mœchos.
Conventum tamen, et pactum, et sponsalia nostrâ
Tempestate paras; jamque à tonsore magistro
Pecteris, et digito pignus fortasse dedisti.

Certè sanus eras: uxorem, Posthume, ducis?
Dic, quâ Tisiphone? quibus exagitare colubris ?
Ferre potes dominam salvis tot restibus ullam?

* Argenteo sæculo, Jove Saturni filio regnante. Miram hujus loci elegantiam minime prætereundam censeo. Quantâ enim acerbitate in vitia humana insurgit poeta noster, qui non nisi vestigia pudicitiæ argenteo sæculo attribuit, neque hæc asserit, sed forsan extitisse sæculo hoc ineunte dicit; mox Jove pubescente ad superos avolasse.

† Apud Romanos Punica fides, et apud Græcos, ut liquet ex Demosthene in 1 Olynth., Macedonica fides, proverbio locum tribuerunt : Asiaticos etiam ob perjuriam insectatur noster Sat. sequente vers. 14. Sed hic originem perjurii Græcis attribuere videtur.

Adprimè docto. Hic et ad vers. 78, 79, ritus nuptiales exhibet

poeta:

The goddess may have shewn her chaps ;
But it was sure in its beginning,

E'er Jupiter had beard to grin in.

Not yet the Greeks * made truth their sport,
And bore false evidence in court;

Their truth was yet become no adage;
Men fear'd no thieves of pears and cabbage.
By small degrees Astrea flies,

With her two sisters † to the skies.

O'tis a very ancient custom,

To taint the genial bed, my Posthum !
Fearless lest husband should discover it,
Or else the Genius that rules over it.
The iron age gave other crimes,
Adult'ry grew in silver times.
But you, in this age, boldly dare
The marriage settlements prepare;

Perhaps have bought the wedding garment,
And ring too, thinking there's no harm in't.
Sure you was in your senses, honey.
You marry. Say, what Tisiphone ‡
Possesses you with all her snakes,

Those curls which in her pole she shakes?

*They were so infamous for perjury, that to have regard to an oath was a great character among them, and sufficient to denote a gentleSee our Notes on the Plutus of Aristophanes.

man.

†Truth and modesty.

One of the Furies. We have presumed to violate the quantity of this word.