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And judge about a measure, and lesser vessels
Break, a ragged Edile at empty Ulubræ ?—
Therefore, what was to be wish'd for, you will confess Sejanus
To have been ignorant: for he who desired too many honours,
And sought too much wealth, was preparing numerous
Stories of an high tower, from whence his fall might be
Higher, and the precipice of his enforced ruin be dreadful.
What overthrew the Crassi, the Pompeys, and him who
Brought down the subdued Romans to his scourges?

Why truly, the chief place, sought by every art,
And great vows listen'd to by malignant gods.

To the son-in-law of Ceres, without slaughter and wound, few
Kings descend, and tyrants by a dry death.

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For the eloquence and fame of Demosthenes, or of Cicero, He begins to wish, and does wish during the whole Quinquatria, 115 Whoever reveres Minerva, hitherto gotten for three farthings,

He left two sons, Cneius and Sextus; the first was defeated in a land battle in Spain, the other in a sea-fight on the coast of Sicily. We are not only to understand here Crassus and Pompey, but, by Crassos et Pompeios, plur. all such great men who have fallen by illfated ambition.

109. Brought down, &c.] i. e. Julius Cæsar, who, after he had obtained the sovereignty, partly by arms and violence, partly by art and intrigue, was publicly assassinated in the senate house, as a tyrant and enemy to the liberty of his country. His scourges-i. e. made them slaves, as it were, and subject to his will, liable to be treated in the most humiliating manner.

110. Chief place.] The ambition of reigning absolutely. The poet here shews the fatal source of misery to the aspiring and ambitious; namely, a restless desire after greatness, so as to leave no stone unturned to come at it-nulla non arte, &c.

111. Great vows.] i. e. Wishes and prayers for greatness, honours, riches, &c.

By malignant gods-] Who, provoked by the unreasonable and foolish wishes of mortals, punish them, with accepting their vows, and with granting their desires. Comp. 1. 7, 8.

112. Son-in-law of Ceres.] Pluto, the fabled god, and king of the infernal regions: he stole Proserpina, the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, and carried her to his subterranean dominions,

The poet means here to say, that few of the great and successful ambitious die, without some violence committed upon them.

113. A dry death.] Without bloodshed,

115. The whole, c.] Minerva was the goddess of learning and eloquence; her festival was celebrated for five days, hence called Quinquatria-during this the school-boys had holidays.

116. Whoever reveres, &c.] The poor school-boy, who has got

Quem sequitur custos angustæ vernula capsæ:
Eloquio sed uterque perît orator: utrumque
Largus et exundans letho dedit ingenii fons :
Ingenio manus est et cervix cæsa; nec unquam
Sanguine causidici maduerunt rostra pusilli.-
O fortunatam natam, me consule, Romam!
Antonî gladios potuit contemnere, si sic
Omnia dixisset: ridenda poëmata malo,
Quam te conspicuæ, divina Philippica, fama,
Volveris a primâ quæ proxima. Sævus et illum
Exitus eripuit, quem mirabantur Athenæ
Torrentem, et pleni moderantem fræna theatri.
Dis ille adversis genitus, fatoque sinistro,
Quem pater ardentis massæ fuligine lippus,
A carbone et forcipibus, gladiosque parante

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125

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as much learning as has cost him about three farthings; i. e. the merest young beginner at the lower end of the school.

117. A little slave, &c.] This is a natural image of little master going to shool, with a servant-boy to carry his satchel of books after him, and heightens the ridiculous idea of his coveting the eloquence of the great orators.

118. Each orator, &c.] See note on 1, 9.-i. e. Both Demosthenes and Cicero. Demosthenes, to avoid the cruelty of Antipater, poisoned himself.

120. Hand and neck, &c.] Of Cicero, which were cut off by the emissaries of Antony, when they attacked and murdered him in his litter on the road. They, i. e. Tully's head and hand, were afterwards fixed up at the rostra, from whence he had spoken his Philippics, by order of Antony.

Cut off by genius.] i. e. His capacity and powers of eloquence, which he used against Antony, brought this upon him.

121. Rostra.] A place in the forum, where lawyers and orators harangued. See AINSW. Rostra, No. 2.-No weak lawyer, or pleader, could ever make himself of consequence enough to be in danger of any design against his life, by what he was capable of saying in public.

122. O fortunatam, &c.] Mr. Dryden renders this line:

Fortune fore-tun'd the dying notes of Rome,

Till I, thy consul sole, consol'd thy doom.

And observes, that, "the Latin of this couplet is a verse of Tully's, "(in which he sets out the happiness of his own consulship) famous "for the vanity and ill poetry of it."

It is bad enough; but Mr. Dryden has made it still worse, by adding more jingles to it. However, to attempt translating it is ridiculous, because it disappoints the purpose of the passage, which is to give a sample of Tully's bad poetry in his own words.

123. If thus, &c.] g. d. If Tully had never written or spoken

Whom a little slave follows, the keeper of his narrow satchel :
But each orator perish'd by eloquence; each

A large and overflowing fountain of genius consigned to death.
The hand and neck was cut off by genius; nor ever

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Where rostra wet with the blood of a weak lawyer.
O'fortunatam natam, me consule, Romam !~

He might have contemn'd the swords of Antony, if thus

He had said all things. I like better laughable poems,

Than thee, divine Philippic of conspicuous fame,

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Who art roll'd up next from the first. Him also a crueļ
Death snatched away, whom Athens admired,

Rapid, and moderating the reins of the full theatre.

He was begotten, the gods adverse, and fate unpropitious,

Whom his father, blear-eyed with the reek of a burning mass,
From coal and pincers, and from the anvil preparing

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better than this, he needed not to have dreaded any mischief to himself; he might have defied the swords which Antony employed against him.

124. Laughable poems.] Ridenda-ridiculous-that are only fit to be laughed at.

125. Divine Philippic.] Meaning Cicero's second Philippic, which, of all the fourteen orations which he made against Antony, was the most cutting and severe, and this probably cost him his life.

He called these orations Philippics, as he tells Atticus, because in the freedom and manner of his speech he imitated the Philippics (TTxo Royo, of Demosthenes, whose orations against Philip were so called.

126 Roll'd up, &c.] Volveris.-The books of the ancients were rolled up in volumes of paper or parchment-this famous Philippic stood second in the volume. See sat. xiv. 1. 102.

127. Athens admired.] Demosthenes. See note on 1. 9. 128. Rapid.] Torrentem--his eloquence rapid and flowing, like the torrent of a river.

-Moderating-] Or governing the full assembly of his hearers as he pleased, as a horse is governed and managed by a rein; so Demosthenes regulated and governed the minds of his auditory.

129. Gods adverse, &c.] It was a current notion among the ancients, that where people were unfortunate in their lives, the gods were displeased at their birth, and always took a part against them. 130. His father.] Demosthenes is said to have been the son of a blacksmith at Athens.

Of a burning mass.] Large masses of iron, when red-hot out of the forge, are very hurtful to the eyes of the workmen, from their great heat.

131. Coal and pincers, &c.] His father at first thought of bringing up his son Demosthenes to his own trade; but he took him from this, and put him to a rhetorician to be taught eloquence,

Incude, et luteo Vulcano ad rhetora misit.

Bellorum exuviæ, truncis affixa trophæis Lorica, et fractâ de casside buccula pendens, Et curtum temone jugum, victæque triermis Aplustre, et summo tristis captivus in arcu, Humanis majora bonis creduntur: ad hæc se Romanus, Graiusque ac Barbarus induperator

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Erexit: causas discriminis atque laboris

Inde habuit. TANTO MAJOR FAME SITIS EST, QUAM

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132. Dirty Vulcan.] Vulcan was the fabled god of smiths, whose trade is very filthy and dirty. Sat. xiii. 1. 44, 5.

133. Maimed trophies.] The trophy was a monument erected in memory of victory. The custom came from the Greeks, who, when they had routed their enemies, erected a tree, with all the branches cut off, on which they suspended the spoils, of armour which they had taken from them, as well as other ensigns of victory: several of which the poet here enumerates; but as nothing was entire, the poet calls them maimed trophies.

134. A Beaver.] Buccula, from bucca, the cheek, seems to have been that part of armour which was fastened to the helmet, and came down over the cheeks, and fastened under the chin.

135. Beam.] Temo was the beam of the wain, or the draught-tree, whereon the yoke hung: by this the chariot was supported and conducted, while drawn by the yoke.

136. A sad captive, &c.] On the top of the triumphal arch, which was built upon these occasions, they made some wretched captive place himself, and there sit bemoaning his wretched fate, while the conquerors were exulting in their victory. So DRYDEN:

an arch of victory,

On whose high convex sits a captive foe,

And sighing casts a mournful look below.

137. To be greater, &c.] Such is the folly of mankind, that these wretched trifles are looked upon, not only as bearing the highest value, but as something more than human.

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For these &c.] Commanders of all nations have exerted themselves, through every scene of danger and fatigue, in order to get at these ensigns of fame and victory. Erexit se hath roused himself to mighty deeds.

138. The Roman.] By the Roman, perhaps, we may understand Julius Cæsar, M. Antony and others, who, while they were greedily following military glory, were preparing ruin for themselves, as well as many sad calamities to their country.

Greek.] Here Miltiades and Themistocles, the two Athe

Swords, and from dirty Vulcan, sent to a rhetorician.

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The spoils of war, to maimed trophies a breast-plate Fixed, and a beaver hanging from a broken helmet, A yoke deprived of its beam, the flag of a conquer'd Three-oar'd vessel, and a sad captive at the top of an arch, Are believed to be greater than human goods: for these The Roman, Greek, and Barbarian commander, hath Exerted himself: the causes of danger and labour hath had From thence. So much greater is the thirst of fame than Of Virtue for WHO EMBRACES EVEN VIRTUE ITSELF, IF YOU TAKE AWAY ITS REWARDS?-yet formerly the glory of a few

Has ruined a country, and the lust of praise, and of

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A title to be fixed to the stones, the keepers of their ashes; which, To throw down, the evil strength of a barren fig-tree is able, 145

nian generals, may be alluded to, who, while they were catching at military fame, perished miserably.

138. Barbarian.] A name which the Greeks and Romans were fond of fixing on all but themselves.

Here may be meant Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, who, while he vexed the Romans with continual wars, occasioned the overthrow of his country, and his own miserable death.

139. Causes of danger, &c.] These things have been the grand motives of their exertions, in the very face of difficulty, and even of death.

140. So much greater, &c.] i. e. All would be great; how few wish to be good!

142. If you take away, &c.] Who is so disinterestedly virtuous, as to love and embrace virtue, merely for the sake of being and doing good? indeed, who would be virtuous at all, unless the fame and reputation of being so, brought something with them to gratify the pride and vanity of the human heart? Virtue seldom walks forth, saith one, without vanity at her side.

The glory of a few. As Marius, Sylla, Pompey, Antony, &c.-q. d. Many instances have there been, where a few men, in search of fame, and of the gratification of their ambition, have been the destroyers of their country.

144. A title, &c.] An inscription to be put on their monuments, in which their remains were deposited this has often proved a motive of ambition, and has urged men to the most dangerous, as well as mischievous exploits.

145. Evil strength, &c.] There was a sort of wild fig-tree, which grew about walls and other buildings, which, by spreading and running its roots under them, and shooting its branches into the joinings of them, in length of time weakened and destroyed them, as we often see done by ivy among us. See PERS. sat. i. 1. 25. Evil here is to be understood in the sense of hurtful, mischievous.

A poor motive to fame, then, is a stone monument with a fine in

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