Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Et natalitiâ tandem cum sardonyche albus,
Sede leges celsâ, liquido cum plasmate guttur
Mobile collueris, patranti fractus ocello. +-
Hic, neque more probo videas, neque voce serenâ,
Ingentes trepidare Titos; cum carmina lumbum
Intrant, et tremulo scalpuntur ubi intima versu.
Tun,' vetule, auriculis alienis colligis escas?
Auriculis quibus et dicas cute perditus, Ohe.

20

answer, which introduces the chief subject of this Satire, and the poet as naturally interrupts, at the words grande aliquid, 1. 14, in order to pursue it; which he does by describing the vanity and folly of these scribblers, some of whom, at an advanced time of life, when they ought to be wiser, are writing trifling and lascivious poems, and reading them to the people in public; this, with every disgraceful circumstance of dress and manner.

115. Comb'd] Or crisped, curled, and set in an effeminate style. A new gown.] Made, and put on, on the occasion.

16. White.] Albus.-This can't agree with toga, therefore some refer it to the man himself, as supposing him to look white, or pale,with fear and anxiety, for the success of his poem, and make i equivalent to pallidus.-HOR. epod. vii. 1. 15, says albus pallor; and albus, in one sense of it, signifies pale or wan,

AINSW.

But I do not see why we may not read albus toga recenti, to denote the person's being clad in a new white garment-lit. white with a new gown.

His hair being first kemb'd and smooth, and then bedight
In a fair comely garment fresh and white.

HOLYDAY.

The Romans wore white garments, as a piece of finery, on certain festival occasions, as on a birth-day, and the like. So, OVID: Scilicet expectas solitum tibi moris honorem, Pendeat ex humeris vestis ut alba meis.

-A birth-day sardonyx.] This species of precious stone, set in a ring, and worn on the finger, was reckoned piece of finery, which the Romans were very ambitious of displaying. See Juv. sat. vii. I. 142, 3.

By a birth-day sardonyx, the poet probably means a present that had been made to the man, on his birth-day, of this ring, which he wore on this occasion. It was usual to send presents to a person on his birth-day. See Juv. sat. xi. 1. 84, note.

17. You will read.] i. e. Rehearse aloud,

In a high seat.] When authors read their works publicly, they had a sort of desk, or pulpit, raised above the auditory, by which means they could be better seen and heard.

Liquid gargle, &c.] Plasma-a gargle, or medicine to prevent or take away hoarseness, and to clear the voice.

18. Moveable throat.] Mobilis-i. e. pliant, tractable, easily con tracting or dilating, according to the sounds which are to be formed.

White, and lastly with a birth-day sardonyx,

You will read, in a high seat, when with a liquid gargle you have wash'd.
Your moveable throat, and effeminate with a lascivious eye:
Here, neither in a modest manner, nor with a serene voice,

You may see the great Titi tremble, when the verses enter the loins,

And when the inwards are scratch'd with the tremulous verse.

20

Dost thou, O old man, collect food for the ears of others? For ears, to which even thou, in skin destroy'd, may'st say"Enough."

18. A lascivious eye.] Suiting the lewdness of his look to the obscenity of his subject. See AINSW. Fractus, No. 4, and Patrans, ib.

19. Here. In such a place, and on such an occasion. The poet having described the reader's dress, preparation, and manner, now describes the effect which he had on his auditory.

Neither in a modest manner:] But quite the contrary, betraying very indecent emotions.

Nor with a serene voice.] Nor giving their applause with a calm decency of expression, but with a confused and broken kind of voice, like people agitated with disorderly passions.

20. The great Titi, &c.] The poet in derision calls the Roman nobles Titi, from Titus Tatius, a king of the Sabines : a peace be ing made between the Sabines and Romans, at the instance of the Sabine women, he became a partner with Romulus in a joint government for five years. Persius means to exhibit a contrast between what the great Romans were in the days of Titus Tatius, and what they were now-hence calls them, ironically, ingentes Titi, the great descendents of Titus Tatius. See Juv. sat. iii. 1. 60, note.

-

Tremble.] Are agitated with lust, at hearing the recital of the obscene performance, which enters their very loins, as it were, and irritates their most inward parts.

21. Scratch'd. i. e. Titillated, irritated.

Tremulous verse.] With the lascivious verses, which are read with an effeminate, soft, and trembling accent, suited to the nature of the subject.

22. Dost thou, O old man, &c.] Persius, in this apostrophe, inveighs against these lascivious old fellows, who wrote such poems as are before mentioned.

Dost thou, who art old enough to be wiser, put together such obscene and filthy stuff, in order to become food for the ears of your libidinous hearers?

23. For ears, &c.] He repeats the word auriculis, in order to make his reproof the more striking.

To which even thou, &c.] The poet's imitations of Horace, in all his satires, are very evident; in none more than in this line. There can be little doubt that Persius had in his eye that passage of HORACE, lib. ii. sat. v. 1, 96—8,

"Quo didicisse, nisi hoc fermentum, et quæ semel intus "Innata est, rupto jecore exierit caprificus?"

En pallor, seniumque! O mores, usque adeone Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter! "At pulchrum est, digito monstrari, et dicier, Hic est.

Importunus amat laudari? donec ohe jam !
Ad cœlum manibus sublatis dixerit, urge, et
Crescentem tumidis infla sermonibus utrem.
Should lust

Of empty glory be the blockhead's gust,
Indulge his eager appetite, and puff
The growing bladder with inspiring stuff;
Till he, with hands uplifted to the skies,
Enough! enough! in glutted rapture cries.

25

FRANCIS.

Thus Persius represents the reciter of the obscene verses to be so flattered, as to be ready to burst with the vanity created within him ; so that he is forced to stop the fulsome applause and compliments of his hearers, with crying-" Enough! forbear! I can endure no "❝ more!"

Jam satis est!

Ohe

Hon. sat. v. lib. i. l. 12, 13.

Cute perditus has perhaps a reference to the fable of the proud frog, who swelled till she burst. See HoR. sat. iii. lib. ii. l. 314 -19.

24." Unless this ferment."] The old man answers-To what purpose, then, is all my study and pains to excel in this kind of writing, unless they appear thus, and shew themselves in their effects on myself and hearers? In vain would you mix leaven with the dough of which bread is made, unless it ferments and lightens the mass; so all my science would be vain, if it lay dormant and quiet within me, and did not shew itself visibly to others, by being productive of such compositions which raise such a ferment in the minds of my hearers. Fermentum here is metaphorical.

"And what once, &c.] In order to understand this line, we are to observe, that the caprificus was a sort of wild fig-tree, which grew about walls and other buildings; and by shooting its branches into the joints of them, burst a passage through them, and, in time, weakened and destroyed them. See Juv. sat. x. 1. 145, note.

The apologist farther illustrates his meaning, by comparing his natural, as well as acquired talents, to the caprificus-these, having once taken root within, will burst forth, through the inmost recesses of the mind, to the observation of all, as the caprificus does through the clefts of rocks, or stone-quarries, or stone-walls; and, "unless "this were the case, what good would these inbred talents do me?"The ancients reckoned the liver as the seat of the concupiscible and irascible passions. See Juv. sat. i. l. 45, note. Here Persius uses the word jecore, for the inward mental part, which contained the genius and talents of the poet, and was to be broken through by the energy of their exertions,

"For what purpose to have learnt, unless this ferment, and what

❝ once

Is within innate, the wild fig-tree, should come forth from the "bursten liver?"

25

Lo, paleness and old-age! O manners! is your knowing, then, Altogether nothing, unless another should know that you know it? "But it is pleasant to be shewn with the finger, and to be said 66 -This is he."

26. Lo, paleness and old age!] These words are by some supposed to be the end of the apologist's speech, as if he had said-See how pale I am with study and application, and that in my old-age, a time of life when others retire from labour and shall I meet with no reward for all this?

[ocr errors]

Others suppose the words to be the reply of Persius, and a continuation of his reproof." Lo, paleness of countenance and old66 age!-and yet thou dost not cease from such vain toils!" Juv. vii. 96, 7.

See

O manners!] Like that of Tully--O tempora! O mores! q. d. What are we come to!-what can we say of the manners of the times, when an old fellow can write such obscenity, and can find hearers to approve his repetition of it!

27. Altogether nothing, unless, &c.] Persius here imitates a passage of Lucilius.

-Id me

Nolo scire mihi cujus sum consciu' solus,

Ne damnum faciam. Scire est nescire, nisi id me
Scire alius sciret.

What, says Persius, is all your science, then, nothing worth, unless you tell all the world of it? have you no pleasure or satisfac tion in what you know, without you exert a principle of vain glory, by cultivating the applause of others? Is this the end of your study and application? Scire tuum--i. e. scientia tua. Græcism. Comp. istud vivere, l. 9.

28. Shewn with the finger."] Here is an ironical prolepsis--the poet anticipates some of the pleas of these writers for their proceedings. It is a pleasant thing, perhaps, you may say, to be so famous for one's writings, as to be pointed at as one goes along, by the passers by, and to hear them say,-" That's he"- "that's the fam"ous poet."

Horace disgraces one of his finest odes, by mentioning, with pleasure, such a piece of vanity-

Quod monstror digito prætereuntium
Romanæ fidicen lyræ.

Ode iii. lib. iv. i. 22, 3.

CICERO, TUSC. v. 36. mentions it as an instance of great weakness in Demosthenes, in that he professed himself much pleased with hearing a poor girl, who was carrying water say to another, as he passed by There, that's the famous Demosthenes.". "Quid hoc levius?" says Tully-" At quantus orator?-Sed apud alios loqui " videlicet didicerat, non multum ipse secum.

[ocr errors]

"Ten' cirratorum centum dictata fuisse,

"Pro nihilo pendas?"-Ecce, inter pocula, quærunt
Romulidæ saturi, quid dîa poemata narrent!

Hic aliquis, cui circum humeros hyacinthina lana est,
(Rancidulum quiddam balbâ de nare locutus,)
Phyllidas, Hypsipylas, vatum et plorabile si quid
Eliquat; et tenero supplantat verba palato,
Assensêre viri-Nunc non cinis ille poetæ

30

35

29. The exercises, &c.] Dictata -Precepts or instructions of any kind particularly, and most frequently, lessons which the master pronounceth to his scholars; school-boys' exercises. AINSW. The poet continues his bantering

Is it nothing, think you, to have your verses taught to the chil. dren of the nobles at school; to have an hundred such boys getting them by heart, and repeating them as their lessons, or writing themes on passages of your works-The poet, here, has a fling at the emperor Nero, who ordered his poems to be taught in the schools for youth.

"

Curl-pates.] i. e. The young nobility, so called, from having their hair dressed and curled in a particular manner.

30-31. Satiated Romans, &c.] He calls the Roman nobility, Romulidæ, dim. from Romulus their great progenitor; and he means hereby to insinuate, sarcastically, their declension and defection from the sober and virtuous manners of their ancestors. Comp. Juv, sat. i. l. 100, note.

Here we see them at table, gormandizing, and filled with eating and drinking; then calling for somebody to repeat passages from the writings of poets for their entertainment, or perhaps that they might inquire into the merit of them.

31. Divine poems.] Dia, from Gr. dios, divinus. The science of poetry was reckoned divine; but the poet's use of the epithet, in this place, is ironical, meaning to satirize those productions which these Romulida saturi were so pleased with.-Quid narrent―i. e. what they may contain and set forth.

32. Here.] i. e. Upon this occasion.

Some one, &c.] Some noble and delicate person, dressed in a violet coloured garment, which was a sign of effeminacy, and greatly in fashion among such of the Roman nobility who were the beaux of the time.

33. Something rankish, &c.] i. e. Repeated something of the obscene or filthy kind, though with a bad voice, uttered through his nose, by way of preface to what follows.

34. Phyllises.] Phyllis, the daughter of Lycurgus, who fell in love with Demophoon, the son of Theseus, on his return from Troy, and entertained him at bed and board. He, after some time, going from her, promised to return again; but not performing his promise, she hanged herself upon an almond-trée.

Hypsipyla.] Hypsipyle was the daughter of Thoas, and

« PredošláPokračovať »