Sanguinis in facie non hæret gutta; morantur Experiêre hodie numquid pulcherrima dictu, Fercula nunc audi nullis ornata macellis : De Tiburtino veniet pinguissimus agro 55 60 65 or regret, at flying their country, than arises from their not being able to partake of the public diversions during their absence. See sat. iii. 1. 223, note. 54. Drop of blood, &c.] They have lost all shame-they cannot blush. 54-5. Detain modesty, &c.] The virtue of modesty is laughed at and ridiculed: she is, as it were, taking her flight from the city, and very few are for stopping her, or delaying her retreat. 56. This day, &c.] When you are to dine with me. Experience, &c.] i. e. You shall be convinced, by your own experience, whether I am an hypocrite, saying one thing and doing another; and while I have been laying down such fair and becoming rules of economy, in what I have been saying, I practice them not, in fact, neither with respect to my way of life, nor my moral conduct. -Re-in reality. TER. And. act v. sc. i. 1. 5. 58. Pulse.] Siliquas denotes bean or pea-pods, or the like; also the pulse contained therein-it stands for frugal and homely diet in general. Water-gruel.] Pultes.-Puls signifies a kind of diet which the ancients used, made of meal and water sodden together.—This also stands here for any thing of that homely kind. 59. Cakes.1 These were dainties made with honey and other sweetHOR. Ep. lib. i. x. l. 11, 12, says: meats. Liba recuso, FRANCIS. Pane egeo jam mellitis potiore placentis. I nauseate honied cakes, and long for bread, You shall see, says the poet, whether I am a glutton in secret, though professedly abstemious; whether I recommend a meal of herbs, yet secretly gormandize on dainties; and when before company I order my servant to bring some homely fare, I secretly whisper him to bring some very luscious and delicate food. 60. Promised guest.] Since you have promised to be my guest at dinner. You shall have.] i. e. You shall find in me Not a drop of blood sticks in the face, few detain Modesty, ridiculous and flying out of the city. You shall this day experience, whether things most fair 55 In word, Persicus, I cannot practise, neither in my life, nor in my morals, and in deed; But, a secret glutton, I can praise pulse, order water-gruel To the servant before others, but, in his ear, cakes. For, since you are a promised guest to me, you shall have 60 65 61. Evander.] A king of Arcadia, who, having accidentally slain his father, sailed into Italy, and possessed himself of the place where afterwards Rome was built. He entertained Hercules, and hospitably received Æneas when he landed in Italy. See VIRG. Æn. viii. 154, et seq. Tirynthius.] A name of Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena she being born at Tiryns, a city of Peloponnesus, he was therefore called Tirynthius. A guest less, &c.] Meaning Eneas-inferior in birth. 62. Yet he akin, &c.] Eneas was the son of Anchises and the goddess Venus. 63. By water.] Æneas was drowned in the Numicus, a river in Italy, which on that account was fabulously consecrated. The other by flames.] Hercules burnt himself to death on Mount Eta, in Thessaly. The poet seems to mean, that Persicus, his friend, should, on his coming to dine with him, find him another Evander with respect to the homeliness and simplicity of his entertainment; and that Perșicus might consider himself as Hercules, or Æneas, or indeed both, with regard to the welcome he would find, and the hospitable reception he would meet with. 64. Now hear, &c.] Now hear your bill of fare, not a single ar ticle of which is furnished from the butcher's or poulterer's. Macellum signifies a market for all manner of provisions. 65. Tiburtine farm.] Tibur, a pleasant city of Italy, situate on the river Anio, about sixteen miles from Rome-in the neighbourhood of this, Juvenal had a farm. See HoR. Od. lib. i. ode vii. et al. 66. Ignorant of grass.] Never suffered to graze, but, like our house-lamb, fatted by suckling. 67. Nor yet daring.] Or attempting to browse on the twigs of the willow, which kids are very fond of, but they are apt to make the flesh bitter. Qui plus lactis habet quam sanguinis; et montani Ipse focis brevibus ponebat oluscula: quæ nunc 70 75 80 68-9. Mountain asparaguses.] Some wild sorts that grew on the mountains, inferior in flavour to the asparagus altilis, or that which was carefully cultivated in garden-beds, Asparagi, plur. may mean the shoots of herbs that are to be eaten. See sat. v. 81, note. young 69. Bailiff's wife, &c.] The feminine of villicus, a steward or bailiff, signifies the wife of such a one, a farmer's wife, and the like. The asparagus gotten for the dinner was not of the sort which is raised at a great expense, and gathered by people kept for such purposes, but the wild sort, and gathered by a woman, who at other times was employed in spinning. 70. Eggs-warm, &c.] Large new-laid eggs, brought in the nest, which was made of hay twisted together. 71. Are added.] i. e. To the bill of fare. With the mothers, &c.] The same hens that laid them. 72. Grapes, &c.] Preserved for some time after their being gathered, so as to look quite fresh, as much so as when they were upon the vines. 73. The Signian.] Signia was a town in Italy, famous for pears and for rough wines Spumans immiti Signia musto SIL. viii. 380. The Syrian pear.] These came from Tarentum, a city of Calabria, but were originally brought from Syria. 74. Apples, rivals to the Picene.] Horace says, that the apples from Tibur were not so good as the Picene. Picenis cedunt pomis Tiburtia succo. Lib. ii. sat. iv. 70. Therefore it was a high commendation of his apples, to say they ri valled those of Picenum. Recent odour.] Smelling as fresh as if just gathered. 75. To be feared, &c.] You need not fear to eat them, since the cruder juices which they have in autumn are dried away, and now they are mellowed by the cold of winter, so that you are in no Which has more of milk than blood. And mountain Asparaguses, which my bailiff's wife gather'd, laying her spindle aside. Great eggs besides, warm in the twisted hay, 70 Are added, with the mothers themselves; and, kept for a Part of the year, grapes, such as they were upon the vines : 75 The autumn, dried by cold, and the dangers of a crude juice. 80 A dirty digger, in a large fetter, despises, Who remembers how the sow's womb of a cook's hot shop can relish. The back of a dry swine, hanging on a wide rack, danger from the sour and unripened juice of them, as you might be if you ate them in autumn, soon after they are gathered. By autumnum (succum understood) is here meant the autumnal juice of the apple, which is crude, and apt to offend the stomach. See autumnus-a-um. AINSW. 77. A long time ago.] Jam olim.-q. d. The senators of Rome would, in old times, not only have been content with such a supper as the above, but even have thought it luxury. 78. Curius.] Dentatus. When the ambassadors of the Samnites came to him, they found him boiling some pot herbs over the fire. See sat. ii. 1. 153, note. 80. A dirty digger, &c.] Slaves who had committed certain crimes, were put in irons, and made to dig in mines, or in the fields, or in stone-quarries. See sat. viii. 179, 80. 81. Who remembers, &c.] Who still retains the remembrance of his going into a cook's shop, and feasting on a sow's womb which was dressed there. The paps of a sow with pig, together with a part of the belly, cut off from the animal, and dressed with proper seasoning, was a favourite dish among the Romans. Another favourite dish was the womb of a sow with pig. If this were taken from her while pregnant, it was called ejectitia: if after she had farrowed, porcaria; the former was reckoned the most delicious. See HOR. lib. i. epist. xv. 1. 41. PLINY, lib. viii. c. 51, says this was forbidden by the censors. Such homely and frugal fare, as pleased that great man Curius, is now, such is the state of luxury among all ranks of people, contemned even by the lowest and most abject slaves, who, in their better days, remember to have tasted fashionable dainties. 82. The back, &c.] What we call a flitch of bacon. Wide rack.] Crates signifies a grate, whatever it be made of Moris erat quondam festis servare diebus, Cum tremerent autem Fabios, durumque Catonem, Censoris mores etiam collega timeret ; 8.5 90 -if of wood, we call it a rack, which consists of a frame, in which are inserted bars of wood at distances from each other, and used in keeping bacon. The word rara intimates, that the bars were few, and at large distances from each other. 83. For festal days.] High days and holidays, as we say—as a great treat. 84. Bacon.] Lardum (quasi large aridum.) Sometimes this signifies bacon, sometimes the lard or fat of bacon. Here, perhaps, what we call a rasher, i. e. a slice of fat bacon broiled. Birth-day feast.] Natalitium signifies a gift, or present, sent to one on his birth-day, or an entertainment made for one's friends and relations on such an occasion. 85. Fresh meat acceding.] To this, perhaps, some new or fresh killed meat was added. If the sacrifice, &c.] If they offered a sacrifice, and any flesh of the victim remained to spare, it was reckoned and prized as an accidental rarity. 86. Some one of the kindred.] i. e. Of the person's kinsmen who made the feast.-Perhaps he alludes particularly here to Curius above mentioned, who was thrice consul, and a great general: he beat Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and drove him out of Italy; and was remarkable for his courage, honesty, and frugality. See AINSW. 87. The honour of dictator.] This was a chief magistrate, chosen on some urgent occasion, whose power was absolute, from whom lay no appeal: his office was limited to six months, when there was a new election, either continuing the same, or choosing a new one.The dictator differed in nothing from a king, but in his name, and in the duration of his power. 88. Went to these feasts.] Homely as they were as to à sumptu ous treat. Sooner than usual. Leaving their work before the usual hour. 89. His erect spade.] Raised high by being carried on his shoulder. Subdued mountain.] Where he had been at work, digging |