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A slave, to be bewailed by matrons, produced their hidden

crimes

To the fathers: but stripes affected them with just
Punishment, and the first axe of the laws.

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I had rather thy father were Thersites, so thou art
Like Achilles, and take in hand the Vulcanian arms,
Than that Achilles should produce thee like Thersites.
And yet, however far you may fetch, and far revolve
Your name, you
deduce your race from an infamous asylum.
Whoever he, the first of your ancestors, was,
Either he was a shepherd, or that which I am unwilling to

say.

whereas a vicious and profligate person, though of the noblest extraction, is detestable and contemptible.

272. However far, &c.] Juvenal here strikes at the root of all family-pride among the Romans, by carrying them up to their original. Revolve, roll, or trace back, for however many generations.

273. An infamous asylum.] Romulus, in order to promote the peopling of the city in its first infancy, established an asylum, or sanctuary, where all outlaws, vagabonds, and criminals of all kinds, who could make their escape thither, were sure to be safe.

275. Either he was a shepherd.] As were Romulus and Remus, and, their bringer up, Faustulus.

-Unwilling to say.] As the poet does not speak his own meaning, it may not be very easy to determine it: but it is

275

likely that he would insinuate, that none of the Romans had much to brag of in point of family grandeur, and that none of them could tell but that they might have come from some robber, or cutthroat, among the first fugitives to Rome, or even from something worse than that, if worse could be: and indeed Romulus himself, their founder, was a parricide, for he is said to have killed his brother Remus.

Thus Juvenal concludes this fine Satire on family-pride, which he takes every occasion to mortify, by shewing, that what a man is in himself, not what his ancestors were, is the great matter to be considered.

Worth makes the man, the want of it t

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SATIRA IX.

ARGUMENT.

Juvenal, in this Satire, exposes and censures the detestable vice then practised at Rome. Some have thought that this is done too openly. So Farnaby-Obscoenam cinadorum et pathicorum turpitudinem acriter, at nimis aperte insectatur. Marshall says, that, on account of certain expressions in this Satire, Jul. C. Scaliger advised every man of probity to abstain from the whole work of Juvenal. But, surely, this is greatly mistaking the matter, and not adverting duly to the difference between such writers as exert their genius in the cause of vice, and so write upon it, as if they wished to recommend it to the imagination, and thus to the practice of mankind, (as Horace among the Romans, and Lord SCIRE velim, quare toties mihi, Nævole, tristis Occurras fronte obducta, ceu Marsya victus. Quid tibi cum vultu, qualem deprensus habebat Ravola, dum Rhodopes uda terit inguina barba? Nos colaphum incutimus lambenti crustula servo. Non erat hac facie miserabilior Crepereius Pollio, qui triplicem usuram præstare paratus Circuit, et fatuos non invenit. Unde repente

Line 1. Nævolus.] The poet, as an introduction to this Satire, in which he exposes and condemns the monstrous impurities then reigning in Rome, brings to view, as an example of their evil consequences, one Nævolus, a monster of vice, who appears in a most shabby and forlorn condition, more like an outcast than a member of civil society; ruined by those very vices by which he had thought to have enriched himself. Juvenal is supposed to have met him often, lately, in a state of the utmost dejection

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and misery, and now he asks him the reason of it.

2. Marsyas.] A Phrygian musician, who challenged Apollo, but was overcome by him, and flayed alive.

4. Ravola.] Some impure wretch, who, being detected with his mistress, in the situation here described, was confounded with shame at the discovery.

5. Biscuits.] Crustula-wafers, or suchlike things; or little sweet cakes, which used to be given to children. So Hor. sat. i. 1. 25, 6.

SATIRE IX.

ARGUMENT.

Rochester among us,) and such a writer as Juvenal, who exerted a fine genius, and an able pen, against vice, and, in particular, against that which is the chief object of this Satire; in which he sets it forth in such terms as to create a disgust and abhorrence, not only of those monsters of lewdness who practised it, but also of the vice itself: so that both might be avoided by the indignant reader, and be held in the highest detestation and horror. Such were our Poet's views in what he wrote, and therefore the plainness of his expressions he, doubtless, thought much more conducive to this desired end, as tending to render the subject the more shocking, than if he had contented himself with only touching it with the gentler hand of periphrasis, or circumlocution.

I WOULD know, why so often, Nævolus, you meet me,
Sad, with a clouded brow, like the conquered Marsyas.
What have you to do with a countenance, such as Ravola
had

Discovered in his lewd commerce with Rhodope?

We give a box on the ear to a servant who licks biscuits. 5
Not more miserable than this face was Crepereius
Pollio, who, ready to pay triple interest,

Went about, and found not fools.-Whence on a sudden

Ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi Doctores, elementa velint ut discere pri

ma.

As masters fondly sooth their boys to read

With cakes and sweetmeats. FRANCIS.

Crustula may here be understood of sweetmeats in general.

The thought seems to be, If a slave be beaten because he so far indulges his liquorish appetite, as to lick the cakes, or sweetmeats, as he brings them to

table, how much more worthy of punishment are such wretches as Ravola, who indulge, without restraint, in the most shameful impurities.

6, 7. Crepereius Pollio.] A noted spendthrift, who could not borrow any more money, though he offered triple interest for it.

8. Went about.] Hunting after moneylenders.

-Found not fools.] Could not meet with any who would be fools enough to trust him with their money.

Tot ruga? certe modico contentus agebas
Vernam equitem, conviva joco mordente facetus,
Et salibus vehemens intra pomoeria natis.
Omnia nunc contra: vultus gravis, horrida siccæ
Sylva comæ ; nullus tota nitor in cute, qualem
Præstabat calidi circumlita fascia visci;
Sed fruticante pilo neglecta et squallida crura.
Quid macies ægri veteris, quem tempore longo
Torret quarta dies, olimque domestica febris?
Deprendas animi tormenta latentis in ægro
Corpore, deprendas et gaudia: sumit utrumque
Inde habitum facies: igitur flexisse videris
Propositum, et vitæ contrarius ire priori.

Nuper enim (ut repeto) fanum Isidis, et Ganymedem
Pacis, et advectæ secreta palatia matris,

Et Cererem (nam quo non prostat fœmina templo ?)
Notior Aufidio machus celebrare solebas,

(Quod taceo) atque ipsos etiam inclinare maritos.
NEV. Utile et hoc multis vitæ genus: at mihi nullum

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10. The knight-like slave.] i. e. Though an home-born slave, yet thou didst live as jolly and happy as if thou hadst been a knight.

Verna eques was a jocose phrase among the Romans, to denote slaves who appeared in a style and manner above their condition; these they ludicrously called vernæ equites, gentlemen-slaves, as we should say. The phrase seems to be something like the French bourgeois gentilhomme, the cit-gentleman.

In Falstaff's humourous account of Justice Shallow and his servants, he says, "they, by observing him, do bear "themselves like foolish justices; he, by "conversing with them, is turned into a "justice-like serving man."

11. Witticisms, &c.] Pomorium (quasi post murum) was a space about the walls of a city, or town, as well within as without, where it was not lawful to plough or build, for fear of hindering the defence of the city; hence, meton. a limit, or bound.

By witticisms born, or brought forth, within the pomeria, or limits of the city, Juvenal means those of a polite kind, in contradistinction to the provincial, coarse, low-born jests of the common slaves. Hence urbanitas, from urbs, a city,

means courtesy, civility, good manners, or what we call politeness.

13. Of dry hair.] Instead of your hair being dressed, and moistened with perfumed ointments, it now stands up, without form or order, like trees in a wood.

14. Warm glue.] This viscus was a composition of pitch, wax, resin, and the like adhesive ingredients, which, being melted together and spread on a cloth, were applied warm to those parts of the body where the hair grew. After remaining some time, the cloth, which had been rolled round the part in form of a bandage, was taken off, bringing away the hair with it, and leaving the skin smooth. This practice was common among the wretches whom the poet is here satirizing.

16. The leanness, &c.] What is the meaning of that lean and sick appearance which thou dost exhibit? like that of an old invalid, who has long been afflicted, and consuming with a quartan ague and fever; so long, that it may be looked upon as domesticated, and as become a part of the family.

18. You may discover, &c.] The body is an index to the mind; a sickly, pale, languid countenance, bespeaks vexation and unhappiness within.

So many wrinkles? certainly, content with a little, you acted

The knight-like slave, a facetious guest with biting jest, 10
And quick with witticisms born within the limits of the city.
All is now contrary: a heavy countenance, a rough wood
Of dry hair: no neatness in all your skin, such as

A bandage of warm glue daubed about you procured;
But your legs are neglected, and filthy with hair growing. 15
What means the leanness of an old sick man, whom for a
long time

A fourth day parches, and a fever, long since familiar?
You may discover the torments of a mind lurking in a sick
Body, and you may discover joys: each habit the face
Assumes from thence. Therefore you seem to have turned
Your purpose, and to go contrary to your former life.
For lately (as I recollect) the temple of Isis, and the Gany-
mede

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Of (the temple of) Peace, and the secret courts of Cybele, And Ceres, (for in what temple does not a woman stand for

hire?)

An adulterer; more known than Aufidius, you used to fre

quent,

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And (which not to mention) to intrigue even with the very husbands.

NEV. And this kind of life is useful to many, but I have no

A cheerful, gay, and healthy look, bespeaks joy and peace. Sorrow nor joy can be disguis'd by art;

Our foreheads blab the secrets of our heart. HARVEY.

20. From thence.] From the mind.— q. d. The countenance assumes the appearance of sorrow or joy, from the state of the mind.

-Turned, &c.] By thy sad and miserable appearance, I do suppose that some turn or change has happened, and that your former way of life is quite altered.

22. The temple of Isis.] See sat. vi. 1. 488, and note.

-The Ganymede, &c.] The statue of Ganymede, in the temple of Peace, was also a place of rendezvous for all manner of lewd and debauched persons.

23. Cybele.] Is described in the text by the phrase advectæ matris, because the image of this mother of the gods, as she was called, was brought to Rome from

Phrygia. See sat. iii. 1. 138. and note.

24. Ceres.] In former times the temple of Ceres was not to be approached but by chaste and modest women; but as vice and lewdness increased, all reverence for sacred places decreased, and now even the temple of Ceres (see sat. vi. 1. 50. and note) was the resort of the impure of all denominations.

25. Aufidius.] Some most notorious debauchee.

It is but lately, says Juvenal, that you used to haunt all these famous abodes of lewdness and prostitution, and so to play your part, as to render yourself more noted than any body else; how comes it, Nævolus, that I perceive such a wonderful change in your looks and behaviour?

27. This kind of life, &c.] Here Nævolus begins his answer to Juvenal's inquiries, and accounts for the shabby and miserable appearance which he made, by shewing what poor wages such

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