If yet, in spite of this prodigious store, VER. 458. Who sway'd the emperor, &c.] The state of dependance in which this moon-calf (Claudius) was kept by his freedmen, is sarcastically alluded to by Seneca, in a passage of exquisite humour; excandescit Claudius: quid diceret nemo intelligebat. Ille autem febrim duci jubebat, illo gestu soluta manus, quo decollare homines solebat. Jusserat illi collum præcidi; putares. omnes illius esse LIBERTOS, ADEO ILLAM NEMO CURABAT." Apokol. Plung'd, &c.] This is agreeable to history. Narcissus, the person here meant, though inferiour in rank to Pallas, was the chief adviser, Tacitus says, in the whole affair. But this is not all, for when Claudius appeared irresolute, and shewed marks of returning fondness for Messalina, Narcissus gave the orders for her death, without consulting him: fearful of her resentment, if she recovered her influence, he would not even permit her to be heard. Such was the end of Messaliná! Her two accusers were not much more fortunate. Pallas perished by the sword of Nero, as we have already seen, Satire 1. Narcissus preserved his influence during the life of Claudius, but on the accession of Nero, Agrippina, whose designs he had endeavoured to thwart, threw him into prison; and, by a detestable refinement in cruelty, compelled him, through mere want of sustenance, to put an end to his life. A strange catastrophe for one who had seen the resources of the Roman world at his feet! SATIRE XV. Argument. In this Satire, which was written after the Author's return from Egypt, he directs his ridicule at the sottish and ferocious bigotry of the Egyptians. The enumeration of their animal and vegetable gods, is a fine specimen of dignified humour; and though he may be thought to treat the actors in the horrid transaction, which makes the chief subject of his poem, with too indiscriminate a severity, yet it should be considered that he had, for many justifiable causes, long regarded the country and the countrymen of Crispinus, with contempt and aversion: neither of which, we may presume, was much diminished, by a nearer view of both. The conclusion of the Satire, which is a just and beautiful description of the origin of civil society, (infinitely superior to any thing that Lucretius or Horace has delivered on the subject,) does honour to the genius, good sense, and enlightened morality, I had almost said, piety, of the Author. It is not founded in natural instinct, but on principles of mutual benevolence, implanted, not by Nature, as Mr. Gibbon carelessly or perversely asserts, but by NATURE'S GOD, in the breast of man, and of MAN ALONE. SATIRE XV. TO VOLUSIUS BITHYNICUS. v. 1—6. WHO knows not to what monstrous gods, my friend, While These the ibis piously inshrine, Those think the crocodile alone divine; Others, where Thebes' vast ruins strew the ground, VER. 6. And shatter'd Memmon, &c.] "The gigantic statue of Memmon, in his temple of Thebes, had a lyre in his hands, which, many credible writers assure us, sounded when the rising sun shone upon it." Darwin. What credible writer says this? An old scholiast on Juvenal, indeed, mentions it; but he is totally unworthy of belief. The history of this wonderful statue seems to be simply this: Herodotus, when he went into Egypt, was shewn the fragments of a Colossus, thrown down some years before by Cambyses. This he calls Memnon, but says not syllable respecting its emitting a vocal sound: which appears to have been an after-thought of the priests of Thebes.* The upper part of this statue has been covered by the sand for ages: it is * Savary observes with a simplicity that excites a smile: "Herodotus is the first who speaks of the statue of Memmon, and indeed, it is but a word he says of it, because, when he was in Egypt, it had not been long mutilated! Since his time, a crowd of travellers have dwelt upon it with enthusiasm!" Lett. sur l'Egypte, Vol. III. p. 175. |