To be fixed, and revolved in the mindful breast, whether A vehement orator, or Curtius, or Matho. The measure of From such masters, after all, last note; vii. 129. a fellow of no abilities, who, not succeeding at the bar, turned spy and informer. 35. Your abilities, &c.] Bucca-lit. cheek, here (by synec.) put for the whole mouth, through which we speak ; and this, for speaking itself, by metonym. The poet means, that the extent of a man's capacity should be considered, if he intends to plead at the bar; he should know his own powers of eloquence, and act accordingly. -Regarded.] This attention to the fitness of a man for what he undertakes should be regarded in all concerns whatsoever, from the highest to the lowest. 36. A fish, &c.] When he goes to the fish market, if his purse will only afford him a gudgeon, he should not think of buying so dear a fish as a mullet; i. e. a man should always proportion his expences to his pocket. 38. What end, &c.] What must increasing expence and gluttony, and a decreasing and failing purse, end in ? 40. In your belly.] Your patrimony, both in goods and land, all spent to gratify your luxury and gluttony, all swallowed up by your voracious appetite. -Capable of containing, &c.] Not only the interest and principal of what the father left in personal estate, but also all his land, and stock thereon, into the bargain. By argenti gravis (joined with fœnoris, which signifies interest upon money lent) the principal money itself may be understood. Or the epithet gravis may here signify the best silver money, in contradistinction to the tenue argentum, venæque secundæ, sat. ix. 31. Many interpret argenti gravis to denote silver in the rude heavy mass. 42. Such masters.] i. e. Owners, pos sessors. -After all, &c.] When all else is spent and gone. 43. The ring.] The mark of honour and distinction wore by Roman knights. They must be driven very hard to part with this; but having, by their extravagance, reduced themselves below the fortune and rank of the equestrian order, they have no right to claim it, or to wear the badge of it. -Pollio.] He was brought to that pass by his gluttony, that he was forced to sell his ring, and then beg for a livelihood. -Naked finger.] His finger bare, bereft of the ring which he used to wear upon it. 66 44. Ashes, &c.] Death never comes too soon; the funeral pile, which reduces them to ashes, is never bitter to such as these, whose maxim is, a short life "and a merry one," or, "let us eat and "drink, for to-morrow we die." Luxuriæ, sed morte magis metuenda senectus. Experiere hodie numquid pulcherrima dictu, 45. To luxury.] To gluttons and spendthrifts. -More to be feared, &c.] Because it can be attended with nothing but poverty and disease. 46. Ofttimes the steps.] Plerumque for the most part, most commonly, the degrees by which they proceed. -Borrowed at Rome.] They first take up money at Rome. 47. Before the owners.] Spent before the face of the late owners, i. e. of the people who lent it. -When a little, &c.] Before it is all gone, and they have just enough to carry them off, whatever the sum may be I don't know 48. The usurer.] Lit. the increaser of interest; the money-lender; who, perhaps, may have taken such an advantage of their necessities, as to make them pay interest upon interest -Is pale.] With the fear of losing all his money. 49. Changed the soil.] Vertere solum, signifies to run one's country. Cic. pro domo. Those who have made off. -Baiæ, and to Ostia.] See sat. iii. 1. 4. and sat. viii. 171, n. 2. from whence they might take shipping, and make their escape into some other country. 50. For, to depart, &c.] To run away from Rome for debt is so common, that there is no more discredit in it, than changing the hot street of the Suburra (see sat. iii. v.) for the cool air of the Esquilian hill. See sat. v. 1. 77, 8. Foro is here put, by synec. for Rome itself. Or to depart from the forum, may imply their running away from justice. 53. Circensian games, &c.] These people have no other sorrow, 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 practise them not, in fact, neither with respect to my way 45 To luxury, but old age more to be feared than death. That is the only grief to those who fly their country, that The sorrow, to have been deprived of the Circensian games for one year. Not a drop of blood sticks in the face, few detain Modesty, ridiculous and flying out of the city. 55 You shall this day experience, whether things most fair 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 For, since you are a promised guest to me, you shall have 60 The one sent to the stars by water, the other by flames. 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.] These were dainties made with honey and other sweatmeats. HOR. Ep. lib. i. x. 1. 11, 12. says, -Liba recuso, Pane egeo jam mellitis potiore placentis. I nauseate honied cakes, and long for bread. FRANCIS. 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, &c.] i. e. You shall find in me 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; he being born at Tiryns, a city of Peloponnesus, he was therefore called Tirynthius. -A guest less, &c.] Meaning Æneas, inferior in birth. 62. Yet he akin, &c.] Æneas was the son of Anchises and the goddess Ve nus. 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 Fercula nunc audi nullis ornata macellis : Hædulus, et toto grege mollior, inscius herbæ, Evander with respect to the homeliness and simplicity of his entertainment; and that Persicus 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 article 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. 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 young shoots of herbs that are to be eaten. See sat. v. 81, note. 69. Bailiff's wife, &c.] The feminine 65 70 75 80 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 expence, 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. 74. Apples, rivals to the Picene.] Ho- Now hear of dishes furnished from no shambles: 65 There shall come, from my Tiburtine farm, the fattest Young kid, and more tender than all the flock, ignorant of grass, Nor yet daring to bite the twig of the low willow: Great eggs besides, warm in the twisted hay, 70 Are added, with the mothers themselves; and, kept for a A dirty digger, in a large fetter, despises, 75 80 Who remembers how the sow's womb of a cook's hot shop can relish. Therefore it was a high commendation of his apples, to say they rivalled 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 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 cen sors. 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 daintiés. |