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The mind, and those who are used to descend a strait rope,
Than thou, who always abidest in a Corycian ship,
And dwellest, always to be lifted up by the north-west wind,
and the south,

Wretched, the vile merchant of a stinking sack?

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275

Who rejoicest, from the shore of ancient Crete, to have brought
Thick sweet wine, and bottles the countrymen of Jove.
He nevertheless fixing his steps, with doubtful foot,
Procures a living by that recompence; and winter and hunger
By that rope he avoids:
: you on account of a thousand talents,
And an hundred villas are rash. Behold the ports,
And the sea full with large ships-more of men are now
On the sea the fleet will come wherever the hope of gain
Shall call; nor the Carpathian and Gætulian seas only
Will it pass over, but, Calpe being far left,
Will hear the sun hissing in the Herculean gulph.

272. Fixing his steps.] Upon the narrow surface of the rope.

-With doubtful foot.] There being great danger of falling. Planta signifies the sole of the foot.

273. By that recompence.] Which he receives from the spectators for what he does.

-Winter and hunger.] Cold and hunger. See HoR. lib. i. sat. ii. 1. 6.

274. He avoids.] Cavet-takes care to provide against.

-You on account, &c.] The poor rope-dancer ventures his limbs to supply his necessary wants; you rashly expose yourself to much greater dangers, to get more than you want,

-A thousand talents.] Amounting to about 187,5001. of our money. See HOLYDAY, note 9, on this Satire.

275. An hundred villas.] Or countryhouses, when one would satisfy any reasonable mind.

-Are rash.] Rashly run yourself into all the dangers of the sea.

-Behold the ports.] What numbers of ships are there fitting for sea.

276. Large ships.] The sea covered with ships. Trabs signifies a beam, any large piece of timber. With these ships were built; but here, by meton. is meant the ships themselves. See VIRG. En. iii. 191.-cava trabe currimus æquor.

-More of men, &c.] Pius hominumthe greater part of the people.—q. d.

280

There are more people now at sea than on land. This hyperbole (for we can't take the words literally) is to be understood to express the multitudes who were venturing their lives at sea for gain. So. with us, when any thing grows general. or gets into fashion, we say-every body follows it all the world does it.

277. The fleet will come.] No matter how distant or perilous the voyage may be, in whatever part of the world money is to be gotten, the hope of gain will induce, not merely, here and there, a single ship, but a whole fleet at once to go in search of it.

278. Carpathian and Gætulian scas.] The Carpathian sea lay between Rhodes and Egypt, and was so called from the island Carpathus.

By the Gætulian, we are to understand what now is called the Straits of Gibraltar.

279. Calpe being fur left, &c.] Calpe, a mountain or high rock on the Spanish coast (hod. Gibraltar), and Abyla (now Ceuta) on the African coast, were called the pillars of Hercules. These pillars were generally believed, in Juvenal's time, to be the farthest west.

280. The sun hissing.] Alluding to the notion of the sun's arising out of the ocean in the east, and setting in the ocean in the west.

-Herculean galph.] i. c. The Atlantic ocean, which, at the Straits, was called the Herculean gulph, because there

Grande operæ pretium est, ut tenso folle reverti
Inde domum possis, tumidâque superbus alutâ,
Oceani monstra, et juvenes vidisse marinos.
Non unus mentes agitat furor: ille sororis
In manibus vultu Eumenidum terretur et igni.
Hic bove percusso mugire Agamemnona credit,
Aut Ithacum: parcat tunicis licet atque lacernis,
Curatoris eget, qui navem mercibus implet
Ad summum latus, et tabulâ distinguitur undâ ;
Cum sit causa mali tanti, et discriminis hujus,
Concisum argentum in titulos faciesque minutas.
Occurrunt nubes et fulgura: solvite funem,
Frumenti dominus clamat, piperisque coëmptor;
Nil color hic coeli, nil fascia nigra minatur:
Estivum tonat: infelix, ac forsitan ipsâ
Nocte cadet fractis trabibus, fluctuque premetur

Hercules is supposed to have finished his navigation, and on the two now opposite shores of Spain and Africa, which then united, (as is said,) to have built his pillars; (see note above, 1. 279.) If they sailed beyond these, they fancied they could, when the sun set, hear him hiss in the sea, like red-hot iron put into water.

This was the notion of Posidonius the philosopher, and others.

281. It is a great reward of labour.] Grande operæ pretium-a labour exceedingly worth the while! Ironice.

-A stretched purse.] Filled full of

money.

282. A swelled bag.] Aluta signifies tanned or tawed leather; and, by me. tonym, any thing made thereof, as shoes, scrips, or bags of any kind-here it means a money-bag.

-Swelled.] Distended-puffed outwith money.

283. Monsters, &c.] Whales, or other large creatures of the deep.

-Marine youths.] Tritons, which were supposed to be half men, half fish. Mermaids also may be here meant, which are described with the bodies of young women, the rest like fishes.

285

290

295

Alluding to the story of Orestes, who, after he had slain his mother, was tormented by furies: his sister Electra embracing him, endeavoured to comfort him; but he said to her, "Let me alone, "thou art one of the furies; you only "embrace me, that you may cast me into "Tartarus." EURIP. in Orest.

285. Eumenides.] The three furies, the daughters of Acheron and NoxAlecto, Tisiphone, and Megara. They were called Eumenides, by antiphrasis, from suμvns, kind, benevolent. They are described with snakes on their heads, and with lighted torches in their hands.

286. This man, an ox being stricken, &c.] Ajax, on the armour of Achilles being adjudged to Ulysses, (see Ov. Met. lib. xiii.) ran mad, and destroyed a flock of sheep, thinking he was destroying the Greeks. He slew two oxen, taking one for Agamemnon, the other for Ulysses. See SOPHOс. Ajax Mastigopho

rus.

287. Ithacus.] Ulysses, king of Ithaca. See sat. x. 257.

-Spare his coats, &c.] Though he should not be so furiously mad, as to tear his clothes off his back.

Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne. HOR. de Art. Poet. 1. 4. 288. Wants a keeper.] Curatoris eget 284. Not one madness, &c.] i. e. Mad--stands in need of somebody to take ness does not always shew itself in the same shape; men are mad in different ways, and on different subjects.

care of him.

-Who fills, &c.] Who, for the hopes of gain, loads a ship so deep, that there

-He, in the hands of his sister, &c.] is nothing left of her above the water,

It is a great reward of labour, that with a stretched purse, You may return home from thence, and proud with a swelled bag,

To have seen monsters of the ocean, and marine youths.

Not one madness agitates minds: he, in the hands of his sister,
Is affrighted with the countenance, and fire of the Eumenides.
This man, an ox being stricken, believes Agamemnon to roar,
Or Ithacus. Tho' he should spare his coats and cloaks,
He wants a keeper, who fills with merchandise a ship
To the topmast edge, and by a plank is divided from the water;
When the cause of so great evil, and of this danger,
Is silver battered into titles, and small faces.
Clouds and lightnings occur: "Loose the cable”-

66

290

(Cries the owner of the wheat, and the buyer-up of pepper-) Nothing this colour of the heaven, nothing this black cloud "threatens :

"It is summer-thunder."-Unhappy wretch! and perhaps

that very

295

Night he will fall, the beams being broken, and be pressed down by a wave,

but the uppermost part, or edges of her

sides.

289. A plank, &c.] Has nothing between him and the fathomless deep but a thin plank. See sat. xii. 57-9.

290. When the cause, &c.] The only motive to all this.

291. Silver battered, &c.] A periphrasis for money.-The silver of which it was made was first cut into pieces, then stamped with the name and titles of the reigning emperor, and also with a likeness of his face. See Matt. xxii. 20, 1.

292. Clouds and lightnings occur.] The weather appears cloudy, and looks as if there would be a storm of thunder and lightning; but this does not discourage the adventurer from leaving the port.

"

"Loose the cable."] Says he; "unImoor the ship, and prepare for sail"ing."

Funem may signify either the cable with which the vessel was fastened on shore; or the cable belonging to the anchor, by which she was fastened in the water.

293. Cries the owner, &c.] The owner

of the freight calls out aloud.

-

-The buyer-up of pepper.] Juvenal does not simply say, emptor, the buyer, but coemptor, the buyer-up; as he meant to describe a monopolizer, who buys up the whole of a commodity, in order to sell it on his own terms.

294. "This colour of the heavens."] This dark complexion of the sky.

"This black cloud."] Fascia signifies a swathe or band. A thick cloud was called fascia, because it seemed to swathe or bind up the sun, and hinder its light but, perhaps, rather from its being an assemblage of many clouds collected and bound, as it were, toge ther.

295. "It is summer-thunder."] Nothing but a mere thunder shower, which will soon be over, and which in summer time very common, without any storm following.

-Unhappy wretch.] Who is blinded by his avarice, so as to consider no consequences.

296. Beams being broken.] Shipwrecked by the ensuing tempest, he will fall into the sea, the timbers of his ship broken to pieces.

Obrutus, et zonam lævâ morsuve tenebit.
Sed, cujus votis modo non suffecerat aurum,
Quod Tagus, et rutilâ volvit Pactolus arenâ,
Frigida sufficient velantes inguina panni,
Exiguusque cibus; mersâ rate naufragus assem
Dum petit, et pictâ se tempestate tuetur.
Tantis parta malis, curâ majore metuque
Servantur: misera est magni custodia census.
Dispositis prædives hamis vigilare cohortem
Servorum noctu Licinus jubet, attonitus pro
Electro, signisque suis, Phrygiâque columnâ,
Atque ebore, et latâ testudine: dolia nudi
Non ardent Cynici: si fregeris, altera fiet
Cras domus; aut eadem plumbo commissa manebit.

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Rolls.] Or throws up, by the course of its waters over the sands, so that it is found at low water. This is said to be the case of some waters in Africa, which flow down precipices with great impetuosity, and leave gold-dust, which they have washed from the earth in their passage, in the gullies and channels which they make in their way.

300. Rags covering, &c.] This very wretch, who could not before have been satisfied with all the gold of the Tagus and Pactolus, is now, having been shipwrecked and ruined by the loss of his

300

305

310

all, very content, if he can but get rags to cover his nakedness from the inclemency of the weather.

301. A little food.] Bestowed upon him in charity, or purchased with the few pence he gets by begging.

301, 2. He asks a penny.] Who before wanted a thousand talents, more than he had, to content him. See 1. 274. See sat. v. l. 144, note 2.

302. A painted tempest.] Persons who had lost their property by shipwreck used to have their misfortune painted on a board, and hung at their breasts, to move compassion in the passers by; as we often see sailors and others begging in the streets, with an account of their misadventures written on paper or parchment, and pinned on their breasts.

303. With so many evils.] But suppose all this be avoided, and the man comes home rich and prosperous, still he is not happy: he must be harassed with continual care, anxiety, and dread, in order to keep what he has gotten, and these may give him more uneasiness than any thing else has given him in the pursuit of his wealth.

304. Miserable is the custody, &c.] The constant watchfulness, the incessant guard, that are to be kept over heaps of wealth, added to the constant dread of being plundered, may be truly said to make the owner lead a miserable life. This is well described by Horace, sat. i. 1. 76–9.

305. Licinus.] The name of some very rich man. It stands here for any such.

Overwhelmed, and will hold his girdle with his left hand, or

with his bite.

But for him, for whose wishes a while ago the gold had not sufficed,

Which Tagus, and Pactolus rolls in its shining sand,
Rags covering his cold thighs will suffice,

300

And a little food; while, his ship being sunk, shipwrecked, he
Asks a penny, and beholds himself in a painted tempest.
Things gotten with so many evils, with greater care and fear
Are kept-miserable is the custody of great wealth.
Wealthy Licinus commands his troop of servants, with
Buckets set in order, to watch by night, affrighted for
His amber, and for his statues, and his Phrygian column,
And for his ivory, and broad tortoise-shell. The casks of the
naked

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305

Cynic don't burn: should you break them, another house Will be made to-morrow, or the same will remain solder'd

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His statues.] Signum denotes a graven, painted, or molten image, a figure of any thing.

-Phrygian column.] His fine ornamented pillars, made of marble brought out of Phrygia, a country of the Lesser Asia.

308. For his ivory.] His furniture made or inlaid with ivory. See sat. xi. 1. 122-4, and notes.

-Broad tortoise-shell.] His couches, and other moveables, richly inlaid and ornamented with large and valuable pieces of tortoise-shell. See sat. xi. 94, and note.

-The casks, &c.] Dolia, the plural put for the singular, per synec. The cask of Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, is here meant, which was not made of wood, as has been commonly supposed, but of clay baked, and so in no danger of fire. Do

310

lium signifies any great vessel, as a tun, pipe, or hogshead. In these dolia the ancients used to keep their wine. Hence TER. Heaut. act iii. sc. i. 1. 51. Relevi omnia dolia-which some translators have rendered, "I have pierced every "cask." But, however that may be agreeable to our idiom, piercing an earthen vessel, which the dolium was, is not to be supposed. Lino signified the securing the mouth, or bung hole, of any vessel with pitch, rosin, or wax, to prevent the air's getting in, to the prejudice of what might be contained in it: and as this was never omitted, when any vessel was filled with wine, hence it is used for putting wine into casks.

HOR. Od. lib. i. ode xx. l. 1--3.

Vile potabis modicis Sabinum Cantharis, Græca quod ego ipse testa Conditum LEVI.

Relino-evi signifies, consequently, to remove the rosin, or pitch, upon opening the vessel for use.

309. Break them.] Should you dash them all to pieces, so as not to be repaired, such another habitation is very easily provided.

310. Solder'd with lead.] Any fracture or chink may easily be stopped, by fixing some lead over it, or pouring some melted lead into the crack, which would fill it up.

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