SATIRE XV. ARGUMENT. death on thousands of innocent people, for no other crime than a difference of opinion in religious matters. MARSHALL, in his note on line 36, thus erpresses himself “ Hinc simultas et odium utrique populo oriebantur, nempe “ ex diversitate religionum, quæ in mundo etiam Christiano, “Di boni ! quantas strages excitavit !" The attentive reader of this Satire will find a lively exhibition of those principles which actuate bigots of all religions, zealots of all persuasions; and which, as far as they are permitted, will always act uniformly against the peace and happiness of marikind. He may amuse himself with allegorizing the Ombites and Tentyrites into emblems of blind zeal and party rage, which no other bounds than want of power have kept from desolating the earth. WHO knows not, Bithynian Volusius, what monstrous things a great destroyer of serpents. See Memnon, a king of Ethiopia, who was Ainsw. slain by Achilles at the siege of Troy : 4. A golden image, &c.] In another this statue was made of hard marble, part of Egypt, viz. at Thebes, they wor- and with such art, that a lute, which ship the image of a monkey made of was in its hand, would itself give a mu. gold. Cercopithecus is derived from the sical sound when the beams of the sun Gr. x1gxos, a tail, and sinxos, an ape. came upon it. The difference between the ape and the Cambyses, king of Persia, ruined the monkey is, that the ape has no tail; the city, and caused the statue to be broken monkey has, and usually a very long about the middle, imagining the sound to proceed from some contrivance within, 5. Magic chords, &c.) At Thebes, in but nothing was found. From this time Egypt, there was a colossal statue of the music was thought to be magical. one. 10 Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis. Attonito cum 15 20 Strabo says, that he and others heard tils, beans, and onions, the latter of the music about one in the afternoon, which the priests abominated, as some but confesses he could not understand pretend, because Dictys, who had been the cause. brought up by Isis, was drowned in 6. Hundred gates.] At Thebes, in seeking after them; or rather, because Egypt, there was an hundred gates; onions alone, of all plants, thrive when the city from thence was called Heca the moon is in the wane." See ANT. tompolis. This city was destroyed by Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 484. For the re. Cambyses, who conquered Egypt. It ligion of Egypt, see also ib. p. 467, et was originally built by Busiris, the fa seq. ; and Abr. of Hutchinson, p. 122. bled son of Neptune. See sat. xiii. I. 27, 10. O holy nations, &c.) Meaning the and note. various parts of Egypt, whose worship 7. Seu-fish.] Cæruleos because taken of leeks and onions he has just menout of the sea, which, by reflecting the tioned. This sarcasm is very natural blue sky, appears of an azure or sky-blue after what he has said. colour. So VIRG. Æn. iii. 208. 11. Every table, &c.] i. e. They never Adnixi torquent spumas, et cærula ver eat sheep, or lambs. runt-i.e. æquoru, 12. Offspring of a shc-goat.] i.e. A kid. 8. Worship a dog.) They worship The hatred of the Egyptians to the their god Anubis under this forin. See Israelites, both as shepherds and as Hesat. vi. 533, note. brews, is supposed to have arisen from - Nobody Diana.) They worship the the latter killing and sacrificing these hound, but not the huntress. Juvenal beasts, which were held sacred and worseems to mistake here, for Herodotus shipped in Egypi. See Gen. xliii. 32; observes that Diana was worshipped in and xlvi. 34. See Ant. Un. Hist. vol. that country under the name of Bubas- iii. p. 333, 6. tis; which adoration, under another 13. Human flesh.] Diod. lib. ii. c. 4. name, might occasion this mistake. But says, that in a time of famine in Egypt, see Ainsw. Bubastis. when the Egyptians were sorely pressed 9. A sin to violate a leck, &c.] “Per- with hunger, they spared their sacred haps our poet here goes a little beyond animals, and ate ihe flesh of men. the strict truth, to heighten the ridicule, 13, 14. When Ulysses was telling, &c.) though there might be possibly some Ulysses, arriving at the island of Phæfoundation for such an opinion, from the acia, or Corcyra (now Corfu), was enscrupulous abstinence of some of that tertained by Alcinous the king, to whom nation from particular vegetables, as len- he related his travels. And ancient Thebes lies overthrown with its hundred gates. 10 15 Laughter, as a lying babbler.“ Into the sea does nobody “ Throw this fellow, worthy of a cruel and true Charybdis, Feigning huge Læstrygonians, and Cyclops ? “ For sooner Scylla, or the concurring rocks “ Of Cyane, and bags full of tempests 20 “ Would I have believed, or, struck by the slender wand of " Circe, 15, 16. Anger or laughter.] He re- a dangerous rock in the midway between cited such monstrous incredibilities, that Italy and Sicily. See Virg. ecl, v. no doubt he excited the spleen of some 74–7. of the company, and the laughter of -Concurring rocks, &c.) Called Cyaothers. neæ, otherwise Symplegadæ, two rocks 16. Lying babbler.] Aretalogus (from at a small distance from the Thracian uform and hoyos) signifies a talkative Bosphorus, so close to one another, that philosopher, who diverted great men at they seem at a distance to be one; and, their tables by discourses on virtue. as one passeth by, he would think they From hence this word has been fre- dash against each other : they were therequently used for a talkative person, a fore called Symplegadæ, from Gr. our jester, a buffoon. and ginoow, to strike together. - Into the sea, &c.] The poet supposes 20.“ Bags full of tempests.”] When one of the company, who heard the Ulysses arrived at the island of Æolus, strange tales of Ulysses, when at the that king of the winds inclosed the adcourt of Alcinous, expressing himself as verse ones in leather bags, and hung in an amaze, that nobody should take them up in Ulysses's ship, leaving at him and throw him into the sea for his liberty the west wind, which was fastrange lies. Abicit-i. e, abjicit. vourable. But the companions of Ulys 17. Worthy of a true Charybdis.] He ses untied the bags, being curious to has told such a romance about a feigned know what they contained, and let out whirlpool, which he calls Charybdis, in the adverse winds; immediately a temihe Straits of Sicily, that he certainly pest is raised, which drives the ship deserves a real one for his pains. back to the Æolian isles, to the great 18. Feigning huge Læstrygonians.] A displeasure of Æolus, who rejects Ülysrude and savage people near Formiæ, ses and his companions. They then in Italy; they were like giants, and de. sail to the Læstrygons, where they lose voured men. See Odyss. *. eleven ships, and, with one only re- Cyclops.] These were represented maining, proceed to the island of Circe. as man-eaters. See Odyss... Also Virg. See Odyss. x. ad init. Æn. iii. 616, et seq. 21. « Wund of Circe.”] She was said 19. Sooner Scylla, &c.] I can sooner to be the daughter of Sol and Perseis ; believe his tales about Scylla, (the she was a sorceress. She poisoned her daughter of Phorcys, the father of the busband, the king of the Scythians, that Gorgons,) who is said to be changed into she might reign alone; for which, being 25 Et cum remigibus grunnisse Elpenora porcis. Inter finitimos vetus atque antiqua simultas, 30 35 expelled her kingdom, she went into ii. 1. 163. Italy, and dwelt in a promontory called 25. Corcyræan urn.] Corcyra, an island the Cape of Circe, whither Ulysses and in the Ionian sea, on the coast of Alhis companions were driven, (see the bania, anciently called Phæacia. So last note, ad fin.) many of whom, by a that the poet means the wine of that touch of her magic wand, she turned into country, made by the Phæacians, who swine; at last, on entreaty, she restored were famous for luxury. The urn signi. them to their former shapes. fies the vessel (or hogshead, as we call 22.“ Elpenor.”] One of Ulysses' com- it) out of which they drew the wine, in panions. order to drink it. -"Swine-rowers.”] The crew of the 26. Ulysses related this, &c.] He told ship, who rowed her, were turned into these stories entirely on his own credit, swine, and grunted like that animal. In having no witness present to avouch the those days the ships were rowed with truth of what he said, therefore he might oars, as well as driven by sails. reasonably be disbelieved. 23. " Has he thought,” &c.] Has this - Related.] Canebat.-The word cano, Ulysses so mean an opinion of the when it signifies to relate or report, parPhæacians, asto imagine them so empty- ticularly applies to things uttered by headed, so void of understanding, that poets, who do not always stick to truth, they should receive such a pack of in but indulge their fancies in strange imcredible stories, of bags, of tempests, probabilities: it is therefore here well &c. &c. ? But even these are more pro- applied to Ulysses, when telling such bable, and sooner to be believed, than stories to Alcinous. what he relates of the Læstrygons and Why Ulysses was called Ithacus, see Cyclops, as if they were man-eaters; sat. x. 257, note 2. this shocks all belief. 27. We will relate, &c.] I shall now 24. Thus dcservedly, &c.] The above relate something very astonishing, not reflections would be very just, and pro- merely on my own authority, but which per for any one to make, unless he had can be attested, as lately and publicly drunk away his senses, and was incapa. transacted. ble of distinguishing truth from false 27, 8. Junius being consul.] Some hood. consule Vinco, others Junco; but no 25. Strong wine.] Temetum, a word such name of a consul appears as Vincus, signifying strong wine, from Gr. To pilu, or Juncus. Junius Sabinus was consul vinum; whence pes ww, to be drunk, with Dom in, an. U.C. 836, N.C. 84. So from temerum comes temulentus, The poet dates the time of his facts for drunken. See Hor. Epist. lib, ii, epist. the greater certainty. “ Elpenor with his swine-rowers to have grunted. “ Has he thought the Phæacian people are so empty headed ?" Thus deservedly any one, not as yet drunk, and who a very little Strong wine from a Corcyræan urn had drawn: 25 For Ulysses related this without any witness. We will relate wonderful things, and lately done (Junius being Consul) upon the walls of warm Coptus; We the wickedness of the vulgar, and more grievous than all buskins : For wickedness, tho' you should turn over all the tragedies 30 From Pyrrha, no whole people commits among the tragedians. Hear There burns as yet an old and ancient grudge, 35 The highest fury in the vulgar, because the deities of their neighbours 28. Upon the walls, &c.] i. l. At Cop 31, 2. Hear what an example.] Now tus-in the city. attend, and I will tell you my story, in -Warm Coptus.] A metropolitan which you will find an example which city of Egypt near the Nile, over which was the effect of ihe most savage barbathe sun at noon is vertical ; therefore rity, perpetrated in our days, not merely Juvenal calls it warm, or hot. He names by an individual, but by a whole nation the place, as well as the time, where together. the things happened which he is going 33. Ancient grudge, &c.] Here the to relate. poet begins his narrative of the quarrels 29. The vulgar.] I am not going to between the Ombites and the Tentyrites, tell facts which relate to myself, or to two people of Egypt, who were neighany single individual, but what was bours, and who hated one another morcommitted by a whole people. tally, on account of their difference in - Than att buskins.] More grievous religion. than is to be found in any tragedy. 35. On both sides.] They were, on Cothurnus, the buskin worn by the each side, equally inveterate in their actors of tragedy, is often, as here, used malice to each other. The word Ten. to denote tragedy itself, by meton. See tyra, in this line, is in the accusative sat. vi. 633–5, note. plur. and so afterwards, 1. 76. 30. For wickedness, &c.) i. e. Though 36. The vulgar.) This rage of one you should turn over all the tragedies people against the other spread itself which have been written since the days not only among the chiefs, (1. 39.) but of Deucalion and Pyrrha, when mankind among the common people on both were restored after the food, you will sides. find no poet representing a piece of --Because the deities, &c.] The Ombarbarity, as the act of a whole people bites abominated the objects of the at once, as in the instance I am going Tentyrites' worship, and those of the to relate. Ombites were equally detested by the -All the tragedics.] Syrmata were Tentyrites ; neither allowing that there long garments used by actors in trage- were any gods worthy of worship but dy. Here by metonym. (like cothurnis their own. in the preceding line,) put for tragedies. Their quarrel was on the score of VOL. II. Z |