Expiat; urentes oculos inhibere perita. Poscis opem nervis, corpusque fidele senectæ : Da pecus, et gregibus fœtum !-Quo, pessime, pacto, use of in a way of scorn to point at infamous people. See sat. x. 1. 53, and note. 33. Purifying spittle.] They thought fasting spittle to contain great virtue against fascination, or an evil eye: therefore with that, mixed with dust, they rubbed the forehead and lips by way of preservative. Thus in Petronius Mox turbatum sputo pulverem, anus "medio sustulit digito, frontemque repugnantis signat." -She beforehand.] i. e. Before she begins her prayers for the child. 34. Expiates.] See above, note on 1. 32, ad fin. 35 40 45 Plutarch) purchased so many houses, that, at one time or other, the greatest part of Rome came into his hands. Licinius was a young slave of so saving a temper, that he let out the offals of his meat for interest, and kept a register of debtors. Afterwards he was made a collector in Gaul, where he acquired (as Persius expresses it, sat. iv. 1. 56. quantum non milvus oberret) "more lands than a kite could fly over." 37. King and queen wish,' &c.] May he be so opulent as that even crowned heads may covet an alliance with him as a son-in-law. 37, 8. Girls seize him.'] May he be so beautiful and comely, the girls may all fall in love with him, and contend who shall first seize him for her own. 38. Shall have trodden upon,' &c.] This foolish, extravagant hyperbole well represents the vanity and folly of these old women, in their wishes for the children. 39. But to a nurse, &c.] For my part, says Persius, I shall never leave it to my nurse to pray for my child. 39, 40. Deny, O Jupiter, &c.] If she should ever pray thus for a child of mine, I beseech thee, O Jupiter, to deny such petitions as these, however solemnly she may offer them. 40. Tho' cloth'd in white.] Though arrayed in sacrificial garments. The ancients, when they sacrificed and offered to the gods, were clothed with white garments, as emblems of innocence and purity. 41. You ask strength, &c.] Another prays for strength of nerves, and that Expiates, skilled to inhibit destructive eyes. Then shakes him in her hands, and her slender hope, with suppliant wish, 35 She now sends into the fields of Licinius, now into the houses of Crassus. May a king and queen wish this boy their son-in-law; may the girls 'Seize him; whatever he shall have trodden upon, may it be6 come a rose !' But to a nurse I do not commit prayers: deny, O Jupiter, these to her, tho' cloth'd in white she should ask. 40 You ask strength for your nerves, and a body faithful to old age: Be it so go on: but great dishes, and fat sausages, Have forbidden the gods to assent to these, and hinder Jove. You wish heartily to raise a fortune, an ox being slain, and Mercury You invite with inwards-" grant the household gods to make me prosperous! 66 45 "Give cattle, and offspring to my flocks!"—Wretch, by what means, his body may not fail him when he comes to be old. 42. Be it so go on.] I see no harm in this, says Persius; you ask nothing but what may be reasonably desired, therefore I don't find fault with your praying for these things-go on with your petitions. -Great dishes.] But while you are praying for strength of body, and for an healthy old age, you are destroying your health, and laying in for a diseased old age, by your gluttony and luxury. -Sausages.] Tuceta, a kind of ineat made of pork or beef chopped, or other stuff, mingled with suet. 43. Have forbidden, &c.] While you are praying one way, and living another, you yourself hinder the gods from granting your wishes. Hinder Jove.] Prevent his giving you health and strength, by your own destroying both. The poet here ridicules those incon sistent people, who pray for health and strength of body, and yet live in such a manner as to impair both. Nothing but a youth of temperance is likely to ensure an old age of health. This is VOL. II. finely touched by the masterly pen of our Shakespeare: Though I look old, yet I am strong and For in my youth I never did apply As you like it, act ii. sc. iii. 44. You wish, &c.] Another is endeavouring to advance his fortune by offer ing costly sacrifices, little thinking that these are diminishing what he wants to augment. Or being slain.] i. e. In sacrificein order to render the god propitious; but you don't recollect that by this you have an ox the less. -Mercury.] The god of gain. 45. You invite.] Arcessis-send for, as it were invite to favour you. -With inwards.] Extis, the entrails of beasts offered in sacrifice. -"The household gods," &c.] "Grant "O Mercury," say you, "that my do"mestic affairs may prosper!" See AINSW. Penates. 46. "Give cattle," &c.] Grant me a 21 Tot tibi cum in flammis junicum omenta liquescant? number of cattle, and let all my flocks be fruitful, and increase! 46. Wretch, by what means?] How, thou silliest of men, can this be? 47. When the cauls of so many, &c.] When you are every day preventing all this, by sacrificing your female beasts before they are old enough to breed, and thus, in a two-fold manner, destroying your stock? The cauls.] Omentum is the caul or fat that covers the inwards. -Melt in flames.] Being put on the fire on the altar. -For you.] In hopes to obtain what you want. 48. For this man, &c.] Thinks he shall overcome the gods with the multitude of sacrifices which he offers-this is his intention. -With bowels.] The inwards of beasts offered in sacrifice. -A rich pudding.] They offered a sort of pudding, or cake, made of bran, wine, and honey. 49." Now the field increases."] Says he, fancying his land is better for what he has been doing. "Now the sheep-fold."] "Now me. "thinks my sheep breed better." 50." Now it shall be given," &c.] "Methinks I already see my wishes "fulfilled-every thing will be given me "that I asked for." "Now presently."] I shall not "be able to wait much longer." -Till deceived and hopeless.] Till, at length, he finds his error, and that, by hoping to increase his fortune by the 50 55 60 multitude of his sacrifices, he has only just so far diminished it—he has nothing left but one poor solitary sesterce at the bottom of his purse, or chest: which, finding itself deceived, and hopeless of any accession to it, sighs, as it were, in vain, for the loss of its companions, which have been so foolishly spent and thrown away. The Roman nummus, when mentioned as a piece of money, was the same with the sestertius, about one penny three farthings. The prosopopeia here is very humourous. 53. If to thee cups, &c.] Men are apt to think the gods like themselves, pleased with rich and costly gifts to such the poet now speaks. If, saith Persius, I should make you a present of a fine piece of silver plate, or of some costly vessel of the finest gold 53. You would sweat.] You would be so pleased and overjoyed, that you would break into a sweat with agitation. -Left breast.] They supposed the heart to lie on the left side. 54. Shake out drops.] i. e. You would weep, or shed tears. Lachrymas excutere, to force tears. TER. Heaut. act i. sc. i. 1. 115. Tears of joy would drop, as it were, from your very heart. Lachrymor præ gaudior. TER. Some understand læva bere in the sense of foolish, silly; as in VIRG. ecl. i. 16. Casaub. -Your over-trembling heart, &c.] Palpitating with unusual motion, from the When the cauls of so many young heifers can melt for you flames? in And yet this man to prevail with bowels, and with a rich pudding Intends: "Now the field increases, now the sheep-fold"Now it shall be given, now presently:" till deceived, and hopeless, In vain the nummus will sigh in the lowest bottom. 50 If to thee cups of silver, and gifts wrought with rich gold I should bring, you would sweat, and from your left breast Shake out drops-your over-trembling heart would rejoice. Hence that takes place, that with gold carried in triumph you Overlay the sacred faces. For, among the brazen brothers, 56 Let those who send dreams most purged from phlegm, Be the chief, and let them have a golden beard. Gold has driven away the vessels of Numa, and the Saturnian brass, And changes the vestal urns, and the Tuscan earthen-ware. 60 suddenness and emotion of your surprize and joy, would be delighted. 55. That takes place.] The notion or sentiment takes place in your mind, that, because you are so overjoyed at receiving a rich and sumptuous present of silver or gold, therefore the gods must be so too-judging of them by yourself. -Gold carried in triumph, &c.] Hence, with the gold taken as a spoil from an enemy, and adorning the triumph of the conqueror, by being carried with him in his ovation, you overlay the images of the gods thus complimenting the gods with what has been taken from your fellow mortals by rapine and plunder. 56. The brazen brothers.] There stood in the porch of the Palatine Apollo fifty brazen statues of the fifty sons of Ægyptus, the brother of Danaus, who, having fifty sons, married them to the fifty daughters of Danaus, and, by their father's order, they all slew their husbands in the night of their marriage, except Hypermnestra, who saved Lynceus. See HoR. lib. iii, ode xi. 1. 30, &c. These were believed to have great power of giving answers to their inquirers, in dreams of the night, relative to cures of disorders. 57. Most purged, &c.] Most clear and true, as most defecated and uninfluenced by the gross humours of the body. 58. Be the chief.] Let these be had in honour above the rest-q. d. Bestow most on those from whom you expect most. A golden beard.] This alludes to the image of Esculapius, in the temple of Epidaurum, which was supposed to reveal remedies for disorders in dreams. This image had a golden beard, which Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse took away, saying jestingly, that, as the "father of Esculapius, Apollo, had no "beard, it was not right for the son "to have one." This communicating, through dreams, such remedies as were adapted to the cure of the several disorders of the inquirers, was at first accounted the province of Apollo and Esculapius only; but, on the breaking out of Egyptian superstition, Isis and Osiris were allowed to have the same power, as were also the fifty sons of Egyptus, here called the brazen brothers, from their statues of brass. 59. Driven away, &c.] Has quite expelled from the temples the plain and simple vessels made use of in the days of Numa, the first founder of our religious rites. See Juv. sat. xi. l. 115, 16. -The Saturnian brass.] The brazen vessels which were in use when Saturn reigned in Italy. 60. Changes the vestal urns.] The pitchers, pots, and other vessels, which the vestal virgins used in celebrating the O curvæ in terras animæ, et coelestium inanes! rites of Vesta, and which were anciently of earthen-ware, are now changed into gold. Comp. Juv. sat. vi. I. 342, 3. 60. The Tuscan earthen ware.] Aretium, a city of Tuscany, was famous for earthen-ware, from whence it was carried to Rome, and to other parts of Italy. This was now grown quite out of use. Comp. Juv. sat. xi. 1. 109, 10; and Juv. sat. iii. 1. 168. The poet means to say, that people, now-a-days, had banished all the simple vessels of the ancient and primitive worship, and now, imagining the gods were as fond of gold as they were, thought to succeed in their petitions, by lavishing gold on their images. Comp. Is. xlvi. 6. 61. O souls bowed, &c.] This apostrophe, and what follows to the end. contain sentiments worthy the pen of a Christian. 62. What doth this avail.] What profiteth it. —To place our manners, &c.] Immittere-to admit, or suffer to enter. Our manners-i. e. our ways of thinking, our principles of action-who, because we so highly value, and are so easily influenced by rich gifts, think the gods will be so too. See AINSW. Immitto, No. 3, and 7. 63. And to esteem, &c.] To prescribe, infer, or reckon what is good in their sight, and acceptable to them. -Out of this wicked pulp.] From the dictates of this corrupted and depraved flesh of ours. Flesh here, as often in S. S. means the fleshly, carnal mind, in At vos Dissolves for itself Cassia, &c.] Cassia, a sweet shrub, bearing spice like cinnamon, here put for the spice; of this and other aromatics mingled with oil, which was hereby corrupted from its simplicity, they made perfumes, with which they anointed themselves. 65. Hath boiled, &c.] To give the wool a purple dye, in order to make it into splendid and sumptuous garments. See Juv. sat. xiii. 38, 9. The best and finest wool came from Calabria. The murex was a shell-fish, of the blood of which the purple dye was made. The best were found about Tyre. See VIRG. ED. iv. 262. Hoa. epod. xii. 21.-Vitiated-i. e. corrupted to the purposes of luxury. 66. To scrape, &c.] This same pulp, or carnal mind, first taught men to extract pearls from the shell of the pearloyster, in order to adorn themselves. -And to draw, &c.] Stringeret-to bring into a body or lump (AINSW.) the veins of gold and silver, by melting down the crude ore. Ferventis massa-the mass of gold or silver ore heated to fusion in a furnace, and thus separating them from the dross and earthy particles. The poet is shewing, that the same depraved and corrupt principle, which leads men to imagine the gods to be like |
