lave mast Unge, puer, caules. Mihi, festâ luce, coquatur 70 75 "dish of pot-herbs. Now I see that your avarice leads you to be more "concerned about what I am to leave, "than you are about my comfort while "I live, or for my friendship and re"gard, I'll e'en spend away faster than ever." 70. "A nettle."] Shall I, even upon feast-days when even the poor live better, content myself with having a nettle cooked for my dinner? i. e. any vile worthless weed. "And a smoky hog's cheek."] An old rusty hog's cheek, with an hole made in the ear by the string which passed through it to hang it up the chimney. Sinciput the fore-part, or perhaps one half of the head; also a hog's cheek. See Juv. sat. xiii. 1. 85, and note. Here it is put for any vile and cheap eatable. 71. "That that grandson of yours," &c.] That some of your descendants may hereafter live in riot, however sparing and covetous you may be. -"A goose's bowels."] The liver of a goose was esteemed by the Romans as a most delicious morsel. They crammed the animal with a certain food (of which figs were the main ingredient) that made the liver grow to an amazing size. See HOR. lib. ii. sat. viii. 1. 88; and Juv. sat. v. 1. 114. 72." His froward humour," &c.] When at the same time he is absurdly keeping an expensive and high-bred mistress. 73. "A woof of a figure," &c.] Trama is the woof in weaving, which is composed of thin threads which lie parallel to each other, when shot through the warp. These do not appear while the cloth is fresh, and has the nap on; but when the cloth loses the nap, and becomes threadbare, then the threads are seen, and have a poor, thin, and shabby appearance. Now, says Persius, shall I reduce myself to the appearance of the texture in an old, worn-out, threadbare coat? q. d. Shall I make myself a mere skeleton? mere skin and bone, as we say. Trama figuræ, for figura tramæ. Hypall. 74. "A gluttonous belly," &c.] That he may have his gluttonous belly shake like a quag, as he walks along, with the fatness of his caul. This is well opposed to the trama figuræ. Popa is, properly, the priest who slew the sacrifices, and offered them up when slain: they had a portion of the sacrifices, on which they constantly feasted, and were usually fat and well-likinghence popa signifies also gluttonous, greedy, dainty. Metaph. 75. "Sell your life for gain."] Persius having pretty largely set forth how he should treat his supposed heir, who presumed to interfere with his manner of living, or with the disposal of his fortune while alive; and all this in answer to what the miser had said, on not daring to sell any part of his estate in order to relieve his shipwrecked friend, for fear his heir should resent it after his deccase (see 1. 33-7.), now concludes the Satire with some ironical advice to the miser, in which he shews that the demands of avarice are insatiable. If, after all I have said, you still persist in laying up riches, and hoarding for those who are to come after you, e'en take your course, and see what will be the end of it; or rather you will see no Anoint, boy, the pot-herbs. Shall there be for me on a "festival-day boiled "A nettle, and a smoky hog's cheek with a cracked ear, 70 "That that grandson of yours should hereafter be stuff'd with a goose's bowels, 66 "When his froward humour shall long to gratify itself "With some lady of quality? Shall a woof of a figure "Be left to me: but to him shall a gluttonous belly tremble "with caul?— 75 "Sell your life for gain; buy, and, cunning, search "Every side of the world: let not another exceed you "In applauding fat Cappadocians in a rigid cage. "Double your estate:"" "I have done it :-Now threefold, 66 now to me the fourth time, "Now ten times it returns into a fold; mark down where I "shall stop, end of it, for neither you, nor your heir, will ever be satisfied. However, sell your life and all the comforts of it-i. e. expose it to every difficulty and danger : in short, take all occasions to make money, let the risk be what it may. See sat. v. 1. 133-6. Epitrope. 75."Buy."] Purchase whatever will turn to profit. -"Cunning."] Shrewd, dextrous, in your dealings. 75, 6. Search every side of the "world."] Sail to every part of the world, that you may find new articles of merchandize. 76. Let not another exceed," &c.] Make yourself thorough master of the slave-trade, that you may know how to bring slaves to market, and to commend and set them off to the best advantage. -Plausisse-literally, to have clapped with the hand. It was customary for the mangones, or those who dealt in slaves, to put them into a sort of cage, called catasta, in the forum, or marketplace, where the buyers might see them: to whom the owners commended them for their health, strength, and fitness for the business for which they wanted them; also they clapped or slapped their bodies with their hands, to shew the hardness and firmness of their flesh. The slaves had fetters on; therefore the poet says-rigida catasta. They had arts to pamper them, to make them look sleek and fat; they also painted them to set them off, as to their complexion and countenance: hence the slave-dealers were called mangones. See AINSW. Mango; and Juv. xi. 1. 147. 77. Fat Cappadocians."] Cappadocia was a large country in the Lesser Asia, famous for horses, mules, and slaves. It has been before observed, that the slaves, when imported for sale, were pampered to make them appear sleek and fat-or perhaps we may understand, by pingues, here, that the Cappadocians were naturally more plump and lusty than others. 78. "Double your estate."] i. e. By the interest which you make. -" I have done it."] That, says the miser, I have already done. : 79." Ten times it returns into a fold."] i. e. It is now tenfold. Metaph. from garments, which, the fuller they are, the more folds they make hence duplex, from duo, two, and plico, to fold-triplex, from tres, and plico, &c. So the verbs, duplico, to double, to make twofold-triplico, &c. Ruga, Gr. guris a gua i. e. sgua, traho, quod ruga cutim aut vestem in plicas contrahat. See AINSW. -"Mark down," &c.] Depunge-metaph. from making points on a balance, at which the needle, or beam, stopping, gave the exact weight. See Juv. sat. v. I. 100, and note. The miser, finding his desires increase, 'Inventus, Chrysippe, tui finitor acervi!' as his riches increase, knows not where Persius calls Chrysippus, inventus finitor, the only finisher, that was found,. of his own heap-because he investigated the method of putting an end to the propositions, or questions, in that mode of argument, and wrote four books on the subject. This the poet may be supposed to be deriding in this place, as in truth an im 80 possible thing, Chrysippus himself hav- "Sic legas meo periculo," says he, "sen O Chrysippus! thou that couldst invent, and set bounds to thy increasing sorites, teach me to set bounds to my increasing avarice. Iron. The miser is supposed to be wearied out with the insatiableness of his avaricious desires, and longs to see an end put to thembut in vain. Having now finished my work, which, like the sorites of Chrysippus, has, from "O Chrysippus, the found finisher of your own heap." the variety and redundancy of the matter, been so long increasing under my hands, much beyond what I at first expected, I should hope that the Reader, so far from blaming the length of the performance, will approve the particularity, and even minuteness, of the observations, which I have made on the preceding Satires of Juvenal and Persius, as on all hands they are allowed to be the most difficult of the Latin writers: therefore mere cursory remarks, here and there scattered on particular passages, would assist the Reader but little, in giving him a complete and consistent view of the whole; to this end every separate part should be explained, that it may be well understood and properly arranged within the mind: this, I trust, will stand as an apology for the length of these papers, which, wherever they may find their way, will be attended with 80 the Editor's best wishes, that they may carry those solid and weighty instructions to the mind, which it is the business of our two Satirists to recommend-Delectando pariterque monendo. However Persius may be deemed inferior to Juvenal as a poet, yet he is his equal as a moralist; and as to the honesty and sincerity with which he wroteThere is a spirit of sincerity," says Mr. Dryden, “in all he says-in this he "is equal to Juvenal, who was as honest "and serious as Persius, and more he "could not be." I have observed, in several parts of the foregoing notes on Persius, his imitations of Horace-The reader may see the whole of these accurately collected, and observed upon-CASAUB. Persiana Horatii Imitatio, at the end of his Commentaries on the Satires. |