AMAN

3C 6-1911

V. The Satires of Juvenal with Notes.

VI. Fragments of Sat. vi. et ix.

VII. The Satires of Perfius.

VIII. The Notes to Perfius from Juventius.

IX.

Brewster's Tranflation of Perfius.

X. Dr. Johnson's London; or Imitation of the Third
Satire of Juvenal.

XI. Dr. Johnfon's Vanity of Human Wishes; or Imita-
tion of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal.

XII. Smith's Tables of Roman Money, reduced to
Pounds Sterling.

PREF A CE

Ολως μὲν ουν ἀισχρολογίαν ἐκ της πόλεως ὥσπερ ἄλλό τι δὲ τοῦ νομοθέτην ἐξορίζειν. ἐκ του γὰς ἐυχερῶς λέγειν ὁτιοῦν τῶν αἰσχρῶν, γίνεται και τὸ ποιεῖν συνέγγυς. ΑRISTOT,

To

O inftitute a formal comparison between Horace, Perfius and Juvenal, and to enlarge with all the parade of erudition, on the origin of Satire, both with respect to its nature and its name, would be to travel in a beaten road, and to revive a fubject which has been nearly exhausted. Dryden has expatiated agreeably enough, though not without fome degree of prolixity, on the three great Roman Satirifts, and Cafaubon has written a very elaborate and very excellent treatife on the Roman fatire *.

I shall

The following is Scaliger's account of the Satire." Satiram non effe Latinam rem fuo loco monuimus. Eft autem poëma liberum, fimiléque fatiricæ naturæ ; omnia fufque deque habens, modo aliquid dicat.

"Tribus modis fatirarum fpecies agnofcuntur: à generibus carminum, (fcilicet vel fenariorum Dactylicorum vel Iambicorum :) à ratione poëmatis: à characteribus. A ratione poëmatis tres funt. Vel narratio eft fimplex, ex perfonâ Auctoris; ut prima juvenalis. Vel activa et ex perfonis conftituta; ut prima Perfii. Vel mifta; ut illa Horatii pleniffima munditiarum: Ibam fortè via facrâ. A characteribus fpccies duæ. Altera fedatior, qualis Horatiana, ac fermoni proprior: altera concitatior, quæ magis placuit Juvenali et Perfio. Hi ftri&tam habent cufpidem, illi veluti contectum fronde gerunt thyr fum, Satirorum more, quo feriant imprudentes. Juvenalis ardet, inftat apertè, jugulat. Perfius infultat. Horatius irridet. Idcirco Satiras infcripsere illi; hic fermonis titulo contentus fuit.

"Partes

I shall not repeat what they have avritten, but merely premife a few remarks on the characters of Horace, Perfius and Juvenal; fuch as lead to a fubject which more immediately belongs to this preliminary addrefs, the confideration of what is intended, and of what is done, in the prefent edition.

Of Horace Ifhall have occafion to Speak on another occafion; and I hal only obferve at prefent, that he is the genteeleft and the politeft author of the three*; and that he has the additional merit of being a great lyric poet as well as a fatirift, a merit to which neither of the others made pretenfions.

be

Quintilian gives a high character of Perfius; and the judgment of Quintilian is entitled to peculiar respect †. Martial alfo has written an epigram, from which it may fairly concluded, that Perfius was highly esteemed by the Romans. Cafauben, like the majority of Editors, has extolled his author in the highest terms of commendation. But notwithstanding the praises bestowed by very refpectable writers, there are few authors of antiquity who have

been

"Partes in Satirâ nullæ; nullum prooemium, fi non vis. Abrupta omnia, non tamen non cohærentia. Nam aut ejufdem vitii multos dainnas; aut multorum unum; aut mifces.

"Verba vulgaria aut fordida interdum, éque macello petita.

"Stylus tametfi pro re aut depreffior, aut lafcivior, tenuis tamen atque humilis, ac de medio fumptus; longè tamen meliùs arridet, fi cum Romanâ puritate juncturæ fint molliufculæ : quales Juvenalis feliciffimè eft confecutus. Duriufculus Perfius." SCALIGER.

Every fcholar knows that the word Satira fignifies ftrictly and properly a mifcelany, though it now conveys an idea of an invective only: fome of Juvenal's and many of Horace's Satires have little in them of invective.

* Multo eft terfior, ac purus magis Horatius et ad notandos hominum mores præcipuus. Quint.

Lyricorum idem Horatius ferè folus legi dignus. Nam et infurgit aliquando et plenus eft jucunditatis et gratiæ, et variis figuris et verbis feliciffime audax. Quint.

Scaliger, I think, is greatly mistaken, when he prefers Juvenal to Horace. Juvenalis candidus ac fatiricorum facile princeps. Nam ejus. verfus longè meliores quam Horatiani: Sententiæ acriores, phrafis apertior-The truth is, that the feverity of Juvenal was more congenial to the difpofition of Scaliger, than the gentleness of the polished Horace. + MULTUM ET VERE GLORIÆ quamvis uno libro Perfius meruit. Quintilian.

Sæpius in libro memoratur Perfius uno

Quam levis in totâ Maríus Amazonide,

Martial