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SATIRA VII.

ARGUMENT.

This Satire is addressed to Telesinus, a poet. Juvenal laments the neglect of encouraging learning. That Cæsar only is the patron of the fine arts. As for the rest of the great and noble Romans, they gave no heed to the protection of poets,

ET spes, et ratio studiorum in Cæsare tantum :
Solus enim tristes hâc tempestate camœnas
Respexit; cum jam celebres, notique poëtæ
Balneolum Gabiis, Romæ conducere furnos
Tentarent; nec fœdum alii, nec turpe putarent
Præcones fieri; cum desertis Aganippes
Vallibus, esuriens migraret in atria Clio.
Nam si Pieriâ quadrans tibi nullus in umbrâ
Ostendatur, ames nomen, victumque Machæræ ;
Et vendas potius, commissa quod auctio vendit

Line 1. The hope and reason, &c.] i. e. The single expectation of learned men, that they shall have a reward for their labours, and the only reason, therefore, for their employing themselves in liberal studies, are reposed in Cæsar only. Domitian seems to be meant; for though he was a monster of wickedness, yet Quintilian, Martial, and other learned men, tasted of his bounty. Quintilian says of him, "Quo nec præsentius aliquid, nec "studiis magis propitium numen est.' See 1. 20, 1.

2. The mournful Muses.] Who may be supposed to lament the sad condition of their deserted and distressed votaries.

4. Bath at Gabii, &c.] To get a livelihood by. Gabii was a little city near Rome. Balneolum, a small bagnio.

-Ovens.] Public bakehouses, where people paid so much for baking their bread.

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6. Criers.] Præcones-whose office at Rome was to proclaim public meetings, public sales, and the like—a very mean employment; but the poor starving poets, disregarded this circumstance" any "thing rather than starve"-and indeed, however meanly this occupation might be looked upon, it was very profitable. See sat. iii. 1. 157, note.

Aganippe.] A spring in the solitary part of Boeotia, consecrated to the nine Muses.

7. Hungry Clio.] One of the nine Muses, the patroness of heroic poetry: here, by meton. put for the starving poet, who is forced, by his poverty, to leave the regions of poetry, and would fain beg at great men's doors. Atrium signifies the court, or court-yard, before great men's houses, where these poor poets are supposed to stand, like other beggars, to ask alms.

SATIRE VII.

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ARGUMENT.

historians, lawyers, rhetoricians, grammarians, &c. These last were not only ill paid, but even forced to go to law, for the poor pittance which they had earned, by the fatigue and labour of teaching school.

BOTH the hope, and reason of studies, is in Cæsar only:
For he only, at this time, hath regarded the mournful Muses,
When now our famous and noted poets would try
To hire a small bath at Gabii, or ovens at Rome:
Nor would others think it mean, nor base,

To become criers; when, the valleys of Aganippe

Being deserted, hungry Clio would migrate to court-yards.
For if not a farthing is shewn to you in the Pierian shade,
You may love the name, and livelihood of Machæra;
And rather sell what the intrusted auction sells

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8. In the Pieriun shade.] See sat. iv. 1. 35, note. q. d. If by passing your time, as it were, in the abodes of the Muses, no reward or recompence is likely to be obtained for all your poetical labours. Some read arca-but Pieria umbra seems best to carry on the humour of the metonymy in this and the preceding line.

9. Love the name, &c.] Machæra seems to denote the name of some famous crier of the time, whose business it was to notify sales by auction, and, at the time of sale, to set a price on the goods, on which the bidders were to increase; hence such a sale was called auctio. See AINSW. Præco, No. 1.

q. d. If you find yourself pennyless, and so likely to continue by the exercise of poetry, then, instead of thinking it below you to be called a crier, you may cordially embrace it, and be glad to get a livelihood by auctions, as Machæra

does.

10. Intrusted.] So Holyday. Commissus signifies any thing committed to one's charge, or in trust. Comp. sat. ix. 1. 93-96.

Goods committed to sale by public auction are intrusted to the auctioneer in a twofold respect-first, that he sell them at the best price; and, secondly, that he faithfully account with the owner for the produce of the sales.

Commissa may also allude to the commission, or licence, of the magistrate, by which public sales in the forum were appointed.

Some understand commissa auctio in a metaphorical sense, alluding to the contention among the bidders, who, like gladiators matched in fight, commissi, (see sat. i. 163, note,) oppose and engage against each other in their several biddings,

Stantibus, œnophorum, tripodes, armaria, cistas,
Alcithoen Paccî, Thebas et Terea Fausti.
Hoc satius, quam si dicas sub judice, Vidi,
Quod non vidisti: faciant equites Asiani,

Quanquam et Cappadoces faciant, equitesque Bithyni,
Altera quos nudo traducit Gallia talo.

Nemo tamen studiis indignum ferre laborem

Cogetur posthac, nectit quicunque canoris
Eloquium vocale modis, laurumque momordit.
Hoc agite, ô Juvenes : circumspicit, et stimulat vos,
Materiamque sibi ducis indulgentia quærit.
Si qua aliunde putas rerum expectanda tuarum
Præsidia, atque ideo croceæ membrana tabellæ
Impletur; lignorum aliquid posce ocyus, et quæ
Componis, dona Veneris, Telesine, marito:
Aut claude, et positos tineâ pertunde libellos.
Frange miser calamos, vigilataque prælia dele,
Qui facis in parvâ sublimia carmina cellâ,
Ut dignus venias hederis, et imagine macrâ.

11. To the standers by.] i. e. The people who attend the auction as buyers.

12. The Alcithoe-the Thebes, &c.] Some editions read Alcyonem Bacchi,&c. These were tragedies written by wretched poets, which Juvenal supposes to be sold, with other lumber, at an auction.

13. Than if you said, &c.] This, mean as it may appear, is still getting your bread honestly, and far better than hiring yourself out as a false witness, and forswearing yourself for a bribe, in open court.

14. The Asiatic knights.] This satirizes those of the Roman nobility, who had favoured some of their Asiatic slaves so much, as to enrich them sufficiently to be admitted into the equestrian order. These people were, notwithstanding, false, and not to be trusted.

Minoris Asiæ populis nullam fidem esse adhibendam. Cic. pro Flacco. 15. The Cappadocians.] Their country bordered on Armenia. They were like the Cretans, (Tit. i. 12.) liars and dishonest to a proverb; yet many of these found means to make their fortunes at Rome.

-The knights of Bithynia.] Bithynia was another eastern province, a country of Asia Minor, from whence many such people, as are above described, came,

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and were in high favour, and shared in titles and honours.

16. The other Gaul, &c.] Gallo-Græcia, or Galatia, another country of Asia Minor; from hence came slaves, who, like others, were exposed to sale with naked feet. Or it may rather signify, that these wretches (however afterwards highly honoured) were so poor, when they first came to Rome, that they had not so much as a shoe to their feet.

The poet means, that getting honest bread, in however mean a way, was to be preferred to obtaining the greatest affluence, as these fellows did, by kna

very.

16. Brings over.] Traducit signifies to bring, or convey, from one place to another. It is used to denote transplanting trees, or other plants, in gardens, &c. and is a very significant word here, to denote the transplanting, as it were, of these vile people from the east to Rome.

18. That joins, &c.] The perfection of heroic poetry, which seems here intended, is the uniting grand and lofty expression, eloquium vocale, with tuneful measures, modis canoris.

Vocalis signifies sometimes loud-making a noise-therefore, when applied to poetry, lofty-high-sounding-y. d. No writer, hereafter, who excels in uniting

To the standers by, a pot, tripods, book-cases, chests,
The Alcithoë of Paccius, the Thebes and Tereus of Faustus.
This is better than if you said before a judge, "I have seen,"
What you have not seen tho' the Asiatic knights

And the Cappadocians may do this, and the knights of Bithynia,

Whom the other Gaul brings over barefoot.

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But nobody to undergo a toil unworthy his studies
Hereafter shall be compelled, whoe'er he be that joins, to tuneful
Measures, melodious eloquence, and hath bitten the laurel.
Mind this, young men, the indulgence of the emperor

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Has its eye upon, and encourages you, and seeks matter for itself.

If you think protectors of your affairs are to be expected From elsewhere, and therefore the parchment of your saffroncolour'd tablet.

Is filled, get some wood quickly, and what

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You compose, Telesinus, give to the husband of Venus:
Or shut up, and bore thro' with the moth your books laid by.
Wretch, break your pens, and blot out your watched battles,
Who makest sublime verses in a small cell,

That you may become worthy of ivy, and a lean image.

loftiness of style with harmony of verse, shall be driven, through want, into employments which are below the dignity of his pursuits as a poet. Comp. 1. 3—6. 19. Bitten the laurel.] Laurum momordit. It was a notion, that, when young poets were initiated into the service of the Muses, it was a great help to their genius to chew a piece of laurel, in honour of Apollo. Some think that the expression is figurative, and means those who have tasted of glory and honour by their compositions; but the first sense seems to agree best with what follows.

20. Mind this.] Hoc agite-lit. do this-i. e. diligently apply yourselves to poetry.

Of the emperor.] Ducis is here applied to the emperor, as the great patron and chief over the liberal arts.

21. Seeks matter for itself.] Carefully endeavours to find out its own gratification by rewarding merit.

23. Therefore the parchment, &c.] They wrote on parchment, which sometimes was dyed of a saffron-colour; sometimes it was white, and wrapped up in coloured parchment. The tabellæ were the books

themselves-i. e. the pages on which their manuscripts were written.

If, says the poet, you take the pains to write volumes full, in hopes of finding any other than Cæsar to reward you, you had better prevent your disappointment by burning them as fast as you can. Lignorum aliquid posce ocyuslose no time in procuring wood for the purpose.

25. Telesinus.] The poet to whom this Satire is addressed.

-The husband of Venus.] Vulcan, the fabled god of fire-here put for the fire itself. He was the husband of Venus.

fire.

q. d. Put all your writings into the

26. Or shut up, and bore, &c.] Lay by your books, and let the moths eat

them.

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Spes nulla ulterior: didicit jam dives avarus
Tantum admirari, tantum laudare disertos,
Ut pueri Junonis avem. Sed defluit ætas,
Et pelagi patiens, et cassidis, atque ligonis.
Tædia tunc subeunt animos, tunc seque suamque
Terpsichoren odit facunda et nuda senectus.
Accipe nunc artes, ne quid tibi conferat iste,
Quem colis: Musarum et Apollinis æde relictâ,
Ipse facit versus, atque uni cedit Homero,
Propter mille annos. At si dulcedine famæ
Succensus recites, Maculonus commodat ædes;
Ac longe ferrata domus servire jubetur
In qua sollicitas imitatur janua portas.
Scit dare libertos extremâ in parte sedentes
Ordinis, et magnas comitum disponere voces.
Nemo dabit regum, quanti subsellia constent,
Et quæ conducto pendent anabathra tigillo,
Quæque reportandis posita est orchestra cathedris.

an image, i. e. a representation of your
lean and starved person, with a little
paltry ivy put round the head of it, in
the temple of Apollo.

30. There is no farther hope.] You can
expect nothing better, nothing beyond
this.

32. As boys the bird of Juno.] As children admire, and are delighted with the beauty of a peacock, (see AINSW. tit. Argus,) which is of no service to the bird; so the patrons, which you think of getting, however rich and able to afford it they may be, will yet give you nothing but compliments on your performances: these will do you no more service than the children's admiration does the peacock.

32, 33. Your age passes away.] You little think that, while you are employing yourself to no purpose, as to your present subsistence, or provision for the future, by spending your time in writing verses, your life is gliding away, and old age is stealing upon you; your youth, which is able to endure the toils and dangers of the sea, the fatigues of wars, or the labours of husbandry, is decaying.

34. Then.] When you grow old. -Weariness, &c.] You'll be too feeble, in body and mind, to endure any labour, and become irksome even to your

self.

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35. Hates both itself and its Terpsichore.] Your old age, however learned, clothed in rags, will ourse itself, and the Muse that has been your undoing. Terpsichore was one of the nine Muses, who presided over dancing and music; she is fabled to have invented the harp; here, by meton. lyric poetry may be understood.

36. His arts, &c.] The artifices which your supposed patron will use, to have a fair excuse for doing nothing for you.

37. The temple, &c.] There was a temple of the Muses at Rome, which was built by Martius Philippus, where poets used to recite their works. Augustus built a library, and a temple to Apollo, on Mount Palatine, where the poets used also to recite their verses, and where they were deposited. See PERS prol. 1. 7. and Hor. lib. i. epist. iii. 1. 17.

Among the tricks made use of by these rich patrons, to avoid giving any thing to their poor clients, the poets, they affected to make verses so well themselves, as not to stand in need of the poetry of others; therefore they deserted the public recitals, and left the poor retainers on Apollo and the Muses. to shift as they could.

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