30 There is no farther hope: a rich miser hath now learnt Himself makes verses, and yields to Homer alone, 35 Because a thousand years [before him.] But if, with the desire of fame Inflamed, you repeat your verses, Maculonus lends a house; 40 He knows how to place his freedmen, sitting in the extreme part cost, 45 And the stairs which hang from the hired beam, And the orchestra, which is set with chairs, which are to be carried back. 38. Yields to Homer alone.] In his own conceit; and this only upon account of Homer's antiquity, not as thinking himself Homer's inferior in any other respect. 39. If, with the desire of fame, &c.] If you don't want to get money by your verses, and only wish to repeat them for the sake of applause. 40. Maculonus, &c.] Some rich man will lend you his house. 41. Strongly barr'd.] Longe-lit. exceedingly very much-q. d.. If you are thought to want money of him for your verses, the doors of his house will be barred against you, and resemble the gates of a city when besieged, and under the fear and anxiety which the besiegers occasion; but if you profess only to write for fame, he will open his house to you, it will be at your service, that you may recite your verses within it, and will procure you hearers, of his own freedmen and dependents, whom he will order to applaud you. 43. He knows how to place, &c.] Dare, lit. to give.q. d. He knows how to dispose his freedmen on the farthest seats behind the rest of the audience, VOL. I. that they may begin a clap, which will be followed by those who are seated more forward. Ordo is a rank or row of any thing, so of benches or seats. 44. And to dispose, &c.] How to dispose his clients and followers, so as best to raise a roar of applause-euge! bene! bravo! as we say, among your hearers. All this he will do, for it costs him nothing. 46. The stairs, &c.] These were for the poet to ascend by into his rostrum, and were fastened to a little beam, or piece of wood, which was hired for the purpose. 47. The orchestra, &c.] The orchestra at the Greek theatres was the part where the chorus danced-the stage. Among the Romans it was the space between the stage and the common seats, where the senators and nobles sat to see plays acted. The poor poet is here supposed to make up such a place as this for the reception of the better sort, should any attend his recitals; but this was made up of hired chairs, by way of seats, but which were to be returned as soon as the business was over. 2 н Nos tamen hoc agimus, tenuique in pulvere sulcos Hunc, qualem nequeo monstrare, et sentio tantum, Satur est, cum dicit Horatius, Euhoe! 48. Yet we will go on.] Hoc agimuslit. we do this-we still pursue our poetical studies. Hoc agere is a phrase signifying to mind, attend to, what we are about. See TER. And. act i. sc. ii. 1. 12. So before, 1. 20. hoc agite, O Juvenes. 48. Draw furrows, &c.] We take much pains to no purpose, like people who should plough in the dust, or on the sea-shore. Comp. sat. i. 157, note. 50. Would leave off.] Discedas-if you would depart from the occupation of making verses. -Custom of ambitious evil.] Evil ambition, which it is so customary for poets to be led away with. 51. An incurable ill habit,] Cacoethes (from Gr. xaxos, bad, and neos, a custom or habit) an evil habit. Many are got into such an itch of scribbling, that they cannot leave it off. Cacoethes also signifies a boil, an ulcer, and the like. 52. Grows inveterate, &c.] It grows old with the man, and roots itself, as it were, by time, in his very frame. 53. No common vein.] Such talents as are not found among the generality. 54. Nothing trifling.] Expositum common, trifling, obvious-nothing in a common way. 50 55 60 65 55. Trivial verse, &c.] Trivialis comes from trivium, a place where three ways meet, a place of common resort: therefore I conceive the meaning of this line to be, that such a poet as Juvenal is describing writes nothing low or vulgar; such verses as are usually sought after, and purchased by the common people in the street. The word feriat is here metaphorical. Ferio literally signifies to strike, or hit; thus to coin or stamp money; hence to compose or make (hit off, as we say) verses; which, if done by a good poet, may be said to be of no common stamp. Moneta is the stamp, or impression, on money; hence, by metaph. a style in writing. 57. A mind, &c.] i. e. Such a poet is formed by a mind that is void of care and anxiety. 58. Impatient.] That hates all trouble, can't bear vexation. -Desirous of woods.] Of sylvan retirement. 59. Fountains of the Muses.] Called Aonides, from their supposed habitation in Aonia, which was the hilly part of Boeotia, and where there were many springs and fountains sacred to the Muses. Of these fountains good poets were, in a figurative sense, said to drink 50 Yet we still go on, and draw furrows in the light Him (such a one I can't shew, and only conceive) 55 A mind free from anxiety makes; of every thing displeasing 60 Able. Horace is satisfied, when he says-Euhoe! Nisa Are carried on, not admitting two cares at once? 65 It is the work of a great mind, not of one that is amazed about Getting a blanket, to behold chariots, and horses, and the faces and by this to be assisted in their compositions. 59, 60. In the Pierian cave, &c.] Pieria was a district of Macedon, where was a cave, or den, sacred to the Muses. 60. Thyrsus.] A spear wrapt about with ivy, which they carried about in their hands at the wild feasts of Bacchus, in imitation of Bacchus, who bore a thyrsus in his hand. The meaning of this passage is, that, for a poet to write well, he should be easy in his situation, and in his circumstances: for those who are harassed with poverty and want cannot write well, either in the more sober style of poetry, or in the more enthusiastic and flighty strains of composition. By sana paupertas, the poet would insinuate, that no poor poet that had his senses would ever attempt it. 62. Horace is satisfied, &c.] It might be objected, that Horace was poor when he wrote, therefore Juvenal's rule won't hold, that a poor poet can't write well. To this Juvenal would answer, "True, "Horace was poor, considered as to "himself; but then remember what a patron he had in Mecænas, and how "he was enabled by him to avoid the "cares of poverty. When he wrote his "fine Ode to Bacchus, and uttered his sprightly Evæ or Euhoe, he, doubt"less, was well sated with good cheer." See lib. ii. ode xix. 1. 5—8. 64. The lords of Cirrha and Nisa.] Apollo and Bacchus, the tutelar gods of poets. Cirrha was a town of Phocis, near Delphos, where Apollo had an oracle. Nisa, a den in Arabia, where Bacchus was educated by the nymphs, when sent thither by Mercury. From hence Bacchus was called Dionysius, ex Acos, and Nisa; Gr. Alovudios. 65. Carried on.] i. e. Inspired, and assisted. 66. Not of one, &c.] q. d. It is the work of a great and powerful mind, above want, not of one that is distracted about getting a blanket for his bed, to fix the eye of the imagination, so as to conceive and describe horses and chariots, and godlike appearances, in such a manner as to do justice to these sublime subjects of heroic verse. See VIRG. Æn. xii. l. 326, 7. Aspicere, et qualis Rutulum confundit Erinnys. Hospitium, caderent omnes a crinibus hydri : 70 75 Marmoreis: at Serrano, tenuique Saleio 80 Gloria quantalibet, quid erit, si gloria tantum est ? Curritur ad vocem jucundam, et carmen amicæ Thebaïdos, lætam fecit cum Statius urbem, Promisitque diem: tantâ dulcedine captos 68. And what an Erinnys.] How Alecto looked when she astonished the Rutulian king Turnus, when she filled him with terror, by throwing her torch at him. Æn. vii. 1. 456, 7. Erinnys is a name common to the three furies of hell, of which Alecto was one. 70. All the snakes would have fallen, &c.] q. d. Had Virgil been poor, and without his pleasures and conveniences, he never would have been able to describe, in the manner he has done, the snaky tresses of Alecto. See n. vii. 1. 450. All this had been lost to us. 71. The silent trumpet.] Surdus not only means to express one who does not hear, but that also which gives no sound. See sat. xiii. 1. 194. Juvenal alludes to En. vii. 1. 519, 20, 1. 72. Rubrenus Lappa, &c.] An ingenious, but poor and miserable tragic poet, who lived in Juvenal's time. -Less than the ancient buskin.] Not inferior to the old writers of tragedy. Cothurno, per metonym. put here for the tragic poets, as it often is for tragedy. 73. Atreus had laid in pawn.] It has been observed by Ainsworth, against 85 Stephanus and other lexicographers, that pignero does not mean to take, or receive, a thing in pawn, but to send it into pawn. In this view we may understand Atreus to be the name of some tragedy, on the subject of Atreus, king of Mycenae, which met with such bad success as to oblige poor Rubrenus to pawn his clothes and furniture. Stephanus and others understood pignerat in the sense of taking to pawn, and suppose Atreus to be the name of the pawnbroker, to whom Rubrenus had pawned his goods. The first sense seems to have the best authority; but with whichever we may agree, the thought amounts to the same thing in substance; viz. Can it be expected that this poor poet should equal the fire and energy of the old tragic writers, while his clothes and furniture were pawned, in order to supply him from starving? A man in such distress, with present necessaries to keep him whatever his genius might be, could not exert it. 74. Numitor.] The name Numitor may stand here for any rich man, who would let a poet starve for want of that money which he lays out upon his mis Of the gods, and what an Erinnys confounded the Rutulian : For if a boy, and a tolerable lodging had been wanting to Virgil, All the snakes would have fallen from her hairs: 70 The silent trumpet have groan'd nothing disastrous. Do we require " That Rubrenus Lappa should not be less than the ancient buskin, 80 And has promised a day: with so great sweetness does he affect The captivated minds, and is heard with so much eager desire Of the vulgar: but when he has broken the benches with his 86 verse, He hungers, unless he should sell his untouched Agave to Paris. tress, or in buying some useless curiosity, such as a tame lion. Infelix is here ironical. 78. Doubtless, &c.] Ironically. said. No doubt it would cost more to maintain a poet than a lion. 79. Lucan, &c.] A learned and rich poet of Corduba in Spain, who, coming to Rome, was made a knight. He wrote, but lived not to finish, the civil wars between Cæsar and Pompey, in an heroic poem, called Pharsalia. He was put to death by Nero. See more, AINSW. Lucanus. -May lie in gardens, &c.] Repose himself in ease and luxury, fame being sufficient for one who wants nothing else. Marmoreis-adorned with fine buildings of marble. 80. Serranus, and to thin Saleius, &c.] These were two poor poets in Juvenal's time. Of the latter Tacitus says, "Who “takes any notice of, or even attends ' or speaks to, our excellent poet Sa "leius?" These men may get fame by the excellence of their compositions; but what signifies that, if they get nothing else? fame won't feed them. Perhaps the poet calls Saleius tenuis, thin, from his meagre appearance. 82. They run.] Curritur, here used impersonally, like concurritur. HoR. sat. i. 1. 7. -The pleasing voice.] i. e. Of Statius, when he reads over his Thebais in public. 84. Promised a day.] i. e. Appointed a day for a public recital of his poem on the Theban war. 86. Broken the benches, &c.] By the numbers of his hearers, who flocked to attend him when he recited his Thebais. Notwithstanding this he must starve, for any thing the nobles will do for him. 87. His untouched Agave.] His new play called Agave, which has never been heard, or performed. This play was |