"It is known why Hister filled his will with only gems. 47 60 Her, proclaiming things true and manifest, trembling fled 65 Will not others do, when thou assumest transparent garments, Against the Proculæ and Polline? Fabulla is an adulteress : A gown, condemned, she'll not put on. "But July burns-70 64. Her, proclaiming, &c.] We have here the effect of Laronia's speech upon her guilty hearers, their consciences were alarmed, and away they flew, they could not stand any longer: they knew what she said to be true, and not a tittle of it could be denied: so the faster they could make their escape, the better: like those severe hypocrites we read of, John viii. 7-9. Čano signifies, as used here, to report, to proclaim aloud. 65. The Stoicides.] Stoicidæ. word seems to have been framed on the This occasion with a feminine ending, the better to suit their characters, and to intimate the monstrous effeminacy of these pretended Stoics. The Stoics were call. ed Stoici, from sa, a porch in Athens, where they used to meet and dispute. They highly commended apathy, or free dom from all passions. Juvenal, having severely lashed the Stoicides, or pretended Stoics, now proceeds to attack, in the person of Metellus Creticus, the effeminacy of certain magistrates, who appeared, even in the seat of justice, attired in a most unbecoming and indecent manner, and such as bespake them in the high road to the most horrid impurities. 66. Will not others do, &c.] q. d. It is no marvel that we find vice triumphant over people that move in a less conspicuous sphere of life, when plain and apparent symptoms of it are seen in those who fill the seats of justice, and are actually exhibited by them, before the public eye, in open court. quasi multilicia, of many threads. These 66. Transparent garments.] Multicia, that the body might be seen through were so finely and curiously wrought, them. descended from the family of that Metel67. O Creticus.] This magistrate was lus, who was called Creticus, from his conquest of Crete. Juvenal, most proexpose and shame him, for acting so unbably, addresses Metellus by this surname of his great ancestor, the more to worthy his descent from so brave and noble a person. in the most aggravated terms-perores. particular women, who were condemned, He could condemn such in the sever- 68-69. Fabulla-Carfinia.] Notorious adulteresses. 69-70. Such a gown, &c.] Bad as such women may be, and even convicted of Estuo: nudus agas; minus est insania turpis. incontinence, yet they would not appear in such a dress, as is worn by you who condemn them. Or perhaps this alludes to the custom of obliging women convicted of adultery to pull off the stola, or woman's garment, and put on the toga, or man's garment, which stigmatized them as infamous; but even this was not so infamous as the transparent dress of the judge. Horace calls a common prostitute, togata. Sat. ii. lib. i. l. 63. -But July burns, &c.] He endeavours at an excuse, from the heat of the wea ther, for being thus clad. 71. Do your business, &c.] As a judge. Agere legem sometimes signifies to excute the sentence of the law against malefactors. See AINSW. Ago. -Madness is less shameful.] Were you to sit on the bench naked, you might be thought mad, but this would not be so shameful; madness might be some ex cuse. 72. Lo the habit, &c.] This, and the three following lines, suppose some of the old hardy and brave Romans, just come from a victory, and covered with fresh wounds (crudis vulneribus)-rough mountaineers, who had left their ploughs, Jike Cincinnatus, to fight against the enemies of their country, and on their arrival at Rome, with the ensigns of glorious conquest, finding such an effe ninate character upon the bench, bearing the charge of the laws, and bringing them forth in judgment; which may be the sense of ferentem in this place. 75. What would you not proclaim, &c.] 80 How would you exclaim! What would you not utter, that could express your indignation and abhorrence (O ancient and venerable people) of such a silken judge! 76. I ask, would, &c.] q. d. It would be indecent for a private person, who only attends as a witness, to appear in such a dress; how much more for a judge, who sits in an eminent station, in a public character, and who is to condemn vice of all kinds. 77. Sour and unsubdued.] O Creticus, who pretendest to stoicism, and appearing morose, severe, and not overcome by your passions. -Master of liberty.] By this, and the preceding part of this line, it should appear, that this effeminate judge was one who pretended to stoicism, which taught a great severity of manners, and an apathy both of body and mind; likewise such a liberty of living as they pleased, as to be exempt from the frailties and passions of other men. They taughtits povos é copos eλevDigos-that "only a "wise man was free." Hence Cic. Quid est libertas? potestas vivendi ut velis. 78. You are transparent.] Your body is seen through your fine garments: so that with all your stoicism, your appearance is that of a shameless and most unnatural libertine: a slave to the vilest passions, though pretending to be a master of your liberty of action. -Contagion gave this stain.] You owe all this to the company which you have kept; by this you have been infected. "I'm very hot"-do your business naked: madness is less shameful. Lo the habit in which, thee promulgating statutes and laws, 75 You should see? I ask, would transparent garments become a witness? Sour and unsubdued, and master of liberty, 80 O Creticus, you are transparent! contagion gave this stain, 79. And will give it to more.] You will corrupt others by your example, as you were corrupted by the example of those whom you have followed. The language here is metaphorical, taken from distempered cattle, which communicate infection by herding together. 80. Falls by the scab, &c.] Our Eng. lish proverb says, "One scabby sheep "mars the whole flock." 81. A grape, &c.] This is also a proverbial saying, from the ripening of the black grape, (as we call it,) which has a blue or livid hue: these do not turn to that colour all at once and together, but grape after grape, which, the vulgar supposed, was owing to one grape's looking upon another, being very near in contact, and so contracting the same colour. They had a proverb, Uva uvam videndo varia fit. 83. Nobody was on a sudden, &c.] None ever arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness at first setting out: the workings of evil are gradual, and almost imperceptible at first; but as the insinuations of vice deceive the conscience, they first blind and then harden it, until the greatest crimes are committed without remorse. I do not recollect where I met with the underwritten lines; but as they contain excellent advice, they may not be unuseful in this place: VOL. I. 84 'O Leoline, be obstinately just, Indulge no passion, and betray no trust ; Never let man be bold enough to say, Thus, and no farther, let my passion stray: The first crime past compels us on to more, And guilt proves fate, which was but choice before. -They will receive, &c.] By degrees you will go on from one step to another till you are received into the lewd and horrid society after mentioned. The poet is now going to expose a set of unnatural wretches, who, in imitation of wo men, celebrated the rites of the Bona Dea. 84. Who at home, &c.] Domi, that is, secretly, privately, in some house, hired or procured for the purpose of cele brating their horrid rites, in imitation of the women, who yearly observed the rites of the Bona Dea, and celebrated them in the house of the high priest. PLUT. in vita Ciceronis et Cæsaris. If we say, redimicula domi, literally, fillets of the house, we may understand it to mean those fillets which, in imita tion of the women, they wore around their heads on these occasions, and which, at other times, were hung up about the house, as part of the sacred furniture. Here is the first instance, in which their ornaments and habits were like those of the women. Frontibus, et toto posuêre monilia collo, 86. The good goddess.] The Bona Dea, worshipped by the women, was a Roman lady, the wife of one Faunus; she was famous for chastity, and, after her death, consecrated. Sacrifices were performed to her only by night, and secretly; they sacrificed to her a sow pig. No men were admitted. In imitation of this, these wretches, spoken of by our poet, that they might resemble women as much as possible, instituted rites and sacrifices of the same kind, and performed them in the same secret and clandestine manner. -The belly, &c.] The sumen, or dugs and udder of a young sow, was esteemed a great dainty, and seems here meant by abdomine. Pliny says (xi. 84. edit. Hard.) antiqui sumen vocabant abdomen. Here it stands for the whole ani. mal (as in sat. xii. 73.) by synec. 87. A large goblet Out of which they poured their libations. 85 90 9.5 ped, and no men were to be admitted. Sacra bona maribus non adeunda Dee. TIB. i. 6, 22. So that the proceeding of these men was an utter perversion of the female rites; as different from the original and real institution, as the left hand is from the right, and as contrary. 89. Go ye profane.] Profana-meaning the women; as if they banished them by solemn proclamation. Juvenal here humourously parodies that passage in Virgil, relative to the Sybil, Æn. vi. 258, 9. Procul, procul, este profani, Conclamat vates, totoque absistite luco! 90. With no horn here, &c.] It was usual, at the sacrifices of the Bona Dea, for some of the women to make a lamentable noise (well expressed here by the word gemit) with a horn. The male worshippers had no women among them for this purpose. Nullo tibicina cornu, for nulla tibicina cornu. Hypallage. 91. Such orgies.] Orgia-so called as rns Ogyns, from the furious behaviour of the priests of Bacchus, and others by whom they were celebrated: but the part of the orgies here alluded to was that wherein all manner of lewdness, even of the most unnatural kind, was committed by private torch-light-Tæda secreta. Coluerunt-they practised, celebrated, solemnized. - By a perverted custom.] More sini- 92. The Bapta.] Priests of Cotytto at stro-by a perverted, aukward custom, Athens, called Baptæ, because, after the they exclude all women from their mys. horrid impurities which they had been teries, as men were excluded from those guilty of, in honour of their goddess, of the women; by the latter of which they thought themselves entirely purialone the Bena Dea was to be worship-fied by dipping themselves in water. Their foreheads, and have placed ornaments all over the neck, Is cried aloud: with no horn here the female minstrel sounds. The Baptæ, accustomed to weary the Cecropian Cotytto. 91 Lengthens with oblique needle, and paints, lifting them up, his trembling Eyes; another drinks in a priapus made of glass, 95 And fills a little golden net with a vast quantity of hair, Having put on blue female garments, or smooth white vests; "that the powder of lead ore may stick "to it; and applying the middle part horizontally to the eye, they shut the Weyelids upon it, and so drawing it "through between them, it blacks the "inside, leaving a narrow black rim all "round the edge." 92. The Cecropian Cotytto.] Cotytto was a strumpet (the goddess of impudence and unchastity) worshipped by night at Athens, as the Bona Dea was at Rome." The priests are said to weary her, because of the length of their infamous rites, and of the multiplicity of their acts of impurity, which were continued the whole night. Cecrops, the first king of Athens, built the city, and called it after his name, Cecropia. 93. His eyebrow.] It was customary for the women to paint the eyebrows, as well as the eyes: the first was done with a black composition made of soot and water; with this they lengthened the eyebrow, which was reckoned a great beauty. This was imitated by those infamous wretches spoken of by the poet, to make them appear more like women. 94. With an oblique needle.] Acus signifies also a bodkin; this was wetted with the composition, and drawn obliquely over, or along the eyebrow. -And paints, lifting them up, &c.] This was another practice of the women, to paint their eyes. It is now in use among the Moorish women in Barbary, and among the Turkish women about Aleppo, thus described by Dr. Shaw and Dr. Russel. "Their method of doing it is, by a "cylindrical piece of silver, steel, or "ivory, about two inches long, made very smooth, and about the size of a "common probe. "This they wet with water, in order This is sufficient for our present purpose, to explain what the poet means by painting the eyes. This custom was practised by many eastern nations among the women, and at last got among the Roman women: in imitation of whom, these male-prostitutes also tinged their eyes. Lifting up-trembling. This describes the situation of the eyes under the ope ration, which must occasion some pain from the great tenderness of the part. Or, perhaps, by trementes, Juvenal may mean something lascivious, as sat. vii. I. 241. 95. Another drinks, &c.] A practice of the most impudent and abandoned women is adopted by these wretches. 96. A little golden net, &c.] Reticulum here denotes a coif, or caul of network, which the women put over their hair. This too these men imitated. -With a vast quantity of hair.] They left vast quantities of thick and long hair upon their heads, the better to resemble women, and all this they stuffed under a caul as the women did. 97. Female garments.] Scutulata-garments made of needlework, in form of shields or targets, word hy women. |