Emeris auriculas? pulmone et lactibus unctis? Tunc manibus quatit, et spem macram supplice voto : 33. Infami digito] This is the middle finger usually called 'famosus.' See note on Hor. S. ii. 8. 26, "indice monstraret digito." The grandmother or aunt, which ever it may be, wets the baby's brow and lips with spittle on her middle finger, as if it was holy water, to keep away the Evil Eye. Casaubon has a long note on the lustration of infants which may be read with interest, but it does not concern this place. The power of certain malignant persons to injure infants in particular by looking at them has been believed in from the earliest times, and is firmly credited still by many of our own peasantry. Shepherds feared the Evil Eye for their flocks, as they do now. See Virgil, Ecl. iii. 103, "Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos." See also Plutarch, Quaes. Symp. v. Qu. 7. Spitting was counted a charm against all such spells, which accounts for the old lady's lustral water. 'Metuens divum' is equivalent to devidaíμwv, a word which may or may not be used with contempt. 35. Tunc manibus quatit,] She tosses him in her arms and prays that her slender hopeful may one day possess the lands of Licinus, the wealthy freedman of C. Julius Caesar (Juv. i. 109), or be master of the palace of Crassus, that is M. Crassus who was killed by the Parthians, and whose wealth was enormous, as related by Plutarch in his life. These two names are used proverbially here. As to 'rapiant' see note on Juv. S. vi. 404, "quis diripiatur adulter." Non mando,' I don't entrust a nurse with making prayers;' it is not her business. Albata' is with a clean dress on, as she would have on a very solemn occasion. See note on Hor. S. ii. 2. 61, "Festos albatus celebret." 42. tucetaque crassa] What sort of dish tucetum' was is not very clear. According to the Scholiast here, it was beef dressed up in some shape. It was something coarse. Persius says the man prays for health, but his gluttonous coarse feeding will not allow of his prayer being granted. Esto age' is 'well, be it so,' that is, 'your prayer is all right, but how is it to be granted ?' 45. da fortunare Penates,] Grant me to enrich my household gods.' The poet is speaking of those fools who while they prayed to the gods to enlarge their herds and flocks, wasted them in sacrifices offered to obtain their increase. Quo, pessime, pacto' is copied from Horace, S. ii. 7. 22, "Ad te, inquam.' 'Quo pacto, pessime ?" " 'Junix' is not a common word. It is a cow not quite full grown, but bigger than a calf, 'vitula.' As to 'omenta' see Juv. S. xiii. 118. 666 Fertum' is a sort of cake used in sacrifice. The man's sanguine eagerness is well expressed in the words that are given him, and these hopes continue till the last bit of money is left to sigh forlorn at the bottom of the chest. The man's disappointment is transferred to the sestertius, and the Da pecus et gregibus fetum!' Quo, pessime, pacto, Intendit: Jam crescit ager, jam crescit ovile, picture of a bankrupt speculator is well represented. Jahn spoils it by his punctuation, "donec deceptus et exspes: Nequicquam fundo, suspiret, nummus in imo!" The commentators quote from Seneca (Epp. i. 4), "Sera parsimonia in fundo est," economy is too late when we come to the bottom of the cash-chest.' [Jahn has in v. 47 'flamma,' and in v. 48 ac tamen.'] 52. incusaque pingui Auro] Presents overlaid with thick gold;' that is, with 'emblemata,' which are explained on Juv. S. v. 38. He says if he was to offer the man presents of this sort he would burst out into a sweat with joy, and his heart jump with delight and ooze out at his left breast. 'Pectore laevo' is not I think explained, as Casaubon and others say, by "Si mens non laeva fuisset" (Virg. Aen. ii. 54). It is the same as Juvenal's "Scilicet arguitur quod laeva in parte mamillae Nil salit Arcadio juveni" (S. vii. 159). Laetari' depends on 'praetrepidum, ́ ́ in a great flutter of joy. 55. Hinc illud subiit] Hinc' means that because the man has this inordinate love of gold, he thinks the gods must have the same, and so he gilds the faces of their statues. 'Ovato auro' is gold that has been taken in war and paraded in the victor's triumph. Ovid (Epp. ex Pont. ii. 1. 41) has "Deque triumphato quod sol incenderit auro." As to the gilding of statues, see Juv. S. xiii. 151, sq. Cicero was honoured with a gilded statue by the people of Capua (In Pisonem, c. 11). 56. nam fratres inter ahenos] 'Nam' is used by way of introducing a case. For instance, 'You must give the preference among the gods to those who give good dreams, so go and gild their beards.' It is an abrupt way of speaking, in Persius' style. Who these bronze brothers may be is a question not yet decided to every body's satisfaction. The Scholiast, approved by Casaubon, says, on the authority of Acron, who must therefore have been older, that they were statues of the fifty sons of Aegyptus, erected opposite to those of the daughters of Danaus in the temple of Apollo Palatinus. Plum supposes they were the Hermae generally distributed about the city. Others, as the Scholiast says, suppose Castor and Pollux. pears to me that the bronze brethren are all those gods whose statues are made of bronze. Pituita purgatissima' means most free from the disturbances of a disordered stomach;' 'pituita' being phlegm generated in the intestines. The word is pronounced as one of three syllables. See notes on Hor. S. ii. 2. 73. Epp. i. 1. 108. The ancients believed the gift of dreams, particularly of a prophetic character, was in the power of particular gods, 'di somniales,' among whom Apollo and Hercules were foremost. It ap 59. Aurum vasa Numae] He goes on to complain of the introduction of gold into the temple-worship, as if the tastes of the gods were to be measured by man's. Juvenal, referring to the ancient worship, says (vi. 342): O curvae in terras animae et caelestium inanes! 63. Et bona Dis ex hac] He asks, 'What satisfaction is this (why should we do it ?), to introduce our habits into the temples, and to derive our notions of what is acceptable to the gods from this profligate flesh of ours?" For hoc' (v. 62) most MSS. and the older editors have 'hos' to agree with 'mores.' But with 'ex hac pulpa' in the next line, hos mores' would be weak, and 'hoc' goes naturally with 'juvat,' as in i. 112. S. i. 1. 77: Hor. "Formidare malos fures, incendia, servos, Ne te compilent fugientes, hoc juvat?" Our 'Pulpa' is the lean part of the flesh; At vos 65 70 "Nec fas est mihi regio magistro Plebeiam numeros docere pulpam;" but this is not exactly the same. Pulpa' here means vicious desires, the póvnμa σαρκὸς of theology. 64. Haec sibi corrupto] It is this (pulpa) which adulterates for its own indulgence (sibi) the olive oil with oil of casia, which was added to give it a spicy flavour; as Virgil says, Georg. ii. 465: "Alba neque Assyrio fucatur lana veneno, Nec casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi." It is this (he goes on) which dyes the fine wool of Calabria (principally from the pasGalaesi Flumen," Hor. Carm. ii. 6. 10) with tures of Tarentum, "dulce pellitis ovibus purple; it is this teaches us to scrape the pearl from its shell, and to tear the veins of molten ore from the native earth (the quartz in which it is embedded). The ore he means is that of gold. We have no word corresponding to stringere' here. It is commonly used of that which is grasped by the hand. The praeterperfects 'dissolvit,'coxit,' 'jussit' have the meaning of the aorist. 68. Peccat et haec, peccat ;] 'The flesh too errs, it errs; but yet makes profit of its fault.' But he goes on to ask, what is the good of gold in sacred things and places? about as much as dolls offered by girls to Venus-a common practice after childhood, as gladiators hung up in temples their arms, and workmen their tools and so forth, when they had no further need of them. Most MSS. have 'sancto,' which Jahn adopts. I think with the other MSS. and editors that sacro' is the right word to express a sacred ceremony or place, and both are involved here, as the context shows. Non possit magni Messalae lippa propago; 72. Messalae lippa propago;] The Messalae' were of the Valeria gens, one of the most distinguished in Rome. (Hor. S. i. 6. 12, n., “Contra Laevinum Våleri genus.") Persius uses the name with contempt because it suits his purpose to do so. He says, Why should we not rather offer to the gods that which no blear-eyed scion of the aristocracy could offer in his big dish, a heart in which the 75 laws of God and man are joined, a mind of "Immunis aram si tetigit manus, SATIRA III. INTRODUCTION. THIS Satire contains as fine writing and as much power of condensed expression, without great obscurity, as any that Juvenal has written. There is not the same breadth and scope in Persius' writings as in Juvenal's, but some of the passages in this poem Juvenal has not, I think, surpassed. The reader will judge for himself. The poet begins with complaining of the habit of young men wasting their time in debauchery at night, and in bed in the morning; and then supposes a scene in which a youth is lying in bed as usual till a late hour, and one of his companions comes and wakes him. He starts up in a rage, abuses his servants, dresses, and goes off to his work. Instead of writing what he has to write, he begins abusing his pens and his ink; whereupon the poet takes him up, and reads him a lesson upon idleness, pride, and debauchery; telling him he is old enough to know better than to waste his time like a schoolboy; that he has not the excuse of a vicious, gross nature, and of those who are hardened in their ignorance; and that if conscience lays hold of him he will find its tortures worse than all that tyranny ever invented. In all of this there is much solemn wisdom and grave though vigorous reproof. He treats the man as a weak child, with his excuses and his presumption, and bids him go back to his nursery and his pap, or go to the potter's and get turned again, as a pot that has been made of soft watery clay. The condition of one who is falling into despair, with fears in his bosom too great for his wife to know, is described in a few terrible words, and the severity of his punishment is excellently told. The above imaginary scene occupies half the satire. The other half is more general. It teaches us to begin early, before life has become tainted and medicine of no avail, to study the nature and end of our being, our relation to others, and our duty to God. Let us get wisdom, and despise the gains of the worldly and the ridicule of the vulgar. The coarse wit of the soldiers at the expense of the philosophers, and their self-complacency in the contemplation of their own ignorance, are represented in the best style of Roman satire; and the summary of ethics that goes before has become proverbial. A specimen of sensuality, and its consequences, forms a dramatic sketch of much power; and when, in conclusion, he who is satisfied with himself, and who in his even pulse and quiet veins reads the tokens of a healthy mind and body, is told to wait till temptation comes to try his lusts, his appetites, his passions, it is impossible not to feel that in this Satire much has been done to expose the vicious to themselves, to teach them the penalties of self-indulgence, and to point out the true way to a life of innocence and peace. ARGUMENT. Yes, so it always is, we snore till noon, till yesterday's debauch is slept away. Get up, for shame; the heat is parching up the corn, the cattle long have sought the shade,' cries one. 'What! can it be! quick, some one! where are you all ?' The man gets furious and roars, you'd think Arcadia had turned loose her asses. At last he takes his paper, parchment, pens, and then complains the ink won't write ; now it's too thick, and now too pale. You wretched man, and are we come to this? Why don't you go and cry for pap again, and squall when the nurse sings lullabies to soothe you? But what's the use of such a pen as this?' Whom do you think to cheat? What means this nonsense? You cheat yourself, running away to waste; you'll come to be despised; a pot that rings not, made of ill-baked clay. Go to the potter and be made anew. · Oh! but you've got a family estate, and all you want upon it; this is enough for you. Is this enough to make you burst with pride, a Tuscan pedigree and doting censor? Off with your decorations to the vulgar: I know you inside, outside, all of you. You're not ashamed to take Natta the profligate for your example. V. 32. But such as he have some excuse. They're dull from natural defect, and fat, and ignorant, and know not what they lose; mere things that sink to the bottom and appear no more. Great Father, I desire no greater punishment than this for tyrants: let them see Virtue's form, and pine to think they have abandoned her. No tortures of their own are like to this, despair and terrors that the dearest may not share. V. 44. I shirked my tasks, I know, when yet a schoolboy, and thought that play was every thing. But you have studied in the schools, and learnt the Stoics' wisdom and the way of life; and yet you snore till now, and yawn away until your jaws are out of joint. What, have you any aim in life at all, or are you pelting crows all day, careless of where you go, living but for the passing hour? V. 63. Meet the disease when it begins, or afterwards no medicine will avail. And what's the use of feeing doctors? Go home, ye wretches, learn the first principles of action; what we are, what our destiny; our place in the course, the way to turn the goal; the limits of desire and getting; the use of money; what we owe to country and to friends; what God would have us be; what place we occupy among our kind. Learn; and envy not the lawyer and his fees. V. 77. Here some rough captain cries: 'I know enough for me; I've no ambition to become a sage, with eyes downcast, and muttering to himself, and meditating sick men's dreams, as how that nothing comes from nothing, and to nothing nothing goes. Is this why you're so pale? Is it for this a man's to lose his dinner ?' And then the vulgar laugh, and the young officers curl up their nose and giggle. V. 88. A man consults his doctor, and he bids him go to bed. After three days he feels a little better, borrows a jar of wine, and goes to bathe. 'Why, friend, you're looking pale.' 'Tis nothing.'Well, but you'd better see to it; your skin looks dark and puffy.' 'Nay, you look worse than I do: hold your tongue; I |