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THE

SATIRES

OF

AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS,

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE.

BY

WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.

WITH

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,

AND

THE LATIN TEXT.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

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INTRODUCTION.

ILL health having driven me for two or three successive seasons to the Isle of Wight, I amused myself, in that sequestered spot, with a pocket Persius; and, when the progress of recovery admitted of severer application, with turning favourite passages of him, into English verse. In this, I had no farther end than beguiling the sense of pain, and wearing away a few hours innocently and happily. By degrees the work grew on my hands; and I had nearly gone through the whole, before I was conscious to myself of the bulk of my labours.

At that time I entertained no thoughts of printing what was thus produced; although the republication of Juvenal presented an opportunity of subjoining it to that work: I continued however to fill up and correct the translation, at leisure; and now, when a third edition of Juvenal is about to appear, I have determined (with the approbation of my friends) to submit it to the publick.

It cannot, I think, be affirmed, that a new translation of Persius is much wanted: we are already possessed of several; of various degrees of merit, indeed, but all exhibiting strong claims on the pub

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