SATIRE I. ARGUMENT. After this, he exposes the wretched taste which then prevailed in Rome, both in verse and prose, and shews what sad stuff the nobles wrote themselves, and encouraged in others. He laments that he dares not speak out, as Lucilius and Horace did but it is no very difficult matter to perceive that he frequently aims at the emperor Nero. He concludes, with a contempt of all blockheads, and says, that the only readers, whose applause he courts, must be men of virtue and sense. PERSIUS. MONITOR. P. O THE cares of men! O how much vanity is there in things! M. Who will read these? P. Do you say that to me? M. Nobody, truly. P. Nobody? M. Perhaps two, perhaps nobody; it is a shameful and lamentable thing. P. Wherefore? Lest Polydamas and the Troiads should prefer Labeo poet dares not speak out, therefore designs Nero and the Romans, under the feigned name of Polydamas and the Trojans, in allusion to Hector's fearing the reproaches of Polydamas (the sonin-law of Priam, and who is said to have betrayed Troy to the Greeks) and of the Trojan men and women, if he retired within the walls of Troy. See Il. x. 1. 100-5. -Labeo.] A wretched poet, who made a miserable translation of Homer's Iliad. He was a court-poet, and a minion of Nero. VOL. II. 5. Trifles.] So far from its being the miserable thing which you imagine, I look on it as ridiculous and trifling, nor do I trouble my head about it. -If turbid Rome, &c.] Metaph. from waters, which, by being disturbed, are muddy, thick, turbid, as we say. If the people of Rome, says the poet, turbid, i. e. muddy, not clear in their judgment, having their minds vexed and disturbed too with what is written against them, disparage any work, and speak lightly of it, through anger and prejudice, I desire you will not agree with P Elevet, accedas: examenve improbum in ista them in what they say, or accede to their opinion. The word elevet is metaphorical, and alludes to scales, where that which is lightest is raised up, and signifies undervaluing, disparaging, or, as we say, making light of any thing. 6. Nor correct, &c.] Examen properly signifies the tongue, needle, or beam of a balance, which always inclines towards the side where the weight preponderates where this does not act truly, and in due proportion, it shews that the balance is false: how false it is, and, of course, how it may be properly judged of and corrected, may be seen, by weighing the same thing in a true scale, or by a true balance; this will exactly discover the deficiency. The poet, alluding to this, advises his friend not to attempt correcting one false balance by another: he means, that, if any thing should be amiss, which the people in general find fault with, yet it is not to be weighed or considered according to their opinion, which, like a false balance, is erroneous; much less to be corrected by their standard of judg ment. 7. Seek not thyself, &c.] i. e. Judge for yourself, by your own conscience and opinion, not by what other people say. The more exact meaning of this Stoical maxim seems to be-You can judge of yourself better by what passes within you, than by the opinions of others; so, go not out of yourself, in order to draw just and true conclusions concerning yourself. The Stoics maintained, that a wise man should not make other people's opinions, but his own reason, his rule of action. The conscience is the test of ev'ry mind; Seek not thyself, without thyself, to find. DRYDEN. The poet seems to urge this sentiment upon his friend, in order to guard him against such an attention to popular 10 opinion, as might lead him to assent to it, contrary to his own opinion, judgment, and conscience. In this view it answers to what he has before said: -Non, si quid turbida Roma Elevet, accedos. L. 5, 6. 8. Who does not-?] i. e. Who does not leave his own judgment and conscience out of the question, and suffer himself to be led away by popular opinion? This is an aposiopesis: but think the nam refers us to the preceding sentence to make out the sense. This view of it furnishes a farther argument against trusting the opinions of others, since even they don't judge for themselves. —Ah! if I might say !] i.e. Alas! if I were but at liberty to speak out plainly. -But I may, &c.] Persius lived in the reign of Nero, a dangerous period for the writers of satire; he was therefore, as he hints in the preceding line, afraid to speak out: but yet he will not quite refrain: the objects of satire were too many, and too gross, for him to be silent, and therefore he determines to attack them. 9. When I have beheld greyness.] When I have turned my eyes on the grey hairs of old age. -Our grave way of life.] Vivere, here, for vita, a Græcism-these often occur in Persius. When I behold, says the poet, the gravity and austerity with which we appear to live. 10. Whatever we do, &c.] The manner in which people employ themselves, as soon as they have left their playthings, and are become men. Nuces, lit. nuts and tali, little square stones, or bones with four sides-were the usual playthings of children. The nuces were little balls of ivory, or round stones. See FRANCIS' Hor. lib. ii. sat. iii. 1. 172. Hence nucibus relictis sig Any thing, agree with it, nor correct a false balance For at Rome who does not-? Ah, if I might say!-But I may Then, when I have beheld greyness, and that our grave way of life, And whatever we do after our playthings are left; 10 When we have the relish of uncles-then, then forgive. M. I will not. P. What shall I do? for I am a great laugher with a petu lant spleen. M. We write shut up. One numbers, another prose, nifies ceasing to be children. See HOR. lib. ii. sat. iii. 1. 171, 2. 11. Relish of uncles, &c.] Patruus is a father's brother, on whom sometimes the care of children devolved on the loss of their father. The father's brother, thus having the authority of a father, without the tenderness and affection of a father, was apt to be very rigid and severe: this was so much the case, as almost to become proverbial; hence patruus signified a severe, rigid reprover. See AINSW. Hence HOR. lib. ii. sat. iii. 1. 87, 8. -Sive ego prave, Metuentes patruæ verbera linguæ. "When I consider the vanity and folly in which we Romans (he speaks in the first person, as if he meant to include himself, to avoid offence) are employed, from our first becoming men to our old age, and, at the same time, that pretended and assumed gravity and severity which we put on, insomuch that we have the relish or savour of morose uncle-guardians in our reproofs of others, and in our carriage towards them, though we are in truth as vain and foolish as those whom we reprove, then, then I think I may be forgiven if I write and publish my Satires, when the times so evidently stand in need of reproof." -I will pot.] Says the friend-All you say does tot convince me that you should publish your Satires. 12. What shall I do?] Says Persius How can I contain myself? how can I control my natural temper and disposition ? -A great laugher.] Cachinno-onis, from cachinnus, a loud laughing, a laughter in derision or scorn. AINSW. -A petulant spleen.] The spleen, or milt, was looked upon by the ancients to be the organ of laughter. See CHAMBERS, tit. Spleen. Also the receptacle of the atrabilious, or melancholic humour. Hence, when people are lowspirited or melancholy, they are said to be splenetic; so when they are disgusted and out of humour. Thus SWIFT, in his City Shower: "Saunt'ring in coffee-house is Dulman 66 seen, "Rails on the climate and complains 66 of spleen." Our poet gives his friend to understand, that he can't take his advice to suppress his Satires; for that his spleen, which is of the petulant kind, and his natural disposition to laugh at the follies of men, make it impossible for him to resist the temptation of publishing. 13. We write shut up.] Persius having expressed his turn for satire, from his natural disposition, and having asked his friend what he should do, were he to be silent, and lay by his intention of writing-the friend gives him to understand, that he may indulge his desire for writing, without writing satires" Do as "others do, who indulge their genius for "writing on popular and inoffensive sub"jects, some in verse, others in prose, "shut up in their studies, for their greater quiet and privacy, where they compose something in a grand and lofty "style."-"Aye," says Persius, interrupting him, so grand as to require a very large portion of breath to last 66 66 66 66 Grande aliquid-P. Quod pulmo animæ prælargus anhelet. Scilicet hæc populo, pexusque togaque recenti, Et natalitia tandem cum sardonyche albus, Hic, neque more probo videas, neque voce serena, 15 20 20 "through their periods and sentences, "which are too bombast and long-winded "to be read by ordinary lungs." The speaker uses the first person pluralscribimus inclusi-we-nous autres (as the French say). By this mode of speech, the pointedness and personality of what is said are much lessened; consequently the prejudice and offence with which a more direct charge on the persons meant would have been received. HOR. lib. ii. epist. i. 1. 117. "But ev'ry desperate blockhead dares -Large of air.] Capable of containing a very large portion of air, and greatly inflated. 15. Doubtless these to the people, &c.] Persius, as we shall find, by using the second person singular, 1. 17, leges, and collueris, 1. 18, is not to be understood as confining what he says to the person with whom he is discoursing, but means covertly to attack and expose all the poetasters at Rome, who shut themselves up to compose turgid and bombast poems. and declamations, to recite in public, in order to get the applause of their ignorant and tasteless hearers. The Monitor had said-scribimus, 1. "Verse is the trade of every living 13: hence the poet addresses him par wight." FRANCIS. 13. One numbers.] i. e. One pens verses. -Another prose.] Pede liber-a periphrasis for prose-writing, which is free from the shackles of feet and numbers, by which writers in verse are confined. 14. Something grand-] The speaker is going on with his advice, and in his enforcing it from the examples of the writers of his day; but at the words grande aliquid, Persius interrupts him, as though not able to bear such an epithet as grande, when applied to the bombast and fustian which were daily coming forth in order to catch the applause of the vulgar. In this Persius has, no doubt, a stroke at Nero's writings, some samples of which we met with in a subsequent part of this Satire, 1. 93-5, and 1. 99-102. -Which lungs, &c.] See note on 1. 14. The word anhelet is well applied here.-Anhelo signifies to breathe short and with difficulty-to pant, as if out of breath-also to labour in doing a thing --and well denotes the situation of one who has to read aloud the poems and performances in question. ticularly; but, no doubt, means to carry his satire to all the vain scribblers of the time, and especially to those who exposed themselves in the ridiculous manner after described; not without a view to the emperor Nero, who was vain of his poetry, and used to recite his poems in public. See my note on 1. 134, ad fin. and comp. Juv. viii. 220—30, and notes there. I would observe, that in the arrangement of the dialogue, v. 13, 14, I have followed Mr. Brewster, whose ingenious version of Persius is well worthy the reader's attention. According to the usual arrangement, whereby scribimus indocti, &c. is given to Persius, he receives no answer to his question, quid faciem, l. 12, but abruptly introduces a new subject; whereas, according to the above method, the Monitor very naturally begins an answer, which introduces the chief subject of this Satire, and the poet as naturally interrupts, at the words grande aliquid, 1. 14, in order to pursue it; which he does by describing the vanity an scribblers, some of whom, at an time of life, when they ought to be wiser, are writing trifling and lascivious these nced Something grand.-P. Which lungs, large of air, may breathe. Doubtless these to the people, comb'd, and with a new gown, White, and lastly with a birth-day sardonyx, 15 You will read, in a high seat, when with a liquid gargle you have wash'd Your moveable throat, and effeminate with a lascivious eye: Here, neither in a modest manner, nor with a serene voice, You may see the great Titi tremble, when the verses enter the loins, 1 poems, and reading them to the people in public; this, with every disgraceful circumstance of dress and manner. 15. Comb'd.] Or crisped, curled, and set in an effeminate style. -A new gown.] Made, and put on, on the occasion. 16. White.] Albus. This can't agree with toga, therefore some refer it to the man himself, as supposing him to look white, or pale, with fear and anxiety, for the success of his poem, and make it equivalent to pallidus. HOR. epod. vii. 1. 15, says, albus pallor; and albus, in one sense of it, signifies pale or wan. AINSW. But I do not see why we may not read albus toga recenti, to denote the person's being clad in a new white garment-lit. white with a new gown. His hair being first kemb'd and smooth, and then bedight In a fair comely garment fresh and white. The Romans wore white garments, as a piece of finery, on certain festival occasions, as on a birth-day, and the like. So OVID: Scilicet expectas solitum tibi moris ho norem, Pendeat ex humeris vestis ut alba meis. A birth-day sardonyx.] This species of precious stone, set in a ring, and worn on the finger, was reckoned a piece of finery, which the Romans were very ambitious of displaying. See Juv. sat. vii. 1. 142, 3. By a birth-day sardonyx, the poet probably means a present that had been made to the man, on his birth-day, of this ring, which he wore on this occasion. It was usual to send presents to a person on his birth-day. See Juv. sat. xi. l. 84, note. 17. You will read.] i.e. Rehearse aloud. 20 -In a high seat.] When authors read their works publicly, they had a sort of desk, or pulpit, raised above the auditory, by which means they could be better seen and heard. Liquid gargle, &c.] Plasma, a gargle, or medicine, to prevent or take away hoarseness, and to clear the voice. 18. Moveable throat.] Mobilis-i. e. pliant, tractable, easily contracting or dilating, according to the sounds which are to be formed. -A lascivious eye.] Suiting the lewdness of his look to the obscenity of his subject. See AINSW. Fractus, No. 4. and Patrans, ib. 19. Here.] In such a place, and on such an occasion. The poet having described the reader's dress, preparation, and manner, now describes the effect which he had on his auditory. -Neither in a modest manner.] But quite the contrary, betraying very inde cent emotions. -Nor with a serene voice.] Nor giving their applause with a calm decency of expression, but with a confused and broken kind of voice, like people agitated with disorderly passions. 20. The great Titi, &c.] The poet in derision calls the Roman nobles Titi, from Titus Tatius, a king of the Sabines: a peace being made between the Sabines and Romans, at the instance of the Sabine women, he became a partner with Romulus in a joint-government for five years. Persius means to exhibit a contrast between what the great Romans were in the days of Titus Tatius, and what they were now; hence calls them, ironically, ingentes Titi, the great descendants of Titus Tatius. See Juv. sat. iii. 1. 60, note. -Tremble.] Are agitated with lust, at hearing the recital of the obscene |