SATIRE IV. Argument. This Satire is founded on the first Alcibiades of Plato, and many of the expressions are closely copied from that celebrated dialogue. It naturally arranges itself under three heads; the first of which treats of the preposterous ambition of those who aspired to take the lead in State affairs, before they had learned the first principles of civil government. The second division, which is of singular merit, and possesses a rich vein of strong but appropriate humour, and acute reasoning, turns on the general neglect of self-examination, enforcing, at the same time, the necessity of moral purity, from the impossibility of escaping detection; and of restraining all wanton propensity to exaggerate the foibles of others, from its tendency to provoke severe recrimination on our own vices. The conclusion, or third part, reverts to the subject with which the Satire opens, and arraigns, in terms of indignant severity, the profligacy of the young nobility, and their sottish vanity in resting their claims to approbation on the judgment of a worthless rabble. "The commentators before Casaubon, (Dryden says) were ignorant of our author's secret meaning; and thought he had only written against young noblemen in general, who were too forward in aspiring to publick magistracy: but this excellent scholiast has unravelled the whole mystery, and made it apparent that the sting of this Satyr was particularly aimed at Nero." Casaubon has sufficient merit of his own, and needs not therefore be complimented at the expense of others. The translator's acquaintance "with the commentators" was of a limited kind, or he might have known, that Casabon had been preceded by many in "unravelling the mystery." Some of the French criticks attribute the "r discovery" to Britannicus; but neither was he the fortunate person !—It may seem a little extraordinary, that the old scholiast, who commonly saw Nero in every character, should not have recognised him in that of Alcibiades: yet he speaks of the Satire as pointed, at those-qui honoris cupidi supra modum ætatis suæ, publici moderaminis gubernacula quærunt suscipere. Sir. W. Drummond thinks, with Dryden, and the other translators, that Nero is the subject, and in a disquisition of great elegance, has instituted a parallel between this prince and Alcibiades. Though I have many doubts as to the confined nature of the Satire, I can have none as to the propriety of the critick's concluding remarks. "To read this Satire, may be useful to the young. It may help to correct petulance; it may serve to warn inexperience From it the youthful statesman may learn that, even in remote times, and in small states, government was considered as a most difficult science: from it, too, the high-born libertine may see, that as the sphere in which he moves, is wide and brilliant, his conduct and character are in proportion conspicuous, and his follies ridiculous." -- A. PERSII FLACCI SATIRE. [SAT. IV. V. 1-8. REM populi tractas? (Barbatum hæc crede ma gistrum Dicere, sorbitio tollit quem dira cicuta.) rites, VER. 3. Whom hemlock, &c.] The poet speaks of Socrates. See Juvenal, Sat. xiii. VER. 6. Ward of great Pericles.] Alcibiades lost his father while he was yet a child. He was committed to the care and guardianship of Ariphon and Pericles; the latter of whom took him into his own house, and discharged his trust with great fidelity. Both these great men were his relations. The pseudoCornutus tells us that Pericles was his uncle: it appears, however, from Cornelius Nepos, that he was his step-father. |