Or rather as much as the Homerican Gradivus: "Do you hear, "O Jupiter, those things? nor move your lips, when you ought "To send forth your voice, whether you are of marble or of "brass? or why, 115 "On thy coal, put we the pious frankincense from the loos'd "Paper, and the cut liver of a calf, and of an hog "The white caul? as I see, there is no difference to be reckon'd, "Between your images, and the statue of Bathyllus." Hear, what consolations on the other hand one may bring, 120 And who neither hath read the Cynics, nor the Stoic doctrines, differing From the Cynics by a tunic: nor admires Epicurus Happy in the plants of a small garden. The dubious sick may be taken care of by greater physicians, you I am silent: nor do I forbid you to beat 120. Hear.] Accipe-auribus understood. 121. Neither hath read.] Never hath made these his study. -The Cynics.] The followers of Diogenes. -Stoic doctrines.] The doctrines of Zeno and his followers, who were called Stoics, from erwa, a porch, where they taught. misfortunes, stand in need of the most 125. Commit your vein, &c.] A person So you, Calvinus, whose loss is but comparatively slight, have no need of Stoics, or Cynics, or of such a one as Epicurus, to console you; I am sufficient for the purpose, though I do not read or study such great philosophers. -Differing, &c.] The people differed from each other in their dress, the Cynics wearing no tunic (a sort of waistcoat) -Philip.] Some surgeon of no great under their cloaks, as the Stoics did; credit or reputation; but even his apbut both agreed in teaching the contempt prentice might be trusted to advise bleedof money, and of the change of fortune. ing, or not, in a slight disorder. So you 122. Epicurus.] A philosopher of may safely trust to my advice in your Athens, a temperate and sober man, present circumstances, though I am no who lived on bread and water and herbs: deep philosopher; a little common sense he placed man's chief happiness in the will serve the turn. pleasure and tranquillity of the mind. He died of the stone at Athens, aged seventy-two. His scholars afterwards sadly perverted his doctrines, by making the pleasures of the body the chief good, and ran into those excesses which brought a great scandal on the sect. Suspicit-lit. looks up to. 124. Dubious sick, &c.] Those who are so ill, that their recovery is doubtful, should be committed to the care of very experienced and able physicians. So, those who are afflicted with heavy The whole of these two last lines is allegorical; the ideas are taken from bodily disorder, but are to be transferred to the mind. 126. If you shew, &c.] Could you shew no act in all the world so vile as this which has been done towards you, I would say no more-I would freely abandon you to your sorrows, as a most singularly unhappy man. 127. Nor do I, &c.] i. e. Go on, like a man frantic with grief-beat your breast slap your face till it be black and blue. P Quandoquidem accepto claudenda est janua damno, 129. Since, &c.] In a time of mourning for any great loss, it was usual to shut the doors and windows. -Loss being received.] A loss of money incurred. He is here rallying his friend Calvinus.--q. d. Inasmuch as the loss of money is looked upon as the most serious of all losses, doubtless you ought to bewail your misfortune, with every circumstance of the most unfeigned sor row. 130. Mourning of the house, &c.] i. e. Of the family-for, to be sure, the loss of money is a greater subject of grief, and more lamented, than the deaths of relations. 131. Nobody feigns, &c.] The grief for loss of money is very sincere, however feigned it usually is at funerals. 132. Consent to sever, &c.] Nobody contents himself with the mere outward show of grief-such as rending the upper edge of a garment, which was an usual sign of grief. 133. Vex the eyes, &c.] To rub the eyes, in order to squeeze out a few forced tears. See TERENT. Eun. act i. sc. i. where Parmeno is describing the feigned grief of Phædria's mistress, and where this circumstance of dissimulation is finely touched : Hæc verba uná mehercle falsá lacrumulá, So VIRG. En. ii. 1. 196. Captique dolis lachrymisque coacti. 134. Lost money is deplored, &c.] When 130 135 140 we see a man deploring the loss of money, we may believe the sincerity of his tears. The poet in this, and the preceding lines on this subject, finely satirizes the avarice and selfishness of mankind, as well as their hypocrisy and all want of real feelings, where self is not immediately concerned. 135. If you see, &c.] q. d. However I might permit you to indulge in sorrow, if no instance of such fraud and villainy had happened to any body but yourself, yet if it be every day's experience, if the courts of justice are filled with complaints of the same kind, why should you give yourself up to grief, as singularly wretched, when what has happened to you is the frequent lot of others? 136. If, tablets.] i. e. Deeds or obligations written on tablets. See sat. ii. 1. 58, note. -Read over, &c.] i. c. Often read over in the hearing of witnesses, as well as of the parties. -By the different party.] This expression is very obscure, and does not appear to me to have been satisfactorily elucidated by commentators. Some read diversa in parte, and explain it to mean, that the deeds had been read over in different places-variis in locis, says the Delphin interpretation. However, after much consideration, I rather approve of reading diversa parte, by the different (i. e. the opposite) party. Pars means, sometimes, a side or party in contention. AINSW. In this view, it exagge rates the impudence and villainy ofa man With your fists, nor to bruise your face with your open palm; Since, loss being received, the gate is to be shut, And with greater mourning of the house, with a greater tumult, In this case, content to sever the top of the garment, Lost money is deplored with true tears. 131 But if you see all the courts filled with the like complaint, 185 Think you, O sweet Sir, that out of common things 140 You are to be put? How are you the offspring of a white hen, who denied his deed or obligation, seeing that his adversary, the creditor, having frequently read over the deed, could not be mistaken as to its contents, any more than the debtor, who had signified and sealed it, as well as heard it read over. IST. They say.] i. e. The fraudulent debtors say, that the hand-writings contained in the bonds are false and void. Supervacuus means superfluous, serving to no purpose or use.-Supervacui ligni, i. e. of the inscribed wooden tablets, which are of no use, though the obligation be written on them. q. d. Notwithstanding the hand-writing appears against them, signed and sealed by themselves, and that before witnesses, yet they declare that it is all false, a mere deceit,and of no obligation whatsoeverthey plead, non est factum, as we say. 138. Whom their own letter conviets.] Whose own hand-writing proves it to be their own deed. -A principal gem, &c.] Their seal cut upon a sardonyx of great value, with which they sealed the deed. 139. Which is kept, &c.] Kept in splendid cases of ivory, perhaps one within another, for its greater security. By this circumstance, the poet seems to bint,that the vile practice which he mentions was by no means confined to the lower sort of people, but had made its way among the rich and great. 140. O sweet Sir.] Delicias-hominis understood. Comp. sat. vi. 47. An ironical apostrophe to his friend. Deliciæ is often used to denote a darling, a minion, in which a person delights; here delicias might be rendered choice, favourite, i. c. of fortune-as if exempted from the common accidents of life--as if put or placed out of their reach. 141. How.] Why-by what means-how can you make it out? -The offspring of a white hen.] The colour of white was deemed lucky. This expression seems to have been proverbial in Juvenal's time to denote a man that is born to be happy and fortunate. Some suppose the original of this saying to be the story told by Suetonius in his life of Galba, where he mentions an eagle, which soaring over the head of Livia, a little after her marriage with Augustus, let fall into her lap a white hen, with a laurel-branch in her mouth; which hen, being preserved, became so fruitful, that the place where this happened was called Villa ad Gallinas. But the poet saying nothing of fruitfulness, but of the colour only, it is rather to be supposed that Erasmus is right, in attributing this proverb to the notion which the Romans had of a white colour, that it denoted luck or happiness, as dies albi, and albo lapillo notati, and the like. 142. Unfortunate eggs.] The infelicibus ovis, put here in opposition to the white hen, seems to imply the eggs of some birds of unhappy omen, as crows, ravens, &c. figuratively to denote those who are born to be unfortunate. Sæpe sinistra cavâ prædixit ab ilice Rem pateris modicam, et mediocri bile ferendam, Hæc quota pars scelerum, quæ custos Gallicus urbis 145 150 155 Usque a Lucifero, donec lux occidat, audit? Humani generis mores tibi nôsse volenti Sufficit una domus; paucos consume dies, et 160 Dicere te miserum, postquam illinc veneris, aude. Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus? aut quis 143. With moderate choler, &c.] i, e. Moderate wrath, anger, resentment, when you consider how much greater in juries others suffer from greater crimes. 144. Compare.] Consider in a comparative view. 145. Hired thief.] Or cut-throat, who is hired for the horrid purpose of assassination. --Burnings begun with sulphur.] Which is here put, by synec. for all sort of combustible matter, with which incendiaries fire houses. 146. By deceit.] In a secret manner, by artfully laying the destructive materials, so as not to be discovered till too late to prevent the mischief. -Collects the first fires.] So as to prevent those who are in the house from getting out, and those who are without from getting in, to afford any assistance. It is not improbable that the poet here glances at the monstrous act of Nero, who saw Rome on fire. 147. Large cups, &c.] Who are guilty of sacrilege, in stealing the sacred vessels which have been for ages in some antique temple, and which are venerable from the rust which they have contracted by time. 148, 9. The gifts of the people.] Rich and magnificent offerings, given to some shrine by a whole people together, in honour of the god that presided there. 149. Crowns placed, &c.] As by Romulus and other kings, whose crowns, in honour of their memory, were hung up in the temples of the gods. 150. If these are not there.] If it so happen that there be no such valuable relics as these now mentioned, yet some petty sacrilegious thief will deface and rob the statues of the gods. 151. Scrape the thigh, &c.] To get a little gold from it. 151, 2. Face of Neptune.] Some image of Neptune, the beard whereof was of gold. 152. Draw off the leaf-gold, &c.] Peel it off, in order to steal it, from the image of Castor: there were great treasures in his temple. See sat. xiv. 1. 260. 153. Will he hesitate.] At such comparatively small matters as these, who could steal a whole statue of Jupiter, and then melt it down; and who can make a practice of such a thing? A man who accustoms himself to greater crimes, can't be supposed to hesitate about committing less. You suffer a moderate matter, and to be borne with moderate choler, If you bend your eyes to greater crimes: compare 145 If these are not there, there stands forth one less sacrilegious, who Hears from the morning, until the light goes down? To you who are willing to know the manners of the human race One house suffices; spend a few days, and dare To call yourself miserable, after you come from thence. 154. Contrivers, and the merchant of poison.] Those who make and those who sell poisonous compositions, for the purposes of sorcery and witchcraft, or for killing persons in a secret and clandestine manner. See HoR. sat. ix. lib. i. 31; and epod. ix. 1. 61. 155. Launched into the sea, &c.] Parricides were put into a sack made of an ox's hide, together with an ape, a cock, a serpent, and a dog, and thrown into the sea. See sat. viii. 214. The fate of these poor innocent animals is very cruel, they having done no wrong. De. ducendum. Met. See VIRG. G. i. 255. 157. Keeper of the city.] Rutilius Gallicus was appointed, under Domitian, præfectus urbis, who had cognizance of capital offences, and sat every day on criminal causes. 158. From the morning.] Lucifero. The planet Venus, when seen at daybreak, is called Lucifer-i. e. the bringer of light. See sat. viii. 12. Nascere praque diem veniens age Lucifer almum. VIRG. ecl. viii. 1. 17. Lucifer ortus erat Ov. Met. iv. 664. 160 It is not to be supposed that the præfectus urbis literally sat from morning to night every day, but that he was continually, as the phrase among us imports, hearing causes, in which the most atrocious crimes were discovered and punished. 160. One house suffices.] q. d. If you desire to be let into a true history of human wickedness, an attendance at the house of Gallicus alone will be sufficient for your purpose. -Spend a few days, &c.] Attend there for a few days, and when you come away, dare, if you can, to call yourself unhappy, after hearing what you have heard at the house of Gallicus. Domus is a very general word, and need not be restricted here to signify the private house of the judge, but may be understood of the court or place where he sat to hear causes. 162. Swoln throat, &c.] The inhabitants about the Alps have generally great swellings about their throats, occasioned, as some suppose, by drinking snow-water. The French call these protuberances on the outside of the throat, goitres. |
