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Sensit Alexander, testâ cum vidit in illâ

Magnum habitatorem, quanto felicior hic, qui
Nil cuperet, quam qui totum sibi posceret orbem,
Passurus gestis æquanda pericula rebus.

Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia: nos te,

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Nos facimus, Fortuna, Deam. Mensura tamen quæ

Sufficiat censûs, si quis me consulat, edam.

In quantum sitis atque fames et frigora poscunt:

Quantum, Epicure, tibi parvis suffecit in hortis:
Quantum Socratici ceperunt ante Penates.

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NUNQUAM ALIUD NATURA, ALIUD SAPIENTIA DICIT.
Acribus exemplis videor te claudere; misce
Ergo aliquid nostris de moribus; effice summam,
Bis septem ordinibus quam lex dignatur Othonis.
Hæc quoque si rugam trahit, extenditque labellum,
Sume duos Equites, fac tertia quadringenta:
Si nondum implevi gremium, si panditur ultra;
Nec Crosi fortuna unquam, nec Persica regna

311. Alexander.] Alexander the Great might easily perceive how much hap. pier, and more content, Diogenes was in his poverty, than he who coveted empire so much as not to be content with one world. This alludes to the story of Alexander's coming to Corinth, where he found Diogenes, and not being saluted by him, Alexander went up to him, and asked him, "if he could do any thing for "him ?" "Yes," said Diogenes, "stand "from between me and the sun."

-In that cask.] Testa. This shews that the vessel, or hogshead, which Diogenes lived in, was not made of wood.

312. The great inhabitant.] Diogenes, the chief of the Cynics, very properly so styled, from xuw, xuvos, a dog, from the snarling surliness of their manners; of this we have a specimen in the answer of Diogenes to Alexander above mentioned.

314. About to suffer, &c.] i. e. To expose himself to, and to undergo dangers, proportionate to his attempts to accomplish his vast designs, and equal to all the glory which he might acquire.

315. No divinity, &c.] See sat. x. 1. 365, 6, and notes.

316. The measure, &c.] If I were asked what I thought a competency sufficient to furnish the comfortable necessaries of life, I would answer as follows

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suffice-as much as is required for food and raiment. So St. Paul, 1 Tim. vi. 8.

Nescis quo valeat nummus ; quam præ-
beat usum ?

Panis ematur, olus, vini sextarius; adde
Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis.

HOR. sat. i. 1. 73-5.

"Would you the real use of riches know? "Bread, herbs, and wine are all they

"can bestow.

"Or add what Nature's deepest wants "supplies,

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"These, and no more, thy mass of money buys." FRANCIS. So POPE, in his use of riches, Eth. ep. iii. 1. 81, 2.

"What riches give us let us first inquire, "Meat, fire, und clothes-what more?

"meat, clothes, and fire."

319. Little garden.] See sat. xiii. 122, 3. hortis, plur. per synec. pro horto, sing.

320. Socratic Penates, &c.] i. e. As much as Socrates required and took for the maintenance of his household. Here, by meton. called Penates, from the household gods which were in his house.

-Before.] i. e. In earlier times, before Epicurus. Socrates died four hundred years before Christ; Epicurus two hundred and seventy-one.

321. Nature never says, &c.] i. e. Na318. As much, &c.] That which will ture and wisdom always agree in teach

Alexander perceived, when he saw, in that cask,

The great inhabitant, how much happier this man was, who
Desired nothing, than he, who required the whole world,
About to suffer dangers to be equalled to things done.
Thou hast no divinity, O Fortune, if there be prudence: thee
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we,

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We make a goddess. Nevertheless the measure of an estate
Which may suffice, if any should consult me, I will declare.
As much as thirst and hunger, and cold require;
As much, Epicurus, as sufficed thee in thy little garden;
As much as the Socratic Penates had taken before.
NATURE NEVER SAYS ONE THING, WISDOM ANOTHER.
I seem to confine you by sour examples; mix
Therefore something from our manners, make the sum
What the law thinks worthy the twice seven ranks of Otho.
If this also draws a wrinkle, and extends your lip,
Take two knights, make the third four hundred.

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If as yet I have not filled your bosom, if it be opened farther, Neither the fortune of Croesus, nor the Persian kingdoms,

ing the same lesson. By nature, here, we must understand that simple principle which leads only to the desire of the necessary comforts of life.

If we go farther, the term nature may extend to the appetite and passions, which, in their desires and pursuits, suit but ill with the dictates of wisdom.

Mr. POPE, Eth. epist. iii. 1. 25, 6.
"What nature wants” (a phrase I must
distrust)

"Extends to luxury,extends to lust,"&c. 322. I seem to confine, &c.] By saying this, I may seem, perhaps, too severe, and to circumscribe your desires in too narrow a compass, by mentioning such rigid examples of persons, of what you may think sour dispositions.

323. Our manners.] That I may not be thought too scanty in my allowance, I will permit you to mingle something of our more modern way of thinking and living.

-Make the sum, &c.] Suppose you make up, together with what I have mentioned as sufficient, a sum equal to a knight's estate, which, by a law of Roscius Otho the tribune, called the Roscian law, was to amount to four hundred sestertia revenue per annum, about 3,1251. of our money.

324. Twice seven ranks, &c.] Fourteen ranks or rows of seats in the theatre VOL. II.

were assigned to the equestrian order. See HoR. ep. iv. 1. 15, 16; and Juv. sat. iii. 1. 155, 6, and notes.

325. If this also draws, &c.] If this contracts your brow into a frown, and makes you pout out your lips, as in disdain or displeasure-as we say, hang the lip-i. e. if this, as well as the examples before mentioned, of Socrates and Epicurus, displeases you

326. Take two knights.] Possess an estate sufficient for two of the equestrian order. See above, 1. 323, note 2.

-Make the third four hundred.] E'en add a third knight's estate, have three times four hundred sestertia.

327. Filled your bosom, &c.] A metaphor alluding to the garments of the ancients, which were loose, and which they held open before to receive what was given to them. Comp. Is. lxv. 6, 7. Luke vi. 38.

The poet means, If I have not yet satisfied your desires by what I allow you: if I have not thrown enough into your lap, as we say. See sat. vii. 215, and note.

-Opened farther.] The metaphor is still continued-q. d. If your desires are still extended beyond this.

328. Fortune of Crasus.] The rich king of Lydia. See sat. x. 274. -Persian kingdoms.] The kings of

Y

Sufficient animo, nec divitiæ Narcissi,
Indulsit Cæsar cui Claudius omnia, cujus
Paruit imperiis, uxorem occidere jussus.

Persia, particularly Darius and Xerxes, were famed for their magnificence and riches.

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ficient to gratify your desires.
-Riches of Narcissus.] A freedman
and favourite of Claudius Cæsar, who

329. Suffice your mind.] Will be suf- had such an ascendancy over the em

Will ever suffice your mind, nor the riches of Narcissus,
To whom Claudius Cæsar indulged every thing, whose
Commands he obey'd, being ordered to kill his wife.

peror, as to prevail on him to put Messalina to death, after her paramour Silius. See sat. x. 1. 330–345. Claudius would have pardoned her adultery, but,

at the instigation of Narcissus, he had her killed in the gardens of Lucullus. By the favour of the emperor, Narcissus was possessed of immense wealth.

SATIRA XV.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet in this Satire, which he is supposed to have written when he was under his banishment in Egypt, relates the mortal and irreconcileable hatred, which sprung from a religious quarrel between the Ombites and Tentyrites, inhabitants of two neighbouring cities of Egypt-and describes, in very lively colours, a bloody fray which happened between then. He seems to lay this as a ground for those fine reflections, with which he finishes the Satire, on the nature, use, and intention of civil society.

In reading this Satire, it is difficult not to advert to the monstrous cruelties which superstition and bigotry have brought on mankind, while those who have disgraced the Christian name by bearing it, have, with relentless fury, inflicted tortures and

QUIS nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
Egyptus portenta colat ? Crocodilon adorat

:

Pars hæc illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin.
Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci,

Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone chorda,

Line 1. Bithynian Volusius.] Who this Volusius was does not appear; all that we know is, that he came from Bithynia, a country of the Lesser Asia, and was undoubtedly a friend of Juvenal, who addresses this Satire to him.

2. Mad Egypt.] Demens not only means mad, i. e. one that has lost his senses, but also silly, foolish; which perhaps is meant here, in allusion to the silly superstition which possessed the minds of the Egyptians in religious mat

ters.

-This part.] One part of Egypt.
-Adores a crocodile.] That part of

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Egypt which lies near the river Nile worships the crocodile; a dreadful amphibious animal, shaped something like a lizard, and, from an egg little bigger than that of a goose, grows to be thirty feet long. The Egyptians know how high the river will rise that year, by the place where the crocodiles lay their eggs. The crocodile was worshipped with divine honours, because these animals were supposed to have destroyed the Libyan and Arabian robbers, who swam over the river and killed many of the inhabitants.

3. An Ibis.] A certain bird, which is

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