Came on their tongues? Whence that disgrace, in which Your grey head, but you must wish to hear this lukewarm- Thou art a thief (says one to Pedius)-What Pedius? his crimes 85 He weighs in polished antitheses: to have laid down learned figures He is praised this is fine!-this is fine? O Romulus, do you wag the tail? For if a shipwreck'd mariner sings, could he move me, and a penny Should I bring forth? do you sing, when yourself painted on a broken plank You carry from your shoulder? A true (misfortune), not prepared by night, He shall deplore, who would bend me by his complaint. great and virtuous ancestor Romulus, as to fawn and flatter on such an occasion, and be like a dog that wags his tail when he would curry favour? Ceveo signifies to wag, or move the tail, as dogs do when they fawn upon one. Hence, metaph. it is used to express fawning and flattery. Persius uses the word Romule, as Juv. sat. iii. 1. 67, uses Quirine. See the note there. 88. If a shipwreck'd mariner sings, &c.] If a poor sailor, that had been cast away, should meet me in the street, and ask an alms, at the same time appearing very jolly and merry, would this be the way to move my compassion; to make me pull some money out of my pocket and give it him? 89. Do you sing, &c.] It was the custom for persons that had been shipwrecked, and had escaped with their lives, to have themselves, together with the scene of their misfortune and danger, painted on a board, which they hung by a string from their shoulders upon their breast, that the passers-by might be moved with compassion at the sight, and relieve them with alms. These tables were afterwards hung up in the temples, and dedicated to some god, as Neptune, Juno, &c. hence they were called votivæ tabulæ. See HoR. lib. i. ode v. ad fin. Juv. sat. xii. 1. 27. VOL. II. 90 The poet here allegorizes the case of Pedius. Do you sing, when you are carrying your miserable self painted on a board, and represented as suffering the calamity of shipwreck, in order to move compassion.-i. e. Are you studying and making fine flourishing speeches, filled with affected tropes and figures, at a time when you are accused of such a crime as theft, and are standing in the dangerous situation of an arraigned robber? Is this the way to move com-. passion towards you? 90. A true, &c.] There wants pluratum, dolorem, or some such word, after verum-plorare verum dolorem, like vivere vitam, for instance. -Not prepared by night.] Not conned, studied, or invented beforehand; over night, as we say. 91. Bend me by his complaint.] i. e. Make me bow or yield to the feelings of commiseration for his sufferings. The poet means, that the complainant who would move his pity must speak the true and native language of real grief from the heart, not accost him with an artful studied speech, as if he had conned it over beforehand. -Si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi. HOR. de Art. Poet. 1. 102, 3. So Pedius, however he might get the 2 G M. Sed numeris decor est, et junctura addita crudis. Sic costam longo subduximus Apennino. 95 M. Arma virum, nonne hoc spumosum, et cortice pingui? P. Ut ramale vetus prægrandi subere coctum. M. Quidnam igitur tenerum, et laxâ cervice legendum? P. "Torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis; "Et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo "Bassaris; et lyncem Mænas flexura corymbis, "Evion ingeminat: reparabilis adsonat echo." applause of his hearers, by his figurative eloquence and flowery language, when on his trial, could never excite pity for his situation. 92. But there is beauty, &c.] Well, but however the flights which you have been mentioning, says the poetaster, and the studied and flowery style, may be suitable in declamation, especially on such occasions, yet surely they have a peculiar beauty in our verses, which would be quite raw, and appear crude and undigested without them. -And composition added, &c.] Junctura is literally a coupling, or joining together; hence a composition, or joining words in a particular form, as in verse. Notum si callida verbum HOR. de Art. Poet. 1. 47, 8. The poetaster would fain contend for the great improvement made in writing verses by the modern studied composition, and the introduction of figurative writing. 93. Thus hath he learnt to conclude a verse.] The didicit here, without a nominative case, is rather abrupt and obscure, but the poet affects to be so; he does not venture to name the person meant, though his quoting some verses of Nero, as instances of the great improvements which had been made in the composi tion of verse, plainly shews his design, which was to ridicule the emperor, whose affected, jingling, and turgid style, was highly applauded by his flatterers. -"Berecynthian Attin."] This and the next verse rhyme in the original. And the dolphin," &c.] Alluding to the story of Arion, who was carried safe to land, when thrown overboard, on 94. " the back of a dolphin. 100 Nereus, a sea god, is here affectedly put for the sea itself. 95." Thus we removed," &c.] There is a jingle in this verse between the longo in the middle, and Apennino at the end. The writer of these three quoted lines changes Atys or Attis into Attin, to make it rhyme with Delphin. Atys, or Attis, the subject of this poem, was a handsome youth of Phrygia, beloved by Cybele, who from Berecynthus, a mountain of Asia Minor, where she was worshipped, was called Berecynthia: hence the writer of the poem affects to call Atys Berecynthius. "Thus we removed a rib," &c.] The end of this verse is spondaic, which Nero much affected in his heroics. He calls Hannibal's opening a way for his army over the Alps, removing a rib from the Apennine mountains-a strange, affected phrase! 96. "Arms and the man," &c.] Arma virumque-Æn. i. 1. 1. Well, replies the poetaster, if you find fault with what you have quoted, 1 suppose you will find fault with Virgil's arma virumque cano, and perhaps with his whole Æneid, as frothy, turgid, and, like a tree with a thick bark, appearing great, but having little of value within. 97. As an old bough, &c.] Ramale is a dead bough cut from a tree. Persius answers, Yes, Virgil is like an old bough with a thick bark; but then we must understand, such a bough as has been cut from the tree, and whose bark has been dried for many years by the sun, so that all its gross particles are exhaled and gone, and nothing but what is solid remains. Suber signifies the cork-tree, M. But there is beauty and composition added to crude numbers. P. Thus hath he learnt to conclude a verse: "Berecynthian "Attin, "And the dolphin which divided cærulean Nereus"Thus we removed a rib from the long Apennine.' 95 M. “Arms and the man"—is not this frothy, and with a fat bark ? P. As an old bough dried with a very large bark. M. What then is tender, and to be read with a loose neck? P." They fill'd their fierce horns with Mimallonean blasts, "And Bassaris, about to take away the head snatched from "the proud "Calf, and Mænas, about to guide a lynx with ivy, which is remarkable for its thick barktherefore put here for the bark; syn.thus cortex, the bark, is sometimes put for the tree, which is remarkably light. HOR. ode ix. lib. iii. 1. 22. 98. What then is tender, &c.] Well, says the opponent to Persius, let us have done with heroics, and tell me what you allow to be good of the tender kind of writing. -With a loose neck.] With a head reclined, in a languishing, soft, and tender manner. This is humourously put in opposition to the attitudes made use of in reading the bombast and fustion he roics of these poetasters, who stood with the neck stretched as high as they could, and straining their throats, to give force and loudness to their utterance. 99. "They fill'd their fierce horns," &c.] Giving a fierce and warlike sound. Some render torva here writhed, twisted, or crooked, quasi torta. Persius deriding the querist, quotes four more lines, which are supposed to have been written by Nero, and which exhibit a specimen of one of the most absurd rhapsodies that ever was penned. -"Mimallonean blusts."] The Mimallones were priestesses of Bacchus; they were so called from Mimas, a mountain of Ionia, sacred to Bacchus. Bombus signifies a hoarse sound or blast, as of a trumpet or horn. 100." Bassaris."] Agave, or any other of the priestesses; called Bassaris, from Bassarus, a name of Bacchus. 100 Having given the alarm, Agave and the rest of the Mimallones cut off the head of Pentheus (the son of Agave and Echion), and tore him to pieces, because he would drink no wine, and slighted the feasts of Bacchus. Pentheus is thought to be meant here by the superbo vitulo. 101. "Manas."] These priestesses of Bacchus were also called Mænades. (from Gr. pantai, insanire). See Juv. sat. vi. i. 316. -"To guide a lynr."] These were beasts of the leopard or tyger kind, and represented as drawing the chariot of Bacchus. The word flexura here, like flectere, VIRG. G. ii. 357, means to guide. So again, Æn. i. 156. flectit equos" he guides or manages his "horses." Thus the priestesses of Bacchus might be said flectere, to guide or manage lynxes with bands or rods of ivy. This was sacred to Bacchus, because, returning conqueror from India, he was crowned with ivy. 102. "Redoubles Evion."] Ingemino signifies to redouble-to repeat often, Evios, or Evius, a name of Bacchus, on which the Bacchantes used to call (Evel, Gr.) till they wrought themselves into a fury like madness. See Juv. sat. vii. 1. 62, and note. -"The reparable echo," &c.] So called from repeating, and so repairing the sounds, which would otherwise be lost. Hæc fierent, si testiculi vena ulla paterni Hoc natat in labris; et in udo est Mænas et Attin; M. Sed quid opus teneras mordaci radere vero 105 Litera-P. Per me, equidem, sint omnia protinus alba; 110 105. Swims in the lips.] The poet, by this phrase, seems to mean, that the flatterers of Nero had these lines always at their tongue's end, (as we say,) and were spitting them out, i. e. repeating and quoting them continually. -And in the wet.] In udo esse, and in summa saliva natare, seem to imply the same thing; viz. that these poems of Atys and Manas were always in people's mouths, mixed with their spittle, as a dialogue between Persius and his friend: that the latter persuades Persius against publishing; that Persius says, he is naturally of a satirical turn of mind, and does not know how to refrain, (1.12.) and then launches forth into the severest censure on the writers of his day. His friend perceiving that what he first said against publishing would not have its effect, still farther dissuades him, by hinting at the danger he ran of getting the ill-will of the great. "Where is the necessity, (says his friend,) supposing all you say to be "true, yet where is the necessity to hurt "the ears of those who have been used "to hear nothing but flattery, and there"fore must be very tender and sus"ceptible of the acutest feelings of un"easiness and displeasure, on hearing "such bitter and stinging truths as you "deliver." 108. See to it.] Vide sîs (i. e. si vis)— take care, if you please. -Lest haply the thresholds, &c.] Lest it fall out, that you should so offend some of the great folks, as to meet with a cool reception at their houses. So HOR. Sat. i. lib. ii. 1. 60—3. 109. Here.] i. e. In these Satires of yours, there is a disagreeable sound, like the snarling of a dog, very unpleasant to the ears of such people. 109, 10. From the nostril sounds the canine letter.] R is called the dog's letter, because the vibration of the tongue in pronouncing it resembles the snarling of a dog. See Alchymist, act ii. sc. vi. Would these be made, if any vein of our paternal manliness Lived in us? This feeble stuff, on the topmost spittle, Swims in the lips, and in the wet is Mænas and Attys. Nor does he beat his desk, nor taste his gnawn nails. 105 M. But where's the need to grate tender ears with biting truth? See to it, lest haply the thresholds of the great Should grow cold to you: here from the nostril sounds the canine letter109 P. For my part, truly, let every thing be henceforward white. I hinder not. O brave! all things, ye shall all be very wonderful. This pleases. Here, say you, I forbid that any should make a pissing place: Paint two snakes: boys, the place is sacred: without -O brave! &c.] Well done! every thing, good people, that ye say and do shall be admirable. Iron. This wretched verse is supposed to be written as a banter on the bad poets. 112. This pleases.] Surely this concession pleases you, my friend. -Here, say you, I forbid, &c.] Metaph. It was unlawful to do their occasions, or to make water, in any sacred place; and it was customary to paint two snakes on the walls or doors of such places, in order to mark them out to the people. The poet is ironically comparing the persons and writings of the great (glancing, no doubt, at Nero) to such sacred places; and as these were forbidden to be defiled with urine and excrement, so he understands his friend to say, that neither the persons or writ ings of the emperor and of the nobles were to be defiled with the abuse and reproofs of satirists. See Juv. sat. i. 131. 113. Paint two snakes.] These were representatives of the deity or genius of the sacred place, and painted there as signals to deter people, children eзpecially, who were most apt to make free with such places, from the forbidden defilement. Mark out, says Persius, these sacred characters to me, that I may avoid defiling them. Iron. 114. I depart.] Says Persius, I am gone-I shall not tarry a moment on forbidden ground, nor drop my Satires there. Lucilius cut the city.] Lucilius, whose works are not come down to us, was almost the father of the Roman satire. He was a very severe writer; hence our poet's saying, secuit urbem, he cut up, slashed as with a sword, the city, i. e. the people of Rome, from the highest to the lowest. So Juv. sat. i. 1. 156. Ense velut stricto quoties Lucilius ar- Comp. Hon. sat. iv. lib. i. l. 1—12. Persius seems to bethink himself. He has just said, I depart-i. e. I shall not meddle with the great people"But why should depart? Lucilius "could lash all sorts of people, and why should not I?" |
