SATIRE XIII. ARGUMENT. takes occasion to speak of the villainy of the times-shews that nothing can happen but by the permission of Providence—and that wicked men carry their own punishment about with them. WHATEVER is committed with bad example, displeases even The author of it. This is the first revenge, that, himself 5 Those things which you suffer. This misfortune is known to many, and now pronounced sentence. But if the pretor was a wicked judge, and inclined that partiality should get the better of justice, he might so manage matters, in all these many turns of the business, that the defendant, however guilty, might appear to have the urn in his fayour. This our poet very properly calls-Improba gratia fallacis prætoris. 5. What do you suppose, &c.] What, think you, are the opinions of people in general, of this injustice which you lately suffered, and of the breach of trust in your friend, of which you so loudly com plain? Calvinus. Juvenal's friend, to whom he addresses this Satire. And here he comforts him by many considerations; first, that he must have all the world on his side-every body must join with him in condemning such a transaction. 7. So small an income.] Another comfort is, that his circumstances are such, that such a loss won't ruin him. Census means a man's estate, or yearly revenue. The burden, &c.] A metaphor taken from a ship's sinking by being overloaded. 8. Rare, &c.] His case was not singular, but very commonly happened to many as well as to Calvinus: he therefore must not look upon himself as a sufferer beyond others. 10 Tritus, et e medio Fortunæ ductus acervo. 10. Trite.] Common. 15 20 Drawn from the midst, &c.] Not taken from the top, or summit, of that heap of miseries, which Fortune stores up for mankind, but from the middle, as it were--not so small as not to be felt, nor so severe as to overwhelm you. He calls it, onus mediocris jactura, 1. 7, 8. 11. Too many sighs.] Immoderate grief. More violent, &c] A man's concern should never exceed the proper bounds. 12. Than his wound.] Should not rise higher than that which occasions it requires. Sorrow should be proportioned to suffering. 13. Tho' you, &c.] The poet here reproves the impatience and anger of his friend, who, instead of apportioning his grief to his loss, which was comparatively small, according to the preceding maxim (1. 11, 12.) shewed a violence of grief and resentment on the occasion, which bespake him unable to bear, in any measure as he ought, a light injury or misfortune. 14. Burning, &c.] Your very bowels on fire with rage and indignation. We often find the intestines, such as the heart, liver, and bowels, or entrails, represented as the seat of moral feelings. 15. Your friend, &c.] The poet calls the money which Calvinus had intrusted his false friend with, and which he was afraid to lose, a sacred deposit, because delivered to him to keep, under the sacred confidence of friendship. 16. Does he wonder, &c.] Does my friend Calvinus, now turned of sixty, and consequently well acquainted with the nature of mankind from many years experience, stand astonished at such a common transaction as this? 17. Fonteius.] L. Fonteius Capito was consul with C. Vipsanius, in the reign of Nero. 18. Of so many things.] Of so many things of a like kind, which your knowledge of the world must have brought to your observation -has all your experience of men and things been of no use or profit to you? Trite, and drawn from the midst of Fortune's heap. Let us lay aside too many sighs. More violent than what is just, The grief of a man ought not to be, nor greater than his wound. Tho' you can hardly bear the least, and small particle Of light misfortunes, burning with fretting Bowels, because your friend may not return to you a sacred 10 15 Deposit. Does he wonder at these things, who already has left behind His back sixty years, born when Fontefus was consul? Do you profit nothing for the better by the experience of so many things? Wisdom indeed, which gives precepts in the sacred books, 20 19. Wisdom, indeed, &c.] The volumes of philosophers, held sacred by the followers of them, contain rules for a contempt of fortune; and the wisdom by which they were indited, and which they teach, is the great principle which triumphs over the misfortunes we meet with. So SENECA, epist. 98. Valentior omni fortuna est animus sapientis.--The books of moral philosophy abound in maxims of this kind. 22. Nor to toss the yoke.] A metaphor taken from oxen which are restive, and endeavour to get rid of the yoke, by flinging and tossing their necks about. The poet means, that much may be learned on the subject of triumphing over fortune from the sacred volumes of philosophy: but those are to be pronounced happy also, who, by the experience of life only, have learned to bear, with quietness, submission, and patience, any inconveniences, or misfortunes, which they may meet with. Levius fit patientiâ Quicquid corrigerc est nefas. Superanda omnis Fortuna ferendo est. Jer. xxxi. 18. HOR. lib. i. ode xxiv. ad fin. VIRG. En. v. 1. 710. See Life being their mistress, &c.] Their teacher or instructor i. e. who are instructed by what they meet with in common life, and profit by daily experience. To know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom. MILTON. 23. What day, &c.] Festa dies signifies a day set apart for the observance of some festival, on which some sacrifices or religious rites were performed; a holiday, as we call it. Festus also signifies happy, joyful. Perhaps the poet means to say, what day is so happy as not to produce some mischief or other? Perfidiam, fraudes, atque omni ex crimine lucrum 24. Gain sought, &c.] Every sort of wickedness practised for the sake of gain. 25. Money gotten.] Somebody or other murdered for their money, either more openly by the sword, or more secretly by poison. Poison.] Pyxis signifies a little box; but here, by meton. poison, which used to be kept in such boxes, by way of concealment and easiness of conveyance. 27. Thebes.] A city of Bocotia, built by Cadmus, the son of Agenor; it was called Heptapylos, from having seven gates.-There was another Thebes in Egypt, built by Busiris, king of Ægypt, which was called Heliopolis, famous for an hundred gates. The first is meant here. Mouths of the rich Nile.] Which were seven. The Nile is called rich, because it made Egypt fruitful by its overflowing, thus enriching all the country within its reach. 28. An age, &c.] i. e. The present age in which we live, now passing on in the course of time. The verb ago, when applied to age or life, has this signification: hence agere vitam, to live. Si octogesimum agerent annum : if they were eighty years old. Cic. Worse ages.] The word sæculum, like ætas, means an age; a period of an hundred years. Here the poet would represent the age in which he wrote, as worse than any that had gone before. 28-9. The times of iron.] The last of the four ages into which the world was supposed to be divided, and which was worse than the three preceding. See Ov. Met. lib. i. is sa 29. Nature itself, &c.] The wickedness of the present age great, that nothing in nature can furnish us with a proper name to call it by. 30. Imposed, &c.] Lit. put it.-q. d. Nor has any name been affixed to it from any metal.-The first age of the world was named Golden, from its resembling gold in purity and after this came the Silver, the Brazen, the Iron Age; but now the age is so bad, that no metal can furnish it with a name which can properly describe the nature of it. Nomen ponére signifies to put or affix a name Perfidy, frauds, and gain sought from every crime, And money gotten by the sword, or by poison? For GOOD MEN ARE SCARCE: they are hardly as many in number, As the gates of Thebes, or the mouths of the rich Nile. An age is now passing, and worse ages than the times of 25 30 35 i. e. to name. Nature herself can find no metal base enough to call it by. 31. We invoke, &c.] Pro Deûm atque hominum fidem! was a usual exclamation on any thing wonderful, or surprising, happening. d. We can seem much ainazed, and cry out aloud against the vices of the age-we can call heaven and earth to witness our indig nation. 32. The vocal sportula.] The dole-basket; the hope of sharing which opens the mouths of the people who stand by Fæsidius while he is pleading at the bar, and makes them, with loud shouts, extol his eloquence: hence the poet calls it vocalis sportula. See a like manner of expression, sat. xii. 1. 82. See an account of the sportula, gat. i. 1. 95, note. Comp. sat. x. 1. 46. HOR. lib. i. epist. xix. 1. 37, 8. FRANCIS. Non ego ventosæ plebis suffragia venor Impensis cœnarum, et tritæ munere vestis. "I never hunt th' inconstant people's vote, "With costly suppers, or a threadbare coat." The name Fæsidius, or Fessidius, as some editions have it, may mean some vain pleader of the time, who courted the applause of the mob, by treating them with his sportula. Perhaps no particular person may be only meant, but such sort of people in general. 33. Old man, worthy the bulla.] The bulla was an ornament worn about the necks of children, or at their breasts, made like an heart, and hollow within; they wore it till seventeen years of age, and then hung it up to the household gods.-PERS. sat. v. 1. 31. The poet addresses himself to his old friend Calvinus, in a joking manner; as if he said--" Well, old gentleman," (comp. 1. 16, 17.) "worthy again to wear your childish baubles, are you, at sixty years "old, such a child as not to know" 34. What charms, &c.] i. e. As to be ignorant how great the temptation is, when a knave has other people's money in his power? 35. What a laugh, &c.] How the whole town will laugh at your simplicity. 35-6. When you require, &c.] q. d. If you expect that people won't forswear themselves, when perjury is so common. |