EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE SECOND SATIRE 1 White stone. The Romans were us'd to mark their fortunate days, or anything that luckily befell 'em, with a white stone, which they had from the island Creta, and their unfortunate with a coal. 2 Hercules was thought to have the key and power of bestowing all hidden treasure. 3 The ancients thought themselves tainted and polluted by night itself, as well as bad dreams in the night; and therefore purified themselves by washing their heads and hands every morning, which custom the Turks observe to this day. 4 When anyone was thunderstruck, the soothsayer (who is here call'd Ergenna) immediately repair'd to the place, to expiate the displeasure of the gods by sacrificing two sheep. 5 The poet laughs at the superstitious ceremonies which the old women made use of in their lustration, or purification days, when they nam'd their children, which was done on the eighth day to females, and on the ninth to males. 6 In visions purg'd from phlegm, &c. It was the opinion both of Grecians and Romans, that the gods, in visions or dreams, often reveal'd to their favorites a cure for their diseases, and sometimes those of others. Thus Alexander dreamt of an herb which cur'd Ptolemy. These gods were principally Apollo and Esculapius, but in aftertimes the same virtue and good will was attributed to Isis and Osiris. Which brings to my remembrance an odd passage in Sir Tho. Browne's Religio Medici, or in his Vulgar Errors; the sense whereof is, that we are beholding, for many of our discoveries in physic, to the courteous revelation of spirits. By the expression of visions purg'd from phlegm, our author means such dreams or visions as proceed not from natural causes, or humors of the body, but such as are sent from heaven; and are, therefore, certain remedies. 7 For Saturn's brass, &c. Brazen vessels, in which the public treasures of the Romans was kept: it may be the poet means only old vessels, which were all call'd Kpóvia, from the Greek name of Saturn. Note also that the Roman treasury was in the temple of Saturn. 8 Numa's earthenware. Under Numa, the second king of Rome and for a long time after him, the holy vessels for sacrifice were of earthenware; according to the superstitious rites which were introduc'd by the same Numa: tho' afterwards, when Memmius had taken Corinth, and Paulus Æmilius had conquer'd Macedonia, luxury began amongst the Romans, and then their utensils of devotion were of gold and silver, &c. 9 And make Calabrian wool, &c. The wool of Calabria was of the finest sort in Italy, as Juvenal also tells us. The Tyrian stain is the purple color dyed at Tyrus; and I suppose, but dare not positively affirm, that the richest of that dye was nearest our crimson, and not scar let, or that other color more approaching to the blue. I have not room to justify my conjecture. 10 As maids to Venus, &c. Those baby-toys were little babies, or poppets, as we call them; in Latin, pupa: which the girls, when they came to the age of puberty, or childbearing, offer'd to Venus; as the boys, at fourteen or fifteen years of age, offer'd their bulla, or bosses. 11 A cake thus giv'n, &c. A cake of barley, or coarse wheat meal, with the bran in it: the meaning is that God is pleas'd with the pure and spotless heart of the offerer, and not with the riches of the offering. Laberius, in the fragments of his Mimes, has a verse like this: Puras Deus non plenas aspicit manus. What I had forgotten before, in its due place, I must here tell the reader, that the first half of this satire was translated by one of my sons, now in Italy; but I thought so well of it that I let it pass without any alteration. THE THIRD SATIRE OF PERSIUS THE ARGUMENT Our author has made two satires concerning study; the First and the Third: the First related to men; this to young students, whom he desir'd to be educated in the Stoic philosophy he himself sustains the person of the master, or preceptor, in this admirable satire, where he upbraids the youth of sloth and negligence in learning. Yet he begins with one scholar reproaching his fellow students with late rising to their books. After which he takes upon him the other part, of the teacher; and, addressing himself particularly to young noblemen, tells them that, by reason of their high birth, and the great possessions of their fathers, they are careless of adorning their minds with precepts of moral philosophy: and, withal, inculcates to them the miseries which will attend them in the whole course of their life, if they do not apply themselves betimes to the knowledge of virtue, and the end of their creation, which he pathetically insinuates to them. The title of this satire, in some ancient manuscripts, was The Reproach of Idleness; tho' in others of the scholiasts 't is inscrib'd, Against the Luxury and Vices of the Rich. In both of which the intention of the poet is pursued, but principally in the former. I remember I translated this satire, when I was a King's Scholar at Westminster School, for a Thursday-night's exercise; and believe that it, and many other of my exercises of this nature, in English verse, are still in the hands of my learned master, the Reverend Doctor Busby. Solon 's the veriest fool in all the play. Top-heavy drones, and always looking down, (As overballasted within the crown!) Mutt'ring betwixt their lips some mystic thing, Which, well examin'd, is flat conjuring, Mere madmen's dreams: for what the schools have taught, Is only this, that nothing can be brought From nothing; and, what is, can ne'er be turn'd to naught. 160 Is it for this they study? to grow pale, And miss the pleasures of a glorious meal? For this, in rags accouter'd, they are seen, And made the May-game of the public spleen?" Proceed, my friend, and rail; but hear me tell A story, which is just thy parallel. A spark, like thee, of the man-killing trade, Fell sick, and thus to his physician said: To mend, and look like a recov'ring man; but sends His boy to one of his old trusty friends, Will supple in the bath his outward skin: Whom should he find but his physician there, Who, wisely, bade him once again beware: "Sir, you look wan, you hardly draw your breath; EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE THIRD SATIRE 1 And parchment, &c. The students us'd to write their notes on parchments; the inside, on which they wrote, was white; the other side was hairy, and commonly yellow. Quintilian reproves this custom, and advises rather tablebooks, lin'd with wax, and a style, like that we use in our vellum tablebooks, as more easy. 2 A fuming-pan, &c. Before eating, it was customary to cut off some part of the meat, which was first put into a pan, or little dish, then into the fire, as an offering to the household gods: this they called a libation. 3 Drawn from the root, &c. The Tuscans were accounted of most ancient nobility. Horace observes this in most of his compliments to Mæcenas, who was deriv'd from the old kings of Tuscany, now the dominion of the Great Duke. 4 Who, clad in purple, &c. The Roman knights, attir'd in the robe call'd trabea, were summon'd by the censor to appear before him, and to salute him in passing by, as their names were call'd over. They led their horses in their hand. See more of this in Pompey's life, written by Plutarch. 5 Sicilian tortures, &c. Some of the Sicilian kings were so great tyrants, that the name is become proverbial. The brazen bull is a known story of Phalaris, one of those tyrants, who, when Perillus, a famous artist, had presented him with a bull of that metal hollow'd within, which, when the condemn'd person was inclos'd in it, would render the sound of a bull's roaring, caus'd the workman to make the first experiment-docuitque suum mugire juvencum. 6 The wretch, who sitting, &c. He alludes to the story of Damocles, a flatterer of one of those Sicilian tyrants, namely Dionysius. Damocles had infinitely extoll'd the happiness of kings. Dionysius, to convince him of the contrary, invited him to a feast, and cloth'd him in purple; but caus'd a sword, with the point downward, to be hung over his head by a silken twine; which when he perceiv'd, he could eat nothing of the delicates that were set before him. 7 Thou, in the Stoic Porch, &c. The Stoics taught their philosophy under a porticus, to secure their scholars from the weather. Zeno was the chief of that sect. 8 Polygnotus, a famous painter, who drew the pictures of the Medes and Persians conquer'd by Miltiades, Themistocles, and other Athenian captains, on the walls of the portico, in their natural habits. 9 And where the Samian Y, &c. Pythagoras, of Samos, made the allusion of the Y, or Greek letter, being broad, characters Vice, to which upsilon, to Vice and Virtue. One side of the the ascent is wide and easy; the other side represents Virtue, to which the passage is strait and difficult; and perhaps our Savior might also allude to this, in those noted words of the evangelist, "The way to heaven," &c. 10 Fat fees, &c. Casaubon here notes that among all the Romans who were brought up to learning, few besides the orators, or lawyers, grew rich. 11 The Marsians and Umbrians were the most plentiful of all the provinces in Italy. 12 His heels stretch'd out, &c. The Romans were buried without the city; for which reason the poet says that the dead man's heels were stretch'd out towards the gate. 13 That mad Orestes. Orestes was son to Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon, at his return from the Trojan wars, was slain by Ægisthus, the adulterer of Clytemnestra. Orestes, to revenge his father's death, slew both Ægisthus and his mother; for which he was punish'd with madness by the Eumenides, or Furies, who continually haunted him. THE FOURTH SATIRE OF PERSIUS THE ARGUMENT Our author, living in the time of Nero, was contemporary and friend to the noble poet Lucan; both of them were sufficiently sensible, with all good men, how unskilfully |