Your face, and in the crowd distinguish you; May take your incense like a gracious god, And answer only with a civil nod? To please our patrons, in this vicious age, The consecrated locks to temples bear; "Who fears, in country towns, a house's fall, Or to be caught betwixt a riven wall? And 't is the village mason's daily calling, To keep the world's metropolis from falling, To cleanse the gutters, and the chinks to close, And, for one night, secure his lord's repose. At Cuma we can sleep, quite round the His cupboard's head six earthen pitchers grac'd, Beneath 'em was his trusty tankard plac'd; And, to support this noble plate, there lay A bending Chiron cast from honest clay; His few Greek books a rotten chest contain'd, Whose covers much of moldiness complain'd: 339 Where mice and rats devour'd poetic bread, And with heroic verse luxuriously were fed. 'Tis true, poor Codrus nothing had to boast, And yet poor Codrus all that nothing lost; Begg'd naked thro' the streets of wealthy Rome; And found not one to feed, or take him home. "But if the palace of Arturius burn, The nobles change their clothes, the matrons mourn; The city prætor will no pleadings hear; The very name of fire we hate and fear, And look aghast, as if the Gauls were here. 350 While yet it burns, th' officious nation flies, Another bags of gold; and he gives best. "But, could you be content to bid adieu To the dear playhouse, and the players too; Sweet country seats are purchas'd ev'ry-) where, With lands and gardens, at less price You hire a darksome doghole by the year: 370 And waters all the pretty spot of ground. There, love the fork, thy garden cultivate, And give thy frugal friends a Pythagorean treat.26 'Tis somewhat to be lord of some small ground, In which a lizard may, at least, turn round. May privilege my lord to walk secure on foot. But me, who must by moonlight homeward bend, Or lighted only with a candle's end, He stands, and bids me stand; I must abide; For he 's the stronger, and is drunk beside. "Where did you whet your knife tonight?' he cries, 'And shred the leeks that in your stomach rise ? Whose windy beans have stuff'd your guts, and where 460 To save complaints and prosecution, kill. Chas'd from their woods and bogs, the padders come To this vast city, as their native home; To live at ease, and safely skulk in Rome. "The forge in fetters only is employ'd; Our iron mines exhausted and destroy'd In shackles; for these villains scarce allow Goads for the teams, and plowshares for the plow. 489 O happy ages of our ancestors, "More I could say, more causes I could show For my departure; but the sun is low; "Farewell; and when, like me, o'erwhelm'd with care, You to your own Aquinum 31 shall repair, To take a mouthful of sweet country air, Be mindful of your friend; and send me word, 500 What joys your fountains and cool shades afford: Then, to assist your satires, I will come; And add new venom, when you write of Rome." EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE THIRD SATIRE 1 Cuma, a small city in Campania, near Puteoli, or Puzzolo, as it is call'd. The habitation of the Cumæan Sibyl. 2 Baja, another little town in Campania, near the sea; a pleasant place. 3 Prochyta, a small barren island belonging to the kingdom of Naples. 4 In dog days. The poets in Juvenal's time us'd to rehearse their poetry in August. 5 Numa, the second king of Rome, who made their laws, and instituted their religion. 6 Nymph. Egeria, a nymph, or goddess, with whom Numa feign'd to converse by night, and to be instructed by her in modeling his superstitions. 7 Where Daedalus, &c., meaning at Cumæ. 8 Lachesis, one of the three Destinies, whose office was to spin the life of every man; as it was of Clotho to hold the distaff, and Atropos to cut the thread. 9 Arturius, any debauch'd, wicked fellow, who gains by the times. 10 With thumbs bent backward. In a prize of sword-players, when one of the fencers had the other at his mercy, the vanquish'd party implor'd the clemency of the spectators. If they thought he deserv'd it not, they held up their thumbs and bent them backwards in sign of death. 11 Verres, prætor in Sicily, contemporary with Cicero, by whom, accus'd of oppressing the province, he was condemn'd: his name is us'd here for any rich vicious man. 12 Tagus, a famous river in Spain, which discharges itself into the ocean near Lisbon, in Portugal. It was held of old to be full of golden sands. 13 Orontes, the greatest river of Syria. The poet here puts the river for the inhabitants of Syria. 14 Tiber, the river which runs by Rome. 15 Romulus, first king of Rome; son of Mars, as the poets feign. The first Romans were originally herdsmen. 16 But in that town, &c. He means Athens, of which Pallas, the Goddess of Arms and Arts, was patroness. 17 Antiochus and Stratocles, two famous Grecian mimics, or actors, in the poet's time. 18 A rigid Stoic, &c. Publius Egnatius, a Stoic, falsely accus'd Bareas Soranus, as Tacitus tells us. 19 Diphilus and Protogenes, &c., were Grecians living in Rome. 20 Or him who bade, &c. Lucius Metellus, the high priest, who, when the temple of Vesta was on fire, sav'd the Palladium. 21 For, by the Roscian law, &c. Roscius, a tribune, who order'd the distinction of places in public shows betwixt the noblemen of Rome and the plebeians. 22 Where none, but only dead men, &c. The meaning is, that men in some parts of Italy never wore a gown (the usual habit of the Romans) till they were buried in one. 23 Cossus is here taken for any great man. 24 Where the tame pigeons, &c. The Romans us'd to breed their tame pigeons in their gar rets. 25 Codrus, a learned man, very poor by his books, suppos'd to be a poet; for, in all probability, the heroic verses here mention'd, which rats and mice devour'd, were Homer's works. 26 A Pythagorean treat. He means herbs, roots, fruits, and salads. 27 Gigantic Corbulo. Corbulo was a famous general, in Nero's time, who conquer'd Armenia, and was afterwards put to death by that tyrant, when he was in Greece, in reward of his great services. His stature was not only tall, above the ordinary size, but he was also proportionably strong. 28 The ferryman's, &c. Charon, the ferryman of hell, whose fare was a halfpenny for every soul. 29 Stern Achilles. The friend of Achilles was Patroclus, who was slain by Hector. 30 Beneath the kings, &c. Rome was origi nally rul'd by kings, till, for the rape of Lucretia, Tarquin the Proud was expell'd; after which it was govern'd by two consuls, yearly chosen; but they oppressing the people, the commoners mutinied and procur'd tribunes to be created, who defended their privileges and often oppos'd the consular authority and the senate. 31 Aquinum was the birthplace of Juvenal. THE SIXTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL THE ARGUMENT This satire, of almost double length to any of the rest, is a bitter invective against the fair sex. "T is, indeed, a commonplace, from whence all the moderns have notoriously stolen their sharpest railleries. In his other satires, the poet has only glanc'd on some particular women and generally scourg'd the men. But this he reserv'd wholly for the ladies. How they had offended him I know not; but upon the whole matter he is not to be excus'd for imputing to all the vices of some few amongst them. Neither was it generously done of him, to attack the weakest as well as the fairest part of the creation; neither do I know what moral he could reasonably draw from it. It could not be to avoid the whole sex, if all had been true which he alleges against them; for that had been to put an end to humankind. And to bid us beware of their artifices, is a kind of silent acknowledgment, that they have more wit than men which turns the satire upon us, and particularly upon the poet; who thereby makes a compliment, where he meant a libel. If he intended only to exercise his wit, he has forfeited his judgment, by making the one half of his readers his mortal enemies; and amongst the men, all the happy lovers, by their own experience, will disprove his accusations. The whole world must allow this to be the wittiest of his satires; and truly he had need of all his parts, to maintain, with so much violence, so unjust a charge. I am satisfied he will bring but few over to his opinion; and on that consideration chiefly I ventur'd to translate him. Tho' there wanted not another reason, which was, that no one else would undertake it: at least, Sir C. S., who could have done more right to the author, after a long delay, at length absolutely refus'd so ungrateful an employment; and everyone will grant that the work must have been imperfect and lame, if it had appear'd without one of the principal members belonging to it. Let the poet there fore bear the blame of his own invention; and let me satisfy the world that I am not of his opinion. Whatever his Roman ladies were, the English are free from all his imputations. They will read with wonder and abhorrence the vices of an age which was the most infamous of any on record. They will bless themselves when they behold those examples related of Domitian's time; they will give back to antiquity those monsters it produc'd; and believe with reason that the species of those women is extinguish'd, or at least that they were never here propagated. I may safely therefore proceed to the argument of a satire, which is no way relating to them; and first observe that my author makes their lust the most heroic of their vices: the rest are in a manner but digression. He skims them over; but he dwells on this when he seems to have taken his last leave of it, on the sudden he returns to it: 't is one branch of it in Hippia, another in Messalina, but lust is the main body of the tree. He begins with this text in the first line, and takes it up with intermissions to the end of the chapter. Every vice is a loader, but that's a ten. The fillers, or intermediate parts, are their revenge; their contrivances of secret crimes; their arts to hide them; their wit to excuse them; and their impudence to own them, when they can no longer be kept secret. Then, the persons to whom they are most addicted, and on whom they commonly bestow the last favors: as stageplayers, fiddlers, singing-boys, and fencers. Those who pass for chaste amongst them, are not really so; but only, for their vast dowries, are rather suffer'd, than lov'd, by their own husbands. That they are imperious, domineering, scolding wives; set up for learning and criticism in poetry, but are false judges. Love to speak Greek (which was then the fashionable tongue, as French is now with us). That they plead causes at the bar, and play prizes at the bear garden. That they are gossips and newsmongers; wrangle with their neighbors abroad, and beat their servants at home. That they lie in for new faces once a month; are sluttish with their husbands in private; and paint and dress in public for their lovers. That they deal with Jews, diviners, and fortune tellers; learn the arts of miscarrying, and barrenness. Buy children, and produce them for their own. Murther their husband's sons, if they stand in their way to his estate, and make their adulterers his heirs. From hence the poet proceeds to shew the occasions of all these vices, their original, and how they were introduc'd in Rome, by peace, wealth, and luxury. In conclusion, if we will take the word of our ma licious author, bad women are the general standing rule; and the good, but some few exceptions to it. IN Saturn's reign,' at Nature's early birth, There was that thing call'd chastity on earth; When in a narrow cave, their common shade, The sheep, the shepherds, and their gods were laid: When reeds, and leaves, and hides of beasts were spread By mountain huswifes for their homely bed, And mossy pillows rais'd, for the rude husband's head. Unlike the niceness of our modern dames, (Affected nymphs with hew affected names,) 1 9 The Cynthias and the Lesbias of our years, Who for a sparrow's death dissolve in tears; Those first unpolish'd matrons, big and bold, Gave suck to infants of gigantic mold; Rough as their savage lords who rang'd the wood, And fat with acorns belch'd their windy food. For when the world was buxom, fresh, and young, Her sons were undebauch'd and therefore |