45

50

When now my golden Bulla (hung on high
To household gods) declared me past a boy;
And my white shield proclaim'd my liberty;
When with my wild companions, I could roll
From street to street, and sin without control;
Just at that age, when manhood set me free,
I then deposed myself, and left the reins to thee.
On thy wise bosom I reposed my head,
And by my better Socrates was bred.
Then thy straight rule set virtue in my sight,
The crooked line reforming by the right.
My reason took the bent of thy command,
Was form'd and polish'd by thy skilful hand:
Long summer-days thy precepts I rehearse;
And winter-nights were short in our converse:
One was our labour, one was our repose,
One frugal supper did our studies close.

55

70

Nature is ever various in her frame :
Each has a different will, and few the same:
The greedy merchants, led by lucre, run
To the parch'd Indies, and the rising sun;
From thence hot pepper and rich drugs they bear,
Bartering for spices their Italian ware:
The lazy glutton safe at home will keep,
Indulge his sloth, and batten with his sleep:
One bribes for high preferments in the state;
A second shakes the box, and sits up late:
Another shakes the bed, dissolving there,
Till knots upon his gouty joints appear,
And chalk is in his crippled fingers found;
Rots like a dodder'd oak, and piecemeal falls to
ground;

Then his lewd follies he would late repent;
And his past years, that in a mist were spent.

PERSIUS.

But thou art pale, in nightly studies, grown, To make the Stoic institutes thy own;

75

80

fastened the Bulle, or little bells, which, when they came to the age of puberty, were hung up, and consecrated to the Lares, or household gods.

Ver. 44. The first shields which the Roman youths wore were white, and without any impress or device on them, to show they had yet achieved nothing in the wars.

Ver. 50. Socrates by the Oracle was declared to be the wisest of mankind: he instructed many of the Athenian young noblemen in morality, and amongst the rest Alcibiades.

Ver. 60. Astrologers divide the heaven into twelve parts, according to the number of the twelve signs of the zodiac: the sign or constellation which rises in the east, at the birth of any man, is called the ascendant: Persius, therefore, judges that Cornutus and he had the same, or a like nativity.

Ver. 61. The sign of Gemini.
Ver. 62. The sign of Libra.

Ver. 64. Astrologers have an axiom, that whatsoever Saturn ties is loosed by Jupiter: they account Saturn to be a planet of a malevolent nature, and Jupiter of a propitious influence.

Ver. 84. Zeno was the great master of the Stoic

95

100

105

Yes, sure: for yesterday was once to-morrow. That yesterday is gone, and nothing gain'd: And all thy fruitless days will thus be drain'd; For thou hast more to-morrows yet to ask, And wilt be ever to begin thy task; Who, like the hindmost chariot-wheels, art cursed, Still to be near, but ne'er to reach the first. O freedom! first delight of human kind! Not that which bondmen from their masters find, The privilege of doles; not yet to inscribe Their names in this or t'other Roman tribe: That false enfranchisement with ease is found: Slaves are made citizens by turning round. How, replies one, can any be more free? Here's Dama, once a groom of low degree, Not worth a farthing, and a sot beside; So true a rogue, for lying's sake he lied: But, with a turn, a freeman he became ; Now Marcus Dama is his worship's name. Good gods! who would refuse to lend a sum, If wealthy Marcus surety will become ! Marcus is made a judge, and for a proof Of certain truth, He said it, is enough. A will is to be proved; put in your claim; 'Tis clear, if Marcus has subscribed his name. This is true liberty, as I believe; What can we farther from our caps receive, Than as we please without control to live? Not more to noble Brutus could belong. Hold, says the Stoic, your assumption 's wrong:

110

115

120

philosophy, and Cleanthes was second to him in reputation. Cornutus, who was master or tutor to Persius, was of the same school.

Ver 102. When a slave was made free, he had the privilege of a Roman born, which was to have a share in the donatives or doles of bread, &c., which were distributed by the magistrates amongst the people.

Ver. 103. The Roman people was distributed into several tribes: he who was made free was enrolled into some one of them, and thereupon enjoyed the common privileges of a Roman citizen.

Ver. 105. The master, who intended to enfranchise a slave, carried him before the city prætor, and turned him round, using these words, "I will that this man be free."

Ver. 111. Slaves had only one name before their freedom; after it they were admitted to a Prænomen, like our christened names; so Dama is now called Marcus Dama.

Ver. 117. At the proof of a testament, the magistrates were to subscribe their names, as allowing the legality of

the will.

Ver. 119. Slaves, when they were set free, had a cap given them, in sign of their liberty.

Ver. 121. Brutus freed the Roman people from the tyranny of the Tarquins, and changed the form of the government into a glorious commonwealth.

I grant true freedom you have well defined:
But, living as you list, and to your mind,
Are loosely tack'd, and must be left behind.
What! since the prætor did my fetters loose,
And left me freely at my own dispose,
May I not live without control and awe,
Excepting still the letter of the law?

125

Hear me with patience, while thy mind I free 130 From those fond notions of false liberty: 'Tis not the prætor's province to bestow True freedom; nor to teach mankind to know What to ourselves, or to our friends, we owe. He could not set thee free from cares and strife, 135 Nor give the reins to a lewd vicious life: As well he for an ass a harp might string, Which is against the reason of the thing; For reason still is whispering in your ear, Where you are sure to fail, the attempt forbear. 140 No need of public sanctions this to bind, Which Nature has implanted in the mind:

Not to pursue the work, to which we're not design'd.

155

160

165

So nicely to distinguish good from ill?
Or by the sound to judge of gold and brass,
What piece is tinkers' metal, what will pass?
And what thou art to follow, what to fly,
This to condemn, and that to ratify?
When to be bountiful, and when to spare,
But never craving, or oppress'd with care?
The baits of gifts and money to despise,
And look on wealth with undesiring eyes?
When thou canst truly call these virtues thine,
Be wise and free, by heaven's consent, and mine.
But thou, who lately of the common strain,
Wert one of us, if still thou dost retain
The same ill-habits, the same follies too,
Gloss'd over only with a saint-like show,
Then I resume the freedom which I gave,
Still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.
Thou canst not wag thy finger, or begin
"The least light motion, but tends to sin."
How's this? Not wag my finger, he replies?
No, friend; nor fuming gums, nor sacrifice,
Can ever make a madman free, or wise.
"Virtue and Vice are never in one soul:
A man is wholly wise, or wholly is a fool."
A heavy bumpkin, taught with daily care,
Can never dance three steps with a becoming air.

PERSIUS.

In spite of this, my freedom still remains.

170

175

Ver. 129. The text of the Roman laws was written in red letters, which was called the Rubric, translated here, in more general words, "The Letter of the Law."

Ver. 175. The Stoics held this paradex, that any one vice, or notorious folly, which they called madness, hindered a man from being virtuous; that a man was of a piece, without a mixture, either wholly vicious or good, one virtue or vice according to them, including all the rest.

CORNUTUS.

151

185

Free! what, and fetter'd with so many chains? Canst thou no other master understand Than him that freed thee by the prætor's wand? Should he, who was thy lord, command thee now, With a harsh voice, and supercilious brow, To servile duties, thou would'st fear no more; The gallows and the whip are out of door. But if thy passions lord it in thy breast, Art thou not still a slave, and still oppress'd? Whether alone, or in thy harlot's lap, When thou would'st take a lazy morning's nap: 190 Up, up, says Avarice; thou snor'st again, Stretchest thy limbs, and yawn'st, but all in vain ; The tyrant Lucre no denial takes;

At his command the unwilling sluggard wakes: What must I do? he cries: What? says his lord:

195

On a brown george, with lousy swobbers fed, 25
Dead wine, that stinks of the borachio, sup
From a foul jack, or greasy maple-cup?

220

Say, would'st thou bear all this, to raise thy store
From six i' the hundred, to six hundred more?
Indulge, and to thy Genius freely give;
For, not to live at ease, is not to live;
Death stalks behind thee, and each flying hour
Does some loose remnant of thy life devour.
Live, while thou liv'st; for death will make us all
A name, a nothing but an old wife's tale.

Speak; wilt thou Avarice, or Pleasure, choose
To be thy lord? Take one, and one refuse.
But both, by turns, the rule of thee will have;
And thou, betwixt 'em both, wilt be a slave.
Nor think when once thou hast resisted one,
That all thy marks of servitude are gone:
The struggling greyhound gnaws his leash in vain ;
If, when 'tis broken, still he drags the chain.
Says Phædria to his man, Believe me, friend,
To this uneasy love I'll put an end:

231

235

Ver. 182. The prætor held a wand in his hand, with which he softly struck the slave on the head when he declared him free.

Ver. 234. This alludes to the play of Terence called the Eunuch, which was excellently imitated of late in English by Sir Charles Sedley. In the first scene of that comedy, Phædria was introduced with his man Pamphilus, diacoursing, whether he should leave his mistress Thais, or return to her, now that she had invited him.

Shall I run out of all My friends disgrace,
And be the first lewd unthrift of my race?
Shall I the neighbours' nightly rest invade
At her deaf doors, with some vile serenade?
Well hast thou freed thyself, his man replies, 240
Go, thank the gods, and offer sacrifice.
Ah, says the youth, if we unkindly part,
Will not the poor fond creature break her heart?
Weak soul! and blindly to destruction led!
She break her heart! she'll sooner break your
head.

245

She knows her man, and when you rant and

swear,

Can draw you to her with a single hair.
But shall I not return? Now, when she sues?
Shall I my own and her desires refuse?

250

Sir, take your course; but my advice is plain : Once freed, 'tis madness to resume your chain. Ay; there's the man, who, loosed from lust and pelf,

Less to the prætor owes, than to himself.

But write him down a slave, who, humbly proud,
With presents begs preferments from the crowd; 25
That early suppliant, who salutes the tribes,
And sets the mob to scramble for his bribes:
That some old dotard, sitting in the sun,
On holidays may tell, that such a feat was done :
In future times this will be counted rare.

260

Thy superstition too may claim a share : When flowers are strew'd, and lamps in order placed,

270

And windows with illuminations graced,
On Herod's day; when sparkling bowls go round,
And tunny's tails in savoury sauce are drown'd, 265
Thou mutter'st prayers obscene; nor dost refuse
The fasts and sabbaths of the curtail'd Jews.
Then a crack'd egg-shell thy sick fancy frights,
Besides the childish fear of walking sprights.
Of o'ergrown gelding priests thou art afraid;
The timbrel, and the squintifego maid
Of Isis, awe thee: lest the gods, for sin,
Should, with a swelling dropsy, stuff thy skin :
Unless three garlic heads the curse avert,
Eaten each morn, devoutly, next thy heart.
Preach this among the brawny guards, say'st
thou,

275

Ver. 264. The commentators are divided what Herod this was whom our author mentions; whether Herod the Great, whose birth-day might possibly be celebrated after his death by the Herodians, a sect amongst the Jews, who thought him their Messiah, or Herod Agrippa, living in the author's time, and after it. The latter seems the more probable opinion.

Ver. 268. The ancients had a superstition, contrary to ours, concerning egg-shells; they thought that if an eggshell were cracked, or a hole bored in the bottom of it, they were subject to the power of sorcery: we as vainly break the bottom of an egg-shell, and cross it when we have eaten the egg, lest some hag should make use of it in bewitching

THE

SIXTH SATIRE OF PERSIUS.

TO CESIUS BASSUS, A LYRIC POET.

THE ARGUMENT.

This Sixth Satire treats an admirable common-place of Moral Philosophy; of the true Use of Riches. They are certainly intended, by the Power who bestows them, as instruments and helps of living commodiously ourselves, and of administering to the wants of others who are oppressed by fortune. There are two extremes in the opinions of men concerning them. One error, though on the right hand, yet a great one, is, that they are no helps to a virtuous life; the other places all our happiness in the acquisition and possession of them; and this is, undoubtedly, the worse extreme. The mean betwixt these, is the opinion of the Stoics; which is, that riches may be useful to the leading a virtuous life; in case we rightly understand how to give according to right reason; and how to receive what is given us by others. The virtue of giving well, is called liberality; and it is of this virtue that Persius writes in this Satire; wherein he not only shows the lawful use of riches, but also sharply inveighs against the vices which are opposed to it; and especially of those which consist in the defects of giving or spending, or in the abuse of riches. He writes to Caesius Bassus, his friend, and a poet also; inquires first of his health and studies; and afterwards informs him of his own, and where he is now resident. He gives an account of himself, that he is endeavouring by little and little to wear off his vices; and particularly that he is combating ambition, and the desire of wealth. dwells upon the latter vice; and being sensible that few men either desire or use riches as they ought, he endeavours to convince them of their folly; which is the main design of the whole Satire.

He

HAS winter caused thee, friend, to change thy seat,
And seek, in Sabine air, a warm retreat?
Say, dost thou yet the Roman harp command?
Do the strings answer to thy noble hand?
Great master of the muse, inspired to sing
The beauties of the first created spring;
The pedigree of nature to rehearse,
And sound the Maker's work, in equal verse;
Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth,
Now virtuous age, and venerable truth;
Expressing justly Sappho's wanton art
Of odes, and Pindar's more majestic part.

For me, my warmer constitution wants
More cold, than our Ligurian winter grants;
And therefore to my native shores retired,
I view the coast old Ennius once admired;
Where clifts on either side their points display;
And, after opening in an ampler way,
Afford the pleasing prospect of the bay.
'Tis worth your while, O Romans, to regard
The port of Luna, says our learned bard;

5

10

20

us, or sailing over the sea in it if it were whole. The rest, of the priests of Isis, and her one-eyed or squinting priestess, is more largely treated in the Sixth Satire of Juvenal, where the superstitions of women are related.

Ver. 2. And seek, in Sabine air, &c.] All the studious, and particularly the poets, about the end of August, began to set themselves on work, refraining from writing during the heats of the summer. They wrote by night, and sate up the greatest part of it; for which reason, the product of their studies was called their Elucubrations, or nightly labours. They who had country seats retired to them while they studied; as Persius did to his, which was near the Port of the Moon in Etruria; and Bassus to his, which was in the country of the Sabines, nearer Rome.

Ver. 9. Now sporting on thy lyre, &c.] This proves Casins Bassus to have been a lyric poet. 'Tis said of him, that by an eruption of the flaming mountain Vesuvius, near which the greatest part of his fortune lay, he was burnt himself, together with all his writings.

25

Who, in a drunken dream, beheld his soul
The fifth within the transmigrating roll;
Which first a peacock, then Euphorbus was,
Then Homer next, and next Pythagoras;
And last of all the line did into Ennius pass.
Secure and free from business of the state,
And more secure of what the vulgar prate,
Here I enjoy my private thoughts; nor care
What rots for sheep the southern winds prepare:
Survey the neighbouring fields, and not repine, 31
When I behold a larger crop than mine:
To see a beggar's brat in riches flow,
Adds not a wrinkle to my even brow;
Nor, envious at the sight, will I forbear

35

My plenteous bowl, nor bate my bounteous cheer;
Nor yet unseal the dregs of wine that stink
Of cask; nor in a nasty flagon drink.

40

45

Let others stuff their guts with homely fare :
For men of different inclinations are;
Though born, perhaps, beneath one common star.
In minds and manners twins opposed we see
In the same sign, almost the same degree:
One, frugal, on his birth-day fears to dine,
Does at a penny's cost in herbs repine,
And hardly dares to dip his fingers in the brine:
Prepared as priest of his own rites to stand,
He sprinkles pepper with a sparing hand.
His jolly brother, opposite in sense,
Laughs at his thrift; and lavish of expence,
Quaffs, crams, and guttles, in his own defence.
For me, I'll use my own; and take my share;
Yet will not turbots for my slaves prepare;
Nor be so nice in taste myself to know
If what I swallow be a thrush, or no.
Live on thy annual income; spend thy store;
And freely grind, from thy full threshing-floor;
Next harvest promises as much, or more.

50

55

60

Thus I would live; but friendship's holy band, And offices of kindness hold my hand: My friend is shipwreck'd on the Brutian strand,

Ver. 22. Who, in a drunken dream, &c.] I call it a drunken dream of Ennius, not that my author in this place gives me any encouragement for the epithet, but because Horace, and all who mention Ennius, say he was an excessive drinker of wine. In a dream, or vision, call you it which you please, he thought it was revealed to him that the soul of Pythagoras was transmigrated into him; as Pythagoras before him believed that himself had been Euphorbus in the wars of Troy. Commentators differ in placing the order of this soul, and who had it first. I have here given it to the peacock, because it looks more according to the order of nature, that it should lodge in a creature of an inferior species, and so by gradation rise to the informing of a man. And Persius favours me by saying that Ennius was the fifth from the Pythagorean peacock.

Ver. 61. My friend is shipwreck'd on, &c.] Perhaps this is only a fine transition of the poet, to introduce the business of the Satire, and not that any such accident had happened to one of the friends of Persius. But, however, this is the most poetical description of any in our author; and since he and Lucan were so great friends, I know not but Lucan might help him in two or three of these verses, which seem to be written in his style: certain it is that, besides this description of a shipwreck, and two lines more, which are at the end of the Second Satire, our poet has written nothing elegantly. I will, therefore, transcribe both the passages to justify my opinion. The following are the last verses, saving one, of the Second Satire :

Compositum jus, fasque animi; sanctosque recessus Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto: The others are those in this present Satire, which are subjoined :

trabe ruptâ, Bruttia Saxa

Prendit amicus inops; remque omnem, surdaque vota
Condidit Ionio; jacet ipse in littore; et unà
Ingentes de puppe Dei; jamque obvia mergis
Costa ratis laceræ.-

His riches in the Ionian main are lost;
And he himself stands shivering on the coast;
Where, destitute of help, forlorn, and bare,
He wearies the deaf gods with fruitless prayer.
Their images, the relics of the wrack,
Torn from the naked poop, are tided back
By the wild waves, and, rudely thrown ashore,
Lie impotent; nor can themselves restore.
The vessel sticks, and shows her open'd side,
And on her shatter'd mast the mews in triumph ride.
From thy new hope, and from thy growing store,
Now lend assistance and relieve the poor.
Come; do a noble act of charity;

A pittance of thy land will set him free.
Let him not bear the badges of a wrack,

Nor beg with a blue table on his back:

Nor tell me that thy frowning heir will say,

70

'Tis mine that wealth thou squander'st thus away. What is 't to thee, if he neglect thy urn,

80

Or without spices lets thy body burn?
If odours to thy ashes he refuse,
Or buys corrupted cassia from the Jews?
All these, the wiser Bestius will reply,
Are empty pomp, and dead men's luxury:
We never knew this vain expence, before
The effeminated Grecians brought it o'er :
Now toys and trifles from their Athens come;
And dates and pepper have unsinew'd Rome:
Our sweating hinds their salads, now, defile,
Infecting homely herbs with fragrant oil.
But, to thy fortune be not thou a slave:
For what hast thou to fear beyond the grave!
And thou who gap'st for my estate, draw near;
For I would whisper somewhat in thy ear.
Hear'st thou the news, my friend? the express is

come

With laurell❜d letters from the camp to Rome :
Cæsar salutes the queen and senate thus:
My arms are on the Rhine victorious.

90

96

Ver. 72. From thy new hope, &c.] The Latin is, Nunc et de cæspite vivo, frange aliquid. Casaubon only opposes the caspes vivus, which, word for word, is the living turf, to the harvest or annual income. I suppose the poet rather means, sell a piece of land already sown, and give the money of it to my friend, who has lost all by shipwreck; that is, do not stay till thou hast reaped, but help him immediately, as his wants require.

Ver. 77. Nor beg with a blue table, &c.] Holyday translates it a green table; the sense is the same; for the table was painted of the sea colour, which the shipwrecked person carried on his back, expressing his losses thereby, to excite the charity of the spectators.

Ver. 81. Or without spices, &c.] The bodies of the rich, before they were burnt, were embalmed with spices, or rather spices were put into the urn, with the relics of the ashes. Our author here names cinnamon and cassia, which cassia was sophisticated with cherry gum, and probably enough by the Jews, who adulterate all things which they sell. But whether the ancients were acquainted with the spices of the Molucca Islands, Ceylon, and other parts of the Indies, or whether their pepper and cinnamon, &c, were the same with ours, is another question. As for nutmegs and mace, it is plain that the Latin names of them are modern.

Ver. 98. Casar salutes, &c.] The Cæsar here mentioned is Caius Caligula, who affected to triumph over the Germans, whom he never conquered, as he did over the Britons; and accordingly sent letters, wrapt about. with laurels, to the Senate, and the Empress Caesonia, whom I here call Queen, though I know that name was not used amongst the Romans; but the word Empress would not stand in that verse, for which reason 1 adjourned it to another. The dust which was to be swept away from the altars was either the ashes which were left there after the last sacrifice for victory, or might, perhaps, mean the dust or ashes which were left on the altars since some former

100

105

110

From mourning altars sweep the dust away:
Cease fasting, and proclaim a fat thanksgiving day.
The goodly empress, jollily inclined,
Is to the welcome bearer wondrous kind:
And, setting her good housewif'ry aside,
Prepares for all the pageantry of pride.
The captive Gerinans, of gigantic size,
Are rank'd in order, and are clad in frize :
The spoils of kings and conquer'd camps we boast,
Their arms in trophies hang on the triumphal post.
Now, for so many glorious actions done
In foreign parts, and mighty battles won;
For peace at home, and for the public wealth,
I mean to crown a bowl to Cæsar's health;
Besides, in gratitude for such high matters,
Know, I have vow'd two hundred gladiators.
Say, would'st thou hinder me from this expence?
I disinherit thee, if thou dar'st take offence.
Yet more, a public largess I design
Of oil and pies, to make the people dine:
Control me not, for fear I change my will.

115

120

125

And yet methinks I hear thee grumbling still: You give as if you were the Persian king: Your land does no such large revenues bring. Well; on my terms thou wilt not be my heir: If thou car'st little, less shall be my care: Were none of all my father's sisters left; Nay, were I of my mother's kin bereft ; None by an uncle's or a grandame's side, Yet I could some adopted heir provide. I need but take my journey half a day From haughty Rome, and at Aricia stay, Where fortune throws poor Manius in my way. Him will I choose: What him, of humble birth, Obscure, a foundling, and a son of earth? Obscure? Why, prythee what am I? I know 135 My father, grandsire, and great grandsire too: If farther I derive my pedigree,

130

I can but guess beyond the fourth degree.
The rest of my forgotten ancestors
Were sons of earth, like him, or sons of whores. 140
Yet why would'st thou, old covetous wretch, aspire
To be my heir, who might'st have been my sire?
In nature's race, should'st thou demand of me
My torch, when I in course run after thee?

defeat of the Romans by the Germans: after which overthrow the altars had been neglected.

Ver. 102. Cæsonia, wife to Caius Caligula, who afterwards, in the reign of Claudius, was proposed, but ineffectually, to be married to him, after he had executed Messalina for adultery.

Ver. 106. The captive Germans, &c.] He means only such as were to pass for Germans in the triumph; largebodied men, as they are still, whom the Empress clothed new, with coarse garments, for the greater ostentation of the victory.

Ver. 115. Know, I have vow'd two hundred gladiators.] A hundred pair of gladiators were beyond the purse of a private man to give; therefore, this is only a threatening to his heir, that he could do what he pleased with his

Be careful still of the main chance, my son;
Put out the principal in trusty hands:
Live of the use; and never dip thy lands:
But yet what's left for me? What's left, my
friend!

Ask that again, and all the rest I spend.

165

Is not my fortune at my own command?
Pour oil, and pour it with a plenteous hand,
Upon my salads, boy: shall I be fed
With sodden nettles, and a singed sow's head?
"Tis holiday; provide me better cheer;
"Tis holiday, and shall be round the year.
Shall I my household gods and Genius cheat,
To make him rich, who grudges me my meat, 170
That he may loll at ease; and pamper'd high,
When I am laid, may feed on giblet-pie?
And when his throbbing lust extends the vein,
Have wherewithal his whores to entertain?
Shall I in homespun cloth be clad, that he
His paunch in triumph may before him see?
Go, miser, go; for lucre sell thy soul;
Truck wares for wares, and trudge from pole to
pole:

175

me, and be my heir, who am much younger. He who was first in the course, or race, delivered the torch, which he carried, to him who was second.

Ver. 182. Well fed, and fat as Cappadocian slaves !] Who were famous for their lustiness, and being, as we call it, in good liking. They were set on a stall when they were exposed to sale, to show the good habit of their body, and made to play tricks before the buyers, to show their activity and strength.

Ver. 186. Then say, Chrysippus, &c.] Chrysippus, the Stoic, invented a kind of argument, consisting of more than three propositions, which is called Sorites, or a heap. But as Chrysippus could never bring his propositions to a certain stint, so neither can a covetous man bring his craving desires to any certain measure of riches, beyond which he could not wish for any more.