Et cui per mediam nolis occurrere noctem, 55 Quodque aliquid poscas, et quod se stante recumbas. Frivola. Quod cum ita sit, tu Gætulum Ganymedem 60 65 MAXIMA QUÆQUE DOMUS SERVIS EST PLENA SUPERBIS. Ecce alius quanto porrexit murmure panem 70 Quæ genuinum agitent, non admittentia morsum. bitants were blacks, or, as we call them, negroes. 53. The bony hand of a black Moor, &c.] A great, hideous, and raw-boned Moor, so frightful as to terrify people who should happen to meet with him in the night-time, when travelling among those mansions of the dead, which are in the Latin way. See sat. i. I. 171. He might be taken for some hideous spectre that haunts the monuments. 56. A flower of Asia.] The master of the feast has for his cup-bearer an Asiatic boy, beautiful, and blooming as a flower, and who had been purchased at an immense price. The poet here exhibits a striking contrast. Comp. 1. 53. 57. Tullus and Ancus.] The third and fourth of the Roman kings, whose whole fortune did not amount to what Virro gave for this Asiatic boy. 58. Not to detain you.] i. e. To be short, as we say. Comp. sat. iii. 1. 182. -Trifles, &c.] The price given for this boy was so great, as to make the wealth of all the ancient Roman kings frivolous and trifling in comparison of it. The poet means, by this, to set forth the degree of luxury and expence of the great men in Rome. 59. Ganymede.] The poet alludes to the beautiful cup-bearer of Jupiter, and humourously gives his name to the Getulian negro foot-boy, mentioned l. 52, 3. Respice-look back at the Ganymede behind you, and call to him, if you want to be helped to some drink. 61. To mingle, &c.] It was the office of the cup-bearer to pour the wine into the cup in such proportion, or quantity, as every one chose. This was called miscere. So MART. lib. xiii. epigr. 108. Misceri debet hoc a Ganymede merum. 62. Worthy disdain.] q. d. His youth and beauty justify his contempt; they deserve that he should despise such guests. 63. When does he attend-] Adest→ lit. when is he present? -As the minister.] To serve you with, to help you to, cold or hot water. Both these the Romans, especially in wintertime, had at their feasts, that the guests might be served with either, as they might choose. 64. He scorns, &c.] The smart favourite looks down with too much contempt on such a poor needy spunger, as he esteems an old hanger-on upon his master to be, to think of giving him what he And whom you would be unwilling to meet at midnight, While you are carried thro' the monuments of the hilly Latin way. 55 A flower of Asia is before him, purchased at a greater price, many 60 Thousands knows not to mingle [wine] for the poor: but his form, his age, Are worthy disdain. When, does he come to you? When, being called, does he attend [as] the minister of hot or cold water? For he scorns to obey an old client; And that you should ask for any thing, or that lie down, himself standing. you should 65 EVERY VERY GREAT HOUSE IS FULL OF PROUD SERVANTS. 70 Is kept for the master. Remember to restrain your right hand: Let reverence of the butler be safe.-Yet, suppose yourself calls for. He is affronted that such a one should presume to expect his attendance upon him, and that he should be standing at the table as a servant, while the client is lying down at his ease, as one of the guests. 66. Every very great house, &c.] And, therefore, where can you find better treatment, than you do at Virro's, at any of the tables of the rich and great? 67. Has reached out, &c.] When you have called for bread, it has indeed been brought, but with what an ill-will have you been served; how has the slave that reached, or held it out for you to take, murmured at what he was doing! 68. Hardly broken.] With the utmost difficulty broken into pieces. -Of solid meal.] Grown into hard, solid lumps, by being so old and stale, and now grown mouldy.' 69. Will shake a grinder.] Genuinus, from gena, the cheek; what we call the grinders, are the teeth next the cheeks, which grind food. So far from being VOL. I. capable of being bitten, and thus divided, it would loosen a grinder to attempt it. 70. Soft flour.] The finest flour, out of which the bran is entirely sifted, so that no hard substance is left. 71. To restrain, &c.] Don't let the sight of this fine, white, and new bread, tempt you to filch it-mind to keep your hands to yourself. 72. The butler.] Artopta, Gr. agroTus, from agros, bread, and orraw, to bake, signifies one that bakes bread, a baker. Or artopta may be derived from agros, bread, and orTouas, to see, i. e. an inspector of bread; a pantler, or butler; one who has the care and oversight of it. This I take to be the meaning here. q. d. Have all due respect to the dispenser of the bread; don't offend him by putting your hand into the wrong basket, and by taking some of the fine bread. -Suppose yourself, &c.] But suppose you are a little too bold, and that you U Improbulum; superest illic qui ponere cogat. Aspice, quam longo distendat pectore lancem, Quæ fertur domino, squilla; et quibus undique septa Asparagis, quâ despiciat convivia cauda, Cum venit excelsi manibus sublata ministri. Sed tibi dimidio constrictus Cammarus ovo Ipse Venafrano piscem perfundit: at hic, qui make free with some of the fine bread, there's one remains upon the watch, who will soon make you lay it down again, and chide you for your presumption. 74. Wilt thou, &c.] The words of the butler on seeing the poor client filch a piece of the white bread, and on making him lay it down again. -The accustomed baskets.] i. e. Those in which the coarse bread is usually kept; and do not mistake, if you please, white for brown. 75. Filled.] Fed, satisfied. 76. Well, this has been, &c.] The supposed words of Trebius, vexed at finding himself so ill repaid for all his services and attendances upon his patron. q. d. "So, this is what I have been toiling "for; for this I have got out of my "warm bed, leaving my wife, at all hours "of the night, and in all weathers," &c. 77. The adverse mount.] The Esquiline hill had a very steep ascent, which made it troublesome to get up, if one were in haste. It must be supposed to have lain in the parasite's way to his patron's house, and, by its steepness, to have been a hindrance to his speed. Hence he calls it adversum montem. Adversus signifies opposite-adversum may mean, that it was opposite to the parasite's house. 77, 8. The cold Esquiliæ.] Its height made it very bleak and cold at the top, especially in bad weather. See sat. iii. 1. 71. 78. The vernal air.] Vernus Jupiter.. The Romans called the air Jupiter. See HOR. lib. i. od. i. 1. 25. The air, in the 75 80 85 spring of the year, is often fraught with storms of hail and rain, with which the poor parasite often got wet to the skin, in his nightly walks to attend on his patron. "A pretty business, truly, to suffer "all this for the sake of being invited to supper, and then to be so treated!" All this Juvenal represents as the treatment which Trebius would meet with, on being invited to Virro's house to supper; and as the mournful complaints which he would have to make on finding all his attendances and services so repaid; therefore Trebius was sadly mistaken in placing his happiness in living at the tables of the great, and in order to this to take so much pains. Comp. 1. 2. 80. With how long a breast, &c.] Such a length is his chest, or forepart, as to fill the dish, so as to seem to stretch its size. A lobster.] Squilla. It is hardly possible to say, with precision, what fish is here meant. Mr. BowLES translates it, a sturgeon; and says in his note, "The "authors, whom I have the opportunity "to consult, are not agreed what fish is "meant: I have translated it a sturgeon, I confess at random, but it may serve as well." See Trans. of Juv. by DRYDEN, and others. AINSWORTH calls it a lobster without A little knavish; there remains one who can compel you to lay it down. 75 "Wilt thou, impudent guest, from the accustomed baskets "Be filled, and know the colour of your own bread ?" "Well, this has been that, for which often, my wife being left, "I have run over the adverse mount, and the cold "Esquiliæ, when the vernal air rattled with cruel 66 Hail, and my cloak dropped with much rain.” See, with how long a breast, a lobster, which is brought 80 To the master, distends the dish, and with what asparagus On all sides surrounded; with what a tail he can look down on the banquet, When he comes borne aloft by the hands of a tall servant. He besmears his fish with Venafran (oil)-but this In a large dish an out-stretch'd lamprey lies With shrimps all floating round. FRANCIS. Perhaps what we call a shrimp, or prawn, may be the pinnothera, or pinnophylax, of PLIN. iii. 42. the squilla parva. The shrimp is a sort of lobster in miniature; and if we understand the word parva to distinguish it from the fish which is simply called squilla, the latter may probably signify a lobster, particularly here, from what is remarked of the tail, (1. 82.) which is the most delicious part of a lobster. 81. Asparagus.] Asparagis, plur. may here denote the young shoots, or buds, of various herbs. See AINSW. Asparagus, No. 2. With these it was perhaps usual to garnish their dishes. 82. With what a tail, &c.] What a noble tail he displays, with what contempt does he seem to look down upon the rest of the banquet, when lifted on high, by a tall slave, over the heads of the guests, in order to be placed on the table. 84. A crab.] Cammarus, a sort of crab-fish, called also Gammarus; a very vile food, as we may imagine by its being opposed to the delicious squilla, which was set before the master of the feast. -Shrunk.] I think Holyday's rendering of constrictus nearest the sense of 85 the word, which lit. signifies straitened, narrow. Crabs, if kept long out o water, will waste and shrink up in the shell, and when boiled will be half full of water; so lobsters, as every day's experience evinces. Farnaby explains it by semiphlenus, half-full, or spent, as he calls it, which conveys the same idea. This sense also contrasts this fish with the plumpness of the foregoing. Comp. 1. 80-3. -With half an egg.] To mix with it when you eat it a poor allowance. Many construe constrictus in the sense of paratus-coctus-conditus, and the like q. d. dressed or seasoned with half an egg. 85. Funeral supper, &c.] The Romans used to place, in a small dish on the sepulchres of the dead, to appease their manes, milk, honey, water, wine, flowers, a very little of each; which circumstances, of the smallness of the dish and of the quantity, seem to be the reason of this allusion. -A little platter.] Patella is itself a diminutive of patera; but the poet, to make the matter the more contemptible, adds exigua. This is a contrast to the lancem, 1. 80. which signifies a great broad plate, a deep dish to serve meat up in. 86. He.] Virro, the master of the feast. -Venafran oil.] Venafrum was a city of Campania, famous for the best oil. HOR. lib. ii. od. vi, 1. 15, 16, ; Pallidus offertur misero tibi caulis, olebit Mullus erit domino, quem misit Corsica, vel quem Virroni muræna datur, quæ maxima venit 87. Pale cabbage.] Sickly looking, as if it was half withered. 88. Your saucers.] Alveolus signifies any wooden vessel made hollow; here it may be understood of wooden trays, or saucers, in which the oil was brought, which was to be poured on the cabbage. 89. A canoe.] Canna, a small vessel made of the cane, or large reed; which grew to a great size and height, and which was a principal material in building the African canoes. -Micipsa.] It seems to have been a general name given to all the Numidians, from Micipsa, one of their kings. These were a barbarous people on the shore of Africa, near Algiers, from whence came the oil which the Romans used in their lamps. -Sharp prow. Alluding to the shape of the African canoes, which were very sharp-beaked. 90. Bocchar. Or Bocchor, a Mauritanian name, but here, probably, for any African. This was the name of one of their kings, and hence the poet takes occasion to mention it, as if he said, that "the Numidians and Moors, who "anointed themselves with this oil, "stunk so excessively, that nobody at "Rome would go into the same bath "with one of them; no, though it were king Bocchar himself." 91. Safe from serpents.] So horrid is the smell of these Africans, that, in their 90 95 100 own country, their serpents would not come near them. "What then must you endure, in having this same oil to pour on your cabbage, while you have the mortification of seeing your patron "soak his fish with the fine and sweet "oil of Venafrum! I should think this "another instance of that sort of treat"ment, which should abate your rage "of being invited to the table of a great "man.' 92. A mullet.] See sat. iv. 15, and note. The master.] Virro, the master of the feast. -Corsica sent.] Which came from Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean, famous perhaps for this sort of fish. 93. Taurominitinian rocks.] On the seacoast, near Taurominium, in Sicily. -Our sea is exhausted, &c.] Such is the luxury and gluttony of the great, that there is now no more fine fish to be caught at home, 94. While the appetite, &c.] While gluttony is at such an height, as not to be satisfied without such dainties. 95. The market.] The market-people, who deal in fish, and who supply great tables. -With assiduous nets, &c.] Are incessantly fishing in the neighbouring seas, upon our own coasts, leaving no part un searched, that they may supply the market. 96. A Tyrrhene fish.] The Tyrrhene sea was that part of the Mediterranean |