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Notum est cur solo tabulas impleverit Hister
Liberto; dederit vivus cur multa puellæ :
Dives erit, magno quæ dormit tertia lecto.
Tu nube, atque tace: donant arcana cylindros.
De nobis post hæc tristis sententia fertur:
Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.
Fugerunt trepidi vera ac manifesta canentem
Stoicidae; quid enim falsi Laronia? Sed quid
Non facient alii, cum tu multicia sumas,
Cretice, et hanc vestem populo mirante perores
In Proculas, et Pollineas? est mocha Fabulla:
Damnetur si vis, etiam Carfinia: talem
Non sumet damnata togam. Sed Julius ardet,

a stump or stock of a tree-of a large piece of which a log was cut out, and made an instrument of punishment for female slaves, who were chained to it on any misbehaviour towards their mistresses, but especially where there was jealousy in the case; and there they were to sit and work at spinning, or the like.

58. Hister.] Some infamous character, here introduced by Laronia in order to illustrate her argument.

- Filled his will.] Tabula signifies any plate or thin material on which they wrote; hence deeds, wills, and other written instruments, were called tabulæ. So public edicts. See before, 1. 28.

58, 9. With only his freedman.] Left him his sole heir.

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59. Why alive, &c.]. Why in his lifetime he was so very generous, and made such numbers of presents to his wife, here called puellæ, as being a very young girl when he married her but I should rather think, that the arch Laronia has a more severe meaning in her use of the term puellæ, by which she would intimate, that his young wife, having been totally neglected by him, remained still, puella, a maiden; Hister having no desire towards any thing, but what was unnatural with his favourite freedman.

It is evident that the poet uses puella in this sense, sat. ix. 1. 74. See note on sat. ix. 1. 70.

60. She will be rich, &c.] By receiving (as Hister's wife did) large sums for hush-money.

Who sleeps third, &c.] By this she would insinuate, that Hister caused his

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freedman, whom he afterwards made his heir, to lie in the bed with him and his wife, and gave his wife large presents of money, jewels, &c. not to betray his abominable practices.

61. Do thou marry.] This apostrophe may be supposed to be addressed to the unmarried woman, who might be standing by, and listening to Laronia's severe reproof of the husbands of that day, and contains a sarcasm of the most bitter kind.

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As if she had said, "You hear what you are to expect; such of you as wish "to be rich, I advise to marry, and keep "their husbands' secrets."

·Secrets bestows gems.] Cylindrosthese were precious stones, of an oblong and round form, which the women used to hang in their ears. Here they seem to signify all manner of gems.

62. After all this.] After all I have been saying of the men, I can't help observing how hardly we women are used.

- A heavy sentence, &c.] Where we are concerned no mercy is to be shewn to us; the heaviest sentence of the laws is called down upon us, and its utmost vengeance is prescribed against us.

63. Censure excuses ravens, &c.] Laronia ends her speech with a proverbial saying, which is much to her purpose.

Censura here means punishment. The

men,

who, like ravens and other birds of prey, are so mischievous, are yet excused; but, alas! when we poor women, who are, comparatively, harmless as doves, when we, through simplicity and weakness, go astray, we hear of nothing but punishment.

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"It is known why Hister filled his will with only “His freedman; why alive he gave much to a wench: "She will be rich, who sleeps third in a large bed. “Do thou marry, and hush-secrets bestow gems. "After all this, a heavy sentence is passed against us: "Censure excuses ravens, and vexes doves." Her, proclaiming things true and manifest, trembling fled The Stoicides-For what falsehood had Laronia [uttered]? But what 65

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Will not others do, when thou assumest transparent garments, O Creticus, and (the people wond'ring at this apparel) thou declaimest

Against the Proculæ and Pollineæ? Fabulla is an adulteress : Let Carfinia too be condemned if you please: such

A gown, condemned, she'll not put on. "But July burns- 70

64. Her, proclaiming, &c.] We have here the effect of Laronia's speech upon her guilty hearers; their consciences were alarmed, and away they flew, they could not stand any longer they knew what she said to be true, and not a tittle of it could be denied: so the faster they could make their escape, the better: like those severe hypocrites we read of, John viii. 7-9. Cano signifies, as used here, to report, to proclaim aloud.

65. The Stoicides.] Stoicidæ. This word seems to have been framed on the occasion with a feminine ending, the better to suit their characters, and to intimate the monstrous effeminacy of these pretended Stoics. The Stoics were called Stoici, from roa, a porch in Athens, where they used to meet and dispute. They highly commended apathy, or freedom from all passions.

Juvenal, having severely lashed the Stoicides, or pretended Stoics, now proceeds to attack, in the person of Metellus Creticus, the effeminacy of certain magistrates, who appeared, even in the seat of justice, attired in a most unbecoming and indecent manner, and such as bespake them in the high road to the most horrid impurities.

66. Will not others do, &c.] q. d. It is no marvel that we find vice triumphant over people that move in a less conspicuous sphere of life, when plain and apparent symptoms of it are seen in those who fill the seats of justice, and are actually exhibited by them, before the

public eye, in open court.

66. Transparent garments.] Multicia, quasi multilicia, of many threads. These were so finely and curiously wrought, that the body might be seen through them.

67. O Creticus.] This magistrate was descended from the family of that Metellus, who was called Creticus, from his conquest of Crete. Juvenal, most probably, addresses Metellus by this surname of his great ancestor, the more to expose and shame him, for acting so unworthy his descent from so brave and noble a person.

- Thou declaimest.] Passest sentence in the most aggravated terms-perores. The end of a speech, in which the orator collected all his force and eloquence, was called the peroration: but the verb is used in a larger sense, and signifies to declaim and make an harangue against any person or thing.

68. Procula and Pollinea.] Names of particular women, who were condemned, on the Julian law, for incontinence, but so famous in their way, as to stand here for lewd women in general.

He could condemn such in the severest manner, when before him in judgment, while he, by his immodest dress, shewed himself to be worse than they were.

68, 69. Fabulla-Carfinia.] Notorious adulteresses.

69, 70. Such a gown, &c.] Bad as such women may be, and even convicted of

Æstuo: nudus agas; minus est insania turpis.
En habitum, quo te leges, ac jura ferentem
Vulneribus crudis populus modo victor, et illud
Montanum positis audiret vulgus aratris.
Quid non proclames, in corpore Judicis ista
Si videas? quæro an deceant multicia testem?
Acer, et indomitus, libertatisque magister,
Cretice pelluces! Dedit hanc contagio labem,
Et dabit in plures: sicut grex totus in agris
Unius scabie cadit, et porrigine porci;
Uvaque conspectâ livorem ducit ab uvâ.
Foedius hoc aliquid quandoque audebis amictu:
Nemo repente fuit turpissimus. Accipient te
Paulatim, qui longa domi redimicula sumunt

incontinence, yet they would not appear in such a dress, as is worn by you who condemn them.

Or perhaps this alludes to the custom of obliging women convicted of adultery to pull off the stola, or woman's garment, and put on the toga, or man's garment, which stigmatized them as infamous; but even this was not so infamous as the transparent dress of the judge. Horace calls a common prostitute, togata. Sat. ii. lib. i. 1. 63.

- But July burns, &c.] He endeavours at an excuse, from the heat of the weather, for being thus clad.

71. Do your business, &c.] As a judge. Agere legem sometimes signifies to execute the sentence of the law against malefactors. See AINSW. Ago.

Madness is less shameful.] Were you to sit on the bench naked, you might be thought mad, but this would not be so shameful; madness might be some ex

cuse.

72. Lo the habit, &c.] This, and the three following lines, suppose some of the old hardy and brave Romans, just come from a victory, and covered with fresh wounds (crudis vulneribus)-rough mountaineers, who had left their ploughs, like Cincinnatus, to fight against the enemies of their country, and on their arrival at Rome, with the ensigns of glorious conquest, finding such an effeminate character upon the bench, bearing the charge of the laws, and bringing them forth in judgment; which may be the sense of ferentem in this place.

75. What would you not proclaim, &c.]

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How would you exclaim! What would you not utter, that could express your indignation and abhorrence (O ancient and venerable people) of such a silken judge!

76. I ask, would, &c.] q. d. It would be indecent for a private person, who only attends as a witness, to appear in such a dress; how much more for a judge, who sits in an eminent station, in a public character, and who is to condemn vice of all kinds.

77. Sour and unsubdued.] O Creticus, who pretendest to stoicism, and appearing morose, severe, and not overcome by your passions.

Master of liberty.] By this, and the preceding part of this line, it should appear, that this effeminate judge was one who pretended to stoicism, which taught a great severity of manners, and an apathy both of body and mind; likewise such a liberty of living as they pleased, as to be exempt from the frailties and passions of other men. They taughtὅτι μονος ὁ σοφος ελευθερος—that " only a "wise man was free." Hence CIC. Quid est libertas? potestas vivendi ut velis.

78. You are transparent.] Your body is seen through your fine garments: so that with all your stoicism, your appearance is that of a shameless and most unnatural libertine: a slave to the vilest passions, though pretending to be a master of your liberty of action.

- Contagion gave this stain.] You owe all this to the company which you have kept; by this you have been infected.

"I'm very hot"- do your business naked: madness is less

shameful.

Lo the habit! in which, thee promulgating statutes and laws,
The people (with crude wounds just now victorious,
And that mountain-vulgar with ploughs laid by) might hear.
What would you not proclaim, if, on the body of a judge,
those things

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You should see? I ask, would transparent garments become a witness?

Sour and unsubdued, and master of liberty,

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O Creticus, you are transparent! contagion gave this stain,
And will give it to more: as, in the fields, a whole herd,
Fall by the scab and measles of one swine:
And a grape derives a blueness from a grape beholden.
Some time you'll venture something worse than this dress :
Nobody was on a sudden most base. They will receive thee
By little and little, who at home bind long fillets on

79. And will give it to more.] You will corrupt others by your example, as you were corrupted by the example of those whom you have followed.

The language here is metaphorical, taken from distempered cattle, which communicate infection by herding together.

80. Falls by the scab, &c.] Our English proverb says, "One scabby sheep "mars the whole flock."

81. A grape, &c.] This is also a proverbial saying, from the ripening of the black grape, (as we call it,) which has a blue or livid hue: these do not turn to that colour all at once and together, but grape after grape, which, the vulgar supposed, was owing to one grape's looking upon another, being very near in contact, and so contracting the same colour. They had a proverb, Uva uvam videndo varia fit.

83. Nobody was on a sudden, &c.] None ever arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness at first setting out: the workings of evil are gradual, and almost imperceptible at first; but as the insinuations of vice deceive the conscience, they first blind and then harden it, until the greatest crimes are committed without remorse.

I do not recollect where I met with the underwritten lines; but as they contain excellent advice, they may not be unuseful in this place :

VOL. I.

84

O Leoline, be obstinately just,
Indulge no passion, and betray no trust ¿
Never let man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther, let my passion stray;
The first crime past compels us on to more,
And guilt proves fute, which was but
choice before.

They will receive, &c.] By degrees you will go on from one step to another till you are received into the lewd and horrid society after mentioned. The poet is now going to expose a set of unnatu ral wretches, who, in imitation of women, celebrated the rites of the Bona Dea.

84. Who at home, &c.] Domi, that is, secretly, privately, in some house, hired or procured for the purpose of celebrating their horrid rites, in imitation of the women, who yearly observed the rites of the Bona Dea, and celebrated them in the house of the high priest. PLUT. in vita Ciceronis et Cæsaris.

If we say, redimicula domi, literally, fillets of the house, we may understand it to mean those fillets which, in imitation of the women, they wore around their heads on these occasions, and which, at other times, were hung up about the house, as part of the sacred furniture.

Here is the first instance, in which their ornaments and habits were like those of the women.

H

Frontibus, et toto posuêre monilia collo,
Atque Bonam teneræ placant abdomine porcæ,
Et magno cratere Deam: sed more sinistro
Exagitata procul non intrat fœmina limen.
Solis ara Deæ maribus patet: ite profanæ,
Clamatur: nullo gemit hic tibicina cornu.
Talia secretâ coluerunt Orgia tædâ
Cecropiam soliti Baptæ lassare Cotyttô.
Ille supercilium madidâ fuligine tactum
Obliquâ producit acu, pingitque trementes
Attollens oculos; vitreo bibit ille Priapo,
Reticulumque comis auratum ingentibus implet,
Cœrulea indutus scutulata, aut galbana rasa;

85. And have placed ornaments, &c.] Monilia, necklaces, consisting of so many rows as to cover the whole neck; these were also female ornaments. This is the second instance. Monile, in its largest sense, implies an ornament for any part of the body. AINSW. But as the neck is here mentioned, necklaces are most probably meant; these were made of pearls, precious stones, gold,

&c.

86. The good goddess.] The Bona Dea, worshipped by the women, was a Roman lady, the wife of one Faunus; she was famous for chastity, and, after her death, consecrated. Sacrifices were performed to her only by night, and se cretly; they sacrificed to her a sow pig. No men were admitted.

In imitation of this, these wretches, spoken of by our poet, that they might resemble women as much as possible, instituted rites and sacrifices of the same kind, and performed them in the same secret and clandestine manner.

-The belly, &c.] The sumen, or dugs and udder of a young sow, was esteemed a great dainty, and seems here meant by abdomine. Pliny says (xi. 84. edit. Hard.) antiqui sumen vocabant abdomen. Here it stands for the whole animal (as in sat. xii. 73.) by synec.

87. A large goblet.] Out of which they poured their libations.

-By a perverted custom.] More sinistro-by a perverted, aukward custom, they exclude all women from their mysteries, as men were excluded from those of the women; by the latter of which alone the Bona Dea was to be worship

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ped, and no men were to be admitted.

Sacra bona maribus non adeunda Dea.
TIB. i. 6, 22.

So that the proceeding of these men was an utter perversion of the female rites; as different from the original and real institution, as the left hand is from the right, and as contrary.

89. Go ye profane.] Profana-meaning the women; as if they banished them by solemn proclamation. Juvenal here humourously parodies that passage in Virgil, relative to the Sybil, Æn. vi. 258, 9.

Procul, procul, este profani, Conclamat vates, totoque absistite luco!· 90. With no horn here, &c.] It was usual, at the sacrifices of the Bona Dea, for some of the women to make a lamentable noise (well expressed here by the word gemit) with a horn. The male worshippers had no women among them for this purpose. Nullo tibicina cornu, for nulla tibicina cornu. Hypallage.

91. Such orgies.] Orgia-so called ar as Ogyns, from the furious behaviour of the priests of Bacchus, and others by whom they were celebrated: but the part of the orgies here alluded to was that wherein all manner of lewdness, even of the most unnatural kind, was committed by private torch-light-Tæda secreta. Coluerunt-they practised, celebrated, solemnized.

92. The Bapta.] Priests of Cotytto at Athens, called Baptæ, because, after the horrid impurities which they had been guilty of, in honour of their goddess, they thought themselves entirely purified by dipping themselves in water.

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