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Rusticus ille tuus sumit trechedipna, Quirine, Et ceromatico fert niceteria collo.

Hic altâ Sicyone, ast hic Amydone relictâ, Hic Andro, ille Samo, bic Trallibus, aut Alabandis, Esquilias, dictumque petunt a vimine collem ; Viscera magnarum domuum, dominique futuri. Ingenium velox, audacia perdita, sermo Promptus, et Isæo torrentior: ede quid illum Esse putes? quemvis hominem secum attulit ad nos : Grammaticus, Rhetor, Geometres, Pictor, Aliptes, Augur, Schoenobates, Medicus, Magus: omnia novit.

66. Strumpet.] Lupa literally signifies a she-wolf; but an appellation fitly bestowed on common whores or bawds, whose profession led them to support themselves by preying at large on all they could get into their clutches. Hence a brothel was called lupanar. The Romans called all foreigners barbarians.

-A painted mitre.] A sort of turban, worn by the Syrian women as a part of their head-dress, ornamented with painted linen.

67. O Quirinus.] O Romulus, thou great founder of this now degenerate city! See note on 1. 60.

-That rustic of thine.] In the days of Romulus, and under his government, the Romans were an hardy race of shepherds and husbandmen. See sat. ii. 1. 74. and 127. Sat. viii. 1. 274, 5. rough in their dress, and simple in their manners. But, alas! how changed!

-A Grecian dress.]Trechedipna-from gex, to run, and dry, a supper. A kind of garment in which they ran to other people's suppers. AINSW. It was certainly of Greek extraction, and though the form and materials of it are not described, yet we must suppose it of the soft, effeminate, or gaudy kind, very unlike the garb and dress of the ancient rustics of Romulus, and to speak a sad change in the manners of the people. Dryden renders the passage thus:

O Romulus, and father Murs, look down! Your herdsman primitive, your homely clown,

Is turn'd a beau in a loose tawdry gown. 68. Grecian ornaments.] Niceteriarewards for victories, as rings, collars of gold, &c. Prizes. From Gr. xn, victory.

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-On his perfumed neck.] Ceromatico collo. The ceroma (Gr. xngwua, from xngos, cera) was an oil tempered with wax, wherein wrestlers anointed themselves.

But what proofs of effeminacy, or depravation, doth the poet set forth in these instances?

Using wrestlers' oil, and wearing on the neck collars of gold, and other insignia of victory, if to be understood li terally, seems but ill to agree with the poet's design, to charge the Romans with a loss of all former hardiness and manliness: therefore we are to understand this line in an ironical sense, meaning, that, instead of wearing collars of gold as tokens of victory, and rewards of courage and activity, their niceteria were trinkets and gewgaws, worn merely as ornaments, suitable to the effeminacy and luxury into which, after the example of the Grecians, Syrians, &c. they were sunk. By the ceroma he must also be understood to mean, that, instead of wrestlers' oil, which was a mere compound of oil and wax, their ceroma was some curious perfumed unguent with which they anointed their persons, their hair particularly, merely out of luxury. See sat. ii. 40-2. Thus Mr. Dryden:

His once unkem'd and horrid locks behold

Stilling sweet oil, his neck enchain'd with gold:

Aping the foreigners in every dress, Which, bought at greater cost, becomes him less.

69. High Sicyon.] An island in the Egean sea, where the ground was very high. The Egean was a part of the Mediterranean sea, near Greece, dividing Europe from Asia. It is now called

That rustic of thine, O Quirinus, assumes a Grecian dress, And carries Grecian ornaments on his perfumed neck. One leaving high Sicyon, but another, Amydon,

He from Andros, another from Samos, another from Tralles, or Alabanda,

Seek the Esquiliæ, and the hill named from an osier;
The bowels, and future lords, of great families.

A quick wit, desperate impudence, speech

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Ready, and more rapid than Isæus. Say-what do you Think him to be? He has brought us with himself what man you please:

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Grammarian, Rhetorician, Geometrician, Painter, Anointer, Augur, Rope-dancer, Physician, Wizard: de knows all things.

the Archipelago, and by the Turks, the White sea.

69. Amydon.] A city of Macedonia. 70. Andros.] An island and town of Phrygia the Lesser, situate in the Egean

sea.

-Samos.] Ar island in the Ionian sea, west of the bay of Corinth, now under the republic of Venice, now Cephalonie.

-Tralles.] A city of Lesser Asia between Caria and Lydia.

-Alabanda.] A city of Caria in the Lesser Asia.

71. Esquilia.] The mons esquilinus, one of the seven hills in Rome; so called from esculus, a beech-tree, of which many grew upon it. See AINSW.

-The hill named, &c.] The collis viminalis, another of the seven hills on which Rome was built; so called from a wood or grove of osiers which grew upon it. There was an altar there to Jupiter, under the title of Jupiter Viminalis.

These two parts of Rome may stand (by synec.) for Rome itself: or perhaps these were parts of it where these foreigners chiefly settled.

72. The bowels, &c.] Insinuating themselves, by their art and subtlety, into the intimacy of great and noble families, so as to become their confidents and favourites, their vitals as it were, insomuch that, in time, they govern the whole and, in some instances, become their heirs, and thus lords over the family possessions. See sat. ii. 58. notes, The wheedling and flattering of rich people, in order to become their heirs,

are often mentioned in Juvenal; such people were called captatores.

73. A quick wit.] Ingenium velox. Ingenium is a word of many meanings; perhaps, here, joined with velox, it might be rendered, a ready invention.

-Desperate impudence.] That nothing can abash or dismay.

73, 4. Speech ready.] Having words at will.

74. Isæus.] A famous Athenian orator, preceptor of Demosthenes. Torrentior, more copious, flowing with more precipitation and fulness, more like a torrent.

-Say, &c.] Now by the way, my friend, tell me what you imagine such a man to be; I mean of what calling or profession, or what do you think him qualified for?

75. What man, &c.] Well, I'll not puzzle you with guessing, but at once inform you, that, in his own single person, he has brought with him every character that you can imagine: in short, he is a jack of all trades. As the French say, C'est un valet à tout faire. Or, as is said of the Jesuits, Jesuitus est omnis

homo.

76. Anointer.] Aliptes, (from Gr. aλow, to anoint,) he that anointed the wrestlers, and took care of them. AINSW.

77. He knows all things.] Not only what I have mentioned, but so versatile is his genius, that nothing can come amiss to him. There is nothing that he does not pretend to the knowledge of.

Græculus esuriens in cœlum, jusseris, ibit. arienshin

Ad summum non Maurus erat, nec Sarmata nec, Thrax, Qui sumpsit pennas, mediis sed natus Athenis. Horum ego non fugiam conchylia? me prior ille Signabit? fultusque toro meliore recumbet, Advectus Romam, quo pruna et coctona, vento? Usque adeo nihil est, quod nostra infantia cœlum Hausit Aventini, baccâ nutrita Sabinâ? Quid !-quod adulandi gens prudentissima laudat Sermonem indocti, faciem deformis amici, Et longum invalidi collum cervicibus æquat Herculis, Antæum procul a tellure tenentisMiratur vocem angustam, quâ deterius nec Ille sonat, quo mordetur gallina marito !

78. A hungry Greek.] The diminutive Græculus is sarcastical. q. d. Let my little Grecian be pinched with hunger, he would undertake any thing you bade him, however impossible or improbable; Jike another Dædalus, he would even attempt to fly into the air.

79. In fine, &c.] Ad summum; upon the whole, be it observed, that the Greeks of old were a dexterous people at contrivance; for the attempt at flying was schemed by Dædalus, a native of Athens. No man of any other country has the honour of the invention.

81. The splendid dress.] Conchylia; shell-fish; the liquor thereof made purple, or scarlet colour: called also murex. Conchylium, by meton. signifies the colour itself; also garments dyed therewith, which were very expensive, and worn by the nobility and other great people.

Shall not I fly, fugiam, avoid the very` sight of such garments, when worn by such fellows as these, who are only able to wear them by the wealth which they have gotten by their craft and imposition?

81, 2. Sign before me.] Set his name before mine, as a witness to any deed, &c. which we may be called upon to sign.

82. Supported by a better couch, &c.] The Romans lay on couches at their convivial entertainments; these couches were ornamented more or less, some finer and handsomer than others, which were occupied according to the quality

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of the guests. The middle couch was esteemed the most honourable place, and so in order from thence. this vagabond Greek take place of me at table, says Umbritius, as if he were above me in point of quality and conse quence? As we should say, Shall he sit above me at table? HoR. lib. ii. sat. viii. 1. 20-3. describes an arrangement of the company at table.

83. Brought to Rome.] Advectus; imported from a foreign country, by the same wind, and in the same ship, with prunes, and little figs, from Syria. These were called coctona, or cottana, as supposed, from Heb. 1 little. MART. lib. xiii. 28. parva cottana.

Syria peculiares habet arbores, in ficorum genere. Caricas, et minores ejus generis, quæ coctana vocant. PLIN. lib. xiii. c. 5.

Juvenal means to set forth the low origin of these people; that they, at first, were brought out of Syria to Rome, as dealers in small and contemptible articles. Or he may mean, that as slaves they made a part of the cargo, in one of these little trading vessels. See sat. i. 110, 11.

85. Aventinus, &c.] One of the seven hills of Rome: so called from Avens, a river of the Sabines. AINSW. Umbritius here, with a patriotic indignation at the preference given to foreigners, asks, What! is there no privilege in having drawn our first breath in Rome? no preeminence in being born a citizen of the first city in the world, the conqueror and

A hungry Greek will go into heaven, if you command.

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In fine-he was not a Moor, nor Sarmatian, nor Thracian,
Who assumed wings, but born in the midst of Athens.
Shall I not avoid the splendid dress of these? before me shall he
Sign? and supported by a better couch shall he lie at table.
Brought to Rome by the same wind as plums and figs?
Is it even nothing that our infancy the air

Of Aventinus drew, nourished by the Sabine berry?
What!-because a nation, most expert in flattery, praises
The speech of an unlearned, the face of a deformed friend,
And equals the long neck of the feeble, to the neck of
Hercules, holding Antæus far from the earth-
Admires a squeaking voice: not worse than which,
He utters, who, being husband, the hen is bitten!

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mistress of all those countries from whence these people came ? Shall such fellows as these not only vie with Roman citizens, but be preferred before them?

-Sabine berry.] A part of Italy on the banks of the Tiber, once belonging to the Sabines, was famous for olives, here called bacca Sabina. But we are to understand all the nutritive fruits and produce of the country in general. Pro specie genus. Syn. In contradistinction to the pruna et coctona, 1. 83.

86. What !] As if he had said, What! is all the favour and preference which these Greeks meet with, owing to their talent for flattery? are they to be esteemed more than the citizens of Rome, because they are a nation of base sycophants?

87. The speech, &c.] Or discourse, talk, conversation, of some ignorant, stupid, rich patron, whose favour is basely courted by the most barefaced adulation.

-Face of a deformed, &c.] Persuading him that he is handsome; or that his very deformities are beauties.

88. The long neck, &c.] Compares the long crane-neck of some puny wretch, to the brawny neck and shoulders (cervicibus) of Hercules.

89. Holding, &c.] This relates to the story of Antæus, a giant of prodigious strength, who, when knocked down by Hercules, recovered himself by lying on his mother earth; Hercules therefore

held him up in his left hand, between earth and heaven, and, with his right hand, dashed his brains out.

90. Admires a squeaking voice.] A squeaking, hoarse, croaking kind of utterance, as if squeezed in its passage by the narrowness of the throat; this he applauds with admiration.

-Net worse, &c.] He assimilates the voice so commended, to the harsh screaming sound of a cock when he crows; or rather to the noise which he makes when he seizes the hen, on approaching to tread her, when he nips her comb in his beak, and holds her down under him. This must be alluded to by the mordetur gallina, &c.

Claverius, paraph. in Juv. iv. reads the passage,

―quá deterius nec Illa sonat, quum mordetur gallina marito.

-worse than which neither Doth that sound, when a hen is bitten by her husband.

Meaning, that voice which was so extolled with admiration by the flatterer, was as bad as the screaming which a hen makes when trodden by the cock, who seizes and bites her comb with his beak, which must be very painful, and occa-. sion the noise which she makes. However this reading may be rather more agreeable to the fact, yet there does not seem to be sufficient authority to adopt it.

Hæc eadem licet et nobis laudare: sed illis

Creditur. An melior cum Thaïda sustinet, aut cum
Uxorem comœdus agit, vel Dorida nullo

Cultam palliolo? mulier nempe ipsa videtur,

Non persona loqui: vacua et plana omnia dicas
Infra ventriculum, et tenui distantia rimâ.
Nec tamen Antiochus, nec erit mirabilis illic
Aut Stratocles, aut cum molli Demetrius Hæmo:
Natio comoda est: rides? majore cachinno
Concutitur: flet, si lachrymas conspexit amici,
Nec dolet: igniculum brumæ si tempore poscas,
Accipit endromidem: si dixeris, æstuo, sudat.
Non sumus ergo pares: melior qui semper, et omni
Nocte dieque potest alienum sumere vultum ;
A facie jactare manus, laudare paratus,

93. We may praise also.] To be sure we Romans may flatter, but without success; we shall not be believed: the Greeks are the only people in such credit as to have all they say pass for truth.

93. Whether is he better when he

plays, &c.] Sustinet, sustains the part of a Thais, or courtezan, or the more decent character of a matron, or a naked sea nymph there is no saying which a Grecian actor excels most in; he speaks so like a woman, that you'd swear the very woman seems to speak, and not the actor. Persona signifies a false face, a mask, a vizor, in which the Grecian and Roman actors played their parts, and so by meton. became to signify an

actor.

This passage shews, that women's parts were represented by men : for which these Greeks had no occasion for any alteration of voice; they differed from women in nothing but their sex.

94. Doris, &c.] A sea nymph represented in some play. See AINSW. Doris. Palliolum was a little upper garment: the sea nymphs were usually represented naked, nullo palliolo, without the least covering over their bodies. Palliolum, dim. of pallium.

98. Yet neither will Antiochus.] This person, and the others mentioned in the next line, were all Grecian comedians; perhaps Hæmus, from the epithet molli, may be understood to have been pecu

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liarly adapted to the performance of female characters.

All these, however we may admire them at Rome, would not be at all extraordinary in the country which they came from-illic-for all the Grecians are born actors; there is therefore nothing new, or wonderful, there, in representing assumed characters, however well it is the very characteristic of the whole nation to be personating and imitative. See AINSW. Comoedus-a-um.

100. Do you laugh?] The poet here illustrates what he had said, by instances of Grecian adulation of the most servile and meanest kind.

If one of their patrons happens to laugh, or even to smile, for so rideo also signifies, the parasite set up a loud horselaugh, and laughs aloud, or, as the word concutitur implies, laughs ready to split his sides, as we say.

101. He weeps, &c.] If he finds his friend in tears, he can humour this too; and can squeeze out a lamentable ap-. pearance of sorrow, but without a single grain of it.

102. If in winter-time you ask, &c.] If the weather be cold enough for the patron to order a little fire, the versatile Greek instantly improves on the matter, and puts on a great thick gown-endromidem-a sort of thick rug, used by wrestlers, and other gymnasiasts, to cover them after their exercise, lest they should cool too fast.

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