THE

FOURTH SATIRE

OF

PERSIUS.

Our author, living in the time of Nero, was contemporary and friend to the noble poet Lucan; both of them were fufficiently fenfible, with all good men, how unskilfully he managed the commonwealth: and perhaps might guess at his future tyranny, by fome paffages, during the latter part

his first five years; though he broke not out into his great exceffes, while he was reftrained by the counfels and authority of Seneca. Lucan has not fpared him in the poem of his Pharfalia: for his very compliment looked afquint, as well as Nero. Perfius has been bolder, but with caution likewise. For here, in the perfon of young Alcibiades, he arraigns his ambition of meddling with state-affairs, without judgment or experience. It is probable that he makes Seneca, in this fatire, fuftain the part of Socrates, under a borrowed name. And, withal, difcovers fome fecret vices of Nero,

concerning his luft, his drunkenness, and his effeminacy, which had not yet arrived to public notice. He alfo reprehends the flattery of his courtiers, who endeavoured to make all his vices pafs for virtues. Covetousness was undoubtedly none of his faults; but it is here defcribed as a veil caft over the true meaning of the poet, which was to fatirize his prodigality and voluptuousness; to which he makes a tranfition. I find no inftance in hiftory of that emperor's being a Pathique, though Perfius feems to brand him with it. From the two dialogues of Plato, both called ALCIBIADES, the poet took the arguments of the fecond and third fatires, but he inverted the order of them: for the third fatire is taken from the firft of thofe dialogues.

The commentators before Cafaubon, were ignorant

of our author's fecret meaning; and thought he had only written against young noblemen in general, who were too forward in afpiring to public magiftracy: but this excellent fcholiaft has unravelled the whole mystery; and made it apparent, that the fting of this fatire was particularly aimed at Nero.

WHOE'ER thou art, whofe forward years

are bent

On ftate-affairs, to guide the government;
Hear, firft, what Socrates of old has faid
To the lov'd youth, whom he, at Athens, bred,

Ver. 3. Socrates, whom the oracle of Delphos praised, as

Tell me,

thou pupil to great Pericles,

Our fecond hope, my Alcibiades,

5

What are the grounds, from whence thou doft

prepare

To undertake, fo young, fo vaft a care?

Perhaps thy wit: (a chance not often heard, That parts and prudence fhould prevent the beard :)

"Tis feldom feen, that fenators so young

10

Know when to speak, and when to hold their tongue.

Sure thou art born to fome peculiar fate;
When the mad people rise against the state,
To look them into duty and command
An awful filence with thy lifted hand.
Then to befpeak 'em thus: Athenians, know
Against right reason all your counfels go;
This is not fair; nor profitable that;
Nor t'other question proper for debate.

15

20

But thou, no doubt, can't fet the bufinefs

right,

And give each argument its proper weight:

the wifeft man of his age, lived in the time of the Peloponnefian war. He, finding the uncertainty of natural philofophy, applied himself wholly to the moral. He was mafter to Xenophon and Plato, and to many of the Athenian young noblemen; amongst the rest, to Alcibiades, the moft lovely youth then living; afterwards a famous captain, whofe life is written by Plutarch.

Ver. 5. Pericles was tutor, or rather overfeer of the will of Clinias, father to Alcibiades. While Pericles lived, who was a wife man, and an excellent orator, as well as a great general, the Athenians had the better of the war.

Know'ft, with an equal hand, to hold the fcale:

Seeft where the reasons pinch, and where they fail,

And where exceptions o'er the general rule

prevail.

And, taught by inspiration, in a trice,

25*

Can't punish crimes, and brand offending vice.
Leave, leave to fathom fuch high points as

thefe,

30

Nor be ambitious, e'er thy time, to please:
Unfeafonably wife, till age, and cares,
Have form'd thy foul, to manage great affairs.
Thy face, thy fhape, thy outfide, are but
vain ;

Thou haft not strength fuch labours to fuf-
tain:

Drink hellebore, my boy, drink deep, and purge thy brain.

What aim'ft thou at, and whither tends

thy care,

In what thy utmost good? Delicious fare ;
And, then, to fun thyself in open air.

35

Ver. 27. Can't punish crimes, &c.] That is, by death. When the judges would condemn a malefactor, they caft their votes into an urn, as, according to the modern cuftom, a ballottingbox. If the fuffrages were marked with they fignified the fentence of death to the offender, as being the first letter of Oávalos, which in English is death.

Ver. 34. Drink hellebore, &c.] The poet would fay, that fuch an ignorant young man, as he here defcribes, is fitter to be governed himself, than to govern others. He therefore advifes him to drink hellebore, which purges the brain.