leaft by the help of Dacier I am fwimming towards it. Not that I will promise always to follow him, any more than he follows Cafaubon; but to keep him in my Eye, as my best and trueft Guide; and where I think he may poffibly mislead me, there to have Recourfe to my own Lights, as I expect that others should do by me.

Quintilian fays, in plain Words, Satira quidem tota noftra eft: And Horace had faid the fame thing before him, fpeaking of his Predeceffor in that fort of Poetry, Et Græcis intacti Carminis Author. Nothing can be clearer than the Opinion of the Poet, and the Orator, both the belt Critiques of the two beft Ages of the Roman Empire, than that Satyr was wholly of Latin Growth; and not tranfplanted from Athens to Rome. Yet, as I have faid, Scaliger the Father, according to his Cultom, that is, infolently enough, contradicts them both; and gives no better Reason, than the Derivation of Satyrus from radu Salacitas; and fo from the Let chery of thofe Fauns, thinks he has fufficiently prov'd, that Satyr is deriv'd from them. As if Wantonnefs and Lubricity were effential to that Sort of Poem, which ought to be avoided in it. His other Allegation, which I have already mention'd, is as pitiful: That the Satires carry'd Platters and Canifters full of Fruit, in their Hands. If they had enter'd empty-handed, had they been ever the lefs Satires? Or were the Fruits and Flowers, which they offer'd, any thing of kin to Sa tyr? Or any Argument that this Poem was originally Grecian? Cafaubon judg'd better, and his Opinion is grounded on fure Authority, that Satyr was deriv'd from Satura, a Roman Word, which fignifies Full, and Abundant, and full alfo of Variety, in which nothing is wanting in its due Perfection. 'Tis thus, fays Dacier, that we lay a full Colour, when the Wool has taken the whole Tincture, and drunk in as much of the Dye as it can receive. According to this Derivation from Satur

comes

comes Satura, or Satyra, according to the new Spelling; as optumus and maxumus are now fpell'd optimus and maximus. Satura, as I have formerly noted, is an Adjective, and relates to the Word Lanx, which is underftood. And this Lanx, in English a Charger, or large Platter, was yearly fill'd with all forts of. Fruits, which were offer'd to the Gods at their Festivals, as the Premices, or First Gatherings. Thefe Offerings of feveral Sorts thus mingled, 'tis true, were not known to the Grecians, who call'd them πανκαρπὸν θυσίσι a Sacrifice of all forts of Fruits ; and πανπερμίαν, when they offer'd all kinds of Grain. Virgil has mentioned these Sacrifices in his Georgiques.

Lancibus & pandis fumantia reddimus Exta. And in another Place, Lancefque & liba feremus: That is, we offer the fmoaking Entrails in great Platters; and we will offer the Chargers and the Cakes.

This Word Satura has been afterwards apply'd to many other forts of Mixtures; as Feftus calls it a kind of Olla, or Hotch-potch, made of feveral forts of Meats. Laws were also call'd Leges Saturæ ; when they were of feveral Heads and Titles; like our tack'd Bills of Parliament. And per Saturam legem ferre, in the Roman Senate, was to carry a Law without telling the Senators, or counting Voices, when they were in hafte. Saluft ufes the Word per Saturam Sententias exquirere ; when the Majority was vifibly on one fide. From hence it might probably be conjectur'd, that the Dif courfes or Satires of Ennius, Lucilius, and Horace, as we now call them, took their Name; because they are full of various Matters, and are alfo written on various Subjects, as Porphyrius fays. But Dacier affirms, that it is not immediately from thence that these Satires are fo call'd: For that Name had been us'd formerly for other things, which bore a nearer refemblance to thofe Difcourfes of Horace. In explaining of which, (conti

nues

nues Dacier) a Method is to be purfu'd, of which Cafaubon himself has never thought, and which will put all things into fo clear a Light, that no farther room will be left for the least Dispute.

During the space of almost four hundred Years, fince the Building of their City, the Romans had never known any Entertainments of the State: Chance and Jollity first found out thofe Verses which they call'd Saturnian, and Fefcennine: Or rather Human Nature, which is inclin'd to Poetry, firft produc'd them, rude and barbarous, and and unpolish'd, as all other Operations of the Soul are in their Beginnings, before they are cultivated with Art and Study. However, in Occafions of Merriment they were firft practis'd; and this rough-caft unhewn Poetry, was inftead of Stage-Plays, for the space of one hundred and twenty Years together. They were made extempore, and were, as the French call them, Impromptus; For which the Tarfians of old were much renowned; and we see the daily Examples of them in the Italian Farces of Harlequin, and Scaramucha. Such was the

Poetry of that falvage People, before it was turn'd into Numbers, and the Harmony of Verfe. Little of the Saturnian Verfes is now remaining; we only know from Authors, that they were nearer Profe than Poetry, without Feet, or Measure. They were έρρυθμοι, but not έμμετροι : Perhaps they might be us'd in the folemn Part of their Ceremonies; and the Fefcennine, which were invented after them, in their Afternoons Debau chery, because they were fcoffing and obfcene.

The Fefcennine and Saturnian were the fame; for as they were call'd Saturnian from their Ancientnefs, when Saturn reign'd in Italy; they were also called Fefcennine, from Fefcennina, a Town in the fame Country, where they were first practis'd. The Actors, with a grofs and ruftick kind of Raillery, reproach'd each other with their Failings; and at the fame time were nothing fpar

ing of it to their Audience. Somewhat of this Cuftom was afterwards retain'd in their Suturnalia, or Feasts of Saturn, celebrated in December; at least all kind of freedom in Speech was then allow'd to Slaves, even against their Masters; and we are not without fome imitation of it in our Christmas Gambols. Soldiers alfo us'd those Fefcennine Verses, after Measure and Numbers had been added to them, at the Triumph of their Generals: Of which we have an Example, in the Triumph of Julius Cæfar over Gaul, in thefe Expreffions: Cafar Gallias fubegit, Nicomedes Cæfarem: Ecce Cafar nunc triumphat, qui fubegit Gallias; Nicomedes non triumphat, qui fubegit Cæfarem. The Vapours of Wine made the firft Satyrical Poets amongst the Romans; which, fays Dacier, we cannot better reprefent, than by imagining a company of Clowns on a Holy-day, dancing Lubberly, and upbraiding one another in extempore Doggrel, with their Defects and Vices, and the Stories that were told of them in Bake houfes and Barbers-Shops.

When they began to be fomewhat better bred, and were ehtring, as I may fay, into the firft Rudiments of Civil Converfation, they left thefe Hedge-Notes, for anothet Sort of Poem, fomewhat polish'd, which was alfo full of pleasant Raillery, but without any Mixture of Obscenity. This Sort of Poetry appear'd under the Name of Satyr, because of its Variety: And this Satyr was adorn'd with Compofitions of Mufick, and with Dances; but lafcivious Postures were banish'd from it. In the Tufcan Language, fays Livy, the Word Hifter fignifies a Player: And therefore thofe Actors, which were first brought from Etruria to Rome, on occafion of a Peftilence; when the Romans were admonish'd to avert the Anger of the Gods by Plays, in the Year ab Urbe Condita CCCXC: Thofe Actors, I fay, were therefore call'd Hiftriones: And that Name has fince remain❜d, not only to Actors Roman born, butto all others of every Nation.

Nation. They play'd not the former extempore Stuff of Fefcennine Verfes, or Clownifh Jefts; but what they acted was a kind of civil cleanly Farce, with Mufick and Dances, and Motions that were proper to the Subject.

In this Condition Livius Andronicus found the Stage, when he attempted first, instead of Farces, to supply it with a nobler Entertainment of Tragedies and Comedies. This Man was a Grecian born, and being made a Slave by Livius Salinator, and brought to Rome, had the Education of his Patron's Children committed to him. Which Truft he discharg'd, so much to the Satisfaction of his Mafter, that he gave him his Liberty.

Andronicus thus become a Freeman of Rome, added to his own Name that of Livius his Master; and, as I obferv'd, was the firft Author of a regular Play in that Common-wealth. Being already inftructed, in his Native-Country, in the Manners and Decencies of the Athenian Theater, and converfant in the Archaa Comadia, or old Comedy of Aristophanes, and the rest of the Gre cian Poets; he took from that Model his own Defigning of Plays for the Roman Stage. The firft of which was represented in the Year CCCCCXIV. fince the Building of Rome, as Tully, from the Commentaries of Atticus, has affur'd us; it was after the end of the first Punic War, the Year before Ennius was born. Dacier has not carry'd the Matter altogether thus far; he only fays, that one Livius Andronicus was the first Stage-Poet at Rome: But I will adventure on this Hint, to advance another Propofition, which I hope the Learned will approve. And tho' we have not any thing of Andronicus remaining to juftify my Conjecture, yet 'tis exceeding probable, that having read the Works of thofe Grecian Wits, his Country men, he imitated not only the Ground work, but also the Manner of their Writing. And how grave foever his Tragedies might be, yet in. his Comedies he exprefs'd the Way of Aristophanes, Eu

polis,