Be filent, and beware, if fuch you fee; 'Tis defamation but to fay, That's he!

250

Against bold Turnus the great Trojan arm, Amidft their strokes the poet gets no harm: 246 Achilles may in epique verse be slain, And none of all his Myrmidons complain : Hylas may drop his pitcher, none will cry; Not if he drown himself for company: But when Lucilius brandishes his pen, And flashes in the face of guilty men, A cold sweat stands in drops on ev'ry part; And rage fucceeds to tears, revenge to fmart. Mufe, be advis'd; 'tis paft confid'ring time, 255 When enter'd once the dang'rous lifts of rhyme: Since none the living villains dare implead, Arraign them in the perfons of the dead.

Ver. 245. Against bold Turnus, &c.] A poet may fafely write an heroic poem, such as that of Virgil, who defcribes the duel of Turnus and Eneas; or of Homer, who writes of Achilles and Hector; or the death of Hylas the Catamite of Hercules; who stooping for water, dropt his pitcher, and fell into the well after it. But 'tis dangerous to write fatire like Lucilius.

The ftory of this fatire speaks itself. Umbritius, the fuppofed friend of Juvenal, and himself a poet, is leaving Rome, and retiring to Cuma. Our author accompanies him out of town. Before they take leave of each other, Umbritius tells his friend the reafons which oblige him to lead a private life, in an obscure place. He complains that an honeft man cannot get his bread at Rome. That none but flatterers make their fortunes there: that Grecians and other foreigners raife themselves by thofe fordid arts which he defcribes, and against which he bitterly inveighs. He reckons up the several inconveniencies which arife from a city life; and the many dangers which attend it. Upbraids the noblemen with covetousness, for not rewarding good poets; and arraigns the government for ftarving them. The great art of this fatire is

particularly fhown, in common places; and drawing in as many vices, as could naturally fall into the compafs of it.

GRIEV'D though I am an ancient friend

to lofe,

I like the folitary feat he chose:
In quiet Cuma fixing his repose:

5

Where, far from noify Rome fecure he lives,
And one more citizen to Sybil gives.
The road to Bajæ, and that foft recefs,
Which all the gods with all their bounty blefs.
Though I in Prochyta with greater ease
Could live, than in a ftreet of palaces.
What scene so defert, or fo full of fright, 10
As tow'ring houses tumbling in the night,
And Rome on fire beheld by its own blazing(
light?

But worse than all, the clatt'ring tiles; and worfe

Than thousand padders, is the poet's curfe. 14 Rogues that in dog-days cannot rhyme forbear: But without mercy read, and make you hear.

Ver. 3. Cuma] A fmall city in Campania, near Puteoli, or Puzzolo, as it is called. The habitation of the Cumaan Sybil.

Ver. 6.

Baja,] Another little town in Campania, near the fea a pleafant place.

Ver. S. Prochyta] A fmall barren ifland belonging to the kingdom of Naples.

Ver. 15. in dog-days] The poets in Juvenal's time used to rehearse their poetry in Auguft.

Now while my friend, juft ready to depart, Was packing all his goods in one poor cart; He stopp'd a little at the Conduit-gate, Where Numa modell'd once the Roman ftate, In mighty councils with his Nymph retir'd: 21 Though now the facred fhades and founts are hir'd

By banish'd Jews, who their whole wealth can lay

In a small basket, on a wifp of hay;

25

Yet fuch our avarice is, that ev'ry tree
Pays for his head; nor fleep itself is free :
Nor place, nor perfons, now are facred held,
From their own grove the Mufes are expell'd:
Into this lonely vale our fteps we bend,

30

I and my fullen difcontented friend:
The marble caves, and aquæducts we view;
But how adult'rate now, and different from the
true!

Ver. 20.

Numa] The fecond king of Rome; who made their laws, and instituted their religion.

Ver. 21. Nymph] Ægeria, a nymph, or goddess; with whom Numa feigned to converfe by night; and to be inftructed by her, in modelling his fuperftitions.

Ver. 31. The marble caves,] The preference here given to the beauties of fimple nature above thofe of art, is remarkable.The lines of the original are worth quoting, as written in a pure tafte, and very different from the turgid declamatory style into which Juvenal too frequently falls.

Quanto præftantius effet

Numen aquæ viridi fi margine clauderet undas
Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum.