NOTES

ON

TRANSLATIONS FROM PERSIUS.

SATIRE IV.

Note I.

Socrates.---P. 243.

Socrates, whom the oracle of Delphos praised as the wisest man of his age, lived in the time of the Peloponnesian war. He, finding the uncertainty of natural philosophy, applied himself wholly to the moral, He was master to Xenophon and Plato, and to many of the Athenian young noblemen; amongst the rest to Alcibiades, the most lovely youth then living; afterwards a famous captain, whose life is written by Plutarch.

Note II.

Tell me, thou pupil to great Pericles,

Our second hope, my Alcibiades.---P. 243.

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

Note III.

Can'st punish crimes.-P. 244.

That is, by death. When the judges would condemn a malefactor, they cast their votes into an urn; as, according to the mo

dern custom, a balloting-box. If the suffrages were marked with O, they signified the sentence of death to the offender; as being the first letter of Oávaros, which, in English, is death.

Note IV.

Drink hellebore.---P. 244.

The poet would say, that such an ignorant young man, as he here describes, is fitter to be governed himself than to govern others. He therefore advises him to drink hellebore, which purges the brain.

Note V.

Say, dost thou know Vectidius ?---P. 245.

The name of Vectidius is here used appellatively, to signify any rich covetous man, though perhaps there might be a man of that name then living. I have translated this passage paraphrastically, and loosely; and leave it for those to look on, who are not unlike the picture.

Note VI.

When he should thanks to Pan and Pales pay,

Pan, the god of shepherds, and Pales, the goddess presiding over rural affairs; whom Virgil invocates in the beginning of his second Georgic. I give the epithet of better to Ceres, because she first taught the use of corn for bread, as the poets tell us; men, in the first rude ages, feeding only on acorns, or mast, instead of bread.

Note VII.

Not five, the strongest that the Circus breeds.---P. 246. The learned Holyday (who has made us amends for his bad poetry in this and the rest of these satires, with his excellent illustrations), here tells us, from good authority, that the number five does not allude to the five fingers of one man, but to five strong men, such as were skilful in the five robust exercises then in practice at Rome, and were performed in the circus, or public place ordained for them. These five he reckons up in this manner : 1. The Cæstus, or Whirlbatts, described by Virgil in his fifth Eneid; and this was the most dangerous of all the rest. The 2d was the foot-race. The 3d, the discus; like the throwing a weighty

ball; a sport now used in Cornwall, and other parts of England; we may see it daily practised in Red-Lyon Fields. The 4th, was the Saltus, or Leaping; and the 5th, wrestling naked, and besmeared with oil. They who practised in these five manly exercises were called Πένταθλοι,

Note VIII.

If, with thy guards, thou scour'st the streets by night, And dost in murders, rapes, and spoils, delight.---P. 247. Persius durst not have been so bold with Nero as I dare now; and therefore there is only an intimation of that in him which I publicly speak: I mean, of Nero's walking the streets by night in disguise, and committing all sorts of outrages, for which he was sometimes well beaten.

Note IX.

Not what thou dost appear,

But what thou art, and find the beggar there.---P. 247. Look into thyself, and examine thy own conscience; there thou shalt find, that, how wealthy soever thou appearest to the world, yet thou art but a beggar; because thou art destitute of all virtues, which are the riches of the soul. This also was a paradox

of the Stoic school.

THE

FIFTH SATIRE

OF

PERSIUS.

INSCRIBED TO

THE REV. DR BUSBY.

THE SPEAKERS

PERSIUS AND CORNUTUS.

THE ARGUMENT.

The judicious Casaubon, in his proem to this Satire, tells us, that Aristophanes, the grammarian, being asked, what poem of Archilochus Iambics he preferred before the rest; answered, the longest. His answer may justly be applied to this Fifth Satire ; which, being of a greater length than any of the rest, is also by far the most instructive. For this reason I have selected it from all the others, and inscribed it to my learned master, Dr Busby; to whom I am not only obliged myself for the best part of my own education, and that of my two sons; but have also received from him the first and truest taste of Persius. May he be pleased to find, in this translation, the gratitude, or at least some small acknowledgment, of his unworthy scholar, at the distance of fortytwo years from the time when I departed from under his tui

tion.

as

This Satire consists of two distinct parts: The first contains the praises of the stoic philosopher, Cornutus, master and tutor to our Persius; it also declares the love and piety of Persius to his well-deserving master; and the mutual friendship which continued betwixt them, after Persius was now grown a man; also his exhortation to young noblemen, that they would enter themselves into his institution. From hence he makes an artful transition into the second part of his subject; wherein he first complains of the sloth of scholars, and afterwards persuades them to the pursuit of their true liberty. Here our author excellently treats that paradox of the Stoics, which affirms, that the wise or virtuous man is only free, and that all vicious men are naturally slaves; and, in the illustration of this dogma, he takes up the remaining part of this inimitable Satire.

PERSIUS.

Of ancient use to poets it belongs,

To wish themselves an hundred mouths and tongues:
Whether to the well-lunged tragedian's rage
They recommend their labours of the stage,
Or sing the Parthian, when transfixed he lies,
Wrenching the Roman javelin from his thighs.

CORNUTUS.

And why would'st thou these mighty morsels chuse, Of words unchewed, and fit to choke the muse? Let fustian poets with their stuff begone, And suck the mists that hang o'er Helicon ; When Progne,* or Thyestes' † feast they write; And, for the mouthing actor, verse indite. Thou neither like a bellows swell'st thy face, As if thou wert to blow the burning mass Of melting ore; nor canst thou strain thy throat, Or murmur in an undistinguished note, Like rolling thunder, till it breaks the cloud, And rattling nonsense is discharged aloud.