To speak thy mind, forth springs some sturdy groom, So daring, as to say-" Sir, drink to me?"— But should some god, or man of godlike soul, And give thee wealth; Heavens, what a change! How dear Would'st thou be then! How great wouldst thou appear From nothing! Virro, so reserv'd of late, Grows quite familiar: "brother, send your plate, Satire, affects to consider Trebius as a SLAVE, and that the principal aim of it is to prove that Virro considered him IN THE SAME LIGHT. Mr. Ireland disagrees with me in this explanation. What he says on the subject is very ingenious, and will probably obtain more suffrages than that which I have just hazarded. "Juvenal does not consider him as a slave whose oath is never admitted; but (what is far more cutting) his meaning is, I know thou art a freedman, that thy oath is, by the laws, to be believed; as I know here too that thou hast the honour of bearing three names, and therefore mayst use the language of a privileged Roman; but such is the servility of thy disposition, that it destroys the effect of these advantages. Sworn, as thou hast a right to be, (this is the force of quamvis jurato,) I will not believe thee; and having a right to liberty of speech, thy supper-hunting draws thee into situations where thou art afraid to make use of it." "Dear brother Trebius! you were wont to say "You lik'd these dainties; let me help you, pray." O riches! you're his brother, and to you Alone this friendship, this respect, is due! But would'st thou be " my lord?" nay, my lord's lord? Let no young Trebius wanton round thy board, To toy and prattle with the lisping train; VER. 217. Let no young Trebius, &c.] This is a pleasant parody of a passage in Virgil, It would not be easy to point out a piece of more chaste humour than a little tetrastic on the subject of the preceding line, which is to be found amongst the reprobated Greek epigrams: Ην ὁ φιλώ, τι λάβη, δομινο φρατερ, ευθύς εγραψεν, Ὧνια γαρ καὶ ταυτα τα ξηματα αυταρ εγωγε Will have his pockets still with farthings stor'd, And, when the sweet young rogues approach his board, Will order pretty corslets for the breast, And nuts, and apples, for each coaxing guest. Apples, which thou may'st smell, but never taste, Before thy lord, and his great friends are placed; VER. 230. He feeds secure on mushrooms, &c.] "The agaricus cæsareus, or imperial agaric, is the most splendid of all the species; it is common in Italy, and is brought to the markets there for sale. The ancient Romans esteemed it one of the greatest luxuries of the table. This is the mushroom with which Claudius was poisoned." Miller's Gard. Dict. I am sorry that the botanists did not go a step farther, when they were naming this article, and call it the agaricus claudianus. When every German professor who discovers a new species of dandelion in his walks, is immortalized: why should not this poor emperor be permitted to take his rank in the everlasting muster-roll, with Swartzia, Krockeria, and Wachendorfia ? VER. 231. Which Claudius, &c.] See Sat.v1. "Dic mihi, quis furor est? turbâ spectante vocatâ, "Solus boletos, Cæciliane, voras. Quid dignum tanto tibi ventre, gulâque precabor? "Boletum, qualem Claudius edit, edas." Mart. Lib. 1. Ep. xxi. Apples, as fragrant, and as bright of hue, Which graced the Hesperides in burnish'd rows. To thee they bring mere wind-falls: such stale fruit, As serves to mortify the raw recruit, VER. 240. To thee they bring mere wind-falls, &c.] "Tu scabie frueris mali, quod in aggere rodit "Qui tegitur parmâ, et galeâ, metuensque flagelli There are few passages in Juvenal, or, indeed, in any other author, which have cost the critics more pains than this. Scabie mali, says the old scholiast, i. e. such as apes eat, qualem simia manducat; nothing more was necessary to convince the commentators that the whole passage related to an ape: they never reflected that though apes might eat stale fruit, it did not necessarily follow that they monopolized it.-But Cluverius had seen an animal of this kind practice his tricks on the back of a goat, at some fair in Germany: and it is really entertaining to contemplate the delight which this good man received from it. Di boni! quam volupe est spectare banc bestiolam, ubi præsertim clypeum sinistrâ, jaculum dexterâ ostentat, molosso, &c. lapsu proclivi, inhærens ! Cluverius was the first, says Henninius, that comprehended the scholiast; and he was soon followed by Grangeus, Rutgersius, and others. But though the majority of the learned, referred, with Cluverius, the qui tegitur to an ape, no two of them agreed about the sense of hirsuta capella. One understood it of a thong made of goat's skin, another of a garment, a third of a quiver, and a fourth, of I know not what. Titius thought it meant a goat on which the tyro was seated, in imitation of the children of kings, who in ancient times were accustomed to learn to ride on rams!-the example of Helle was lost upon them, we see; while Grangeus took it to be the showman, who taught the ape his exercise! After all this, comes Ferrarius and tells us, that the notion of an ape seated on a goat, is an old woman's fable. Not so, replies Henninius, the ape was When, arm'd with helm and shield, he learns to throw The javelin, fearful of the impending blow. certainly seated on a goat; but to suppose, as Rutgersius and Grangeus do, that he was exhibited by a showman, is worse than an old woman's fable.No, no, he was kept in the prætorian camp, and taught to ride and fling darts, by the idle soldiery, who had no better methods of amusing themselves! Pshaw! quoth Lipsius, I cannot away with this nonsense about apes. The qui tegitur cannot possibly mean any thing but a bestiarius, a person who fought with wild beasts in the amphitheatre; and the goat (for a goat there is) was not for him to ride, but to practise upon—i. e. to fling darts at, that he might acquire dexterity enough to attack lions, tigers, &c. But it is time to draw towards a conclusion. Scaliger, Britannicus, Curio, and Ferrarius, understand the passage nearly as I have given it above; and, as I am persuaded, the old scholiast understood it before them. Qui tegitur parmâ, &c. he explains by tyro, which applies very well to a young recruit; though scarcely so, to an ape of any age. Discit ab, &c. he explains by sene magistro, which clearly shews, as Ferrarius, and Scaliger have well observed, that he read birsuto. Capella will then be the name of the campidoctor, who taught the young soldiers the use of arms; and we know it was not an uncommon one at Rome. The propriety of the epithet birustus applied to such a person, I suppose no one will dispute. But why, says Lipsius-who returns to the charge, should the raw recruit eat vile apples! I cannot tell; unless it were that his pay would not enable him to purchase better. Indeed I should be as much at a loss to tell why the bestiarius, or the ape, should:-those of the latter that I have seen, having been rather delicate in their choice of fruit. To his other questions, why the tyro should be armed with a parma (a round shield) when they were no longer in use? or be afraid of a scourge, (flagellum,) when he could only be beaten with a rod? it might perhaps, be sufficient to answer, that Juvenal writes like a poet, and not like a drill-serjeant:-but Holyday goes farther, and combats the critics' accuracy. This learned man, who candidly recapitulates the opinions of the commentators, follows that of Rutgersius. I did not expect this :—it is but fair, however, to give his reasons for it. "First, because it is without any alteration of the copy; second, because it is free from any of those inconveniences which |