Claudius had scarce begun his eyes to close,
Ere from his side his Messalina rose;
(Accustom❜d long the bed of state to slight,
For the rank mattress, and the hood of night;)
And with one maid, and her dark hair conceal'd
Beneath a yellow tire, a strumpet veil'd!
She slipt into the stews, unseen, unknown,
And hir'd a cell, yet reeking, for her own.

VER. 177.

ber dark hair conceal'd

Beneath a yellow tire,-] Holyday, whose authority is always respectable, understands galerus of a veil. I take it to be an artificial tire or head-dress. The empress seems to have chosen it of a yellow, or rather carotty colour, not only as an effectual disguise, but as being in some degree appropriated to prostitutes. Ferrarius makes himself merry with Servius for saying that black hair (false, it must be understood) was peculiar to matrons, and yellow to women of pleasure; but without reason, for Servius is essentially right. To bring passages where flavus is applied to Lavinia, Lucretia, &c. is the worst of trifling. Who does not know that the ancients availed themselves of such epithets as flavus, candidus, purpureus, &c. as mere indicatives of beauty, and without the smallest reference to the colours respectively signified by them? The sense must always be determined by the context.

In the present case, it is certain that the Roman prostitutes wore a kind of yellow head-dress; nor was this custom peculiar to them; they found it established in Greece, where this coloured hair was deemed as improper for a matron to appear in, as it was at Rome. This is clear from a fragment of Menander :

VER. 179. She slipt into the stews, &c.] The stews at Rome were constructed in the form of a gallery, along which were ranged on each side, a number of

There, flinging off her dress, the imperial whore
Stood, with bare breasts, and gilded, at the door,
And shew'd, Britannicus, to all that came,
The womb that bore thee, in Lycisca's name:
Allur❜d the passers by with many a wile,
And ask'd her price, and took it, with a smile
And when the hour of business was expir'd
And all the girls dismiss'd, with sighs retir'd;
Yet what she could, she did; slowly she past,
And saw her man, and shut her cell the last.
Still raging with the fever of desire,

Her veins all turgid, and her blood all fire,

contiguous cells, or little chambers. Over the door of each of these was written the name of the tenant, who stood at the entrance, soliciting the preference of the visitors. Messalina, we see, took the cell of Lycisca, whose absence she had probably procured, and who was undoubtedly a lady in some request. She is mentioned by Martial, with whom she seems to have been a favourite.

I should have added, that the writing over the door contained not only the name of the lady, but the price of her favours. The following curious proof of it, is to be found in Hist. Apoll. Tyr. QUICUMQUE TARSIAM DEFLORAPOSTEA POPULO PATEBIT AD SINGULOS

VERIT MEDIAM LIBRAM DABIT.

SOLIDOS.

VER. 182.

with bare breasts, and gilded, &c.] The critics do not seem to understand this passage: they either suppose Messalina's breasts to be bound with golden fillets, or they change auratis (gilded) into ornatis (beautiful); but Juvenal is to be understood literally-the papilla were covered with gold-leaf; a species of ornament which, however repugnant to our ideas of beauty, is used by many of the dancing girls, and privileged courtesans of the East, to this day.

Exhausted, but unsatisfied, she sought

Her home, and to the Emperor's pillow brought, Cheeks rank with sweat, limbs drench'd with poisonous dews,

The steam of lamps, and odour of the stews!

'Twere long to tell what philters they provide,
What drugs, to set a son-in-law aside.
Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong,
By every gust of passion borne along,
Act in their fits such crimes, that, to be just,
The least pernicious of their sins is lust.

But why's Cesennia then, you say, ador'd,
And call'd the first of women, by her lord?

VER. 203. But why's Cesennia, &c.] Juvenal is seldom without his meaning; and while he exposes the overgrown fortunes of the women in his own time, and the vicious liberties they took in consequence of their wealth, he secretly reminds us of the very moderate dowers given to the daughters of the first men of the state in the better times of Rome; and of the domestic virtues for which they were conspicuous. It was usual for the rich wives of his time, to hold a considerable portion of their fortune, and a certain number of slaves, at their own disposal. It was not, therefore, the mere gratitude of the husband which made him wave his own authority, and allowed the wife to domineer. The Greeks seem to have given the same personal indulgence to women who brought ample dowers with them. "The ornaments of gold which now adorn my head," says Hermione, "and the variety of robes I possess, came to me neither from Achilles, nor from Peleus. I brought them from Sparta. Menelaus, my father, presented them to me with a dowry still more considerable, to the end that I might speak with freedom!" Androm.

Because she brought him thousands. Such the price, It cost the lady to be free from vice!

You think the good man for her beauty pin'd,

And, like a true Arcadian, puled and whin'd;
No, 'twas her ample dower that touch'd his heart,
That shot the fatal, the resistless dart.
She brought enough her liberty to buy,
And tip the wink before her husband's eye:
A wealthy wanton, to a miser wed,

Has all the privilege of a widow'd bed.

But then, Sertorius what I say disproves,
For though his Bibula was poor, he loves.
True! but examine him, and, on my life,
You'll find he loves the beauty, not the wife.
Let but a wrinkle on her forehead rise,
And time obscure the lustre of her eyes,

Let but the moisture leave her flaccid skin,

And her teeth blacken, and her cheeks grow thin,

It is amusing to observe the contrast this custom of the Greeks, and Romans forms, with the practice of the rugged nations of the North. These high-spirited barbarians could not bear the idea of dependance even on their wives, and they, therefore, refused to receive any dowries with them. Apud Gothos non mulier viro, sed vir mulieri dotem assignat, ne conjux, ob magnitudinem dotis insolescens, aliquando ex placida consorte proterva evadat, atque in maritum dominari contendat."

And you shall hear th' insulting freedman say, "Pack up your trumpery, madam, and away;

66

Nay, bustle, bustle; here you give offence,

"With snuffling night and day....take your nose "hence!"

But ere that hour arrive, she reigns indeed! Shepherds, and sheep of Canusinian breed, Vineyards (but these are trifles all,) she craves, And store of boys, and troops of country slaves; Briefly, for all her neighbour has, she sighs, And plagues her doting husband till he buys. In winter, when the merchant fears to roam, And snowy roofs confine his crew at home; She ransacks every storehouse; cheapens here, Huge myrrhe and chrystal vases; there, that dear,

VER. 236. Huge myrrhe, and chrystal vases,] In the original myrrhina, a word about which no two of the commentators are agreed. Pliny the Elder says, that these vases were first introduced by Pompey. Ea victoria (that, over Mithridates) primum in urbem murrbina induxit, primusque Pompeius sex pocula ex eo triumpho Capitolino Jovi dicavit, quæ protinus ad hominum usum transiêre-excrescitque indies ejus rei usus. 37. 2. Propertius, who had undoubtedly seen them, says,

"Murrheaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis."

This seems a very good description of what we now call porcelain, and with this we might have been content, had not Pliny, who could not be ignorant of it, added, Oriens murrbina mittit: inveniuntur enim ibi in pluribus locis, nes