For should the seed that now distends her womb, That, seen at morn, would sure misfortune bring The beggars' bantlings, spawn'd in open air, And smiles complacent on the sprawling brood; VER. 900. That, seen at morn, &c.] Another absurd superstition of the Romans. Vetus opinio (says Dempster in his notes on Claudian) non tantum vulgo approbata occursu Æthiopis, iter inceptum reddi infaustum. If this happened in a morning, not only the walk, but the whole business of the day, was superseded and ruined! VER. 909. Fortune, &c.] Fortune, I think, is the only one of the old rabble of divinities that we have adopted. She still retains her ancient attributes, and is spoken of at this hour, much as she was two thousand years ago; sometimes as a person, and sometimes as a quality; as something, in short, which every one can conceive, and no one define. Fortune is for all the world like Bottom's dream," man is but an ass if he go about to expound her,-man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what she is:" yet hath Mr. Spence attempted it! Though his entertaining work shows no great learning, or reach of thought in general, yet I cannot but think him particularly inefficient in what he says of Takes them all naked to her fostering arms: Fortune. In speaking of this line,—stat Fortuna improba noctu, he adds, "that Juvenal alludes to a statue of Fortune, which represented her under a good character, as the patroness of poor infants." Juvenal alludes to no statue, but to the goddess herself in propria persona, nor does he represent her under a good character. But Mr. Spence goes on-" the distinction of the bona and mala Fortuna is very necessary for the explanation of the passage: the lady stands like Fortune in the streets, (not the good Fortune, but the very bad one), and gets up all the children she can, to introduce them into the family, and boast of them as her own." In this washer-woman's language does he mangle, and confound, one of the most amusing and animated pictures, that a keen and vigorous fancy ever drew! But why must it be a lady, and not Fortune herself, that is engaged in getting up children? O, for a very excellent reason, because “ improba is applied to her, and the action itself, is a good one!" Not to reply that what is good for the one, could not be bad for the other, it seems very strange that Mr. Spence should be ignorant of the meaning of improba in this place. He renders it bad; but it signifies what we call, unlucky, i. e. delighting in sportive mischief. Some of the commentators explain it by stolida, stupid! Can the reader find any thing stupid in the business in which Fortune is so actively engaged? Entirely to their lusts! and make him bear, That strange forgetfulness from hour to hour; Of order snapp'd, and Anarchy's wild reign VER. 930. The dire excrescence of a new-dropt foal.] This excrescence, Holyday says, "is a tender piece of flesh, growing on the brow of a young foal.” Dryden calls it "mother's love," which, I take for granted, is its true English name; as he was very well acquainted with those trifles. How the critics, and Holyday among the rest, could suppose for a moment, that, in this fine passage, Juvenal alluded to the effect produced on Jupiter, by the borrowed cestus of Venus, I cannot imagine. I will not take upon myself to defend the taste of our author in every instance:-but if we only allow him common sense, it must surely be more than enough, to keep him from such an absurd application of one of the most beautiful allegories in all poetry. I know but little mischief that was produced by Juno's charming philter, more than procuring a few Trojans to be knocked on the head. What has this then to do with the frantic and wide-spreading massacres of a Caligula ! massacres which appear to have made so powerful an impression on the poet, that he can think of nothing to illustrate them by, but the universal destruction that must have ensued if Juno, like Cæsonia, had driven her husband mad! Came on apace, as if the queen of heaven To this accursed draught; that only sent Such is the power of philters! such the ill One sorceress can effect by wicked skill! VER. 935. Thy mushroom, Agrippine! &c.] We have already seen (Sat. v.) that Claudius was poisoned by a mushroom, his favourite food. "It was prepared," Tacitus says, by Locusta (Sat. 1. v. 118.) “ and given to him when he was either half stupid, or half asleep"-most likely both-" so that he did not perceive it had any ill taste." For the rest, Juvenal's description of this mooncalf, is confirmed, in every part, by Suetonius. Risus indecens, ira turpior, spumante rictu, humentibus naribus, caputque cum semper, tum in quantulocumque actu vel maxime tremulum, §. 30. To make the poor creature some amends for poisoning him, they made a god of him, out of hand; and the facetious Nero, who profited by his apotheosis, used ever after, in allusion to the event, to call mushrooms, Сpaux Jewv, the food of the gods! απο But there was no end to the pleasantries of the Romans on this descent of Claudius into heaven! Seneca's play upon the word awodavatwσis is well known. Gallio, his brother too, is celebrated for a joke on the subject; which seems to have pleased Dio, and is, indeed, far from a bad one. Alluding to the hooks with which criminals were dragged from the place of execution to the Tiber, and of which by far too many instances occurred under Claudius, he observed that he was "hooked to Heaven."-Khaudion aynispy es vor sparer averex Invas! They hate their husband's spurious breed; and this, Whate'er she sets before you: fear her meat, And, like the buskin'd bards of Greece, declaim, Would it were so! but Pontia cries aloud, VER. 963. Would it were so! but Pontia cries aloud, &c.] Here again the ancient objectors to the truth of our author's statements imagined, perhaps, like the modern, that they had taken him at a disadvantage; but he was prepared for them. The story of Pontia, which he produces as his justification, was well known at Rome. Indeed it so happens, that there were two monsters of that name, and that the history of either would have answered his purpose. The |