way,

F. Yes; let him look. He comes: avoid his And on your lip your cautious finger lay: Crowds of informers follow in his rear, And if you say but "Lo!" will overhear. Bring, if you will, Æneas on the stage, Once more the fierce Rutilian to engage; Make stern Achilles bleed in epic strain, And "Hylas! Hylas!" fill the shore in vain. Harmless, nay pleasant, shall your verse be found, You bare no ulcer, and you probe no wound.

bus potiretur, veneno absumsit; subtractisque annulis, et falsò tabulis signatis, bæreditates summo scelere consecutus est. Val. Prob.

It appears that Juvenal really had some one in view, whose enormities bore a wonderful similarity to those of Tigellinus. The forger

is described in the very words of this quotation; and if the reader will have the goodness to turn to v. 112, he will probably be convinced that the person there alluded to, was some worthless minion, who derived his confidence in guilt from the partiality of a powerful protector.

VER. 363. Bring, if you will, Æneas on the stage, &c.] Pliny has a passage on this subject nearly to the same purpose. Nos enim qui in foro, verisque litibus terimur, multum malitiæ quamvis nolimus, addiscimus. Schola et auditorium, ut ficta casua, ita res inermis innoxia est. The same thought too, is touched with humour by Beaumont in the Knight of the burning Pestle.

Prol. By your sweet favour, we intend no harm to the city.

But when Lucilius, fired with virtuous rage,
Nerves his bold arm to scourge an impious age,
The conscious villain shudders at his sin,

And burning blushes speak the pangs within;
Cold drops of sweat from every member roll,
And growing terrors harrow up his soul.

Then tears of shame, and dire revenge succeed-
Say; have you ponder'd well th' adventurous deed?
Now-ere the trumpet sound-your strength debate;
The soldier once engaged, repents too late.

J. YET I must write; and since these iron times, From living knaves preclude my angry rhymes,

Cit. No, sir! Yes, sir. If you were not resolved to play the jack, what need you study for new subjects purposely to abuse your betters? Why could not you be content, as well as others, with the Legend of Whittington, the Story of Queen Eleanor, and the rearing of London Bridge upon woolsacks?

VER. 269. But when Lucilius, &c.] In Randolph's Entertainment there is so admirable a paraphrase of this passage, that I shall be easily forgiven for producing it:

"When I (Satire) but frown'd in my Lucilius' brow,
"Each conscious cheek grew red, and a cold trembling
"Freez'd the chill soul, while every guilty breast

Stood, fearful of dissection, as afraid

"To be anatomised by that skilful hand,

"And have each artery, nerve, and vein of sin,

"By it laid open to the public scorn."

I point my pen against the guilty dead,

And pour its gall on each obnoxious head.

VER. 281. I point my pen against the guilty dead, &c.] Hall, on the contrary,

"I will not ransack up the quiet grave,

"Nor burn dead bones as he (Juv.) example gave,

"I tax the living, let the ashes rest,

"Whose faults are dead, and nailed in their chest.

But Hall, like his predecessor, makes use of departed names; so that the generosity is more in appearance than reality. The design of both was the same; and nobody was deceived.

SATIRE II.

Argument.

THIS Satire contains an irregular but animated attack, upon the hypocrisy of philosophers and reformers; whose ignorance, profligacy, and impiety, it exposes with just severity.

Domitian is here the hero: his vices are covertly or openly alluded to, under every different name; and it must give us a high opinion of the intrepid spirit of the man who could venture to produce and circulate, though but in private, so faithful a representation of that ferocious and blood-thirsty tyrant.

The difficulties in the way of translating this Satire, are scarcely to be conceived but by those who have made the experiment: if my success were but at all equal to my pains, I should dismiss it with some degree of confidence.