temporary history: and the latter, who attained to little more than a third of Juvenal's age, has left nothing to be desired on the only topics which could interest posterity....his parent, his preceptor, and his studies.

AN

ESSAY ON THE ROMAN SATIRISTS.

Ir will now be expected from me, perhaps, to say something on the nature and design of Satire; but in truth this has so frequently been done, that it seems, at present to have as little of novelty as of utility, to recommend it.

Dryden, who had diligently studied the French critics, drew up from their remarks, assisted by a cursory perusal of what Casaubon, Heinsius, Rigaltius, and Scaliger, had written on the subject, an account of the rise and progress of dramatic and satiric poetry amongst the Romans; which he prefixed to his translation of Juvenal. What Dryden knew, he told in a manner that renders every attempt to recount it after him, equally hopeless and vain; but his acquaintance with works of literature was not very extensive, while his reliance on his own powers, sometimes betrayed him into inaccuracies, to which the influence of his name gives a dangerous importance.

"The comparison of Horace with Juvenal and Persius," which makes a principal part of his Essay, is not formed with much niceness of discrimination, or accuracy of judgment. To speak my mind, I do not

think that he clearly perceived, or fully understood, the characters of the first two-of Persius indeed he had an intimate knowledge; for, though he certainly deemed too humbly of his poetry, he yet speaks of his beauties and defects, in a manner which evinces a more than common acquaintance with both.

What Dryden left imperfect has been filled up in a great measure by Dusaulx, in the preliminary discourse to his translation of Juvenal, and by Rupert, in his learned and ingenious Essay De diversa Satirarum Lucil. Horat. Pers. et Juvenalis indole. With the assistance of these, I shall endeavour to give a more extended view of the characteristic excellencies and defects of the rival Satirists, than has yet appeared in our language; little solicitous for the praise of originality, if I may be allowed to aspire to that of candour and truth. Previously to this, however, it will be necessary to say something on the supposed origin of Satire: and as this is a very beaten subject, I shall discuss it as briefly as possible.

It is probable that the first metrical compositions of the Romans, like those of every other people, were pious effusions for favours received or expected from the gods of these, the earliest, according to Varro, were the hymns to Mars, which, though used by the Salii in the Augustan age, were no longer intelligible. these, succeeded the Fescennine verses, which were sung, or rather recited, after the vintage and harvest, and appear to have been little more than rude praises of

To

the tutelar divinities of the country, intermixed with clownish jeers and sarcasms, extemporally poured out by the rustics in some kind of measure, and indifferently directed at the spectators, or at one another. These, by degrees, assumed the form of a dialogue; of which, as nature is every where the same, and the progress of refinement but little varied, some resemblance may perhaps be found in the eclogues of Theocritus.

Thus improved, (if the word may be allowed of such barbarous amusements) they formed for near three centuries, the delight of that nation: popular favour, however, had a dangerous effect on the performers, whose licentiousness degenerated at length into such wild invective, that it was found necessary to restrain it by a positive law. Si qui populo occentassit, carmenve condisit, quod infamiam faxit flagitiumve alteri, fuste ferito.* From this time, we hear no farther complaints of the Fescennine verses, which continued to charm the Romans; until about a century afterwards, during the ravages of a dreadful pestilence, the senate, as the historians say, in order to propitiate the gods, called in a troop of players from Tuscany, to assist at the celebration of their ancient festivals. This was a wise and salutary measure: the plague had spread dejection through the city, which was thus rendered more obnoxious to its fury; and it therefore became necessary,

Rupert. Juv. LXXXV.

by novel and extraordinary amusements, to divert the attention of the people from the melancholy objects around them.

As the Romans were unacquainted with the language of Tuscany, the players, Livy tells us, omitted the modulation and the words, and confined themselves solely to gestures, which were accompanied by the flute. This imperfect exhibition, however, was so superior to their own, that the Romans eagerly strove to attain the art; and as soon as they could imitate what they admired, graced their rustic measures with music and dancing. By degrees they dropped the Fescennine verses, for something of a more regular kind, which now took the name of SATIRE.†

These Satires (for as yet they had little claim to the title of dramas) continued without much alteration, to the year 514, when Livius Andronicus, a Greek by birth, and a freedman of L. Salinator, who was undoubtedly acquainted with the old comedy of his country, produced a regular play. That it pleased, cannot be doubted, for it surpassed the Satires, even in their im

†The origin of this word is now acknowledged to be Roman. Scaliger derived it from σarip (satyrus,) but Casaubon, Dacier and others, more reasonably from satura (fem. of satur) rich, abounding, full of variety. In this sense it was applied to the lanx or charger, in which the various productions of the soil were offered up to the gods; and thus came to be used for any miscel laneous collection in general. Satura olla, a hotch-potch; saturæ leges, laws comprehending a multitude of regulations, &c. This deduction of the name, may serve to explain, in some measure, the nature of the first Satires, which treated of various subjects, and were full of various matters: but enough on this trite topic.