Securely give the lengthen'd train to pass,
The sun-bright flambeaux, and the lamps of brass.-
Me, whom the moon, or candle's paler gleam,
Whose wick I husband to the last extreme,
Guides through the gloom, he braves, devoid of fear :
The prelude to our doughty quarrel hear,
If that be deem'd a quarrel, where, heaven knows,
He only gives, and I receive, the blows!
Across my path he strides, and bids me STAND!
I bow, obsequious to the dread command;
What else remains, where madness, rage, combine
With youth, and strength superior far to mine?
"Whose lees," he cries, "whose beans, have puff'd you up?
Say, with what cobbler have you clubb'd, to sup
On leeks and sheep's-head porridge? Dumb! quite dumb!
Speak, or be kick'd:-your station, rogue? your home?"
Whether I strive to sooth him, or retire,
I'm beaten just the same; then, full of ire,
He drags me to the prætor, binds me o'er :-
Such law, such liberty, enjoy the poor!
Bruised, maim'd, to crave (of all redress bereft)
Leave to depart, while yet a tooth is left!
Nor this the worst; for when still midnight reigns,
And bolts secure our doors, and massy chains,
Then thieves and murderers ply their dreadful trade;
With stealthy steps our drowsy couch invade :-
Roused from the treacherous calm, aghast we start,
And the flesh'd sword is buried in our heart!
their way. In these mad frolics he was sometimes wounded; not with impunity, however, for it appears that Julius Montanus was put to death for repelling his insults. It seems from Suetonius, that the evil continued to increase. Otho and others, he tells us, constantly sallied forth at night for the purpose of beating such as they met, and tossing them in the sagum, a coarse garment worn by the soldiery; and we learn from the Augustan history, that the joke was repeated with improvements by those outcasts of human nature, Commodus, Heliogabalus, Verus, It was little discouraged, probably, by any of the succeeding emperors, until the introduction of Christianity inspired humaner sentiments, and showed the necessity of establishing something like a regular system of protection,
Or, better yet, to bribe some favourite fair,
Who flaunts it in a close and well-glass'd chair;
"Twere worth our praise :—but no such plan was here;
'Twas for himself he bought a treat so dear!
This all past gluttony from shame redeems,
And e'en Apicius poor and frugal seems.
What you, Crispinus, you, so late a slave,
Wrapt in the flags your country's marshes gave,-
You purchase fish so dear! you might, I guess,
Have bought the fisherman himself for less;
Bought, in some countries, manors at this rate,
And, in Apulia, an immense estate!
How gorg'd the Emperor, when so dear a fish,
Yet, of his cheapest meals, the cheapest dish,
Was glutted down by this impurpled lord,
Chief knight, chief parasite at Cæsar's board,
Whom Egypt heard so late, with ceaseless yell,
Clamouring through all her towns-"Ho! sprats to sell!"
Pierian MAIDS, begin ;-but quit your lyres,
The fact I bring no sounding chord requires :
Relate it then, and in the simplest strain,
Nor let your poet style you MAIDS in vain.
When the last Flavius, drunk with fury, tore
The prostrate world, that bled at every pore,
And Rome beheld, in body as in mind,
A bald-pate Nero rise, to curse mankind; (38)
It chanced, that where the fane of Venus stands,
Rear'd on Ancona's coast by Grecian hands,
A turbot, wandering from the Illyrian main,
Fill'd the wide bosom of the bursting seine.
her vow of chastity, she was interred alive. The severity exercised by Domitian against the Vestals was so dreadful, whether their guilt was proved or not, that one of the Pontifices, Elvius Agrippa, is related to have expired through the terror of it.
38. This Nero (as, with some injury to his worthy prototype, Juvenal calls Domitian,) is said by Suetonius to have been so sore on the subject of his baldness, that it was not safe to mention a want of hair in his hearing. The old Scholiast says that these four lines provoked the Emperor to send Juvenal into banishment.
Monsters so bulky, from its frozen stream,
Mæotis renders to the solar beam,
And pours them, fat with a whole winter's ease,
Through the dull Euxine, into warmer seas.
The mighty draught the astonish'd boatman eyes,
And to the Pontiff's table dooms his prize:
For who would dare to sell it, who to buy,
When the coast swarm'd with many a practised spy,
Mud-rakers, prompt to swear the fish had fled
From Cæsar's ponds, ingrate! where long it fed,
And thus recaptured, claim'd to be restored
To the dominion of its ancient lord!
Nay, if Palphurius may our credit gain, (53)
Whatever rare or precious swims the main,
Is forfeit to the crown, and you may seize
The obnoxious dainty, when and where you please.
This point allow'd, our wary boatman chose
To give what else he had not fail'd to lose.
Now were the dogstar's sickly fervours o'er,
Earth, pinch'd with cold, her frozen livery wore ;
The old began their quartan fits to fear,
And wintry blasts deform'd the beauteous year,
And kept the turbot sweet: yet on he flew
As if the sultry South corruption blew.—
And now the lake, and now the hill he gains,
Where Alba, though in ruins, still maintains
The Trojan fire, that but for her were lost,
And worships Vesta, though with less of cost.
The wondering crowd, that gather'd to survey
The enormous fish, and choked the fisher's way,
Satiate at length retires; then wide unfold
The gates; the senators, shut out, behold
53. Palphurius had been a buffoon and a parasite at the court of Nero; occupations for which Vespasian disgracefully turned him out of the senate when he commenced Stoic in spite; till Domitian, who wanted little other recommendation of a man, than that of having justly incurred the contempt and anger of his father, made him his own lawyer, and gave him the management of his informations, proscriptions, &c.
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