Than this to boast, if, to Laurentum sped,
NOBLE Corvinus tends a flock for bread!-
Pallas, nor Licinus, had my estate: (109)
Shall I be pass'd then? Let the Tribunes wait."
Yes, let them wait! thine, Riches, be the field !—
It is not meet, that he to HONOUR yield,
TO SACRED HONOUR, who, with whiten'd feet,
Was hawk'd for sale so lately through the street.
Pernicious gold! though yet no temples rise,
No altars to thy name perfume the skies,
Such as to Victory, Virtue, Faith are rear'd,
And Concord, where the clamorous stork is heard,
Yet is thy full divinity confest,
And thy shrine fix'd in every human breast.
But while, with anxious eyes, the great explore How much the dole augments their annual store, What misery must the poor dependants dread, Whom this small pittance clothed, and lodged, and fed? Wedged in thick ranks before the donor's gates, A phalanx firm of chairs and litters waits: Thither one husband, at the risk of life, Hurries his teeming, or his bedrid wife; Another, practised in the gainful art, With deeper cunning tops the beggar's part; Plants at his side a close and empty chair: "My Galla, master;-give me Galla's share." "Galla!" the porter cries; "let her look out." "Sir, she's asleep; nay, give me :—can you doubt!" What rare pursuits employ the clients' day!First to the patron's door, their court to pay, Thence to the forum, to support his cause, Last to Apollo, learned in the laws, (128)
109. Pallas was the freedman of Claudius, a weak prince, who lavished unbounded wealth upon his favourites, and impoverished himself. Pallas outlived Claudius, and was for some time in high favour with Nero, but was involved in the disgrace of Agrippina, and dismissed the Court.
128. The statue of Apollo stood in the forum of Augustus; where the public business was chiefly carried on.
And the triumphal statues; where some Jew,
Some mongrel Arab, some-I know not who- (130)
Has impudently dared a niche to seize,
Fit to be pagainst, or what you please.
Returning home, he drops them at the gate;
And now the weary clients, wise too late,
Resign their hopes, and supperless retire,
To spend the paltry dole in herbs and fire.
Meanwhile, their patron sees his palace stored
With every dainty earth and sea afford;
Stretch'd on the vacant couch, he rolls his eyes
O'er many an orb of matchless form and size,
Selects the fairest to receive his plate,
And at one meal devours a whole estate !
But who, (for not a parasite is there,)
Ah who such sordid luxury can bear?
Lo, he requires whole boars! serves up a beast
To his own maw, created for a feast!—
But mark him soon by signal wrath pursued,
When to the bath he bears the peacock crude,
That frets, and swells within ;-thence every ill,
Age premature, and death without a Will!
Swift flies the tale, by witty spleen increased,
And furnishes a laugh at every feast;
The laugh his friends not undelighted hear,
And, fallen from all their hopes, insult his bier.
NOTHING is left, NOTHING, for future times,
To add to the full catalogue of crimes;
The baffled sons must feel the same desires,
And act the same mad follies, as their sires.
VICE HAS ATTAIN'D ITS ZENITH. Then, set sail,
Spread all thy canvass, catch the favouring gale-
130. Holyday says, that it was one Tiberius Alexander, a renegado Jew, who embraced the religion of Rome, and was made præfect of Egypt. He was the first to declare for Vespasian, (Tacit. Hist. x1. 79,) to whose party he brought a vast accession of strength, and was therefore, probably, honoured with a statue.
F. Hold! where's the genius for this boundless theme? And where the liberty? Or dost thou dream Of that blunt freedom (freedom, that I fear To name or hint at) which allow'd, while-ere, Our sires to pour on vice, without control, The impassion'd dictates of the kindling soul, Heedless alike who smiled or frown'd? To glance at Tigellinus, and you glare (155) In that pitch'd shirt, in which such crowds expire, Chain'd to the bloody stake, and wrapp'd in fire.
J. What, shall the man who drugg'd three uncles! three! Tower by triumphant, and look down on me?
F. Yes; let him look: he comes! avoid his way,
And on your lip your cautious finger lay;
Crowds of informers follow in his rear,
And if you say but "Lo!" will overhear.-
Turnus may still be vanquish'd in your strain,
Achilles struck, and Hylas sought in vain ;
Harmless, nay pleasant, shall the tale be found,
It bares no ulcer, and it probes no wound.
But when Lucilius, fired with virtuous rage,
Waves his keen falchion o'er a guilty 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 the adventurous deed?
Now-ere the trumpet sounds-your strength debate e;
The soldier once engaged repents too late.
J. Yet I MUST write: and since these iron times
From living knaves preclude my angry rhymes,
I point my pen against the guilty dead,
And pour its gall on each obnoxious head.
155. Tigellinus was a creature of Nero, in whose house the great fire that devastated Rome first broke out; but for which the tyrant put thousands of Christians to most horrible deaths.
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