These are not dishes for thy dainty tooth:
What, hast thou got an ulcer in thy mouth?
Why stand'st thou picking? Is thy pallat sore?
That bete and radishes will make thee roar?
Such is th' unequal temper of thy mind;
Thy passions in extremes, and unconfin'd:
Thy hair so bristles with unmanly fears,
As fields of corn, that rise in bearded ears.
́And, when thy cheeks with flushing fury glow,
The rage of boiling caldrons is more slow;
When fed with fuel and with flames below.
With foam upon thy lips and sparkling eyes,
Thou say'st, and dost, in such outrageous
That mad Orestes, if he saw the show,

wise

;

Would swear thou wert the madder of the two,

THE

FOURTH SATIRE

OF

PERSIUS.

Argument.

OUR author, living in the time of Nero, was contemporary and friend to the noble Poet Lucan; both of them were sufficiently sensible, with all good men, how unskilfully he managed the commonwealth: and perhaps might guess at his future tyranny, by some passages, during the latter part of his first five years; though he broke not out into his great excesses, while he was restrained by the counsels and authority of Seneca. Lucan has not spared him in the poem of his Pharsalia; for his very compliment looked asquint as well as Nero. Persius has been bolder, but with caution likewise. For here, in the person of young Alcibiades, he arraigns his ambition of meddling with state-affairs, without judgment or experience. It is probable that he makes Seneca, in this satire, sustain the part of Socrates, under a borrowed name. And, withal, discovers some secret vices of Nero, concerning his lust, his drunkenness, and his effeminacy, which had not yet arrived to public notice. He also reprehends the flattery of his cour tiers, who endeavoured to make all his vices pass for virtues. Covetousness was undoubtedly none of his faults; but it is here described as a veil cast over the true meaning of the poet, which was to satirize his prodigality and voluptuousness; to which he makes a transition. I find no instance in history of that emperor's being a Pathique, though Persius seems to brand him with it. From the two dialogues of Plato, both called Alcibiades, the poet took the arguments of the se cond and third satires, but he inverted the order of them: for the third satire is taken from the first of those dialogues. The commentators, before Casaubon, were ignorant of our 30thor's secret meaning; and thought he had only written against young noblemen in general, who were too forward in aspiring to public magistracy: but this excellent scholiast has unraveled the whole mystery; and made it apparent, that the sting of this satire was particularly aimed at Nero.

[bent

WHOE'ER thou art, whose forward years are
On state affairs the guide to government;
Hear, first, what Socrates of old has said
To the lov'd youth, whom he at Athens bred.
Tell me, thou pupil to great Pericles,

Our second hope, my Alcibiades,

What are the grounds, from whence thou dost To undertake, so young, so vast a care? [prépare Perhaps thy wit (a chance not often heard,

That parts and prudence should prevent the beard ): 'Tis seldom seen that senators so young

Know when to speak, and when to hold their tongue.
Sure thou art born to some peculiar fate;
When the mad people rise against the state,
To look them into duty: and command
An awful silence with thy lifted hand.
Then to bespeak them thus: Athenians, know
Against right reason all your counsels go;
This is not fair; nor profitable that ;
Nor t'other question proper for debate.

But thou, no doubt, canst set the business right,
And give each argument its proper weight:
Know'st, with an equal hand, to hold the scale:
Seest where the reasons pinch, and where they

fail,

And where exceptions o'er the general rule prevail.

And, taught by inspiration, in a trice,

Canst punish crimes, and brand offending vice.

Leave, leave to fathom such high points as

these,

Nor be ambitious, ere the time to please:
Unseasonably wise, till age, and cares,

Have form'd thy soul, to manage great affairs.
Thy face, thy shape, thy outside, are but vain;
Thou hast not strength such labours to sustain:
Drink hellebore, my boy, drink deep, and purge(
thy brain.

What aim'st thou at, and whither tends thy care, In what thy utmost good? Delicious fare; And, then, to shun thyself in open air.

Hold, hold; are all thy empty wishes such? A good old woman would have said as much. But thou art nobly born, 'tis true; go boast Thy pedigree, the thing thou valu'st most: Besides, thou art a beau: what's that, my child? A fop well drest, extravagant, and wild : She, that cries herbs, has less impertinence; And, in her calling, more of common sense. None, none descends into himself, to find The secret imperfections of his mind: But every one is eagle-ey'd, to see Another's faults, and his deformity.

Say, dost thou know Vectidius? Who, the wretch Whose lands beyond the Sabines largely stretch; Cover the country, that a sailing kite

Can scarce o'er-fly them, in a day and night; Him dost thou mean, who, spight of all his store, Is ever craving, and will still be poor?

Who cheats for half-pence, and who doffs his To save a farthing in a ferry-boat?

Ever a glutton at another's cost,

[coat,

But in whose kitchen dwells perpetual frost ?
Who eats and drinks with his domestic slaves;
A verier hind than any of his knaves?
Born with the curse and anger of the Gods,
And that indulgent genius he defrauds?
At harvest-home, and on the sheering-day,
When he should thanks to Pan and Pales pay,
And better Ceres; trembling to approach
The little barrel, which he fears to broach:
He 'says the wimble, often draws it back,
And deals to thirsty sesvants but a smack.
To a short meal he makes a tedious grace,
Before the barley-pudding comes in place:
Then, bids fall on; himself, for saving charges,
A peel'd slic'd onion eats, and tipples verjuice.

Thus fares the drudge: but thou, whose life's a
Of lazy pleasures, tak'st a worse extreme. [dream
*Tis all thy business, business how to shun;
To bask thy naked body in the sun;

Suppling thy stiffen'd joints with fragrant oil :
Then, in the spacious garden, walk a while,
To suck the moisture up, and soak it in:

And this, thou think'st, but vainly think'st, un

seen.

But, know, thou art observ'd: and there are those Who, if they durst, would all thy secret sins ex