265 Now sits on the bank, and, a novice, dreads the black Ferryman; nor does he hope for the boat of the muddy gulph, Wretch [that he is]-nor hath he a farthing which he can reach forth from his mouth. Now consider other, and different dangers of the night: What space from high roofs, from whence the brain A potsherd strikes, as often as from the windows cracked and broken Vessels fall, with what weight they mark and wound 270 The stricken flint: you may be accounted idle, 274 Night, there are watchful windows open, while you pass by. Therefore you should desire, and carry with you a miserable wish, That they may be content to pour forth broad basons. One drunken and petulant, who haply hath killed nobody, Is punished; suffers the night of Pelides mourning 279 His friend; he lies on his face, then presently on his back: low, and, of course, must dash out the brains of the unfortunate passenger on whose head they may happen to alight. 272. Idle.] Ignavus-indolent-negligent of your affairs. q. d. A man who goes out to supper, and who has to walk home through the streets at night, may be reckoned very indolent, and careless of his affairs, as well as very improvident, if he does not make his will before he sets out. 274. As many fates.] As many chances of being knocked on the head, as there are open windows, and people watching to throw down their broken crockery into the street, as you pass along. 276. Therefore you should desire, &c.] As the best thing which you can expect, that the people at the windows would content themselves with emptying the nastiness which is in their pots upon you, and not throw down the pots themselves. Pelvis is a large bason, or vessel, wherein they washed their feet, or put to more filthy uses. 278. One drunken, &c.] Umbritius, among the nightly dangers of Rome, recounts that which arises from meeting drunken rakes in their cups. -Drunken and petulant.] We may imagine him in his way from some tavern, very much in liquor, and very saucy and quarrelsome, hoping to pick a quarrel, that he may have the pleasure of beating somebody before he gets home; to fail of this is a punishment to him. 279. The night of Pelides.] The poet humourously compares the uneasiness of one of these young fellows, on missing a quarrel, to the disquiet of Achilles (the son of Peleus) on the loss of his friend Patroclus; and almost translates the description which Homer gives of that hero's restlessness on the occasion. ΙΙ. Ω. 1. 10, 11. Αλλοτ' επι πλευρας κατακειμενος, αλά λοτε δ' αυτε Ύπτιος, αλλοτε δε Tenens. Nunc lateri incumbens, iterum post paulo supinus Corpore, nunc pronus. So the poet describes this rake-helly youth, as tossing and tumbling in his bed, first on his face, then on his back (supinus)-thus endeavouring to amuse the restlessness of his mind, under the disappointment of having met with nobody to quarrel with and beat-thus wearying himself, as it were, into sleep. Ergo non aliter poterit dormire: QUIBUSDAM Multum præterea flammarum, atque ænea lampas, 1 285 290 Nil mihi respondes? aut dic, aut accipe calcem : 295 281, 2. To some a quarrel, &c.] This reminds one of Prov. iv. 16. "For "they (the wicked and evil men, ver. "14.) sleep not, except they have done "mischief, and their sleep is taken away "unless they cause some to fall." 282. Wicked from years.] Improbus also signifies lewd, rash, violent, presumptuous.-Though he be all these, owing to his young time of life, and heated also with liquor, yet he takes care whom he assaults. 283. A scarlet cloak.] Instead of attacking, he will avoid any rich man or noble, whom he full well knows from his dress, as well as from the number of lights and attendants which accompany him. The læna was a sort of cloak usually worn by soldiers: but only the rich and noble could afford to wear those which were dyed in scarlet. Coccus signifies the shrub which produced the scarlet grain, and coccinus implies what was dyed with it of a scarlet colour. 285. Brazen lamp.] This sort of lamp was made of Corinthian brass: it was very expensive, and could only fall to the share of the opulent. 286. Me whom the moon, &c.] Who walk by moon-light, or, at most, with a 300 poor, solitary, short candle, which I snuff with my fingers-such a one he holds in the utmost contempt. 298. Know the preludes, &c.] Attend a little, and hear what the preludes are of one of these quarrels, if that can properly be called a quarrel, where the beating is by the assailant only. Rixa signifies a buffeting, and fighting, which last seems to be the best sense in this place, viz. if that can be called fighting, where the battle is all on one side. 290. He stands opposite.] Directly in your way, to hinder your passing-and orders you to stop. 291. What can you do, &c.] You must submit, there's no making any resistance; you are no match for such a furious man. 292. With whose vinegar, &c.] Then he begins his taunts, in hopes to pick a quarrel. Where have you been? with whose sour wine have you been filling yourself? 293. With whose bean, &c.] Conchis means a bean in the shell, and thus boiled-a common food among the lower sort of people, and very filling, which is implied by tumes. What cobler.] He now falls foul For otherwise he could not sleep: TO SOME 285 A QUARREL CAUSES SLEEP: but tho' wicked from years 290 For what can you do, when a madman compels, and he The stronger? "Whence come you," he exclaims, "with "whose vinegar, 294 "With whose bean, swell you? What cobler with you If you should attempt to say any thing, or retire silent, 294. Sliced leek.] Sectilis signifies any thing that is or may be easily cut asunder. But see sat. xiv. 1. 133, note. -A boiled sheep's head.] Vervex particularly signifies a wether sheep. Labra, the lips, put here, by synec. for all the flesh about the jaws. 295. A kick.] Calx properly signifies the heel-but by meton. a spurn or kick with the heel. 296. Where do you abide.] Consisto signifies to abide, stay, or keep in one place-here I suppose it to allude to taking a constant stand, as beggars do, in order to beg as if the assailant, in order to provoke the man more, whom he is wanting to quarrel with, meant to treat him as insolently as possible, and should say, "Pray let me know where you take your stand for begging?" This idea seems countenanced by the rest of the line. -In what begging-place, &c.] Proseucha properly signifies a place of prayer, (from the Gr. goruxas,) in the porches of which beggars used to 300 take their stand. Hence by met. a place where beggars stand to ask alms of them who pass by. 298. They equally strike.] After having said every thing to insult and provoke you, in hopes of your giving the first blow, you get nothing by not answering for their determination is to beat you; therefore either way, whether you answer, or whether you are silent, the event will be just the same-it will be all one. -Then angry, &c.] Then, in a violent passion, is if they had been beaten by you, instead of your being beaten by them-away they go, swear the peace against you, and make you give bail, as the aggressor, for the assault. 299. This is the liberty, &c.] So that, after our boasted freedom, a poor man at Rome is in a fine situation-all the liberty which he has is, to ask, if beaten, and to supplicate earnestly, if bruised unmercifully with fisty-cuffs, that he may return home, from the place where he was so used, without having all his teeth beat out of his head-and perhaps he is to be prosecuted, and ruined at law, as the aggressor. Ut liceat paucis cum dentibus inde reverti. Nec tamen hoc tantum metuas; nam qui spoliet te Non deerit, clausis domibus, postquam omnis ubique Fixa catenatæ siluit compago tabernæ. Interdum et ferro subitus grassator agit rem, Sic inde huc omnes tanquam ad vivaria corrunt. Hic alias poteram, et plures subnectere causas : 302. Yet neither, &c.] Umbritius, as another reason for retiring from Rome, describes the perils which the inhabitants are in from house and street-rob bers. 303. The houses being shut up.] The circumstance mentioned here, and in the next line, mark what he says to belong to the alia et diversa pericula noctis, 1. 268. 304. The chained shop.] Taberna has many significations; it denotes any house made of boards, a tradesman's shop, or warehouse; also an inn or tavern. By the preceding domibus he means private houses. Here, therefore, we may understand tabernæ to denote the shops and taverns, which last were probably kept open longer than private houses or shops; yet even these are supposed to be fastened up, and all silent and quiet within. This marks the lateness of the hour, when the horrid burglar is awake and abroad, and when there is not wanting a robber to destroy the security of the sleeping inhabitants. 305 310 315 305. The sudden footpad.] Grassator means an assailant of any kind, such as highwaymen, footpads, &c. One of these may leap on a sudden from his lurking-place upon you, and do your business by stabbing you. Or perhaps the poet may here allude to what is very common in Italy at this day, namely assassins, who suddenly attack and stab people in the streets late at night. 307. Pontinian marsh.] Strabo describes this as in Campania, a champain country of Italy, in the kingdom of Naples; and Suet. says, that Julius Cæsar had determined to dry up this marsh; it was a noted harbour for thieves. -Gallinarian pine.] i. e. Wood, by synec. This was situated near the bay of Cuma, and was another receptacle of robbers. Compago signifies a joining, or closure, as of planks, or boards, with which the taberna was built-fixa compago de- When these places were so infested notes the fixed and firm manner in which with thieves, as to make the environs they were compacted or fastened toge- dangerous for the inhabitants, as well as ther-Inductâ etiam per singulos asseres for travellers, a guard was sent there to grandi catena-Vet. Schol.-" with a protect them, and to apprehend the ofgreat chain introduced through every fenders; when this was the case, the plank"-in order to keep them from rogues fled to Rome, where they thought " That he may return thence with a few of his teeth. Yet neither may you fear this only: for one who will rob you will not Be wanting, the houses being shut up, after, every where, every Fixed fastening of the chained shop hath been silent: And sometimes the sudden footpad with a sword does your business, As often as, with an armed guard, are kept safe Both the Pontinian marsh, and the Gallinarian pine; 305 In what furnace, on what anvil are not heavy chains? The greatest quantity of iron (is used) in fetters, so that you may fear, lest 310 The ploughshare may fail, lest hoes and spades may be wanting. To these I could subjoin other and more causes, themselves secure; and then these places were rendered safe. 308. As to vivaries.] Vivaria are places where wild creatures live, and are protected, as deer in a park, fish in a stewpond, &c. The poet may mean here, that they are not only protected in Rome, but easily find subsistence, like creatures in vivaries. See sat. iv. 1. 51. What Rome was to the thieves, when driven out of their lurking places in the country, that London is to the thieves of our time. This must be the case of all great cities. 309. In what furnace, &c.] In this, and the two following lines, the poet, in a very humourous hyperbole, describes the numbers of thieves to be so great, and to threaten such a consumption of iron in making fetters for them, as to leave some apprehensions of there being none left to make ploughshares, and other implements of husbandry. 312. Our great-grandfathers, &c.] i. e. Our ancestors of old time-proavorum atavos-old grandsires, or ancestors indefinitely. 313. Kings and tribunes.] After the expulsion of the kings, tribunes, with 315 consular authority, governed the republic. 314. With one prison.] Which was built in the forum, or market-place, at Rome, by Ancus Martius, the fourth king. Robberies, and the other offences above mentioned, were then so rare, that this one gaol was sufficient to contain all the offenders. 315. And more causes.] i. e. For my leaving Rome. 316. My cattle call.] Summon me away. It is to be supposed, that the carriage, as soon as the loading was finished, (see 1. 10.) had set forward, had overtaken Umbritius, and had been some time waiting for him to proceed. 316. The sun inclines.] From the meridian towards its setting. -Inclinare meridiem. Sentis. Hor. lib. iii. od. xxviii. 1. 5. 317. The muleteer.] Or driver of the mules, which drew the carriage containing the goods, (see 1. 10.) had long since given a hint, by the motion of his whip, that it was time to be gone. This Umbritius, being deeply engaged in his discourse, had not adverted to till now. |