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SATIRE V.

Argument.

In this excellent Satire, Juvenal takes occasion, under pretence of advising one Trebius to abstain from the table of Virro, a man of rank and fortune, to give a spirited detail of the mortifications to which the poor were subjected by the rich, at those entertainments to which, on account of the political connection subsisting between patrons and clients, it was sometimes thought necessary to invite them.

A strain of manly indignation pervades the whole :-nor has it so much exaggeration as some as some of the commentators have perceived in it: since there is scarcely a single trait of insult and indignity here mentioned, which is not to be found animadverted upon, with more or less severity, in the writers of that age.

66

One of Pliny's letters (lib. ii. 6) is expressly on this subject; and as a better illustration of the Satire before us, cannot possibly be desired, I subjoin a pretty long extract from it. Longum est altius repetere, &c. I supped lately with a person with whom I am by no means intimate, who in his own opinion treated us with much splendid frugality; but according to mine, in a sordid, yet expensive manner. Some very elegant dishes were served up to himself and a few more of us; while those which were placed before the rest of the company, were extremely cheap and mean. There were in small bottles, three different sorts of wine; not that the guests might take their choice, but that they might not have an option in their power. The best was for himself and his friends of the first rank; the next for those of a lower order; and the third for his own and his guests' freed-men. One who sat near me took notice of this circumstance, and asked me how I approved of it? Not at all I replied. Pray then, said he, what is your method on such occasions? When I make an invitation, I replied, all are served alike: I invite them with a design to entertain, not to affront them; and those I think worthy of a place at my table, I certainly think worthy of every thing it affords."

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SATIRE V.

TO TREBIUS.

v. 1-8.

Ir, by reiterated scorn made bold,

Thy mind can still its shameless tenor hold,
Still think the greatest blessing earth can give,
Is solely at another's board to live;

If, for this sordid purpose, thou can'st hear,
Unmov'd, the open taunt, the whisper'd jeer;

Cans't brook what sneaking Galba would have spurn'd,
And mean Sarmentus with a frown return'd;

VER. 7. Cans't brook what sneaking Galba would have spurn'd,

And mean Sarmentus, &c.] Galba. This is probably the person mentioned in the notes to the first Satire, (p. 16,) and who, from the anecdote there recorded, appears not altogether unworthy of the epithet here assigned him. He is frequently noticed by Martial; and appears to have been a kind of necessary fool or jester, on whom every one broke his witticisms with impunity.

Sarmentus was a run-a-way slave, who, instead of being sent back to his mistress to be whipt, as he deserved, was taken into the family of a man, who has been usually supposed to have other, and better claims on the gratitude of posterity, than the patronage of a scurrilous buffoon.

In his journey to Brundusium, Horace gives an account of a scolding match,

T

At Cæsar's haughty board dependants both;
I scarce would take thy evidence on oath.

The belly's fed with little cost: yet grant
Thou should'st, unhappily, that little want,
Some vacant bridge might surely still be found,
Some high-way side, where, grovelling on the ground,
Thy shivering limbs compassion's sigh might wake,
And gain an alms for "Charity's sweet sake!"
What! can a meal thus sauced, deserve thy care?
Is hunger so importunate? when there,

which he witnessed, between this Sarmentus, and a fellow of the name of Messius. There was not much humour in the dispute, yet Mæcenas, who was also present at it, found it so agreeable to his taste, that he took the former into his train, carried him to Rome, and recommended him to Augustus, with whom (as we learn from Plutarch) he became a kind of favourite. The old scholiast gives a long account of him; from which it appears, that what was so unworthily bestowed by the emperor, was as unworthily spent by his minion; who was again reduced, in the decline of life, to a state of absolute beggary and dependence.

VER. 11. The belly's fed, &c.

and Spencer,

"Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam
"Et quantum natura petat"-

Lucan, Iv. 377.

"But would men think with how small allowance
"Untroubled nature doth herself suffice,

"Such superfluity they would despise

"As with sad care impeach their native joys."

Here is the moral of the Satire in three words, and a very fine one it is :-but intemperance, as Cowley says of avarice, has been so pelted with good sayings, that every reader can suggest them to himself.

VER. 13. Some vacant bridge, &c.] See Sat. Iv. v. 166.

There, in thy wretched stand, thou mayst, my friend,
On casual scraps more honestly depend,

With chattering teeth toil o'er thy wretched treat,
And gnaw the crusts that dogs refuse to eat.

For, first, of this be sure: whene'er thy lord
Thinks proper to invite thee to his board,
He pays, or thinks he pays, the total sum
Of all thy pains, past, present, and to come.
Behold the meed of servitude! The great
Reward their humble followers with a treat,
And count it current coin: they count it such,
And though it be but little, think it much.
If, therefore, after two whole months, he send
A billet to his long-neglected friend,
(Though but to fill a vacant couch,) and say,
You-Master Trebius, dine with me to-day;
Thy joys o'erflow:-Trebius for THIS must rise,
(The dew of sleep yet lingering on his eyes,)
While the faint stars yet gleam, and round the pole
The wain of slow Boötes seems to roll;
Trembling, lest every levee should be o'er,
And the full court retiring from the door!
And what a meal at last! such ropy wine
As wool, which takes all liquids, would decline;
Hot, heady lees, to fire the wretched guests,
And turn them all to Corybants, or beasts.

At first with sneers, and sarcasms you engage,

Then deal round mutual wounds, with mutual rage:

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