Q SATIRA II. U virtus et quanta, boni, fit vivere parvo, (Nec meus hic fermo; fed quæ præcepit Ofellus, Rufticus, abnormis Sapiens, craffaque Minerva,) с d Discite, © non inter lances menfaque nitentès ; Cum ftupet infanis acies fulgoribus, et cum • Verum hic impranfi mecum disquirite. Cur hoc? NOTFS. Cum VER 2. To live on little] This difcourfe in praise of temperance lofes much of its grace and propriety by being put into the mouth of a person of a much higher rank in life than the honeft countryman Ofellus; whofe patrimony had been feized by Auguftus, and given to one of his foldiers named Umbrenus, and whom, per haps, Horace recommended to the Emperor, by making him the chief speaker in this very fatire. We may imagine that a difcourfe on temperance from Horace raised a laugh among the courtiers of Auguftus; and we fee he could not venture to deliver it in his own person. This Imitation of Pope is not equal to meft of his others. WARTON. VER. 9. BETHEL] The fame to whom feveral of Mr. Pope's Letters are addreffed. WARBURTON. SATIRE II. TO MR. BETHEL. WHAT, and how great, the Virtue and the Art (A doctrine fage, but truly none of mine ;) 5 Hear BETHEL's Sermon, one not vers'd in schools, * But strong in fense, and wife without the rules. 10 h Go work, hunt, exercife! (he thus began,) Then fcorn a homely dinner, if you can. NOTES. Your VER. 11. Go work, hunt,] These fix following lines are much inferior to the original, in which the mention of many particular exercises gives it a pleasing variety. The fixth and feventh lines in Horace are nervous and ftrong. The third in Pope is languid and wordy, which renders foris eft promus. Defendens, and latrantem, and caro, and pinguem, and album, are all of them very expreffive epithets: And the allufion to Socrates's conftant exercise, tu pulmentaria, &c. ought not to have been omitted. Pope's two laft lines in this paffage are very exceptionable. We are informed by Mr. Stuart, in his Athens, that the honey of Hymettus, even to this time, continues to be in vogue; and that the feraglio of the Grand Seignor is ferved with a ftated quantity of it yearly. Cum labor extulerit faftidia; ficcus, inanis, ista, Quam laudas, pluma? coctove num adeft honor idem? Unde datum fentis, lupus hic, Tiberinus, an alto Mullum; in fingula quem minuas plumenta neceffe eft Proceros odiffe lupos ? quia fcilicet illis Majorem natura modum dedit, his breve pondus. Jejunus raro ftomachus vulgaria temnit. NOTES. Porrectum VER. 18. before a hen ;] He might have inferted the original word peacocks, as many of our English epicures are fond of them. Q. Hortenfius had the honour of being the firft Roman that introduced i * Your wine lock'd up, your Butler stroll❜d abroad, Or fish deny'd, (the river yet unthaw'd,) If then plain bread and milk will do the feat, k Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men NOTES. 15 20 Oldfield troduced this bird to the table as a great dainty, in a magnificent feaft which he made on his being created Augur. The price of a peacock, fays Arbuthnot, page 129. was fifty denarii, that is, l. 12 s. 3d. A flock of a hundred was fold at a much dearer rate, for 3221. 18s 4d. of our money. M. Aufidius Lurco, according to Varro, used to make every year of his peacocks 4841. 7s. 6d. WARTON. VER. 21. Of carps and mullets] Very inferior to the original; and principally fo, because that pleasant ftroke is omitted of the eaters knowing in what part of the river the lupus was taken, and whether or no betwixt the two bridges, which was deemed an esfential circumftance. The reader will be well entertained on this subject if he will look into the feventeenth chapter of the third book of Macrobius, particularly into a curious speech of C. Tertius there recited. But Horace feems to have had in his eye a paffage of Lucilius, quoted by Macrobius: "Sed et Lucilius acer et violentus poeta, oftendit fcire fe hunc pifcem egregii faporis, qui inter duos pontes captus effet." WARTON. m Porrectum magno magnum fpectare catino Vellem, ait Harpyiis gula digna rapacibus. At vos, "Præfentes, Auftri, coquite horum opfonia: quam n quam Putet aper rhombufque recens, mala copia quando Infamis. quid? tum rhombos minus æquora alebant? NOTES. Sordidus VER. 25. Oldfield] This eminent Glutton ran through a fortune of fifteen hundred pounds a-year in the fimple luxury of good eating. WARBURTON. VER. 26. Hog barbecu'd, &c.] A West Indian term of Gluttony; a hog roafted whole, stuffed with fpice, and basted with Madeira wine. POPE. He has happily introduced this large unwieldy inftance of glut tony, fupposed to be peculiar to the Weft Indies. But Athe næus fpeaks of a cook that could dress a whole hog with various puddings in his belly. Gulla is here used personally, as it is also by Juvenal, Sat. xiv. v. 10. WARTON. VER. 28. rabbit's tail.] A very filthy and offenfive image for the more happy and decent word coquite: So fond, it must be owned, was our Author, as well as Swift, of fuch difgufting ideas WARTON. |