Juvenal's Tenth Satyre Translated.
N all the parts of Earth, from farthest
West,
And the Atlanticke Isles, unto the East
And famous Ganges; few there be that know
What's truly good, and what is good, in show,
Without mistake: for what is't we desire,
Or feare discreetly? to what e're aspire,
So throughly blest; but ever as we speed,
Repentance seales the very act, and deed.
The easie gods mov'd by no other fate,
Then our owne pray'rs whole kingdomes ruinate, And undoe families: thus strife, and warre
Are the sword's prize, and a litigious barre
The gowne's prime wish: vain confidence to share
In empty honours and a bloudy care;
To be the first in mischiefe, makes him dye
Fool'd 'twixt ambition and credulitie;
An oilie tongue with fatall, cunning sence,
And that sad vertue ever, eloquence,
Are th'others ruine, but the common curse;
And each daye's ill waits on the rich man's purse;
He, whose large acres and imprison'd gold
So far exceeds his father's store of old,
As Brittish whales the dolphins doe surpasse.
In sadder times therefore, and when the lawes Of Nero's fiat raign'd; an armed band
Ceas'd' on Longinus, and the spacious land
Of wealthy Seneca,' besieg'd the gates
Of Lateranus, and his faire estate
Divided as a spoile: In such sad feasts
Souldiers-though not invited-are the guests.
Though thou small peeces of the blessed mine
Hath lodg'd about thee: travelling in the shine
Of a pale moone, if but a reed doth shake,
Mov'd by the wind, the shadow makes thee quake.
Wealth hath its cares, and Want hath this reliefe,
It neither feares the souldier, nor the thiefe;
2 Cassius Longinus, a jurist of eminence and wealth, banished by Nero, "Nullo crimine nisi quod opibus vetustis et gravitate morum præcellebat" (Tacitus, Ann. xvi. 7).
3 Cf. also Satire viii. 212. and Tacitus (Ann. xv. 65.) G. Plautius Lateranus, put to death like Seneca, as a party to Piso's (alleged) conspiracy against Nero. The palace of Lateranus has its name if not site continued in the Lateran. G.
Thy first choyce vowes, and to the gods best
Are for thy stores encrease, that in all towne
Thy stocke be greatest, but no poyson lyes
I'th' poore man's dish; he tasts of no such spice:
Be that thy care, when with a kingly gust,
Thou suck'st whole bowles clad in the guilded
dust
Of some rich minerall; whilst the false wine
Sparkles aloft, and makes the draught divine.
Blam'st thou the sages then? because the one
Would still be laughing, when he would be gone
From his owne doore; the other cryed to see
His times addicted to such vanity?
Smiles are an easie purchase, but to weep
Is a hard act for teares are fetch'd more deep;
Democritus, his nimble lungs would tyre
With constant laughter, and yet keep entire
His stocke of mirth, for ev'ry object was
Addition to his store; though then-alas!—
Sedans, and litters, and our senat gownes,
With robes of honour, fasces, and the frownes
Of unbrib'd tribunes were not seene; but had
The laugher was Democritus of Abdera; the weeper, Heracleitus. Cf. Horace, Epp. i. 12. 12; ii. 1. 194, and Seneca (de Ira ii. 10.) G.
2 Easy-chair, as before. See Index of Words, s. v. G.
He liv'd to see our Roman prætor clad
In Iove's owne mantle, seated on his high
Embroyder'd chariot 'midst the dust and crie
Of the large theatre, loaden with a crowne,
Which scarse he could support-for it would downe
But that his servant props it—and close by
His page, a witnes to his vanitie:
To these, his scepter and his eagle, adde
His trumpets, officers, and servants clad
In white and purple; with the rest that day,
He hir'd to triumph, for his bread, and pay;
Had he these studied, sumptuous follies seene,
'Tis thought his wanton and effusive spleene,
Had kill'd the Abderite,' though in that age
-When pride and greatres had not swell'd the
stage
So high as our's-his harmles and just mirth
From ev'ry object had a suddaine birth;
Nor wast alone their avarice or pride,
Their triumphs or their cares he did deride;
Their vaine contentions or ridiculous feares,
But even their very poverty, and teares.
He would at Fortune's threats as freely smile
As others mourne ; nor was it to beguile
His crafty passions; but this habit he
1 Democritus of Abdera, as before. G.
By nature had, and grave philosophie.
He knew their idle and superfluous vowes,
And sacrifice, which such wrong zeale bestowes,
Were mere incendiaries; and that the gods
Not pleas'd therewith, would ever be at ods;
Yet to no other aire, nor better place
Ow'd he his birth, then the cold, homely Thrace;
Which shewes a man may be both wise and good,
Without the brags of fortune, or his bloud.
But envy ruines all: what mighty names
Of fortune, spirit, action, bloud, and fame,
Hath this destroy'd ? yea, for no other cause
Then being such; their honour, worth and place,
Was crime enough; their statues, arms and
Their ornaments of triumph, chariots, gowns,
And what the herauld with a learned care,
Had long preserv'd, this madnes will not spare.
So once Sejanus' statue Rome allow'd
Her demi-god, and ev'ry Roman bow'd
To pay his safetie's vowes; but when that face
Had lost Tyberius once, it's former grace
Was soone eclips'd; no diff'rence made-alas!-
Betwixt his statue then, and common brasse;
They melt alike, and in the workman's hand
For equall, servile use, like others stand.'
1 Cf. Seneca (de Tranq. An. c. 11) on the vicissitudes of Sejanus. G.
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