SATIRE V.

TO TREBIUS.

v. 1-8.

IF, 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 canʼst hear,
Unmov'd, the open taunt, the whisper'd jeer;
Can'st 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. 17,) 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

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,

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, 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.]

“Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam

“Et quantum natura petat”—

Lucan, Iv. 377.

and Spencer,

"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.

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,

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:
And oft do you and the domestic train,

With coarse stone pots, a desperate fight maintain,
While streams of blood in smoking torrents flow,
And my lord smiles to see the battle glow!

Not such his beverage; he enjoys the juice
Of ancient days, when beards were yet in use;
The nectar of the times, when civil hate
Raged with wild fury, and convulsed the state:

VER. 53. The nectar of the times, when civil bate

Raged with wild fury, &c.] He speaks of the Social or Marsian war, which broke out in Italy near two centuries before this Satire was written. Can wines be kept so long? Those of Italy were, indeed, of a roughness and ssrength that a considerable lapse of time only could subdue :—but such a period! Pliny the Elder, however, mentions a wine which had been kept for 200 years; but then it had acquired, he says, the colour, and, I suppose, the consistency of honey; and was no longer drinkable.

Hall has imitated this passage with much humour:

4

"What though he quaff pure amber in his bowl

"Of March-brew'd wheat; he slakes thy thirsting soul

Enjoys it to himself; nor condescends

To cheer, with one small cup, his drooping friends. To-morrow he will change, and, haply, fill

The mellow vintage of the Alban hill,

Or Setine; wines that cannot now be known,
So much has mouldiness the cask o'ergrown,
The district, and the date; such generous bowls
As Thrasea and Helvidius, patriot souls!

"With palish oat frothing in Boston clay,
"Or in a shallow cruize; nor must that stay
"Within thy reach, for fear of thy craz'd brain,
"But call and crave, and have thy cruize again!

VER. 58. The mellow vintage of the Alban hill,] This wine is frequently alluded to by our author, as of peculiar excellency. Addison tells us in his Italian travels, that Alba still preserves its credit for wine," which would probably be as good now as it was anciently, did they preserve it to so great an age." Setine wine was still more excellent; at least, if we may trust Augustus, who is said, by Pliny, to have preferred it to all others: it grew in Campania. This passage also is well imitated by Hall :

"If Virro list revive his heartless graine:
"With some French grape, or pure Canariane;
"While pleasing Bourdeaux falls unto his lot,

"Some sowerish Rochelle cuts thy thirsting throat."

VER. 62. As Thrasea or Helvidius, &c.] Of these two eminent men, the former was put to death, and the latter driven into banishment, by Nero. Tacitus dwells with singular complacency on their virtues; and, indeed, we may gather from the concurring testimonies of historians, that Rome had seldom, if ever, produced two worthier citizens. They fell, in truth," on evil days," but they seem to have "bated no jot of heart," and in every circumstance to have acted