THE WISH, BEING THE Tenth satire OF JUVENAL Peraphrastically rendered in PINDARIC VERSE. By a Person, sometimes Fellow of Trin. Col. DUBLIN. Carmen amat, quisquis Carmine digna gerit. Claud. DUBLIN, Printed by Benjamin took, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty. 1675. To the Right Honourable MURROUGH Lord Viscount BLESSINTON. My LORD, I Was desired by the Author of this Poem, to excuse to the World his employing any time in work (or, as he would rather have it called, Idleness) of this sort; and the boldness, in-publick inscribing it to your Patronage. I cannot better do either, than by plain telling truth. Some perplexed business drew him to the Terms at Clonmel, in which Journey, for diversion of Law-thoughts, and entertainment of time, which was not very capable of more serious studies, he took with him Juvenal, and his learned Translators, Sir Robert Stapleton, and Dr. B. Holiday, only with the design of pleasing himself by the comparing the Original and Translations: a pleasure truly worthy of an ingenious mind, at once to view the product of Three so great Wits employed on the same conceits. By the way at Kilkenny. making a short stay, a judicious Friend possessed him, that Juvenal was the properest for a Pindaric Version, of any Author of that nature. This induced him afterwards to try, how he could th●nk over Juvenal's thoughts that new way in English: which design he the rather cherished, because such kind of writing could not at all rival those great Names, who had already done Juvenal so much justice in our Tongue. This occasion truly gave birth to this Poem: and I believe your Lordship, as well as other good Judges, will be apt to think, considering the Authors temper and inclination, such time could not have been by him much better spent. Returning home, he reviewed what he had done, and moved by the worth of the subject, gave three Copies to Persons of Quality, known by him to be addicted to Literature, (of whom your Lordship, by sending your Copy to the Press, not without great encouragement, made it known you were one) designing only thereby, farther to invite them to the reading such old Books, which at once present much Wit, Learning, and Morality. From the Press the Papers came to my hands; and I should neither do your Lordship, nor my Friend justice, if from mine they did not return to yours. According therefore, to the Authors obligations to your Lordship, and that right which I have in him, I consecrate this his small Piece to your Name, not imagining it can add any honour thereto, but presaging it will from thence receive both life and lustre; and withal professing, I greedily look the opportunity he gave me, of public acknowledging myself, SIR, Your Lordship's most obliged Servant, Edw: Wetenhall. THE Tenth satire OF JUVENAL paraphrased. The Wish. 1. IN Court or Crowd show me, who can, From Cadiz West To Ganges East, That happy, happy man, Who has a notion of the things are best, Or things thence distant, as the East from West; Who even the worst things knows, On whom the grossest errors can't impose; That truly skills the plainest case, Can tell the paint or vizard from the face, That's capable, could wishes do't, of being blest. 2. Such strangers we to reason are, By it we neither wish nor fear! Tell me what would thy best of wishes gain, Shouldst thou thy wishes all obtain? The better wish were to unwish them all again. The easy Gods, granting what men require, Tired with their whining breath, Oft hug their Suppliants to death; Ruin whole families at their own desire. So strangely do our several Prayers miscarry, When what we ask we do enjoy, We show how many ways we can destroy, And in new wishes our destructions vary. Whether we ask for Peace or War, Alike we far, There's a Dilemma in our Fate, Ruins in this as well as that: Ease acts in one what Swords in t'other do, And Vice is the worse Murd'er of the two. 3. Many Eloquence admire, Some do Eloquence desire, Yet even that Art, by which they others save, Has to the owners proved a grave: In some it to a swelling Torrent grows, So wanton that it scorns a bound, But then the very channel's drowned, The Tyrant stood its own banks overflows: Best Orators have been undone, Speaking for others, spoke their own Funeral Oration. 4. Milo in strength of arm placed his delight, He did provoke The lusty Oak, Which did return a worse embrace, and stayed His brawny pride i'th' prison that he made, He to his own destruction did employ his might. But wealth does more destroy; wealth got with care, And too much speed, Estates which others do exceed, As much as British Whales bigger than Dolphins are. 5. Oh! at what rate Have many this way bought the worst of fate! It was for this in cruel Nero's time, (Under whom to be wealthy was a crime,) The Tyrant first Longinus eyes did boar, That he might see his Gold no more, And then he took his life. Cassius, alas! Thy Statue guiltless was, And at the best but brass: His mischief did from other causes rise, The Sunshine of invidious Gold put out his eyes. 6. With guards this Seneca's Gardens set about, The dragons could not keep 'em▪ out. This did the Lateran Palaces beset; But Cottages were ne'er besieged yet. If thou dost travel, though i'th' dead o'th' night, With the least parcel of the fatal Mine, Though yet not tainted with the name of coin, The watchful Club or Sword will thee affright; Nay a less dreadful weapon makes thee fear, A shaken reed by Moonshine is a spear: But if thou nothing bring, And canst not pay, none will take pains To stab thee, or knock out thy brains: Light purse, light heart, thou mayst go on and sing. 7. Yet the first thing we ask, is, that we may Be rich; nay hence we learn to pray. Give this, give that, we do implore, And can't proceed but saying, Give me more. When our (a) Chests, kept i'th' Temples, biggest are, We think i'th' Gods we have the greatest share; Nay for the Deities we do not care, We only worship th' Idol Money there. 8. Yet Poverty's more safe: A plot Of poison scorns an Earthen pot; Pray when did you hear of such a bait Laid in Agathoclean plate? Suspect that only there, When that thy trembling hands the Goblets hold, Where gems add fuel to the gold, And the Wine's self does seem to sweat for fear. 9 And now perhaps you'll deign to praise The (b) Sages of contrary ways; One never went unto his door, But laughed till's sides were sore: Tother his threshold ne'er did stride, But instantly he cried. But laughter easy, in scorn all are wise▪ The thing that does surprise, Is how the other could supply his eyes. 10. Ay, but Democritus laughed in Thrace,: There were not (c) purple toys, Distinctions of young and old boys; No Consul's Gowns worn there, No litters for the sound, and no close chair, No Fasces, or High Courts of Justice in that place. What had become of's spleen, Had he one of our Praetors seen Mounted on his chariot pro●●● Fly through the Circus in a dusty cloud, Clad in the coat that's worn by none beside But Livery Jove, and only then When in his Temple he appears to men In's Holyday-clothes, in his Divinity pride? 11. O'er this the wight from head to heel spreads down A Garment which might be For breadth and for Embroidery A piece of Tyrian tapestry, As if he were not clad but hung with Gown: To which he adds a Crown of State, Made for his head indeed, but of such weight, 'Tis fit for the Porter whom it makes to sweat. And lest the Consul should be over jolly, Or in himself be too much pleased, He's by a Partner eased, A Slave goes half in all his pomp and folly, Does with him in the Chariot ride, And to correct his wanton pride, Points at the (d) whip and bell that hang below, The only things worth looking at in all the show; And begs his worship, now and then, Not to forget that he's like other men: The Eagle that before him flies, Does on an Ivory Sceptre rise; And lest the Antic should be missed by some, Cornets sound where it does come, And for the sight the numerous troops make room. Next to his Horse attends a train of tools, That all stand candidates for fools, That are ridiculous for pay, Peculiar friends of his bought for that gaudy day. 12. The Sage ne'er saw such sights Yet laughed at his own Abderites; He never an occasion of mirth missed; He never met a man, But met a subject of a jest; And to demonstrate that he thought all vain, He laughed at all the Vulgar's cares, Laughed at their laughter; ay, laughed at their very tears: Which shows that Worthies, who example give To th' wiser world, in dullest climes may live; He slighted Fortune when most discontented; When she did fret, To show how much he scorned the pet, To cure her passion halters he presented; He laughed at her, and made her more Ridiculous, than she made men before; More to disease her, When ever she began to pout, He thrust his middle finger out, Did in derision point at, and caldeez her. 13 In vain therefore most men, strangely in vain. Beg or complain, They but abuse the Deities In pawning (e) waxed prayers to their thighs: Or if 'tis not in vain, 'tis to their ruin, Th' effect's either their folly, or undoing. Some men are ruined by their being great Envy still attends on state, Many men indicted are Even by the honours that they bear; For many times A crowded page of titles proves a bill of crimes: Then down the Statues go, The innocent Statue's punished for the Lord, 'Tis dragged with hempen cord, The Chariot suffers too, The (f) harmless horses that can't sin or feel, Are broken on, and with the chariot wheel. 14. But hark, the furnace works, the bellows play, Hark what the prattling sparkles say! The head adored by all the crowd, The head, to which all men, but Caesar, bowed, The great Sejanus burns; The fire that very face, Which in the world supplied the second place, To frying pans, basins, pots, and platters turns. Crown all thy posts, offer a bull to Jove, A (g) white one such as he does love; Carry't to th' Capitol, lay it at his feet, Seest not Sejanus dragging through the street? The rout is mad for joy, one cries, Look at his face; another, mark his eyes▪ A third, you may read halters every where; A fourth, if e'er I loved this man, I am not here. 15. Who found him out? how came His guilt to this deserved shame? What circumstances? who informers are? For that they neither ask nor care, In that they're silent all the while: But will you know? Caesar wrote from the Isle: Is't so? enough— But if that's all, what say the people to't? The silly rout Is always tuned to Fortune's strains, They're learned by their Tyrant's brains: Condemned men they do Condemn, because they're so, And whom they do condemn, they still think guilty too: Yet that's not all the miserable's fate, For whom the fools condemn they always hate. Think not Sejanus worse for that; For had but (h) Nur●●in's grace Smiled on her countryman, that he had caught Our (i) napping fox, and him to ruin brought, Remus his hopeful race Had at this hour cried, may Sejanus live, Rome's fondest Gods a nobler Caesar could not give. 16. Since suffrages have ceased to be sold, Public thoughts aside are laid: None cares who this or that is made, Because they are not paid; That mighty Roman people which of old Made Kings, Consuls, and Generals, Disposed of all was great, Now such unlimited power recalls, They but two wishes crave, But those they're earnest for, those they must have; A little sport, a little meat: They're Princes give 'em but a play and treat. 17. Listen, the rumour of the Town Is that Sejanus must not die alone; The greedy furnace in Tiberius' breast, The wolf i'th' fable there, Cannot be satisfied, I fear, With the morsel of a man; It whets him, 'tis the prologue to a Feast. Brutidius I at Mars' Altar met, Methought the place Was ominous, his▪ face Was wan, and his presaging eyes Like Suns declining seemed in blood to set, He looked all over like an appalled Sacrifice. 18. I fear our (k) Ajax jealous, that his cause Meets not applause, In's rage on every one will fall, Worry Sheep Shepherds and all. (l) Away, let us with speed to Tybur run, Before the Corpse be gone; Away, let's hie, Whilst on the bank the coarse does lie, Let's trample on great Caesar's enemy; But let our servants see us do the feat, Lest they of treason us accuse, That o'er the dead t' insult we did refuse, We had as good ne'er kick, if they don't see't. 19 Oh! how the people comment on his fate! Would you (say they) be courted at the rate He was, to be Sejanus, have his whole estate? Be possessed of all his graces? Dispose all Martial, and all Civil places? Be Tutor to the Prince that keeps his Court In you Imperial Cliff, where none resort, Except his Gypsies, the Chaldaean band; Great Artists! who foretell the murders they command. Would you be General of horse and foot? And Captain of the brave Lifeguard to boot? And why not? one may wish 'twas in his power, Although he never would devour: 'Tis fine to rule, but Grandeur's such a cheat, The ills that thence ensue, All prosperities outdo, Great men are more unhappy than they can be great. 20. Wouldst thou that great man's fate put on, For to be murdered in a purple Gown? Hadst thou not better, to avoid Court, plots, To Gabii, or Fidenae go, What though th' inhabitants are few? There would be less deceit if there were none, And you'd be Governor still of the Town. Or at (m) Ulubrae dwell? Famous for being Constable, And plunder all their (n) cans, and break all their black pots. 21. Sejanus had what man could wish to have, Yet was he wretched in his state, You see he wished he knew not what, And was undone by what himself did crave: His wishing too much power And heaping too much store, Was like a man that had a Tower Which was high enough before, But he resolved always to build it higher: What's th'event of that desire? At length it grew so great, It could not bear its bulk and weight; Then down the Fabric dropped, and all The silly Builder got, was but a greater fall. 22. What did the Crassis and the Pompey's quash? And (o) him that brought all Rome under his lash, The supreme power by arts unlawful gained? Destructive prayers unluckily obtained. King's lives are not more eminent than their end, They die in state, To Pluto's Court when e'er they tend, They seldom go the common road of fate; Tyrants whose hands have been embrued, Too too oft in others blood Sail after 'em to fate in the like purple flood. 23. Young boys just put to School, that ne'er did pay For th' learning of a Quarter day, Attend devoutly at Minerva's shrine To her each of 'em prays; On all her holy days, That to their wishes she'd incline, And graciously please To make 'em each a Tully or Demosthenes; ne'er heeding that their prayers their ruin frame, As great a ruin as such Eloquence or Fame. 24. Too sharp a wit Tully's destruction bred, Cut off his hand, chopped off his head. Art thou not fortunate, Rome, in my Consulate, once, (he said) But had his Rhetoric been like that, He might have laughed at Anthony and fate; His silly Poems I prefer before His famed Philippics, which all men adore. When saw you a mean pleader in a noose? The fool is safe, he has no head to lose. Th' admired Athenians fate too was forlorn, He that ruled the theatres, Pulled 'em which way he would by th' ears: Under the stars ill aspect he was born, Or educated rather Under that worse one of his father; The blear-eyed Smith from Anvil, Forge, and Tools, Sent his Son to Rhetoric Schools, To learn a trade to him unknown, A more destructive one than's own, Alas! he'd better been of his own trade, And weapons of destruction for another made. 25. The spoils of war, a breastplate stabbed in fight, Worn on the carcase of a Tree, Exposed to public sight, Helmets with cars on either side, Hanging as they were pillory'd, A chariot without pole, flags got at Sea, With a sad captive, whom they do retain, To be conquered once again In acting ruin; have by many been Esteemed as blessings far too great for men: The thoughts of these all Generals inspire, They Romans, Grecians, (q) Persians move, With these they are in love, Hence spring their toils, these set 'em all on fire. Thus pomp does fool the Great, who seldom do Mind what 'tis they thus pursue; They don't distinguish 'twixt the thing and dress: Like children they delight In what deceives the sight, And only feed upon the husks of happiness. 26. By fame virtue is quite undone, Take her reward, away she's gone; None will receive her naked to his bed, But every body would her dowry wed. Yet glory is destructive too, Glory achieved without this (r) show: Our Country has been ruined quite, Sometimes to show how two or three could fight, Ruined only to make room For Titles to endorse a Tomb, Which must be cancelled when th' wild fig-tree's grown: The very Titles perish then, That (s) tree, like th' ashes whence it risen, Grows destructive, as it grows, It sacks the monumental wall, It throws down Titles, Tomb and all, For Sepulchers do die as well as men. 27. Weigh Hannibal's dust, and try how many grains Make up those turbulent remains; Yet this is all that mighty He, Whom afric stretched from the Atlantic Sea To Nile, thence to the other Aethiopians, Could not contain; To these he added Spain, Crossed the Pyrene, scorned to be stayed Within the modest bounds that Nature made; In vain she did her Alps and snow oppose, He did not care, For Italy he goes, He deals with them, As you would with a little Gem, Dissolves the mighty rocks in Vinegar. Italy's taken, that won't do, He must have the (u) City too, So extravagant was his pride, He would accept no victory, he cried, But that which placed his Ensigns in great (w) Rome's Cheapside. O what a sight it was to see! Worthy best paint or tapestry, The mighty man from's Elephant looking down, With his one half-sunk eye on Kingdoms that he won. 28. O Glory what canst thou not do? Thou canst conquer Hannibal too: Hannibal's routed, now where is his fame, He's overcome, he flies, He banishes himself, he's wise, Had he not done't Carthage had done the same. Oh the strange turns of State! This wonderful Petitioner's forced to wait At the (x) Bithynian Tyrant's gate, Attends his nodding pleasure, Till he thinks fit to wake, and be at leisure; This great disturber of mankind Could not in Wars an Exit find: Fate that way durst not come; The Cannae spoils a remedy lent, All the (y) rings unto Carthage were not sent, He kept one that was kind to him, and just to Rome. Go, Madman, pierce the Alps, and ransack Nations, Prosecute thy great toys, To please Schoolboys, And find 'em glorious Subjects for their Declamations. 29. The brave (a) Pellaean who did overcome The Map, that baffled every Nation, And after Hectored the Creation, Who swate, melting in tears, for waut of room, To whom the Universe as straight did seem, As to some the (b) Cyclads do, Prisons where we confine whom we condemn; For all the world to him was so: He sighed, as banished from some worlds he did not know. Yet when he did his entrance make At Babylon, he found the sad mistake, A lesser sweatning Tub did do the feat, A Coffin held the man so great: After all our pride and care, Faithful Death only shows us truly what we are. 30. If you believe, and you have Fame's word for't, Mount (c) Athos was a port, The Grecian Stories, which are very bold, Consent and tell Of an unheard of prodigy, (d) Of one that made the Ocean passable, That with his ships did pave the Sea, And made a road for chariots in't of old. They say too, when that Mighty Xerxes fought, Ponds were scarce a morning's draught; But when he deigned to eat, And that his Train sat seriously to meat, The deepest waters than Failed the Medes cup, The bottoms of the rivers, they drank up, Were dry; almost as dry as half his men. The drunken Sostratus these things rehearses, The subjects suit the man and verses: But how got (d) he from Salamine away? He that would make the winds obey, That whipped the East and the Northwest so sore, Instead of blowing they were thought to roar, Not (e) Aeolus himself e'er scourged 'em so before. 31. Nor did the Sea scape better than the wind, In fetters he did Neptune bind; 'Tis thought that he had (f) branded him to boot, But that the God was watery, and he could not do't; How e'er, 'twas kind to wave the slavish brand, (d) What God could e'er dispute, should he command? But how got he from the Athenian fray? In one poor fisherboat he stole away, Sailed through th' unnatural flood Of his own Subjects blood; Dead shoals his folly did upbraid, The carcases his Vessel stayed, So thick about him they did float, They laid Embargoes on his Navy-boat; This was th' event of all his pride, And courted Glory ha● served many so beside. 32. Give length of age, good Jove, give me more years, This with an open 〈◊〉 you say▪ Your chief concern 〈◊〉 in these prayers, They employ all you●●●ys and fears, You speak 'em, pale as 〈◊〉 that 'gainst which you pray. And yet old age ●●●●'d to the height, you'd raise, Is fuller fat of evils than of days; Let an old face be thoroughly descried, Look at that quondam skin, curried by age, to hid; Behold the hanging cheeks disgrace, It cannot blush to think what 'twas, But in its way ashamed, seems to (l) decline the face. Such wrinkles do indent the jaws, As no Similes can essay, But those i'th' wood of (m) Tabracha, Where in (n) cheek-pits the Grandam Ape does lose her paws▪ 33. Young men from one another may be known, This than that man fairer is, T' other stronger much than this, But Chaos-age has no distinction. (o) Eighty makes all alike, there is no choice, The limbs quaver like the voice, The head's a perfect scull, no hair there grows, All moisture in one current flows, And the poor infant cannot rule his nose. The teeth are fled, And disarmed gums are left to fight with bread; Troublesome to his wife he well may grow, And children, when t'himself he's so, When the loathed sight makes even his flatterers spew. 34. All sense is gone, what signifies to eat? You might as well remove the meat; There is no provocation in grand Salads, Wine's spilt upon the (p) pavement of such palates: He's chaste indeed, but that's no virtue, when Nature leaves not the least remains of men: As he tastes, just so he hears: (q) Selencus self does sing in vain So does the proudest of the (r) golden train, All music's lost to him that has no ears: 'Tis alike to him to fit. In the Gallery, or the pit, men's voices well may be too weak, He scarce can hear Cornets or Trumpets speak; When he sends one t'enquire the hour, He must the errand toll, Just like the bell, Must either ring it to him, or must louder roar. 35. Some cold blood the surviving coarse retains, Yet no heat at all it knows, But what it to the Fever owes. Troops of diseases quarter up and down the veins, So many, if their names you'd have, I must your pardons crave, I might as soon that grand account adjust Of all those (s) Hippia has betrayed to lust; As soon unto you show, How many (t) Themison in one Autumn slew; Count all th' Estates, By (u) Basilus rooked from our Confederates; Or tell as soon How many wards cursed (w) Irus has undone; Nay, I almost as soon might guests What wealth that (x) Senator has, Who once my Barber was, Or count how many Farms his Honour does possess. 36. In age, nothing but Hospitals we find, Here a useless shoulder lies, There feeble loins, there helpless thighs, And here a wretch has lost both eyes, And envies all that see, even the purblind: Another with his pale lips stands, And for his mouth's supply borrows fewer hands; Tother at the sight of meat, Without a stomach, yawns a wish, Gapes almost as young Swallows do, (For whom the hungry Dam does seem to chew,) But has no appetite to the dish, He only gapes to show that he was wont to eat. 37. Their least of ills though lie in their disease; Such losses in respect are gains, What's hand, or eye, or head without the brains? Dotage is more intol'rable than these, Their memory's gone, all past things they disclaim, They forget their Servant's name, Their dearest Friend's forgotten quite, Although he supped with them last night; All thought of child's gone, Those whom they got and bred, they are unknown; And lest you this sad truth should doubt, Their wills can prove't, their names are there left out: Lust they remember, and no more; Perhaps their Testament is filled with an old whore. 38. But yet allowing more than Nature will, Say that their sense continues vigorous still; All they gain hence, is but to be More sensible of misery. Be their-House ne'er so numerous grown, They live to dwell alone; See to close their child's eyes, Hear all the dismal Funeral cries, At Wive's and Sister's obsequies: Like rotten Oaks, forsaken, time's disgraces, As marks of ruin in those very places They singly stand, where once there stood Thousand fresh glories of a flour'shing wood; These are the only benefits of years, To see beloved bodies burn, Whilst happy, you provide the Urn, And older grow in mourning and accustomed tears. 39 Nestor, if Homer's credit you'll allow, Outlived all creatures but the Crow; Happy sure he needs must be, Fate's sole favourite was he, Who did so many age's breath, If we may call that life, 〈◊〉 only is deferring death. His blessings, sure, must needs surmount, Whose years did so increase, Who drank so many Vintages, And on his (y) right hand kept the blessed account. Will you then a little pause, And hear how he complains of Nature's Laws; What he to the Sisters said, For their unhappy lengthening his thread: Going with his Son to's grave, When doleful he stood by, And on the pile saw his Antilochus lie, And flames singeing the beard none e'er did shave, He turned him to the mourning throng, Expostulating the inhuman wrong, And asked what sin he'd done that he should live so long. 40. The aged Peleus said the same, Viewing Achilles by a Funeral flame: (z) Laertes too, grown old in fears; For (a) Ulysses did complain, (Ulysses banished to the Main) He coppy'd all his storms in tears, When old, yet lived th' unhappy tempest of ten years. Had (b) Priam died 'fore Paris went to Sea, Troy being safe; then happy he Had to his Grandsires gone, Carried by his (c) warlike Son, Helped by his Brothers all in mourning. (d) Cassandra had decorum kept In grief, and taught the rest t'have wept; (e) Polyxena following the Bier, Had rend her Gown, and torn her hair, And Priam (f) burned in state without the Cities burning. 41. What therefore did old age on him bestow? What did longer life afford? Only betwixt fire and sword, The pleasant sight of Asia's overthrow. At this the aged Prince throws off his crown, And having little time to live, My arms, (says he) my armour give; Alas! he had scarce time to put 'em on: Yet now, rather than fail, He trembling shakes himself into a coat of Mail; Before Jove's altar like an Ox he's slain, Like an old Ox grown even the plough's disdain; An ox whom men despise, Fit only for the Deities, And good for nothing but a sacrifice; Howe'er in arms he fell an offering, And only so died like a man, and like a King. 42. But what became of Priam's wife? Hecuba had a longer life, She had indeed, and had a sadder fate, At the Greeks she lived to scold, Till by barking she grew old, Turned to a Bitch by kinder nature, Who pitty'ng her, did please To give her soul by transmigration case i'th'th body of a suiting creature, And this was all th' event of her long date. 43. I'll omit foreign Stories to get home; And wave the (g) Pontic Kings sixty odd years, Of which he forty spent in wars, Only with triumphant Rome, In which he gained three famous overthrows, Yet still he lived, though amongst blows, Lived till his thread by murder broke, Till none beside himself would give the fatal stroke: (h) I Croesus', pass advised by (i) one we style The wise, not to commend His fate before the end, Unhappy he (k) outlived his very Funeral pile. 44. Banishment, prisons, and Minturnian fears, (l) Bred at Carthage earned by pity, Where we before had starved the City, Took their sad rise from too too many years: Had happy Marius died, When in (m) Teutonick triumph he did ride, Had he had leave then to expire, Man greater happiness could ne'er desire; The world a Captain ne'er had seen so blest, Though Nature, nay though Rome, had done her best. 45. The kind Campania did a fever give To Pompey, understood he fate, He should have wished for that: But public prayers stormed Heaven; condemned to live, He could not then resign his happy breath, He was prorogued to be betrayed to death, Reprieved by prayers to be murdered, He lived to lose his laurels and his head. Bad men slain young, have met a kinder doom: Lentulus died not so, Cethegus did not hence in quarters go, Catiline burned entire, as he would have burnt Rome. 46. The careful Mother constantly repairs To Venus' shrine, where for her boys She beauty begs with modest voice; But for her girls she is all noise: She begs so vehemently, And to that exquisite degree, Fond thing! she falls in love with her own prayers, Defends, and cries, you can't her wishes blame, The Gods themselves desire the same. (n) Latona her dear offspring did embrace, Not so much because they were Her's, as that she thought'em fair; Her dear Diana had a Goddess in her face. 47. Yet (o) Lucrece other wishes would advise, And prove from her own case, How destructive beauty was, What fatal Comets shine in brightest eyes, (p) Virginia too the same declares, With ugly (q) Rutila could she Change forms, how glad she'd be, She'd take the burden of her back and years. 48. A Son too, if exceeding fair, Costs his parents double care, In others love, in them he begets fear, One chaste and handsome we so seldom find, You'd think such bodies ne'er did suit the mind. Though the House whence he took his blood Be course and plain as the old (r) Sabines were, And gave him documents as severe; Nay though his disposition's good, Though Nature has done all she can, (Honest Nature far exceeding All the tricks and cheats of breeding) Though she bestows on him a modest look, The happy Index of a well writ Book, And with a Mint of blood his face has lined, Ready in blushes to be coined; When she has given him all this store, And she, though liberal, can give no more: After all this, O Beauty's curse! He shall Eunuch be or worse, The world will never suff'r him to live good, or man. 49. So prodigal is lust to have its end, If the youth won't condescend, So very impudent is gold, 'Twill with the parents correspondence hold: To maintain a current trade, The Father pander, Mother bawd is made. Beauty does the youth destroy, No Tyrant ever gelt an ugly boy: Nero no youth, though noble, e'er thought meet For Court, with swollen throat, or club feet, Nor any one that looked, as though He was with child before and behind too. 50. Go, and rejoice now in thy beauteous Son, Who therefore has more ways to be undone: He'll be the common Town-bull, must receive Whatever plague's the angry husbands give; For he can be no happier than his (s) star, And nets, you know, trepanned the God of war. That punishment some greater find, Than ever was by (t) Law assigned; Some men have spit 'em, others chose To kill adulterers with dry blows; Some prolong their pain by Art, And with a Mullet clyster the back part. But your choice Son shall have as choice a Dame: Can that a one the crime, or bail the shame? Or if it could, it would not do, Who once adulterer is, will twice be so; He will not only swallow baits From those he loves, but those he hates; Money has charms almost as great as lust▪ He can't afford always to sin on trust: (n) Servilia, she is poor you know, Very poor and ugly too; Maugre both ugliness and poverty, She wants not baits for lechery. Her Gallant she will have, Though in pawn her she leave: If she be naked, what cares she? She is then as she would be. Most others are his own, and why? The prodigal will give, the covetous buy: Whether they breeding have or none, On this account it is all one; Be she the morosest creature, She'll be complaisant, and yield to this ill good-nature. 52. But grant him chaste, as chaste can be, Grant him chaste as chastity; He may be chaste, safe he shall never be. What signified th' honest resolved intent To (w) Hippolytus the fair? Lust he avoided, not the snare; He by (x) Phaedra was accused Of the incest he refused, Suffered for being innocent, He scaped the sin, but could not scape the punishment. 53. (y) Bellerophon was as chaste as he, And (z) Stenobaea fierce as she; At first she blushed, O woman-bashfulness! A shamefaced look, but meaning nothing less; 'Twas not from modest, that the colour flowed, But from her worst, from her impurest blood: Rage mixed with lust that Ensign bore, Nor was she loath, but could not be a whore; Women to cruelty do most incline, But are severest when Love and revenge in battle join, For if they can't debauch, they then will murder men. 54. Pray in this case, tell me, how you'd advise, You know the (a) partner of the Emp'ror's bed, She would the beauteous (b) Silius wed; The noble youth must be a sacrifice, The flames are light in Messalina's eyes; She waits in all the circumstance of marriage, Her Veil is on, the Wedding-bed Is with the richest purple spread, seven thousand pounds upon the Table lie For portion, (c) public Notaries stand by, The Southsay'r, privy Counsellor of fate, Attends, bribed to pronounce 'em fortunate, Pray will you speak one word for to direct his cari'age. 55. You'd think such things as these should not be known, Alas! lust seldom goes alone, Impudence is its old companion, Grown bold, it scorns to do the thing it will not own; 'Twill act in form, and to defend the cause, 'Twill both corrupt the (d) Judges and the Laws. Pray, speak, she does command him with her eye, He must obey, or instantly must die; Such small hopes has he of to morrow's sight, If he obeys not, he shall ne'er see candle light; She's Empress, Silius, why shan't you obey? Wed her, 'tis the safest way: But if you will prolong your life one day, The (e) Emperor is the remoter doom, First it must be known to Rome, To him that's most concerned shame last does come. If one night's life and pleasure you prefer, Silius, obey you her; But choose which bade you will, Death stands at either door, 'Cause fair, you're miserable still, Both horns of fate alike do gore; That neck that looks like snow turned into wax, To morrow shall be severed by the fatal Ax. 56. Things going thus, you will be apt to say, Why, then we must not pray; Since ruin springs from our most holy cares, What becomes then of Heaven, and all its train? Either there's not such place, or 'tis in vain; We may as well want Gods as have no prayers. 'Tis true, but you of both may make fit use, If good advice you don't refuse; Ask not for friv'lous things, or if you do, Be not concerned your wishes don't ensue, Leave your prayers to the Gods, and they will pray for you. 57 Heaven keeps a balance, 'tis a sign Does in a constellation shine; In this all humane prayers are weighed, The weighty granted, light aside are laid; If you always idly pray, You, and the Gods still fling those prayers away; They know our wants better than we, Better our necessities see; We ask for things in which we most delight, But they won't grant, because we ask not right: Those things only they bestow, Which they both good and useful know; They, wise and kind inhabitants above, Love men better, than men themselves can love. With blind impulse of soul, which we ne'er heed, At unawares We stumble on our prayers; First from the Gods a wife we crave, Then beg increase of breed, Which many times we would not do, If what we did desire we knew, They know what kind of wife and children we shall have. 58. Worship the Gods with a religious vow, Unto their holy Temples go, Be just unto the Deities, Pay 'em the tribute of due sacrifice; And if to prayer you are inclined, Pray you may, I'll tell you how, For a sound body pray, and for as sound a mind: Pray for a Soul that's truly stout, Would neither let death in, nor keep it out; But entertain its live's just end, With such concern and looks as 'twould a friend; And till that, bears all griefs Nature can send. Beg a serene and happy breast, One wherein no base passions rest, As free from anger as from fear, That all damages can bear, So far from wishing things fewer be, It can put losses out to Usury; That Hercules his griefs and pain Would more willingly sustain, Than all (f) Sardanapalus' luxury; Prizes 'em more than his delicious cheats, More than his women or his meats, More than his beds of Down that were as soft as he. 59 I tell you things you to yourself may give, Would you live happy, you must virtuous live: In short be prudent, and the whole is done, Make wisdom yours, the Gods are all your own. But we, blind fools, no wholesome counsel take, Blind as her to whom we bow, The true Gods can't suffice, We number Fortune 'mongst the Deities, We a Heaven to her allow, And worship her, whom we ourselves a Goddess make. NOTES. (a) THough the chests of the rich were kept in the Forum, yet the particular place there was some Temple, in Foro Augusti, in Mars his Temple, till robbed, as mentioned, Sat. 14. Then in Foro Romano, in the Temple of Castor and Pollux. (b) Democritus of Abdera in Thrace; and Heraclitus the Ephesian Philosopher. (c) Praetexta & Trabeae, those Garbs partly consisted of purple, and the first of them properly belonged to Consuls, and young Noblemen; the other to peculiar great Officers. (d) For an allay to the vain glory and pride of their Triumphs, it was usual to hang behind the triumphal Chariot a Whip and a Bell, the emblems and instruments of the vilest punishments, to which the public Servant, who carried the masty Crown before spoken of, still pointed, minding the triumphing Person of the vicissitudes of Fortune. (e) The Ancients, in a Tablet or some other thing, fastened their Petitions by wax to the thighs of the statue of some God, looking on those parts because procreative, as the most propitious to mankind, which Petitions till granted, they left there as engagements and witnesses to such returns as were therein specified, and when granted, they took them away, and paid their Vows or acknowledgements. (f) The Horses, that were part of the Statue. (g) In that shape Europ● was stole. (h) A Goddess of Tuscany, where Sejanus was born. (i) Secura senectus Principis: of Tiberius. (k) Tiberius compared to Ajax, who grown mad, is reported to have slain cattle, taking them from the Grecians after his disappointment of Achilles his Armour; Sheep stand for the Commons; Shepherds, as is very usual, for Grandees or Governors. Agamemnon in Homer is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. (l) The people's discourse represented by Juvenal, as in their persons. (m) Three poor Villages, Gabii and Ulubrae of the V●sci●●●, Fid●nae of the Sabines. (n) Vasa minora frangere. (o) Julius Caesar murdered in the Senate-house. (p) Demosthenes. (q) Barbarus Induperator. The Greeks called all men, except themselves, Barbarians; whereupon Plautus several times, his Scenes lying in Greece, calls the Romans so; nay, more than once, he puts the word Barbarus alone for a Roman: 'Tis the observation of Laelius Bistiola, that in Demosthenes his time, and somewhat before, by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they understood the Persian King; and when the Romans came into power, and that the Arts flourished amongst them, they had the same esteem of the rest of the world as the Greeks had, and expressed themselves accordingly. (r) Conquests in Civil Wars were allowed no Triumphs, as Lucan testifies, complaining That when the Romans might have enlarged their Dominions, and their Captains have received the particular graces of Conquest, they waved it, and fell at variance amongst themselves, as he says, Bella geri placuit nullos abihtura triumphos. (s) The wild figtree here is supposed, as the nature of it allows, to grow out of the monument of one of these Conquerors. (t) The Western and Eastern parts of Africa, in both which there were store of Elephants, from which the Poet describes the Countries, calling those parts of Africa which were in Lybia and Mauritania, aliosque Elephantos. (u) Rome so called, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (w) Saburra was the same in respect of Rome, that Cheapside is of London. (x) Prusias King of Bythinia, to whom Hannibal fled, after the Carthaginians had made peace with the Romans. (y) Hannibal overcoming the Romans at Cannae in Apulia, got so great a victory, that he sent thence as a present to the Senate of Carthage, many bushels of Rings, being the spoils of the slaughtered. He likewise kept poison in a ring, to prevent being delivered alive into the hands of his great Enemies the Romans, which had happened when the Romans compelled Prusias and Eumenes to a Peace, had he not avoided it by that fatal device here mentioned by the Poet. (a) Alexander born at Pella in Macedon. (b) Gyarus and Scriphus named by the Poet, are two small Islands belonging to the Cycladeses, whither the Romans banished those who were guilty of the most enormous crimes. (c) 'Tis reported, that Xerxes did dig a channel through the great mount Athos▪ and sailed through it. (d) Xerxes. (e) The God of the winds, who is feigned to have a great a we and tyranny over them. Virgil says,— Vinelis & carcere fraerat. (f) Marked him for his slave, for slaves were so used. (d) What God, etc. A great Irony; as much as if he had said, that mark was needless, seeing the Deities could not choose but by their own accords serve the madman, their pretended Master, who used them so kindly as is here described. (h) A Boat borrowed from a Fisherman, being all he had to show for his vast Navy. (i) Death, Like which they looked, out of a concern, and for fear of not obtaining their earnest and foolish request of a too long life. (k) It, viz. the bloodless cheek. (l) By, Hanging down, as if it had a desire to quit its station. (m) A Wood near Tunis, where there is great store of Apes. (n) Great hollows in the cheek, resembling pits, so big, that the old ape fears to lose her paws, or scarce able to reach their bottoms when she scratches, to which he compares the face of old men. (o) Most people about Fourscore, are alike; at lest no remarks of beauty remain to make the distinction. (p) Worn out; as the High way by long usage, and as void of sense. (q) A rare Musician in the Author's time. (r) Those that sung on the Stage to please the Spectators, wore an embroidered Garment called lacerna, termed golden, from the mixture of gold in the Embroidery. (s) A notorious Whore of that age, mentioned in his sixth satire. (t) A famous Physician of that time. (u) A Governor of a Province. (w) A notorious wicked Guardian in those days. (x) Some call him Tricinius, some Linnamus, but all conclude he was first a Barber, afterwards a Senator, and vastly rich. (y) Right-hand, that is, counted hundreds of years: the ancient way of counting was done by the position of fingers, as was manifest in their Statues of Mercury in the High way, which were not only set as guides to the next eminent place by looking that way, but by the posture of the hand, signified how many miles it was distant: they reckoned the left hand to 90. the first Figure of the right hand was 100 the second 200. and so on to 900. (z) Laertes was Ulysses his Father. (a) Kept from home, by being confined by the anger of the Gods that took part with Troy, of which Homer relates in his Odysseis. (b) Paris Priam's Son, who stole Helena. (c) Hector The Corpse of the Ancients were usually borne by their Sons. (d e) Cassandra and Polyxena, Priam's Daughters. (f) They burned their Dead. Lucian gives this account of Funeral Rites; The Greek burned his dead, the Indian preserved the corpse with ointment made of Swine's grease, the Persian buried, the Scythian eat it, and the Egyptian embalmed. (g) Mithridates thrice overthrown, by Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey. (h) The potent King of Lydia. (i) Solon. (k) Cyrus rescued him from death, but he living long after in a mean condition, who before had been one of the greatest Monarches in the world, may well seem more miserable for his unhappy length of years. (l) The great Roman-Captain Marius, conquered by Scylla, fled to Asrica, and begged in Carthage, which had been before that sacked by the Romans. (m) He triumphed for his Victory over the Gauls. (n) The Mother of Diana and Apollo. (o) Ravished for her beauty by Tarquin, she slew herself. (p) Slain by her father, for fear Ap. Claudius should ravish her. (q) A deformed old woman of 97. mentioned by Pliny. (r) The Sabines were a chaste and rigid people, and in the beginning of the Roman State, embodied with them: Numa Pompilius the great Emperor was of that Nation. (s) He fancies him born under Mars, and alludes to the Story in Ovid's Metam▪ where Vulcan catches Mars and Venus in a Net. (t) There were several Laws made against Adultery, yet the punishments inflicted by the abused Husband, often surpassed them all in severity. (u) Servilia, without offence to Commentators, may be fancied poor, who when her money was gone, gave away her clothes to maintain her lust. (w) The Son of Theseus, banished by reason of a false accusation of his Mother-in-law, who missing her intent, wrought that revenge: he was torn in pieces by his Chariot-Horses, going to exile. (x) Hippolytus his Mother-in-law. (y) The Son of Glaucus, who being solicited by Praetus the Argive King's Wife to dishonesty, and refusing her, was by her accused, and suffered many evils. (z) Praetus his Wife. (a) Messalina, Claudius Caesar's Wife. (b) C. S●lius designed for Consul, a very beautiful young nobleman, with whom Messalina was enamoured, and thereby wrought his destruction: the story is at large set down both by Tacitus and Suetonius. (c) These were the formal Solemnities of marriage in those days. (d) Lust sometimes betrays Lawmakers, and in this case was so impudent, as to abuse the Laws themselves, in the legal solemnity of a marriage, which was an impudent adultery. (e) Claudius then absent at Ostium sixteen miles from Rome. (f) The last Assyrian Monarch of the most effeminate. The End. ERRATA. PAge 7. l. 18. read strangely. p. 11. l. 22. r. Court-plots. p. 17. l. 2. r. want. ibid. l. 10. r. sweeting. ibid. l. 23. blot out Xerxes. p. 18. l. 5. r. taught. p. 25. l. 12. r. I pass Croesus. ibid. l. 18. r. bread. p. 28. l. 23. r. atone. p. 30. l. 21. r. this. p. 34. 15, & 16. r. Massy. p. 35. l. 26. r. habitura.