mischievous when rage once crost Inflames their livers they are headlong tost Like stones from Precipices when th' earth slides And leaves to the rock-head no mountain-sides But I hate her that studies and commits A foul crime being in her perfect wits They look upon ALCESTIS on the Stage And see her for her Lord her life engage Were such a change now offer'd to a Wife She would prefer her little Bitche's life BELIDES ERIPHYLES you may meet And CLITEMNESTRA daily in each street But diff'renc'd thus th' old CLITEMNESTRA held A foolish gouty Axe she scarce could weld Now with a red Toad's Lungs the feat they doe Yet have their fine Steeletto's ready too Lest wary AGAMEMNON should have got The thrice-foil'd Monarch's Pontick Antidot The Comment UPON THE SIXTH SATYR VErse 1. Saturn Son to Coelum and Vesta He married his Sister Ops and cut off his Father's generative parts casting them into the Sea where they begot Venus therefore called Aphrodite His elder brother was Titan that perceiving his Mother and Sisters stood affected to Saturn resigned his birth-right conditioned that Saturn's male-issue should be destroyed that so the Crown might return to Titan's Children In pursuance of these Articles Saturn devoured his Sons Now Ops being delivered of Jupiter and Juno at one birth made the Midwife carry Juno to Saturn but Jupiter she concealed and had him privately nursed in the house sending for the Corybantes to play to her upon their Cymbals that the noise of their bells might drown the crying of the Childe Then she brought forth Neptune and put him to Nurse to her Husband shewing wrapt up in swadling clouts a stone which he devoured In her third Child-bed she had Twins again Pluto and Glauca and as before concealing the Boy shewed only the Girle to Saturn All this being at last discovered to Titan when he saw that his Brother's Sons would come between him and the Crown he mustered his own Sonnes the Titans defied his Brother Saturn fought him had the victory and pursuing his Brother and Sister Saturn and Ops took them both and imprisoned them till such time as Jupiter being grown a man defeated the Titans setting at liberty his Father and Mother Afterwards Saturn hearing from the Oracle that his Son should dispossess him of his Kingdome sought the life of Jupiter whereof he had intelligence and by way of prevention seized the government of Creet into his own hands Saturn fled into Italy where in the Dominions of King Janus for some time he lurked and from his Latitat that part of Italy was called Latium Under the Reign of Saturn the Fabulists place the Golden Age when the earth not forced by the Plough and Harrow afforded of it self all kinds of grain and fruit the whole terrestrial Globe being then a Common not so much as one Acre inclosed The naturall Philosophers reduce this Fable of Saturn and Coelum to the motion of Time and the Heavens the Astrologers apply it to the course of the Planets See Lucian de Astrol. Ovid. Metam The Mythology of it you may have from the Chymists and Nat. Comes lib. 2. 10. Verse 3. Lar. A Spirit or God to which the Romans ascribed the guarding of their houses painting him like a Dog because they wished to have him like a Dog that keeps the house gentle to the houshold fierce only towards strangers The Lar and the Dog are compared by Ovid. Fast. 5. Servat uterque domum domino quoque fidus uterque est Compita grata deo compita grata cani Exagitant Lar turba Diania fures Pervigilantque Lares pervigilantque Canes Both guard the house to th' owner both are right The High-way is the Lar's and Dog's delight The Lar and Dog from Thieves the house will keep The God and Dog wake when the houshold sleep The Temple of this God was the House the smoak his incense and his Altar the Hearth which was therefore accounted sacred as appears by C. M. Coriolanus taking sanctuary in the Chimney of his Enemy Tullus Attius Plutarch in Coriol Verse 5. Mountain-Wife before such time as men durst venture for fear of wilde beasts to carry their Wives down with them from the tops of the Mountains Verse 7. Cynthia Mistress to the Poet Propertius that confesseth his captivity in these words Cynthia sola suis miserum me coepit ocellis Et captum nullis ante cupidinibus Cynthia's eyes set my poor heart on fire Which till that instant never knew desire Verse 7. Nor her Lesbia Mistress to Catullus that writ upon the death of her Sparrow the Elegie begins thus Passer deliciae meae puellae The Sparrow play-Mate to my Love Verse 10. Great Child Before the debaucheries of Parents had lessened the Statures of their Children cum robora Parentum Liberi magni referebant when goodly strong Children shewed the strength of their Parents Verse 12. Th' Oak's rupture Men as they grew more civilized lodged a-nights in hollow trees which made the wilder People believe that trees brought forth men Verse 13. Had no Parents Whose evill manners they might inherit by example Verse 15. Ere Jove had a beard Jupiter or Jove was as aforesaid Son to Saturn and Ops delivered of him and Juno at one birth in the Isle of Creet where he was bred up by the Curetes or Corybantes the Priests of Cybele that concealed him from his devouring Father But after he had released Saturn from imprisonment and found that his Father had a plot upon his life he outed him of his Kingdomes which he divided with his Bretheren by lot Sat. 3. Heaven and earth fell to himself the Sea to Neptune to Pluto Hell Then he married his Sister Juno by whom he had Vulcan There were four Jupiters two Arcadians one Son to Aether and Father to Proserpine and Bacchus the other Son to Coelum and Father to Minerva the Inventress of Warre the third was Son to Saturn born in Creet where his Tomb was to be seen Cic. 3. de Natura Deor. The Naturallists interpret Jove to be the Element of fire and will have Jupiter to signifie adjutor because nothing helps and cherishes nature so much as fire sometimes Jove is taken for the two superior Elements when they act upon the two inferior Elements for generation and corruption The Ethnick Poets by the several adulteries and thefts of Jove under the shadow of a Fable give us the character of a Tyrant The time of his reign they call the Silver Age in reference to the Golden Age under his Father Saturn for as much as Silver participates more of Earth and consequently of rust and corruption then Gold doth Hierocl The purest of the Silver Age was ere Jove had a beard for when Down once grew upon his chin you see what reaks he played with Ladies in Ovid's Metamorphosis iron barres and locks could not hold out against his golden key Horace Inclusiam Danaen turris ahenia Robustaeque fores vigilum
and men the first Head and Governour of mankinde of whom depended the management of this vast VVorld Fab. Pict Juvenal calls him thou old God Father Janus and so old a God his Children the Romans thought him to be that some of them conceived he was the Chaos Ovid. in Fast. Me Chaos antiqui nam sum res prisca vocabant The Ancients call'd me Chaos I 'm so old Verse 412. Th' Aruspex will grow crooked sure VVith stooping to look into the entrails of sacrifices made by great Ladies for Fidlers and Players Verse 425. Niphates A great River of Armenia the less tumbling down from the Mountain Niphates that divides the lesser Armenia from Assyria and gives the name to the River Strab. lib. 11. which name of Niphates comes a nivibus from snow Stephan and therefore upon a violent sudden Thaw the gossiping great Lady that holds conference with Generals palludated in their imbroidered riding-Coats as being ready to march into the field might very well report that Niphates had drowned all the Countries about it Verse 438. Two Leaden Balls They that sweat before they bathed swung two Leaden Balls in each hand one and then were nointed Senec. Epist. 57. Verse 462. The labouring Moon When the Moon was in eclipse the simple superstition of the Romans made them believe that she was bewitched with charmes and incantations for which there was no Counter-spell but only a sound of brass from Trumpets Basons Kettles and the like Tibull Eleg. 8. Cantus è cursu Lunam deducere tentat Et faceret si non aera repulsa sonent Songs would and sure might make the Moon retreat Were not for Counter-charms Brass-kettles beat Verse 465. Sylvanus God of the Woods Son to his Grandfather and Sister in this manner Venus being offended with Valeria Tusculanaria made her fall in love with her own Father She opened the wicked secret to her Nurse and the old Bawd trepand her Master into his Daughters Bed telling him there was a Neighbour's Daughter a very pretty young Maid that had a months mind to him but durst not speak for her self no nor look upon so reverend a person After enjoyment when the old man was tippled he took a light in his hand which the Nurse seeing prevented his fury and casting her self out of the Window broke her neck a President shortly after followed by the old man but Valeria trusting to her nimble feet over-ran her Father Valerius got into the VVoods and was delivered of Sylvanus called by the Grecians Aegypanes from his figure being a man with Goats feet This Phantasm was by the Greeks and Romans believed to be God of the VVoods and Cattel also that he had the power to transform Cyparissus the Boy whom he doted upon into a Cypress tree To this God men offered up a Hog but women never sacrificed to Sylvanus nor did any of their sex pay a farthing to the Bath-keeper as the Stoick did that imagined himself a King for which Horace laughs at him neither was it the fashion for women to wear short Coats all which my Author thinks fit they should take upon them as well as the understanding of great Authors which is proper only to men Verse 468. Enthymem An imperfect Sylogisme wanting one proposition Verse 471. Palaemon Remmius Palaemon born at Vincentia by Plin. and Ptol. called Vicentia He lived at Rome in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius Caesar he was an excellent Grammarian and Tutor to M. Fabius Quintilian but such a pride his Art put into him that he said Learning was born and would die with him and used to call M. Varro a litterate Hog whom Quintilian not learning to make a Judgement from his Tutor called the most learned of the Romans and sayes he writ many learned books was a Master of the Latin tongue and skilfull in all Antiquity both of the Romans and Greeks One of Palaemon's brags was That Virgil in his Bucolicks prophecied of him as the only competent Judge of all Oratours and Poets He repoted that when Thieves had taken him after he had named himself they let him go but Poverty proved not so kinde for she never let goe her hold when she had catched him after his expensive vanity of bathing many times a day to which his fortunes were not answerable Suet. Verse 482. Poppaea Nero's Empress she invented a rare Pomatum and was so elegant so carefull to preserve her beauty that when she was banished Rome she carried fifty she-Asses along with her for their milk to wash her self in She died by a sudden rage of her Husband kicking her when she was with child Tacit. Verse 205. The Sicilian Court In the reigns of the cruellest Tyrants of Sicily Phalaris and the Dionisii Verse 509. Isis. Her first name was Io she was Daughter to the River Inachus and one of Jove's Mistresses For fear of Juno Jupiter metamorphosed her into a white Cow but Juno's jealousie found her out in that shape and begged the Cow of her Husband which he had not the courage to deny her Then she made Argos with his 100 eyes her Cow-keeper whereat Jupiter was so enraged that he slew him by the hand of Mercury Juno to revenge her self upon his Love made her mad and so grievously tormented her that Jove was forced to reconcile himself to his Wife and then won her to consent that Io might be restored to her former shape Afterwards she married Osiris and changed her name to Isis and after her death the Aegyptians in memory of benefits received from her by whom they were taught the use of Letters deified her and called her Priests Isaici See Plutarc in his Morals Neer to the Palace of Romulus by Juvenal here called the old Sheep-coat stood her Roman Temple which was the meeting place for Wenches Pimps and Bawds as appears in this and the ninth Satyr where it is pictured in the Designe Ovid. Multas Io facit quod fuit illa Jovi Io makes many what she was to Jove Verse 510. Psecas The Woman or Dresser to a tyrannicall Lady Verse 517. The Matron of the Wheel That being very old was in favour of her eye-sight spared from needle-work set to spinning and made one of her Lady's Councel Verse 525. Andromache VVife to Hector Daughter to Eetion King of Thebes in Cilicia Hom. lib. 12. Iliad and Mother to Astyanax In her widowhood Pyrrhus carried her into Greece and had by her a Son called Molossus afterwards falling in love with Hermione that was betroathed to Orestes he gave her in Dower part of his Kingdome and married her to the Prophet Helenus Son to Priam Volater Her name imports a Virago or a masculine woman and a tall one she was you may take Juvenal's word Verse 535. Bellona The Goddesse Pallas or Minerva formerly described whose fanatick Priests sacrificed to her their own blood and were therefore highly reverenced by the superstitious Roman Dames Verse 535. Cybele Vid. Sat. 2. where the Goddesse
The loop-hole would confess should I deny Five Houses worth three thousand pounds have I To make a ROMAN Knight What more 's requir'd Is not Right Worshipfull CORVINUS hir'd To keep sheep neer LAURENTUM at my rate The Freedman PALLAS liv'd not my estate Exceeds the LICINI then TRIBUNE stay Let Riches carry it nor he give way To sacred Honour whose bare chalky feet At ROME first kis'd the stones that pave the street For here to money's Majesty we yeeld Divine respect though fatall Gold we build To thee no Tempels yet though Silver hath No Altars like to Victory Peace Faith Virtue and Concord where the Storks nest creaks When that young Brood the old one's welcom speaks But in their year's Accounts when our great men Summe up the Basket What get Clients then Whose old shoes hang here there a kind of cloak All a poor house affords but bread and smoak Sedans full for these hundred Farthings throng Big-belly'd or sick Wives are brought along He begs for th' absent a slye trick now common Holds forth the close-chair empty for the woman My GALLA'S here Dispatch Why this delay Let 's see her she sleeps vex her not I pray The day it self 's in handsome order spent First at the Sportula we complement Our business in the Forum next we follow Visit the learned in the Law APOLLO And our triumphall Marbles one I mark Inscrib'd AEGYPTIAN and ARABARCH Of which all I can say is only this You may against that Statue more than piss Old Clients weary leave their Patrons Gate And their own hope though it had made them waite Long for a supper 't was a vain desire Poor wretches they must now buy roots and fire Mean time their Prince hath serv'd up to his board All rarities the Seas and Woods afford On 's empty beds his ease he only takes And of so man'y old fair large Tables makes His choice of one to hold his various meats And there alone his Patrimony eats He 'l not allow the Parasite a place Who can endure a Luxury so base Huge Ravin to ingross whole boares a beast That only seems created for a feast But swift's thy plague when swelling and undrest Thou bath'st crude Peacock which will ne're digest Thus Youth untimely Age intestate dyes The laugh'd-at news to every table flyes And at these Funerals their angry friends Applaud the justice of such fearfull ends Posterity can no new Vices frame Our Nephews will but wish and act the same All Crimes are at the height My Muse away Hoist Sail spread all thy canvas Poet stay Here 's Work Where 's Wit and Freedom as we list To whip Vice like th' AURUNCANE Satyrist That simple Freedome I dare hardly name All 's one if his poor MUTIUS like or blame Touch TIGELLINUS and thou shalt expire Wrapt up in pitch and flax and set on fire Like those with propt-up throats that smoaking stand And dragg'd to execution plow'd the sand Whil'st he that poison'd his three Uncles born In 's pendent-Couch thy death shall laugh to scorn If he come lay thy finger o're thy lips Th' Informer catches the least word that slips AENAEAS now without indangering Thy self to fight fierce TURNUS thou maist bring None vexes that ACHILLES feels his wound Or grieves for HYLAS with his pitcher drown'd But when LUCILIUS like a sword drawes out Hot fury he that feels cold guilt about The heart his crimes lay'd open blushing heares His entrailes sweat from hence springs rage and tears These things before the trumpet sounds debate The plumed Combatant repents too late Well then I 'le try what I of those may say Urn'd in the LATINE and FLAMINIAN Way The Comment UPON THE FIRST SATYR VErse 2. Theseis A Heroick Poem writ in imitation of Virgils Aeneis but not by so good a Hand magnifying Theseus that built Athens for encountring with Monsters killing of Giants and such Herculean Knight-errantry as had been fathered upon the valour of his Youth by fabulous Antiquity For the first Historians described valiant Persons as the old Geographers did the unknown parts of the World fancying impossibilities in Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shoars without waters or guarded by wilde Beasts as Plutarch observes in his preamble to the Life of Theseus The Author of this Latine Poem was Codrus you have an account of him Sat. 3. Shorter then 's Dwarf-wife Codrus had a Bed Item six little Juggs on 's Cupboard's head Item beneath it stood a two-ear'd Pot By Chiron's Herball Lastly he had got A Chest with some Greek Authors where the fierce Barbarous Mice gnaw'd never-dying Verse To this Miserable Inventory of his Goods might well have been annexed the Schedule of this pittifull Poem wherewith he had so often tormented the Eare of Juvenal Verse 4. Huge Telephus The Tragicomedy of Telephus base Son to Hercules by Auge the Daughter of Alaeus from whose eyes when she could no longer conceal the shame within her it put him into such a fury that he resolved never to see her more In pursuance of this resolution he committed her to a Master of a Ship commanding him to set her ashoar in some far distant Country where her dishonour could not have arrived but his private instructions were that when he had her at Sea he should drown her Before she came aboard him in a Forest of Mysia she fell in labour and was delivered of a Boy that by the Midwife was conveyed away and hid among the bushes Fortune having thus rescued the Child Beauty pleaded in behalf of the Mother and so far the Master's cruel heart was melted that he landed her in Caria and there sold her to Theutrantes who in a short time raised her from his Slave to be his Queen Mean time some Mysian Shepheards driving their flocks through the Forest saw a Hind singled from the Heard that never offered to stir till they came up to her where they found her giving suck to a new-born Babe which they took up and carried home to one of their Wives The news of the Child 's strange preservation flying through the Kingdome of Mysia came to the King's ear who sent for the Infant and was so taken with his beauty that he eased the Shepheards of their care and bred him up as his own In short the King being Childless upon his death-bed adopted this Child of fortune to whom he then gave his Crown as he had formerly given him the name of Telephus in memory of his Nurse the Hinde Telephus succeeding to the Kingdome was courted by the Greeks in their march to Troy for a passage through his Dominions which he denying and with an Army of his own endeavouring to give a stop to theirs he was by Achilles wounded in the left thigh with a Spear and when all the art of Chiurgery failed to give him ease the Oracle being consulted answered that no humane help would save his life unless he could receive it from the hand that wounded
What Ash-trees Centaurs fling Ixion had issue the Centaurs by the cloud which he imagined to be Juno by his own Wife he had Pirithous Prince of the Lapiths married to Hippodame the Daughter of Oenomaus King of Elis. At this Wedding the Centaures having drunk hard nothing would content them but the Bride attempting to carry her away by force they were fought with and defeated by the Lapiths under the command of Piriibous assisted by his Friend that afterwards went with him down to Hell Theseus In the fight the Centaur Rhetus pluckt up by the rootes and flung at the Lapiths such wilde Ash-trees as Boreas in a storm could hardly blow down The expression is Lucans The battel Ovid most rarely describes Verse 12. Julius Fronto A Tribune by Galba discharged out of the City Cohorts Tacit. lib. 16. After this exauctoration Fronto lived in Rome most nobly his House and Gardens being free for all that would read their works as well for meanest Poetasters Codrus and Cluvienus as for the noblest Poets Juvenal Statius and Martial that in an Epigram to Fronto stiles him Clarum militiae Fronto togaeque decus Fronto thou Ornament of warre and peace Verse 13. We have counsel'd Sylla to lay down the Sword To advise Sylla that he should lay down his Commission for Dictator or supreme Magistrate was a Theam or Exercise as common in the Rhetorick Schools when the Scholars were to learn the point of perswasion as it was for their Master to make them deliberate for Hannibal Sat. 7. After the fatal day at Cannae won If he directly should to Rome march on Or to get's weather-beaten forces out Of stormes and lightning wisely wheel about A hard task it would be for the best Rhetorician living to perswade Sylla if he were now alive for that was the case to resigne the sovereign power unless he were such an Orator as could bring arguments to raise the love of Pleasure above that of Ambition and Revenge to all which Sylla was passionately given as you will finde in this Summary of his life Sylla or Sulla was nobly born but till the time of his Questorship he much dishonored the Patrician Family from which he was descended with drinking wenching and acting in private among Stage-players his wit making him an excellent Comedian for it was quick and sharp as you may note from his animadversion upon the letter writ him by Caphis the Phocian advising him not to meddle with the sacred treasure of Delphos because he was told for certain that the God was heard to strike his Lute in the Sanctuary To this Sylla answered That he wondered Caphis understood the god no better for one that is really sad will have no minde to play Tunes and therefore Caphis should not fear to receive that which Apollo parted with so merrily But Sylla was not happier in his jests then he was in serious concerns wherein he had been without a Parallel if his Cruelty had not blemish'd his Fortune He fettered King Jugurth defeated Marius destroyed the Government of Cinna proscribed Sulpitius and commanded that Sulpitius his Slave for betraying of his Master should have his neck broken from the Tarpeian rock He beat Mithrydates out of all Europe and Euboea confining him within the limits of his hereditary Kingdome of Pontus At the walls of Rome neer to the Collin Gate he fought a battel where the number of the slain was said to be 80000. Then he entred the City where he gave quarter to 4000 men and when they had delivered up their weapons ordered them to be put to the sword he himself as Seneca reports then siting in Senate within the Temple of Bellona where the Lords being frighted with the shrieks of the dying men he cryed To the business of the day these my Lords are a few seditious Rogues slain by my command He likewise put to death of his own party above 9000. In his first Roll of Proscription he writ down 80000 names in his second List 5000. By his order M. Marius Brother to C. Marius had his eyes dig'd out and was then cut to pieces limb by limb He also slew Carinates Praetor to Marius In short he made not only Rome but all Italy a Slaughter-house He did ill valiantly and was cautious enough to secure himself He knew no fear of Heaven had no Faith no Mercy Four Marian Legions confiding in his false promise and imploring the pitty that never dwelt in him were slain to a man Five thousand Praenestines that had his word for their indemnity he caused to be slain and cast into the fields denying burial to their bodies He drew his sword against women He commanded mens heads to be brought him only to make sport withall The ashes of Marius were dis-urned by his barbarity From the time that he resigned the Dictator-ship until the very hour of his death he recreated himself with Players Fools and Fidlers The day before his death hearing that Granius the Praetor deferred the payment of his vast debts in expectation of Sylla's death he sent for the Praetor to his Chamber and there after he had Rogu'd and Rascal'd him commanded him to be strangled But the fury wherewith he ranted put his body into so violent an agitation that his Imposthume the bed of his lowsie disease broke and all that night strugling for life in his own blood next morning he gave up the Ghost His Epitaph writ by his own hand was to this effect Here lies Sylla the greatest Friend and the heaviest Enemy Plutarch Verse 22. Lucilius The first Latine Poet that writ Satyrs born at Aurunca in Italy a Town famous for Satyrists Lenius Silius and Turnus being all three Auruncanes whereof the last was a Person of great quality and gracious with the two Vespasian Caesars Titus and Domitian In the six and fourtieth year of his age Lucilius died at Naples and was buried at the publick charge Verse 26. Bare-brested Maevia foyls the Tuscan Boar. This may with great reason have the second place among the motives that prevailed with Juvenal to write Satyrs and is as much against nature as the first What a prodigious sight it was for the Romans in their great Show-place the Circus to see a Woman fight with a Boar and of all Italian Boars the Tuscan Boar was the wildest But it seems Maevia was a fiercer Creature and no doubt but Rome would have been astonished if such a Prize had been played in King Numa's dayes when a woman but coming into the Senate-house to plead in her own Cause they sent to the Oracle to know what it portended to the State Plutarch in the life of Numa Verse 28. That with his Sissers Cynnamus the Barber whose Fortunes were raised by his Mistresses to the quality of a Roman Knight with a vast Estate as Juvenal tells us Sat. 10. Sooner might my Arithmatick avow How many Mannors he is Lord of now That when my youthfull beard was grown too grave Correction
fired the whole Palace Jason resolving to kill Medea for this fact broke open her Chamber-dore just as if she had bewitched him thither only to be an eye witness to the death of those Children which he had by her for as soon as ever he came in she catcht them up and strangled them all but saved her self by the power of Magick Her next appearance she made at Athens where she married Aegaeus and though he was then very aged she had a Son by him called after her own name Medus that gave name to the Country of the Medes Justin. lib. 42. After all this no body knows how Jason and she were reconciled probably it was for her own ends because she forthwith carried him to Colchos where he reestablished her old banished Father in his Kingdome See Diodor. Sicul. and N. Comes that learnedly interprets the Fable of Medea Verse 673. Progne Daughter to Pandion King of Athens Wife to Tereus King of Thrace of all Thracians the most barbarous for under pretence of waiting upon Pandion's other Daughter that made a visit to her Sister Progne at his Court by the way he ravished Philomela cutting out her tongue that she might not tel But Philomela being an excellent Work-woman drew her sad story with her needle in such lively colours that her Sister Progne knew the whole circumstance of the Rape and to revenge her self of her cruel Husband by the advice of the Maenades she feasted him with the limbs of his and her Son Itys which being known by the Childs head that was served-in for the second course Tereus in his fury would have killed his Wife but whilst he was drawing out his Sword he saw her turned into a Swallow Philomela was transformed into a Nightingale Itys into a Pheasant Tereus himself admiring at their metamorphosis was turned into a Lapwing that still bears upon his head the creast of a fierce Thracian Souldier See Ovid. Met. 6. Verse 683. Alcestis Wife to Admetus King of Thessaly whose Cattle-keeper Jove himself had been and therefore as it seems when his old Master was sick to death Jove was contented with an exchange so that if any one would die for Admetus he might live But this being an office distastefull to his whole Court and Kingdome all excused themselves only Queen Alcestis cheerfully embraced the offer and served her Husband with her life Her Tragedy you may read in the works of Euripides Verse 687. Belides The Belides or Danaides were fifty Daughters of Danaus Son to Belus To these Ladies Aegyptus Danaus his Brother desired to marry his fifty Sons but Danaus would not give way to the Treaty of a marriage with all or any of them because the Oracle had fore-told him that he should die by the hand of a Son in Law but Aegyptus moving it once again in the head of a strong Army brought to force the consent of Danaus and his Daughters the match was concluded Upon the wedding night the Brides were instructed by their Father to kill their Husbands when they saw their opportunity In obedience to him all these Ladies slew their Husbands but only Hypermnestra that preserved the life of her Husband Lyceus He afterwards verified the Oracle and to secure himself slew his Father in Law Danaus and succeeded him in the Kingdome of Argos The sentence pronounced against these Sisters by Minos the just Judge of Hell was to pour water into a Tub that was split until they filled it which could never be and therefore their punishment must be endless Some think this Fable signifies the Spring and Autumne that every year pour out new varieties of flowers and fruits yet never satisfie our expectations See Lucret. lib. 5. Others take it to bear proportion to the whole life of man and of all things in the world which as they come in go out not leaving any long continued monument of what they were There are that apply it to benefits conferred upon ingratefull persons which vanish in the doing Plato compares the split Tubs of the Beleides to the minde of an intemperate man which is insatiable Terence hath one that saith he is very like them plenus rimarum sum I am full of Leaks But whosoever he was that writ the following Epigram he fixes Plato's sense from an universal to a particular exceeding well Belidas fingunt pertusa in dolia Vates Mox effundendas fundere semper aquas Nomine mutato narratur fabula de te Ebrie qui meias quae sine fine bibis Quinetiam hoc in te quadrat turba ebria quod sint Corpora quae fuerant dolia facta tibi Tubs split say Poets the Belides fill With water which still pour'd in runs out still Change names to thee the Fable comes about Drunkard that all thou pour'st in pissest out In this too it concerns your bousing Crue Those that were Bodies are made Tubs by you Verse 687. Eriphyle Daughter to Thelaon Sister to Adrastus and Wife to Amphiaraus She was bribed with a Ring by Polynices to make discovery of her Husband that lay hid for fear of being forced to march to the seige of Troy where he and she knew that it was his fate to die For this trechery of his Wife Alcmaeon had in charge from his Father Amphiaraus that as soon as ever the breath was out of his body she that betrayed him to death should not live a minute accordingly when the news was brought Alcmaeon slew his Mother Verse 689. Clytemnestra See the Comment upon Sat. 1. Hom. lib. 11. Odyss Senec. in Agam. Eurip. in Orest. Sophocles in Elect. Verse 695. The thrice foil'd Monarch Mithridates King of Pontus that by the strength of his arme could rule six pair of horses in a Chariot and by the strength of his brain two and twenty Nations every one of them speaking a several tongue and he all their languages When the Romans were taken up with their civil wars he beat Nicomedes out of Bithinia and Ariobarzanes out of Cappadocia possessing himself of Greece and all the Greek Islands only Rhodes excepted The Merchants of Rome that traffick't in Asia by his contrivance were slain in one night the Proconsul Q. Oppius and his Legate Apuleius were his Prisoners But Mithridates was thrice defeated by the Romans First as you have heard by Sylla at Dardanum then by Lucullus at Cyzicum from whence he fled for refuge to Tigranes King of Armenia that suffered him to make new levies within his Dominions but that vast Army was totally routed by Pompey Finally Pharnaces besieged him in his Palace and Mithridates despairing attempted to poison himself but had brought his body to such a habit by long and constant use of Antidots to prevent impoisoning that when poyson should have done him service it would not work Nor had he then lost the Majesty of his looks for the man sent to kill him found Mithridates unwillingly alive yet still so undaunted and like himself that the Murderer shakt and
had not the impudence to stand in competition for the armes of Achilles so farre he knew himself and his want of merit Verse 42. Tully Juvenal admonishes an Orator to consider his own abilities whether he be with the first-file of Speakers a Cicero or in the second rank a Curtius Montanus that had a harsh kind of elocution but proud and swelling Tacit. or of the third and lowest forme a Matho whose wit was unweldy like himself See the Comment upon Sat. 1. 7. Verse 52. Pollio A Roman Knight as appears by his Ring the mark of his honour but it seems the Census Equestris his four hundred thousand Sesterces were spent in feasting to the last Deneir otherwise he would not in his life time have suffered Poverty like Hannibal to plunder him of his Ring Verse 60. Ostia A haven Town to which the Roman Prodigalls removed that in case their Creditors followed they might slip aboard a Galley which was the designe of Damasippus Sat. 8. Verse 61. Forum The Forum Romanum the place of complement and business where the Romans had their Exchange Courts of Justice Pulpits for Orations and Saturn's Temple or the Chamber of Rome See the end of the Comment upon Sat. 1. Verse 62. Suburra A great street of Rome described in the Comment upon Sat. 3. Verse 63. Cool Mount Esquiline Coole to the great persons that dwelt upon it but cold to their Clients almost sterved with dancing attendance in the night Sat. 5. Was 't this for which I left so many a time My Wife the cold Mount Esquiline to climb Verse 69. Persicus The Friend invited to supper by Juvenal as I have said in my Argument to this Satyr Verse 76. Evander King of Arcadia Son to the Prophetess Carmentis for his eloquence said to be the Son of Mercury by Nicostrata He having accidentally slain his Father left his Kingdome and by the advice of his Mother sailed into Italy beat the Aborigines and possessed himself of the place where afterwards Rome was built built himself a little Town upon Mount Palatine and there entertained Hercules but very frugally He lived to give such another treatment to Aeneas Virg. Aeneid lib. 8. Verse 80. The first in fire Hercules that was Evander's first Guest went his voyage to the Gods in fire for he burned himself alive as in the end of the Comment upon Sat. 10. Verse 80. The last by water Aeneas treated by Evander along time after Hercules was burned went to heaven by water for he got his death by a fall into the Numician Well some say he was drowned in it and the Fountain it self consecrated to his Deity Tibull Verse 83. Tybur See the Comment upon Sat. 3. Verse 92. Signine Pears that grew in Italy amongst the Signines and were the latest ripe Plin. lib. 15. cap. 15. Verse 92. Syrian Pliny and Martial commend the taste of the Syrian Pear but Horace cries up the Pisan Pear for the most delicious Verse 98. Curius See the end of the Comment upon Sat. 2. Verse 111. Fabii Q. Fabius Maximus and his Sonne both temperate and frugall persons Verse 112. Scauri Marcus Scaurus Prince of the Senate See the Comment upon Sat. 2. Verse 113. Censor Fabricius the Censor that set a Fine upon the head of his Collegue P. Dâ—cius See the Comment upon Sat. 2. 9. Verse 127. Wild-beast The Wolfe that gave suck to Romulus and Rhemus under the rock at the foot of the Quirine Mount Verse 129. Naked God Mars that naked begot Romulus and Rhemus as aforesaid but afterwards put on his armes to maintain the Empire founded by those royall Twins Verse 138. The Gauls come M. Caeditius heard these words in the aire Liv. lib. 5. Marcellus when he had relieved the Capitol and beat the Gauls built the Temple of Jupiter upon the place where Caeditius heard the voice Plut. in Marcel Verse 152. Syene A Maritim City upon the borders between Aegypt and Aethiopia not far from the Isle of Elephantis so named from the numerous breed of Elephants This City is directly under the Tropick of Cancer so that in the Summer-Solstice at noon day the bodies of the Inhabitants cast off no shaddow at all Plin. lib. 1. cap. 73. Verse 154. Nabathaea An Orientall Region beginning at Arabia and containing all that tract on the right hand to the red Sea On the left hand is the Persian Sea and at the furthest part the Indian it had the name from Nabaioth the eldest Son to Ishmael The people of this Country are called Dacharenes Eustat Steph. Verse 168. Doctor Trypher Master of the carving Academy whose Pergula or Ground-tarras opening to the Suburra was furnished with wooden figures of birds beasts and fishes for his Scholars to practice upon Verse 170. Pygarg Authors differ strangely about the Pygarg some say it is a Wild-goat or Hind others a kind of Eagle Suid. all I can do is to put to it the Epithet fat-rumpt which expresses my Authors meaning and the sense of the word Pygarg Verse 172. Phaenicopterus An African bird a water-fowle with red wings and a beak so long and crooked that it cannot drink till the whole head be under water Verse 182. Mango He that sold Slaves and fine Boyes in the Market Verse 210. Castanettaes Knackers of the form of a Chestnut used to this very day by the Spanish women in their Dances Verse 221. Such verse As Homer's and Virgil's so excellently good that boyes cannot spoil it with reading if Scholars sit to hear it Verse 235. Cybel's Towell At the Circensian or Megalesian Playes instituted in honour of Cybele Mother of the Gods they hung out a Towell to give notice to the Town as our Players used to put forth a Flag The originall of their custome was from Nero that hearing as he sate at dinner with how much impatience the people waited at the Court gates to know his pleasure about the Circensian Playes he threw them out of the window the Towell he wiped his hands with to give them notice that he had dined and would be presently at the Circus where ever after a Towell was hung out Suet. in Ner. Verse 237. Horse-stealer The Consul or Praetor one of them being still present at the Megalesian or Circensian Playes in his Robe royall which the Romans proverbially called the Megalesian purple At these Shows the Praetor when they ran their Chariot-races would take the horses he liked best without paying for them under pretence of service to the Publick but keep them for his private use therefore Juvenal calls him the grand Horse-stealer Verse 242. Green-coats The four parties that ran Coach-races in the Circus were divided into severall Liveries viz. the Green-coats the Russet-coats the Blue-coats and the White-coats Henr. Salm. in Pencirol cap. de Circ Max. To these four Domitian Caesar added two Companies more the Gold-coats and the Purple-coats Suet. in Domit. ca. 7. Verse 245. The Consuls P. Aemilius and. T. Varro
it Verse 118. Moses Qui docebat c. That taught how the Aegyptians were not in the right that worshipped God in the Images of beasts nor the Graecians that gave to their Gods the figures of men and that Power only to be God which comprehends us the Earth and Sea which Power we call the Heaven the World and universall Nature To make whose Image like to one of us really none but a mad-man would presume Strab. lib. 16. Verse 120. Vnless to one of his Religion To this very day the Jewes will doe no reall civility unto any but of their own Nation and Religion which they love so much as to lend them money gratis all others must pay interest Verse 123. His Father caus'd all this Whose Jewish Tenets are hereditary to the Son Aegyptii c. The Aegyptians worship many Animals and Images made by hands The Jewes worship only in spirit and conceive one God holding them to be profane that make Images of perishing matter in the form of Men for God the supreme and eternall Power neither mutable nor mortall Therefore they have no Images in their Cities nor in their Temples Tacit. Hist. lib. 5. Verse 132. Hesperian Dragon See the Comment upon Sat. 5. Verse 154. The Bridge Where Beggars waited for the charity of Passengers Sat. 5. Is there no Hole no Bridge Verse 184. Tatius Generall of the Sabines that by the treachery of the Vestall Virgin Tarpeia as in the Comment upon Sat 6. took the Capitol After he had got that advantage of the Romans and often fought them with various successes upon the intercession of the Sabine women as aforesaid he made a Peace and put it in his Conditions That the Sabines should be free of the City and he himself Partner with Romulus in the government of Rome whose Territory extended not then to any great quantity of Acres as appears Sat. 8. by the adventure of Claelia the Maid that courage found To swim o're Tiber then our Empire 's bound But the Kinsmen of Tatius having affronted the Laurentine Embassadors and Tatius not righting them according to the Law of Nations the punishment due to his Kinsmen fell upon himself For he Sacrificing at Lavinium the whole City were insurrectors and killed him Liv. Verse 187. Pyrrhus King of Epire descended by the Mother from Achilles by the Father from Hercules He was strangely preserved in his infancy and bred in Macedon by Glaucias of Megara by him restored to his Fathers Kingdome at seventeen years of age Whilst he returned from Epire into Macedon to marry his beloved Mistress Daughter to Glaucias his Subjects the Molossians again rebelled and set up another Family in his Throne Having lost his Crown and with it his Friends he fled to his Sister Deidamia's Husband Demetrius Son to Antigonus and commanded under him at the great battail where all the Kings that divided Alexander's conquests were ingaged There he though a young man had the honor where he fought to worst the Enemy In Aegypt he grew so great a Courtier that Queen Berenice's Daughter Antigona loved and married him and won her Mother to move the King her Step-father for money and forces to reestablish her Husband in his Kingdome Entring Epire with an Army he found his People weary of their present Governor Neoptolemus all came in to their King But Pyrrhus fearing that Neoptolemus would follow his example and get some forrein Prince to espouse his quarrell divided the Crown with him Soon after discovering that his Brother-King had a plot upon his life Pyrrhus invited him to Supper and there killed him In memory of his Patron and Patroness the King and Queen of Aegypt he called his Son by Antigona Ptolemey and the City he built in Epire Berenice Lysimachus hearing of this signall Gratitude made use of Ptolemey's name to cajoll or put a trick upon Pyrrhus having then undertaken the quarrell of Alexander Brother to Antipater both Sons to Cassander The contents of the Letter were That Antipater desired Pyrrhus to receive therewith three hundred talents to forbear all acts of hostility against him But the direction was King Ptolemey to King Pyrrhus whereas he ever used to write The Father to his Son greeting By this means the cheat of the counterfeit Letter and Token was found out He was ready not only to intress himself in this difference between the Sons of Cassander but imbraced any opportunity of warre being ambitious to make himself the universall Monarch The Successors of Alexander used him to ballance the power of Demetrius whom he beat out of Macedon The Tarentines called him into Italy where he turned the effeminate Tarentines into good Souldiers and almost brought the warlike Romans upon their knees for twice he fought the Consul Dentatus and at those two battails slew threescore thousand Romans After his restless ambition had carried him from the East to the West and back again by Sicily to Macedon from thence to Sparta and at last to Argos A poor Argive woman seeing her Son's life at the mercy of his sword with both her hands flung a tyle at him which hitting between the helmet and the head broke his skull and killed him He was in the opinion of great Souldiers the greatest next to Alexander that ever the world had Antigonus being asked whom he held to be the best Generall answered Pyrrhus if he had lived to be old But for conduct and policy Hannibal gave the first place to Pyrrhus the second to Scipio the third to himself The Officers of his Army when he fought a battail observing his looks celerity and motion said Other Kings were like Alexander in their State and Courts but Pyrrhus in his armes and in the field And when they gave him the surname of the Eagle he said that I am so I owe you for it how can I be less then an Eagle that have your Swords for Wings He was bountifull to his friends moderate in his anger towards his enemies and when obligations were laid upon him extremely gratefull Calumny he sleighted for when some moved him to banish from Ambracia one that had railed against him no said he It is better that he should tarry here and slander me in one Town then all the world over Upon the same account another being under examination he asked him Were these your words the Examinant said Yes Sir and I should have spoke more bitterly if we had drank more wine Pyrrhus was satisfied with this answer and discharged the man Indeed he held himself concerned in nothing but warre and victory for even when he had taken a cup or two extraordinary a friend asking whether he thought Pytho or Caphisias the best Musitian he answered Polysperchon is a good General Plut in Pyrrh Verse 189. For many wounds two Acres The Consull Dentatus himself after Pyrrhus was beaten out of Italy accepted seaven Acres given him by the State Columel Verse 203. Wealth 's cruel thirst That like Death spares no
ancient City of Aegypt built as some say by Bacchus as others affirm by Busyris and once so called Diodor. Cic. and Herodot that sayes it was in compass a hundred and fourty furlongs and therefore named Hecatompylos Verse 7. Long-tail'd Monkey A kind of Monkey which the Aegyptians worshipped for a God This Monkey the Cercopithecus had a black head and hair upon all the rest of the body like Asses hair Plin. lib. 8. cap. 21. Verse 9. The Hound Anubis Son to Isis and Osiris He gave the Hound for his Armes or the impress of his Shield and therefore was adored in the shape of a Hound This made Aegypt so superstitious that if a Dog dyed in any house the whole family shaved themselves which was their greatest expression of mourning But Juvenal derides them that worship the Hound and not the Goddess of hunting Diana Of terrestriall creatures the Aegyptians in generall only worshipped three the Bull or Cow the Dog and Cat. Of water-animals two the Lepidot and Oxyrinth Strab. Some particular places as the Saitae and Thebans adored Sheep the Latopolitanes the broad Fish the Lycopolitanes the Wolf Kid and Goat the Mendesians the Mouse and the Athribites the Spider Strab. lib. 17. Verse 11. A Leek or Onion Wherein they conceived there must needs be a Divinity because they crost the influences of the Moon decreasing when she increased and growing when she wained Plin. Verse 15. Sheep The Aegyptian Priests eat only Veal and Goose but altogether abstained from Lamb and Mutton Diodor. lib. 2. Verse 18. Alcinous King of the Phaeacks whose Daughter Nausicae found Vlysses amongst the bushes as in the end of the Comment upon Sat. 9. and brought him to her father where at Supper he discoursed his voyage and told how Polyphemus and Antiphates eat up his Mates which inhumane crueltie in my Author's opinion must needs be thought so incredible and ridiculous a lie to the soberer sort of Phaeacks that he wonders some of them killed him not for abusing them with impossibilities viz. that men should eat men all the rest of his Mandevilian adventures as that Scylla and Carybdis set their Dogs at him That the Cyan rocks on either side of the Thracian Bosphorus met and joyned together That Neptune gave him bladders filled with wind that Circe turned his men into Hogs he thinks might be easier believed or past by as pardonable fictions But that one man should kill and eat another what sober man can credit Verse 30. Corcyraean wine The excellent strong wine of Corcyra anciently Phaeacia Plin. now Corfu and so called by Cicero Famil Epist. 9. Verse 33. Junius To prove the matter of fact in this sad relation as if he were to prove a Law he names the Consul Junius Sabinus Collegue with Domitian Caesar at the time when his Minion Paris the Player got a Commission for Juvenal to have a Regiment of Foot at Pentapolis in Aegypt where that barbarous crueltie was acted Verse 34. Coptus A Metropolitan City of Aegypt Ptol. Plut. Strab. a Haven common to the Aegyptians and Arabians inclining towards the red Sea neer to the Emerald-Mines Over this Town the Sun at noon day is almost in his verticall point Verse 37. Pyrrha Wife to Deucalion See the Comment upon Sat. 1. From her time Juvenal bids us summe up all Tragick Examples as that of Atreus feasting his brother Thyestes with his own Sons Medea killing her Children Orestes his Mother as aforesaid and we shall finde no parallel to this bloody banquet For those horrid crimes were only committed by single persons this by the joynt consent of a multitude Verse 39. Immortal hatred Religion is a religando from binding the minds of men in the strictest of all bonds and undoubtedly diversity of Religion makes the saddest difference between man and man Upon this maxim the wisest of the Kings of Aegypt grounded his policy for assigning severall Gods to the severall People of his Kingdome that so they might never agree amongst themselves to rebell against their Prince Diodor. Verse 40. Tentyrites The Inhabitants of the City of Tentyris or Tentyra in Aegypt Plin. Ptol. Strab. Steph. They hate the Crocodile and are terrible to him as in his precedent description The Deity they worship is the Ibis a bird that kills the Crocodile as aforesaid Verse 40. Ombites Ombus or Ombri a Town in Aegypt Ptol. that adored the Crocodile By the description of John Leo. it seems to be that which is now Chana Undoubtedly the Transcriber of Juvenal when he should have writ adhuc Ombos writ the c twice over and made it adhuc Combos Abra. Ortel which mistake together with an infinite number of grosser errours is rectified in the Louvre-copie followed by me in this Edition Verse 51. Know I. This knowledge of the Author makes very much for the Argument of his next and last Satyr writ when he was banished into Aegypt under the name of an honourable Commander a Colonel of Foot Verse 52. Lew'd Canopus Of the infinite Lewdness of this Town See the Comment upon Sat. 6. Verse 55. Poor unguents So their wine were generous the Ombites cared not what poor unguents they made use of which in other parts of Aegypt were most pretious Plin. Verse 56. Negro-Pipers The Towns of Ombus and Tentyris were upon the borders of Arabia and common to the Arabian Aethiops some of which were the Pipers at this lamentable feast of the Ombites Verse 73. Ajax or Turnus Men of more strength then any were in Juvenal's time as appears by the weight of the stones which they lifted and threw at their enemies Ajax in his combat with Hector Iliad 6. 7. Diomedes in his combat with Aeneas Iliad lib. 6. that had the luck on 't for Turnus likewise struck him down with a stone Aeneid lib. 12. Nec plura effatus saxum circumspicit ingens Without more words he spies a mighty stone Hom. ibid. sayes that Diomedes took up such a weight as in his time fourteen young men could hardly wag Verse 77. Homer The most incomparable Greek Poet. He flourished eightscore years before Rome was built Cor. Nep. He was blind and therefore surnamed Homer for so the Ionians call a blind man that wants a guide being formerly known by the name of Melesigenes as born neer to the River Meles which runs by the walls of Smyrna Philost and Strab. The place of his nativity is made doubtfull by many Cities every one of them claiming him for a Native after his death whereas in his life time none of all these Towns would relieve his wants or own him The Colophonians say he was a Citizen of theirs the Chians challenge him the Salaminians will have him the Smyrnians so far avow him that in their City they have dedicated a Temple to him many other Cities clash and contend about him Cic. in his Orat. pro Poet. Archia He writ two Works one of the Trojan war which he calls his Ilias the other