Breast Ceres pure Veils so few deserve to wear Or touch whose lips their Fathers need not fear VVith Garlands dress thy Gates on thresholds strew Thick-berry'd Ivy-boughs Let all men know Thy Iberina will but one mate 6 trie Content she will be sooner with one E e A Country Damsel yet great Fan e has wone VVell let her live at Gabü as Sh' has done At Home or at Fidenae not grow warm VVe 'l grant her Chast too at her Father's farm Yet who will say the Hills and Caves though cold Are Chast Are Jupiter and Mars so old But in our Arch'd walks think'st thou thou can'st spie A woman worthy of thy Trust and Eie Or can the d seats at Shews yield to thy sense VVhat thou with Love and Safety may'st choose thence VVhiles soft Bathyllus does the Leda dance VVith rare hand-gesture Turcia in mere trance Of Love forgets recention Appula Breaths rapture too 7 The start and Well-a-day VVith long attention Thymele does note Thymele rude till now now learns to doat VVhen th' empty Theater stands shut and all Stage-dress lies-by only the Law-Courts baul VVhen 8 from these shews the Megalesian too Are far-off in sad hope some Dames 9 yet view Accius his Visard Dart and Truss A strong Laughter 10 at an Atellan Parting-Song Some City-Mimick raises with each limme Acting the mad Autonoe On Him Poor Aelia doats At dear rates some as vile Unbutton 11 a Comoedian Others spoile Chrysogonus his Voice Your Tragick throats Hispula loves VVho on e Quintilian doats Thou VVedd'st Ambrosius the Piper's thus A Sire Echion th' Harper or Glaphyrus Scaffolds for the view i' th narrow Streets erect VVith large Bayes let thy Posts and Gates be deck'd Lentulus thy arch'd Canopy must grace Euryalus the Fencer's Babe and Face f Hippia 12 a Lord's wife with a Fencer fled To Pharos Nilus and the walls far spred By a bad Fame where Lagus raign'd whiles base Canopus did prodigious Rome disgrace Her Husband House and Sister she forgot Sleighted her Country She regarded not Leud wretch her howling Children and O strange For Him She did our Plays nay Paris change At home when young she slept in Down and Ease And border'd Cradles yet now scorn'd the Seas But First her Fame for which Shee little cares That still is carried in our dainty Chairs The Tyrrhene waves then and th' Ionian so Loud-roaring with firm brest Sh' endur'd although So oft She shifted Seas This no devise VVorks in just danger Then their breast is Ice Then trembling down they sink so faint they are Stout minds they bring to what they leudly dare But let her Husband bid O then 't is strange To take Ship the Pump stinks the Skie does change This with her Fencer never Casts nor whines Th' other bespue◠her Husband's brest This dines Among the Sailors gads about the Stern Handles stiff roaps as if Sea-Art She 'd learn VVhat Beauty yet thus fir'd her what young face Caught Hippia thus for which she chose disgrace To be instil'd The Fenceress For dear Sergiolus had shav'd his throat and e'r◠Long his maim'd Arm hop'd for release No small Blemish his Face had too as a shrew'd gaul Made by his Helmet A huge Bunch o'recop'd The mid'st of 's Nose from 's eye sharp rheum still drop'd A Fencer yet he was This makes them seem Mere Hyacinths This She did more esteem Then Children Country Sister Husband too 'T is Metal sure they Love For had but you Freed Sergius from the Sword 13 The Rod like Hate Had Sergius made a mere Vejento straight But what 's a private House what 's Hippin's Fame See now the Rivals of the Gods The Shame Claudius indur'd From whose side whiles he slept Secure his watchful VVife ignobly crept Before His bed She chose a Mat that stunk And wore a Night-hood too an Empress-Punk She went but with one girle such was Lust's Care A 14 yellow Veil hiding her Sadder hair Thus enter'd she the Stews whose quilt well known Reak'd yet She took a Cell void and her Own Under 15 Lycisca's name with Breasts adorn'd She stood to shame thy womb She should have scorn'd Noble Britannicus Kind words she gave To them that came and the Reward did crave But when the Girles were all dismiss'd no hast She made she left her Cell both Sad and Last Depart she did not ' cause she would but must Still burning with the wild-fire of fierce Lust And though to her self no Licence she deny'd VVeary she did retire not satisfied Then with 16 cheeks soil'd with Lamp-smoak back she went Bearing to Caesar's Couch the Stews rank scent Their Love-cups shall I name Charms Poisons too Temper'd to drench a Son-in-Law They do VVorse things when th' Empire of their Sex does win Upon them that their Lust seems their least sin But why 's Cesennia by her Husband prais'd She 17 brought her Thousand This the chast name rais'd Lov 's Shaft or Flame nor Pines nor Burnes his heart Thence took he Fire The Dowry threw the Dart Her Freedoms Bought She dares Nod write-back see VVho will Niggards Rich wives are widows Free Why does Sertorius Bibula so grace Would'st know The wife he loves not but the Face Let but three wrinkles come her wither'd skin Slaken her teeth grow black her eies shrink in Pack-up his Freed-man sayes Begon you grow A burden and your Nose too oft ye blow Hence straight there 's one to come with a Drie nose Till then she 's Fire and Tyrant does impose Laws on her Lord Shepheards g Canusian Sheep And Elm-prop'd Falerne-vines she 'l have Nay 18 keep VVhole Work-Houses of Slaves And if there 's ought She wants at home if neer 't is straight 't is bought When in short 19 days Iason the Merchant lies Shut-up and his house bright with Snow denies The ready Seaman's wish fetch they must great Vessels of Chrystal nay more large and neat Of Myrrh and the known Diamond more rich By Berenice's finger This 't was which The Barbarus Agrippa did bestow On his incestuous Sister where you know Kings 20 on their Sabbaths bare-foot go though cold And where kind Custome lets their Hogs grow old Does none of these Heards please Suppose then one Fair Modest Rich Fruitful and of long known Ancestors rank'd in Porches and more Maid Then loose-lock'd Sabines who a battle stay'd Be she Earth's Rare bird rare as a black Swan who 'l indure Her that does her Vertues skan And prize them to thee Sure give me give me A poor Venusian wench rather then Thee Cornelia Mother of the Gracchi Vain 'T is with great Vertue to bring great Disdain And as part of thy Dowry reckon All Thy Triumphs Prythee take thy Hannibal Thy Syphax take in his Camp overthrown VVith all thy Carthage too pr'y thee begon Spare 21 Paean Goddess spare your shafts sure flight Guiltless the Children are the Mother smite Amphion cries Paean his bow bends still The shaft the children smites
plenty of invention the frequency of sentences the sharpness of reprehension or the urbanity of the quippe In the same Arguments Juvenal never came short of him often out-went him Juvenal's eighth Satyre of true Nobility is far more excellent then of the same argument Horace his Sixth Compare Juvenal's Tenth with Horace his First of the Desires of Men let Julius Scaliger speak the close in his own words sane ille tibi Juvenalis poeta videbitur hic Horatius jejunae cujuspiam theseos tenuis tentator surely thou wilt acknowledge Juvenal to be a Poet but Horace to be some poor Theme-maker The quick Lipsius readily approves this approbation saying of Scaliger Ille me judice inter multa certi elegantis judicii nihil verius protulit preferring him before Horace for his Ardor his Loftiness his Liberty And for my own part though I willingly admire his felicity in his Lyricks yet certainly I believe he injuriously untun'd himself in his fall from the Ode to the Satyre Besides Juvenal's change of the ancient Satyre was methinks not only a Change but a Perfection For what is the End of Satyre but to Reform whereas a perpetual Grin does rather Anger then Mend. Wherefore the Old Satyre and the New and so Horace and Juvenal may seem to differ as the Jester and the Orator the Face of an Ape and of a Man or as the Fiddle and Thunder We willingly allow unto Horace the nature of Satyre as it was in his own time gentle according to that of Lipsius of him monet saepius quà m castigat nor conceal the Elogy which he adds Sed ita praeclare tamen hoc ipsum ut in ea parte arte nihil possit supra eum Yet this amounts but to an art of admonition not the bravery of Chastisement for which in his Heat and Height and Freedom id est suo quodam genere says the same Author supra Horatium est quod ipsum maxime Satyrae proprium videtur VVherefore I judge the Learned Rigaltius his Judgment and Distinction to be accurate who says that Horace is jeering and so fit for Augustus his times Persius grave and so more fit for leud Nero's days and Juvenal Terrible and so most fit for Domitian's desperate Age. He denies also any supposed excess of words in his 13th Satyre making his enumeration of the Gods but a needful expression of the absurd fictions of their several Gods whom he every where flouts-at seeming to make Exact Nature his God! A happy man had he ascended to the right understanding of the God of Nature Naevolus likewise Sat. 9. he accounts here no fouler then in Arnobius Disput 5. the description of the Grecian Ithyphallica besides that by shame men are naturally driven from acts of shame Yet what openness of Speech has in this kind been used by Juvenal I have in my rendring of him endeavour'd rather to correct then excuse both commending the wisdom of Rader and some others and fixing it for a Rule unto my self that Better it is a Book should be lost then a Man Nor do I approve the unhappy Industry of some Interpreters of our Author Britannicus and Lubin to omit others who think they expound nothing at all if they expound not All but I shall always think it an unhappy praise to be accounted a better Grammarian then a Christian The example of Petrus Colvius as Fame informs us is not to be forgotten whose excellent wit did learnedly expound Apuleius his Asse but having been too diligent in expounding as much his Beastliness as his Sport a very Asse gave him his reward For as on a time he was in a Journey coming into an Inne an Asse which was there taking some casual offence unhappily striking at him kill'd him in the place But if we set aside this Licence and look upon the Invention of our Poet though a Natural man O how admirable are his Instructions His Passions how Devout What are his Satyres but the Great Commentary of Nature upon the Law of Nature The Multitude of Gods does he not count a Multitude Sat. 13. making them as destitute of Wisdom as of Power A God in Statue does he not confess to be the Artificers Creature and Mighty Mars Sat. 13. to be so silly or weak as to be robbed of his own weapons The variety of their Oaths does he not describe and detest as the variety of their Gods Sat. 13. shewing how they would excuse themselves out of one guilt by another Set days of divine worship to the Author of them does he not acknowledge whiles he reprehends the superstition in the performance of it Sat. 6. Indeed a Beast is but an Offering from the Earth but Time is a present from Heaven it self That is a part of our Goods This of our Life The Duty to a Father yea but to a Beard does not his Gravity Deserve whiles he Describes it The Duty from a Father does he not so excellently set-out Sat. 14. that by the Art of Instruction he makes himself the honest Father of other mens Children Bloody Out-rage does he not detest with such wounding compassion Sat. 15. as if he would make the Murderer execute himself with Remorse Against the foul flames of Lust are not the pure flames of his Zeal opposed to shame them by Dissimilitude Sat. 6. and with a more happy separation then once were those of the Theban Brothers Against Barren Lust Sat. 9. is not his Wit Fruitful Oppression Rapine Cousenage Sat. 1.8.13 are they not as far from his Bosome as their Booty from his Hand As if unjust Increase were not Wealth but Accusation and a sad exchange of Innocence for Gold Against the cowardly silencing of true Witness Sat. 16. is he not stoutly Eloquent And would he not rather burn in Perillus his Bull Sat. 8. then have the guilt of Perjury burn in his Breast Sat. 13. The very Purpose nay the Deliberating Desire of Sin Sat. 13. before it is grown up to the Age of Act does he not Condemn and by endeavor Prevent And like an exact Casuist Sat. 13. does he not make Conscience Man's Keeper and Judge O that we could Argue him into a Christian And yet if Friendship can make it probable we may please our selves with a hope at the endeavor of such as would prove that Martial our Poets intimate Friend in his later age Reviv'd into Christianity And could their Loves communicate less joys and stand at distance in the Greatest But howsoever seeing that among the Heathen God raised-up so excellent an Instructer was it not pitty the Instruction should be either not understood or misunderstood Especially when some disdainful sinners that are unhappily less sensible of Christian motives may peradventure startle at the spur of a Heathen Wherefore in Hope and Zeal I ventur'd on this work not doubting but that a man may not without success though without custome Preach in Verse VVhich purpose being understood by some worthy friends was not
the work by a Lot inscrib'd with NL And so I rest Thine BARTEN HOLYDAY To my most Worthy friend Mr. Barten Holyday in Christ-Church in Oxon. Good Sir NOt ignorant of your purpose and advancement in Juvenal which by some of your House and your Letter to a Stationer in London I know you had long since gone through with neither out of any immodest unhonest desire by your prejudice to gratifie any man much less undervaluing your worth did I send you with a Letter of mine anothers request and not mine but that you might therein see Os hominis mentem who on so small acquaintance as but having heard my place of abode boarded me with a Crispinian affront and now the second time with that Letter whose Author being Master of no better style flatters his confidence with ability to Master Juvenal But leaving him answered with yours sent him this Morning I return to your self now my friend for so I see you give me leave And as you have deserv'd with the World the esteem of Learning so now my Learned friend give me leave among the number of your far more worthy friends to wish you a fair issue of your intendment In Persius I admir'd not with the many your tempering and working of so harsh and affected obscure style to so fiâ—ent and smooth English but the riches of your understanding and Judgment which made your expression so powerful and renditions so happy And conferring some passages I began to please my self that I had been of the same mind with him who had sounded the depth so well Yet of 〈◊〉 other whom I ever heard deliver their judgments or opinions of your pains therein praising and generally thanking you I must acknowledge my self in a deeper bond of thankfulness engaged to you for that honour done me by your mention of me ranked with your Expositors And I would there had been or were in me to deserve it The unfortunate mispending of my younger and better years in Sea affairs as one hoping and labouring never to be beholding to Scholarship may not pretend any claim to learning out of which courses when it pleased the high directing hand to cast me upon this Anchor I thus condemn'd to this Horse-mill content my self with my round course from the top of my studies to come about again to In Speech Where having at request of a Stationer in hast broken the Ice in Juvenal and Persius though I might say with him Imposui vulgo eruditus visus sum yet I never hoped to satisfie the more learned or please my self Now what I long desir'd I hope to see light of those places which I have in vain sought in all my reading A loose Manuscript I sent this morning for to Mr. Selden his answer I send you here inclos'd What office I may do you else command me and for your judgment of me worthy any such employment as for your kind approbation of my late pains on Lucan which I would to God it were as your love stiles it I shall ever rest thankful to you and desire to approve my self Your deserved friend THOMAS FARNABY March 13. 1618. To my Honour'd Friend Mr. Thomas Farnaby Worthy Sir I Will think farther for Manuscripts of Juvenal especially because I see or conjecture that Mr. Holyday means to turn him That which I sent you is of a Text good enough at least ancient enough But if I meet with any other I shall be ready and with speed to impart it What Mr. Camden hath I suppose you shall receive now if not you shall have it by my personal procuring it I confess I think not that Mr. Holyday wants any thing to the fulness of happy translation if he want not exact old Copies and helps to make them so or Old Scholiasts which are such helps as the best must use I have by me the first and second Satyre lately brought me to look on translated by a Londoner I give him no other name though he were sometimes of some University It is not bad but yet I make no question but it is largely beneath what the Christ-Church Gentleman will do if he but equal his first Sir I bid you farewell and rest yours J. SELDEN March 13. 1672. To his very good Friend Mr. Barten Holyday Master of Arts and Student of Christ-Church in Oxom I Will not raise up Ghosts nor pitch the time When Juvenal's Genius from his unknown clime Came to thy Study to impart his sense I will not in thee muster Monuments Or make Old Rome envy her New high Crimes For being fam'd thus to succeeding Times By two such Authors Juvenal and Thee I cannot wind up an Hyperbole To the full height of Wit I dare not I Make my Muse wings but gaze at them that fly My Ambitions not a Poet but a Friend Plain Innocent Truth I 'le speak and that defend Th' art thine own still and more if more may be This Age will Praise the next shall Honour thee VVilliam White To his dear Friend Mr. Barten Holyday upon his English Juvenal MAny choice Wits are pos'd when they debate Which hath most Man to Invent or to Translate Let them Dispute and wear away their sloath Which does the best I care not Thou dost both Whil'st Thou Translat'st what is best Pen'd and then All covet to Translate if thou dost Pen. Robert Gomersal Decimus 1 Junius Juvenalis HIS SATYRES SATYRE I. ARGUMENT Fables our Author scornes the Times Being so fruitful of great Crimes When Information Pride Unjust Indulgence Dice Oppression Lust Riot and Poison grow Too-bold Our Poet sayes he cannot hold Yet since the Living he doth dread He points his Style against the Dead And Acts ev'n on the Stygian Coasts The Zealous Tyrant or'e foule Ghosts He makes their Graves with op'ning Jawes To teach the Living Vertue 's Lawes When Goodness cannot dangerous Fame Curbs-in wild Crimes and makes them tame Satyre is Story He begins The blushing Annals of Rome's Sins SHall I be still an Auditor and ne're Repay that have so often had mine eare Vext with hoarse Codrus a Theseads Shall one sweat Whiles his gown'd Comique 2 Scene he does repeat Another whiles his Elegies b soft strain He reads and shall not I vex them again Shall mighty Telephus be unrequited That spends a Day in being All recited Or Volume-swolne Orestes that does fill The Margin of an ample Book yet still As if the Book were mad too is extended Upon the very back 3 nor yet is ended No Man knowes better his own house then I The Grove of Mars 4 and Vulcan's Aetna c nigh Th' Aeolian Rocks what the winds do what Ghost Aeacus does Torment and from what Coast Another stole the golden Fleece what vast Ash-trees the Centaure Monychus did cast Fronto's 5 Plane-trees and shaken Marbles d crie Allways that this their daily Poetrie Has cleft the trembling Pillars and look what The Best wits choose 6 the Worst dare write of That Our
Poet implies by his effeminacy saying that the change and corruption of his manners appears in the change of his attire for now mittentur braccae c. not as some would have it He shall have such things sent as guifts to corrupt him but as the Scholiast well expounds it by shewing an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mittentur that is Dimittentur the sense being this Now he will bid farewel to his former simplicity he will lay aside his own Country Ornaments such as were the braccae Slops and the ruder knives of His country fashion likewise the whips and bridles used by him in his home-bred honest manly hunting exercises And will carry home to his Armenian City Artaxata the brave sins of Rome Whence we may farther see that Mittentur cannot signify that such things should be sent as guifts unto him this being to preserve him in his innocent attire exercises but it must signify a chang of his Armenian manners into Râ—man It were a truth though but a sport to remember that in one Manuscript the word Artaxata is expounded by a kind of strange garment but we must add that such exposition is more strange SATYRE III. ARGUMENT To Witty Rome the Greeks such Wit Did Adde they could each humor fit They could a Great Mans Crimes Explore And those Crimes Publish or Adore And Act too if Need Bid them Rare Merchants that made mens Sins their Ware Nay in meer Rome besides these drifts Through Pois'ning Treachery and Guifts Fires Ruins Throngs Noise Scorn and Theft No place for Honest men is left Umbritius then from Rome departs Because he wants the Roman Arts. THough my old Friends departure makes me sad Yet I commend him that he means to add To good Sibylla one inhabitant more At private Cumae 1 'T is the Romans door Into fair Baiae and does yield the sight Of a most grateful shoar's retir'd delight I Prochyta prefer though counted base Before our brave Suburra a For what place Is so forsaken that thou should'st forsake Ev'n There sweet Peace and madly choose to quake At daily Fires and falling houses and A thousand such disasters still at hand In dreadful Rome Nay and in August's heat When Poets read 2 to throng into a sweat But whiles his goods were in one Waggon laid By the Capenian Conduit-gate he staid At the Old Arches Here did Numa use To meet his night-Nymph but here now some Jews Whose Hay and Basket is their wealth 3 do dwell Hiring the Muses Chappel Grove and Well b For ev'ry Tree must pay the People rent Our Groves now Begg Out are the Muses sent To seek a Roof Hence to Aegeria's Vale We did descend whose sacred Caves now faile To yield the eye the first delight For sure The water's Deity were far more pure If a Grass-margin grac'd the Spring and none Of our vain Marbles grac'd the native stone Here then says my Vmbritius since no gains Or place Rome yields to Honest Arts and Pains Since my stock daily wasts and less will grow To-morrow I resolve thither to go Where Daedalus put-off his weary wings Whiles Hoariness in straight Old-age c first springs Whiles Lachesis has yet not Finish'd and Whiles my Feet bears Me not a staff my Hand Let Us leave Rome 't is for Arturius Here Or cunning Catulus to domineere Such can turn black to white hire Temples Ports Rivers Sink-cleansing Bus'ness of all sorts And Gain by 't bear to their last fire the Dead And sell under the Spear a Servile head These were but Cornet-winders whose base Crue And Cheeks d each Country Theater well knew Now these set forth the Shews and with ease can The Peoples Thumb being turn'd 5 kill any man And thence return'd 6 they hire for gain ne're grutch Jakes-farming Why not all things Since they 're such As from a low Estate are strangely Blest By Fortune when she is dispos'd to jest VVhat should I do at Rome I cannot fain Not praise a Dull Book or crave to obtain A Copy The Stars Motions pass my skill To promise a Rich Father's Death my Will And Art detest Toads entrails e I ne're view'd VVhat with one's Bride a slie Knave does conclude VVhat Guists what Letters pass let others know I 'le be no Theife's Receiver Thus I go From Rome as fit for no man like one maim'd VVhose right hand Life already has disclaim'd For who 's now lov'd but he whose burning breast Great Mens great Crimes does Hide though not detest He neither Gives nor Owes thee any fee That tells thee but some Honest Secrecy Dear shall he be to Verres that knows How And when to Accuse Verres But slight Thou The shadow'd Tagus's sands though sands of gold VVhich with his waves into the Sea are rowl'd Rather then wake through Guilt and Bribes and tend VVith a sad Heart on a Great jealous friend VVhom now our Rich ones Love and I most Hate Since They blush not I 'le blush not to relate I loath Quiritians Rome turn'd Greek 7 although Not much Achaian dreggs we have But loe Syrian Orontes into Tyber flow'd Long since and brought with it more than it ow'd Tongue Manners strings as straight the Minstrel too The Syrian Drum and the soft Girles that woe For Gain at the known Circus f Thither go You that their painted Miters 8 love to know The haunt-doal gown 9 Quirinus Thy Clown wears And his oil'd neck rewards of Mast'ry bears But one from Amydon high Sicyon and Samos from Andros Tralles Alaband On th' Esquiline or Viminal Hill's Ador'd First th' Entrals of some Great House Then the Lord Such are of swift wit of Brow strangely bold And Tongue most quick Isaeus is less rowl'd Riddle me this what 's He that to Rome came And with him brought what Man or Trade you 'l name Grammarian Oratour Geometrician Painter Anointer Quacksalver Magician Diviner Rope-dancer All things he knows A hungry Greek if bid to Heav'n straight goes In brief no Moor he was Tartar or Thracian That Flew once but in Athens born Bold nation Shall I not shun their Purple g Or must I Let Him Seal first and on the chief Couch lie 10 At Feasts VVhom to our Rome the same wind brought That brought us Prunes and Figgs Goes it for nought That we Aventine aire first breath'd and bred In Rome were with the Sabine olive fed But O these Greeks cunning to fawn can grace A Sott's discourse and a Friends ugly face His slender neck to Hercules they dare Equal that held Antaeus in the Aire They praise his small voice though no better then The noise the Husband-Cock makes with his Hen. VVe could praise these things too thus lie but They There 's the luck are beleiv'd too who does play A Thais better or a VVife or fair Doris You 'd think it were the Nymph no Player Though no short Cloak does hide her yet ones eye Through their ev'n skill no difference can descry Antiochus Demetrius
Vectius Bolanus mention'd by Tacitus in the life of Agricola which Pontia is said for the love of an adulterer to have poisned two Sons which she had by Bolanus and to have been punish'd for it See Statius in his Sylv. lib. 5. in his Protrepticon ad Crispinum Parrhasius Epist 8. seems to make it but an intent in her and Lubin says suos duos filios veneno absumere voluisse confitetur yet streight he adds Quae itidem quod defuncto marito filios duos ut adultero nuberes obsequeretur veneno Necarit convicta cum largis se epulls onerasset sumpto veneno venis incisis saltans expiravit he speaks in part out of the Old Scholiast Yet afterwards upon the words facinus peregi he says ad Voluntatem refer which is methinks a strange expression of peregi Besides the place of the Scholiast is not well recited by him it being not so likely that she did both namely drink poison and cut her veins Pithaeus here out of Valla reads it thus Cum largis se epulis onerasset vino the ordinary copies of the Scholiast have veneno yet not as Lubin sumpto veneno which is farther from being mended venis incifis saltans quo maxime studio oblectabatur extincta est But Pithaeus in his Notes on the Scholiast recites this most apposite Inscription on an ancient Roman stone PONTIA TITI PONTII FILIA HIC SITA SUM QUAE DUOBUS NATIS A ME VENENO CONSUMPTIS AVARITIAE OPUS MISERAE MORTEM MIHI CONSCIVI TU QUISQUIS ES QUI HAC TRANSIS SI PIUS ES QUAESO A ME OCULOS AVERTE This instance of Pontia the daughter of Titus Pontius not of Publius Petronius Pithaeus prefers for the illustration of this place and surely it is the more certain story and singularly here appliable Yet because he gives no reason of his choice and that the other example has been generally receiv'd as the story here intended and that I also notwithstanding prefer his instance I think it necessary to shew mine own reason for the confirmation of his and mine own choice The Poet then speaking of Pontia aggravates her crime beyond those of Medea and Progne their 's being facts of revengeful passions but not of coveteousness for so the Poet expresses it Sed non propter nummos According to which diversitie of cause if we examine this instance we shall find that Pontia the Daughter of Petronius and wife of Bolanus mention'd by the Scholiast offended as he says ut adultero nuberet and so in a Lustful passion but the offence of this Pontia the daughter of Pontius in the Inscription is term'd Avaritiae opus and therefore I judge this to be the Person here intended and farther describ'd by the Poet as one offending rather in the sobriety of coveteousness then in the rage of Lust whiles afterwards he says of her quae computat Scelus ingens Sana facit the judgment being to be made not from the similitude of their facts but from the dissimilitude of the motives And here the ordinary reader may note that after the words here spoken by Pontia the Poet speaks the next Worst viper at one supper didst kill Two Pontia then again adding the next Yea Seav'n if th' had been Seav'n had seem'd Few 77. Like stones cleft from a rock c. Feruntur Praecipites ut saxa jugis abrupta quibus mons Subtrahitur clivoque latus pendente recedit This passage if consider'd has a little difficultie some taking clivus for pars radicis montis but that cannot agree with clivo pendente seeing that it will appear to be not the bottome but rather the top of the Mountain Lubin well expounds mons substrahitur by inferior cui saxa incumbebant not the lowest or bottome-part of the hill for that could not fall a way yet a low part a part toward the bottome low and so a basis to upper parts yet not so low but that it self might fall To make all then a little clearer Juga must here signifie the v rockie Mountain with a long ridge and a promontory Mons must express a Lower part not the lowest toward the outside whose falling-away causes the rest of the ruin Latus is the upper-part yet not the uppermost of the main-side which rested upon the lower Mons saxa abrupta are a part of the latus some parcels of stones usually breaking from the main lump that falls and clivus must signifie the uppermost part of all or the over-hanging peak the under-parts being gone Thus then the Poet says that Lustful Women are as furiously head-long as loose stones that fall from a Rock whose out-side underpart Mons being sunk away subtrahitur the main side latus falls after leaving only an overshooting peak clivus ready also to fall According to which examination I render it as nearly as the sense and words seem to admit Like stones cleft from a rock when th' under-part Sinks and the side from th' hanging brow does start 78. Which the thrice-conquer'd Pontick King did make Si praegustaret Atrides Pontica ter victi cautus medicamina regis The Poet here declares that Women had good patterns presented to them oftentimes upon the stage such as was the example of Alceste who when the Oracle had answer'd that her sick Husband Admetus King of Thessalie should presently die if he was not redeem'd by the death of some of his friends when all others refused voluntarily as the fable has it died in his steed yet the Poet avouches that Women were not amended by such brave example Nay says he one may every where find amongst them such as were the Belides the neices of Belus the Daughters of Danaus who being fifty in all and all married to so many Sons of their Unkle Aegystus did all except two Hypermnestra and Bebryce murder their husbands by their Fathers appointment upon the Marriage-night Or we may find says the Poet such as was Eriphyle who for a bracelet of gold betray'd her husband Amphiaraus causing him against His will to go to the Theban war where he fore-knew that he should die as according to the story he did The Scholiast mentions such another kind story of another Eriphyle both which may be here aim'd-at by the Poet for he speaks in the plural number Occurrent multae tibi Belides atque Eriphylae Then goes he on saying that one may meet betimes with a Tyndaris a Clitemnestra the daughter of Tyndarus who by the help of her paramour Aegystus slew her husband Atrides Agamemnon the Son of Atreus at a feast after his return from Troy though says he they are now indeed grown more cunning performing such deeds with more art by poison Yet he adds that they would fall to rude work and the very axe that is more grossely and surely dispatch them if their husbands should against their poisons use but the Antidote of Mithridates the Pontick King who was thrice overthrown namely by Sylla