Serene and manly, harden'd to sustain
The load of life, and exercised in pain:
Guiltless of hate, and proof against desire;
That all things weighs, and nothing can admire:
That dares prefer the toils of Hercules
To dalliance, banquets, and ignoble ease.
The path to peace is virtue: what I show
Thyself may freely on thyself bestow:
Fortune was never worship'd by the wise;
But, set aloft by fools, usurps the skies.

JUVENA L.

SATIRE XI.

BY MR. CONGREVE.

The Argument.

The design of this Satire is to expose and reprehend all manner of intemperance and debauchery; but more particularly touches that exorbitant luxury used by the Romans in their feasting. The poet draws the occasion from an invitation, which he here makes to his friend, to dine with him; very artfully preparing him, with what he was to expect from his treat, by beginning his Satire with a particular invective against the vanity and folly of some persons, who, having but mean fortunes in the world, attempted to live up to the height of men of great estates and quality. He shows us the miserable end of such spendthrifts and gluttons; with the manner and courses which they took to bring themselves to it; advising men to live within bounds, and to proportion their inclinations to the extent of their fortune. He gives his friend a bill of fare of the entertainment he has provided for him; and from thence takes occasion to reflect upon the temperance and frugality of the greatest men in former ages: to which he opposes the riot and intemperance of the present; attributing to the latter a visible remissness in the care of Heaven over the Roman state. He instances some lewd practices at their feasts, and, by the by, touches the nobility with making vice and

debauchery the chiefest of their pleasures. He concludes with a repeated invitation to his friend; advising him (in one particular somewhat freely) to a neglect of all cares and disquiets for the present; and a moderate use of pleasures for the future.

IF noble Atticus' make plenteous feasts,
And with luxurious food indulge his guests,
His wealth and quality support the treat;
In him nor is it luxury, but state:

2

But when poor Rutilus spends all his worth,
In hopes of setting one good dinner forth;
'Tis downright madness; for what greater jests
Than begging gluttons, or than beggars' feasts?
But Rutilus is so notorious grown

That he's the common theme of all the town.
A man, in his full tide of youthful blood,
Able for arms, and for his country's good;
Urged by no power, restrain'd by no advice,
But following his own inglorious choice,
'Mongst common fencers, practises the trade 3:
That end debasing for which arms were made;

1 The name of a very eminent person in Rome : but here it is meant to signify any one of great wealth and quality.

2 One who by his own extravagant gluttony was at length reduced to the most shameful degree of poverty. This likewise is here made use of as a common name to all beggarly gluttons, such whose unreasonable appetites remain after their estates are consumed.

3 Sometimes persons were compelled, by the tyranny of Nero, to practise the trade of fencing, and to fight upon the stage, for his inhuman diversion; otherwise, seldom any but common slaves or condemned malefactors were so employed: which made it the greater reflection on any person, who either voluntarily, or forced by his own extravagance, for a livelihood (like Rutilus) applied himself to that wretched state.

Arms, which to man ne'er dying fame afford!
But his disgrace is owing to his sword.
Many there are of the same wretched kind,
Whom their despairing creditors may find
Lurking in shambles; where, with borrow'd coin,
They buy choice meats, and in cheap plenty dine:
Such, whose sole bliss is eating; who can give
But that one brutal reason why they live.
And yet what's more ridiculous: of these
The poorest wretch is still most hard to please;
And he, whose thin transparent rags declare
How much his tatter'd fortune wants repair,
Would ransack every element for choice
Of every fish and fowl, at any price;
If brought from far, if very dear has cost,
It has a flavour then, which pleases most,
And he devours it with a greater gust.
In riot thus, while money lasts, he lives,
And that exhausted, still new pledges gives;
Till forced, of mere necessity, to eat,

He comes to pawn his dish, to buy his meat;
Nothing of silver or of gold he spares,
Not what his mother's sacred image bears;
The broken relic' he with speed devours,
As he would all the rest of his ancestors,
If wrought in gold, or if exposed to sale,
They'd pay the price of one luxurious meal.

Restrain'd by no advice.' Hinting, that though he was not compelled to such a practice of fencing; yet it was a shame that he was suffered to undertake it; and not advised, or commanded, by the magistracy, to the contrary.

Viz. Reduced to poverty by riotous living.

5 Broken, or defaced; that it might not be discovered to be his mother's picture, when exposed to sale.

Thus certain ruin treads upon his heels,
The stings of hunger soon and want he feels;
And thus is he reduced at length, to serve
Fencers for miserable scraps, or starve.
Imagine now you see a splendid feast:
The question is, at whose expense 'tis dress'd?
In great Ventidius we the bounty prize;
In Rutilus the vanity despise;

6

Strange ignorance! that the same man, who knows
How far yon mount above this molehill shows,
Should not perceive a difference as great
Between small incomes and a vast estate!
From Heaven to mankind, sure, that rule was sent,
Of know thyself;' and by some god was meant
To be our never erring pilot here,

Through all the various courses which we steer.
Thersites 7, though the most presumptuous Greek,
Yet durst not for Achilles' armour speak;
When scarce Ulysses had a good pretence,
With all the' advantage of his eloquence.

8

6 A noble Roman who lived hospitably.

7 An impudent, deformed, ill tongued fellow (as Homer describes him, Iliad 2), who accompanied the Grecian army to the siege of Troy; where he took a privilege, often to rail and snarl at the commanders. Some relate, that at last Achilles, for his sauciness, killed him with a blow of his fist. Therefore, we are not to understand Juvenal here, as relating a matter of fact; but Thersites is used here, to signify any body of the same kind as before, Atticus and Rutilus. The meaning is, that such as he ought not (neither would he, had he been present) bave presumed to oppose Ajax and Ulysses, in contending for Achilles's armour. See his character admirably improved by Mr. Dryden, in his Tragedy of Truth found too late.'

8 The most eloquent of all the Grecian princes. After Achilles's death, Ajax (a famed Grecian warrior) pretended to his armour; Ulysses opposed him before a council of war; and, by his admirable eloquence, obtained the prize. Ov. Met. 13.

VOL. II.

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