The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis / translated into English verse by William Gifford.

  • Juvenal
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis / translated into English verse by William Gifford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    446/574 (page 366)
    And wisely ; when Ulysses trembling stood, Shrunk as he spoke, and doubted as he view’d.— Thou too who burn’st, in some important cause, To vindicate thy injur’d country’s laws, Knock at thy breast; examine well and see, First what and who thou art: search if thou be, An orator of force, of skill profound, Ora mere Matho, emptiness and sound? Yes, know thyself: in great'concerns and small. Let this be all thy care, for this is all: immediately derived from heaven: no improbable conjecture, if we consider that it is the foundation of all knowledge; and little favourable to that over-weening self-love, which the wisest of the heathens cherished, amidst all their pro- fessions of humility. The comic poets, to whom nothing was sacred, have, of course, made free with this; Menander pleasantly observes, Kalx ttoAA’ ap’ ig-iv a xxXcag sipnjjt,Et/ou To rNX20I 2ATTON, ^pf\(rifji.uT£pov yxp w To rNn©I TOTS AAAOTS. Away with that fam’d sentence know thyself, ’Tis not well put; know others, to my thinking. Is a more apt and profitable maxim. Ver. 54. Or a mere Matho, emptiness and sound'?] For Matho, see Sat. i, v. 50, and vn. v. 205. Our author is not to be deterred, by the altered fortunes of the man, from sneering at him en passant. It is, probable, however, that Matho might not feel much hurt at a reflection on his unfitness for a pro- fession which he had long since abandoned, to avoid starving; especially, after his success in his new occupation. The character Juvenal gives of Matho is confirmed by Martial, who speaks of him (lib. iv. 80,) as so pertinacious a bawler, that one almost wonders how he failed.