SATIRE V.

TIRESIAS. LEGACY-HUNTING.

ULYSSES. Besides what you've already said, Tiresias, pray answer this I ask, by what devices and what means can I regain the wealth I lost: why do you smile?

TIRESIAS. Is't not enough for crafty man like you to sail again to Ithaca and see once more his fathers' gods?

ULYSSES. O you who ne'er to mortal man spoke false, you see how poor and naked I to my house return, as you foretell, and find that there nor herd nor store by suitors has been spared ; and yet both family and worth are valueless as wrack, without the purse.

TIRESIAS. Since it is poverty you dread, to use no roundabout, learn by what means you may again be rich.

Should thrush or other dainty to yourself be given, let it haste on rapid wing to where great wealth is seen, the owner old and frail: let Dives, than the Lares holier still, before them taste sweet apples, and the glories which your cultured homestead yields: and though he be a man forsworn, without a gens to name, with brother's blood defiled, aye e'en a runaway, don't you refuse to go a walk if he should wish, and take the outer side.

ULYSSES. (Do you mean) that I should guard some filthy Dama's side? It was not thus I bore myself at Troy, but always with my betters strove.

TIRESIAS. Well, then, you'll be a pauper still.

ULYSSES. I'll bid my valiant soul to brook even this: besides, I suffered worse in olden days. O seer, tell me farther, pray, how riches I can gain and piles of wealth amass.

TIRESIAS. I've told you, and tell you once again: with cunning craft, at every turn fish for the wills of aged men; and should a knowing one, or two, eat off the bait and 'scape your snare, neither abandon hope, nor, baffled once, give up the art. Should a lawsuit, great or less, be ever in the Forum tried, whichever party of the two shall live in wealthy state, without a child, be he unscrupulous enough boldly to summon into court, without a ground for suit, one better than himself, be you that man's defender: the citizen with better name and case spurn with contempt, if there be at home a son or fruitful wife. "Quintus," suppose, or "Publius" (ears refined delight in surnames), "your worth has made me friend. indeed I'm versed in subtle law, all causes I can plead : one will sooner tear my eyes out than scorn and rob you of an empty nut: this is my great concern that you no money lose, nor be a butt for jests." Advise him to go home, and nurse himself; take you his case in charge; persist and persevere, whether the fiery dogstar rends the speechless statues, or Furius, stuffed with juicy tripe, be-spits the wintry Alps with hoary snow. Do you not see one nudging his nearest mate, will say, how amiable he is, to friends obliging, how keen and active? More tunnies will swim in and your preserves will fill.

Moreover, if a sickly son is reared as heir to great estates, lest barefaced court of childless men should show your aim, by attentions, close but unmarked, creep slowly to the hope that you may be inscribed as second heir, and if some chance should send the youth to Orcus, that you may come into his place: this hazard very seldom fails.

When any one shall show his will for you to read, forget not to refuse, and push the deed away, but so that by a sidelong glance you find what the first page may mean upon its second line: scan with a rapid eye, if you are heir alone or

a co-heir with many. A notary, from Quinquevir recast,1 will, most times, mock the gaping crow, and Nasica as he fortunes hunts will give Coranus many a laugh.

ULYSSES. Are you frenzied, or do you mock me purposely by words obscure?

TIRESIAS. Son of Laertes, whatso'er I say will come to pass, or else it won't for great Apollo grants me the power to divine.

ULYSSES. Yet tell me, if you may, what means that tale of yours?

TIRESIAS. What time a youth, the Parthians' dread, a scion sprung from great Æneas, shall be a mighty prince by land and sea, the stalwart daughter of Nasica, who wishes not to pay his full amount, will join herself in wedlock to the brave Coranus. The son-in-law will then do this: he'll give his sire-in-law the will and beg that he would read it through Nasica will at last accept the tablets oft refused, and silently will read, and then will find that nought is left to him and his but to bewail their lot.

This farther I advise: if perchance some crafty woman or freed slave manage an oldish doting man, attach yourself to them as partner in the work: praise them to him that you in absence may be praised. This also helps: but it is better far to storm the citadel itself at first. If he is mad enough to write vile poems, commend him to the full. In my old age what I'm about to tell took place: a horrid crone was buried thus at Thebes, according to her will: the heir on his naked shoulders bore the corpse besmeared with oil in plenty, to try, forsooth, if even in death she could elude his grasp; because, I fancy, he had been too insistent while she lived. With caution make approaches: and neither fail

1 The meaning is-a clerk who was formerly a quinquevir, or petty commissioner, will be sharp enough to baffle the legacy-hunter.

in duty, nor overdo your zeal. The man who talks too much will give offence to peevish and to moody men; still be not over-silent. Be Davus in the play, and stand with head down-bent, and very like to one in awe. Make your advances with a fawning care: if the breeze has freshened, warn him to cover up his precious head for caution's sake: relieve him from the crowd by shoving with your shoulders; and if he's talkative lend him still a ready ear.1 Has he an inordinate love of praise, ply him with it till he shall lift his hands to heaven, and cry, hold, that's enough: blow up the swelling bladder with your vaunting words.

When he has freed you by his death from tedious bondage and from care, and wide awake you hear without a doubt, "Let Ulysses have the fourth of my estate," now and then let fall such words, "Ah, then, is Dama, dear companion, now no more? Where shall I find another friend so stedfast and so true? and if you can, shed a few tears: 'tis easy to conceal your face, a tell-tale of your joy. His tomb, if left to your discretion, erect with no mean stint let the neighbours praise a funeral, handsomely conducted.

Should any of your older fellow-heirs be found to suffer from a racking cough, say to him that if he wishes to become the buyer of a farm or of a house from your share of the estate, you will gladly make it over to him for a sesterce. But Proserpine, whose will is law, now drags me hence. Farewell; long life to you.

1 Literally "Gather up your ear,” ¿.e., hold up your ear with your hand, as deaf men do to catch the sound.

HORACE AT HOME.

SATIRE VI.

COUNTRY LIFE AND TOWN LIFE.

This was a wish of mine ;-a piece of land, not very large, in which there was a garden, and near the house a spring of never-failing water, and, over and above, a little wood. The gods have dealt by me more liberally, and better than I hoped. I am content. No more I ask, O son of Maia, but that you make these things my own for life. If hitherto I've not increased my goods by wicked arts, nor am about to make them less by vice or negligence; if I offer up no foolish prayer like this: O that to my farm were joined that tiny nook which mars just now its shapely form! O if some lucky chance would show to me a pot of money, as once it did to him, who working on a farm for hire, bought with the treasure-trove, and tilled as his own, that self-same land-thanks to kind Hercules, a rich man now. If what I have contents my mind and makes it grateful, I entreat you, with this prayer, "For the owner make heavy1 both his flocks and herds and all things else except his mind, and as you're wont be ever near me as my surest guard."

So when from the city I have moved out to my fortress and my hills, what should I sooner 2 celebrate in these my satires and poetic prose? Neither does base ambition hurt. me, nor sirocco with depressing air, nor deadly autumn, the harvest time of heartless Libitina.

O Father, God of the Dawn, or Janus, if you'd rather so be named, from whom men enter on the early toils of

1 "Heavy." Pingue means stupid as well as fat. The play on the word which Horace intends is brought out so far by "heavy."

2 "Sooner," i.e., in preference to the country and its charms. Some take satiris musaque pedestri as the abl. of comparison.