76
SATYR.
115 What trivial Punishments did then protect
To publick Censure a profound Respect,
When the most shameful Penance and severe,
That could b' inflicted on a Cavaliere[1]
For infamous Debauch'ry, was no worse,
120 Than but to be degraded from his Horse,
And have his Livery of Oats and Hay,
Instead of cutting Spurs off, ta'n away?
They hold no Torture then so great as Shame,
And, that to slay was less than to defame;
125 For just so much regard, as Men express
To th' censure of the Publick, more or less,
The same will be return'd to them again,
In Shame or Reputation, to a Grain:
And, how perverse so'ere the World appears,
130 'Tis just to all the Bad it sees, and hears.
And, for that Virtue, strives to be allow'd
For all the Injuries, it does the Good.
How silly were their Sages heretofore
To fright their Heroes with a Syren-Whore?
To publick Censure a profound Respect,
When the most shameful Penance and severe,
That could b' inflicted on a Cavaliere[1]
For infamous Debauch'ry, was no worse,
120 Than but to be degraded from his Horse,
And have his Livery of Oats and Hay,
Instead of cutting Spurs off, ta'n away?
They hold no Torture then so great as Shame,
And, that to slay was less than to defame;
125 For just so much regard, as Men express
To th' censure of the Publick, more or less,
The same will be return'd to them again,
In Shame or Reputation, to a Grain:
And, how perverse so'ere the World appears,
130 'Tis just to all the Bad it sees, and hears.
And, for that Virtue, strives to be allow'd
For all the Injuries, it does the Good.
How silly were their Sages heretofore
To fright their Heroes with a Syren-Whore?
- ↑ 117, 118. When the most shameful Penance and severe,—That could b'inflicted on a Cavaliere.] The Times and Discipline here described were those of the Romans before they degenerated; and amongst them one of the Punishments inflicted upon a Knight or Cavaliere was—equo publico spoliari—to be obliged to maintain his Horse at
One cannot but observe from this Passage, that the Poet has either mistaken the meaning of it, or has expressed himself very ambiguously: since to make his Wit consistent with the Historian's Relation, or indeed apposite to the Purpose, for which he introduces it, one must by the Tyrant's Prose understand, not any Composition of his own, which is the Sense it naturally bears, but the Language of the Country, of which he was Tyrant or Emperor.
his
