"No! though compell'd beyond the Tiber's flood
To move your tan-yard, swear the smell is good,
Myrrh, cassia, frankincense; and wisely think
That what is lucrative can never stink." Hodgson.
[1004] Peleus. Thetis was given in marriage to Peleus, because it had been foretold that she should give birth to a son who should be greater than his father; and therefore Jupiter was obliged to forego his passion for her. Vid. Æsch., Prom. Vinct., 886, seq. Pind., Isthm., viii., 67. Nonnus, Dionys., xxxiii., 356.
[1005] Parcendum teneris. Parodied from Virg., Georg., ii., 363, "Ac dum prima novis adolescit frondibus ætas, parcendum teneris."
[1006] Tangens. In swearing, the Romans laid their hands on the altars consecrated to the gods to whose deity they appealed. Vid. Virg., Æn., pass. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 16. Cf. Sat. xiii., 89, "Atque ideo intrepide quæcunque altaria tangunt." Sil, iii., 82, "Tangat Elissæas palmas puerilibus aras." Liv., xxi., 1, "Annibalem annorum ferme novem, altaribus admotum tactis sacris jurejurando adactum, se quum primum posset, hostem fore populo Romano."
[1007] Mortiferâ. Cf. Pers., ii., 13, "Acri bile tumet. Nerio jam tertia conditur uxor."
"If Fate should help him to a dowried wife,
Her doom is fix'd, and brief her span of life:
Sound in her sleep, while murderous fingers grasp
Her slender throat, hark to the victim's gasp!" Badham.
[1008] Brevior via. So Tacitus (Ann., iii., 66), speaking of Brutidius (cf. Sat. x., 83), says, "Festinatio exstimulabat, dum æquales, dein superiores, postremò suasmet ipse spes anteire parat: quod multos etiam bonos pessum dedit qui, spretis quæ tarda cum securitate, præmatura vel cum exitio properarent."
[1009] The line "Et qui per fraudes patrimonia conduplicare" is now generally allowed to be an interpolation.
[1010] Effundit habenas. So Virg., Georg., i., 512, "Ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigæ addunt in spatia, et frustra retinacula tendens Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas." Æn., v., 818; xii., 499. Ov., Am., III., iv., 15. Cf. Shaksp., King Henry V., Act iii., sc. 3, "What rein can hold licentious wickedness, when down the hill he holds his fierce career?"
"With base advice to poison youthful hearts,
And teach them sordid, money-getting arts,
Is to release the horses from the rein,
And let them whirl the chariot o'er the plain:
Forward they gallop from the lessening goal,
Deaf to the voice of impotent control." Hodgson.