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IV.

AS DEPICTED BY THE POETS.

JUVENAL,

In his Seventh Satire, draws the following picture of the Roman lawyers, their fees, their state, and their revelries : the translation is by Charles Dryden, son of "glorious John: "

"Next show me the well-lung'd Civilian's gain,

Who bears in triumph an artillery train

Of chancery libels; opens first the cause,
Then with a pick-lock tongue perverts the laws;
Talks loud enough in conscience for his fee,
Takes care his client all his zeal may see;

Twitch'd by the sleeve, he mouths it more and more,
Till with white froth his gown is slaver'd o'er.
Ask what he gains by all his lying prate,
A captain's plunder trebles his estate.
The magistrate assumes his awful seat:
Stand forth, false Ajax, and thy speech repeat,
Assert thy client's innocence; bawl and tear
So loud thy country judge at least may hear,
If not discern; and when thy lungs are sore,
Hang up the victor's garland at thy door.
Ask for what price thy venal tongue was sold, -
A rusty gammon of some sev'n years old,
Tough, withered cabbage, ropy wine, a dish
Of shotten herrings, or stale, stinking fish.

For four times talking, if one piece thou take,
That must be cantled, and the judge go snack.
'Tis true, Emilius takes a fivefold fee,

Though some plead better, with more law than he;
But then he keeps his coach, six Flanders mares
Draw him in state, whenever he appears;

He shows his statues, too, where plac'd on high

The ginnett [jenett?], underneath him, seems to fly;
While with a lifted spear, in armor bright,

His aiming figure meditates a fight.

With arts like these, rich Matteo, when he speaks,
Attracts all fees, and little lawyers breaks."

He then depicts a needy attorney:

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"Tongillus, very poor, has yet an itch

Of gaining wealth by feigning to be rich;

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Nor can I wonder at such tricks as these:
The purple garments raise the lawyer's fees,
And sell him dearer to the fool that buys.

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Not Tully now could get ten groats by pleading,
Unless the diamond glittered on his hand:
Wealth's all the rhetoric clients understand."

HORACE,

in the Fifth Satire of the second book, has a humorous dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, in which the latter gives the former some useful hints about earning an easy living, by being appointed the beneficiary of rich old men, of which I offer the following translation:

In truth I've told you, and tell you again,
Put trust in wills of moribund old men;

Though one or two escape by biting off the bait,
Relinquish not your hope, nor quit the art, but wait.

In every suit that's at the bar contested,
Or small or great, you should be interested;
If any

rich and childish rogue should supplicate The law against the good, be thou his advocate; Despise the man of purer cause and life,

If he has a son at home or fruitful wife.

"Quintus," or "Publius " (prefixes charms will lend
To ears polite), "your virtue has made me your friend:
I causes plead of substance various,

And guide through legal quirks precarious;
And any one shall sooner snatch my eyes,

Than cheat a nut's worth, or your cause despise.
My care's to keep you safe from loss or jest."
Bid him go home, and nurse himself, and rest.
Be his solicitor, steadfastly persevere,

By summer or by winter, heat or cold, whene'er
Unseasoned statues split with glaring Sirius,

Or Alps are spued upon with snow by greasy Furius.'

"Do you not see," says one, jogging his neighbor, "How sharp he is, how lavish of his labor?" By such acute inventions you shall clients fleece: More tunnies swimming in, your fish-ponds shall increase. If any affluent man an ailing son shall rear

Lest too much complaisance should make your plot appear,
Crawl humble, in the hope of being second heir;

And if the boy should die by casualty,
Perchance your name may fill the vacancy.

Whoever offers you his will t' peruse,

Seem to decline the parchment, and refuse;

But if you're quick, you'll catch, with sidelong squint,

From the first page a pretty certain hint

Of what's in th' second clause - if you take all,

Or only are co-heir with several.

I Furius, in a poem on the Gallic war, had said, “Jupiter hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes."

A lawyer, bailiff-born and old, will sometimes cheat
The gaping, greedy raven, and his purse deplete;
And Coranus will laugh at Nasica's defeat.

PETRONIUS ARBITER.

I find that this author has a good deal to say about law and lawyers. "Cerberus, forensis erat causidicus," has been thus translated:

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"Sure Cerberus a lawyer first must be,

Whose clam'rous mouth would open for a fee;
But since whene'er he wrangl'd, still he had
Three specious reasons for the noise he made,
To please his client, to inform the court,
And to gain riches for his own support,
Therefore he's doom'd in hell three heads to bear,
And in his mouth three howling tongues to wear,
That the loud eloquence he once could boast,
To his own interest, but his client's cost,
Might now be turn'd to dreadful howls and yelps,
The snarling language of illiterate whelps;
And tho' on earth no other bribe but gold
Would make the pleader for his client scold,
Yet now in hell a greasy sop must be,

Instead of coin, the growling puppy's fee."

In his First Satire, one of the characters, having had his coat stolen, is advised to resort to law to recover it:

"Law bears the name, but money has the power:

The cause is bad whene'er the client's poor.

Those strict-life'd men that seem above our world,
Are oft too modest to resist our gold,

So judgment, like our other wares, is sold;

And the grave knight that nods upon the laws,
Wak'd by a bribe, smiles, and approves the cause."

But he is afraid of the law, and is "clear for buying it, though we know it to be our own, and rather recover the treasure with a little money than embroil ourselves in an uncertain suit.”

CHAUCER.

Chaucer described a lawyer as one of the Canterbury Pilgrims:

"A Sergeant of the Lawe, ware and wise,
That often hadde yben at the paruis,1

Ther was also, ful riche of excellence.
Discrete he was, and of gret reverence:
He semed swiche,2 his wordes were so wise,
Justice he was ful often in assise,

By patent, and by pleine commissioun;
For his science, and for his high renoun,
Of fees and robes had he many on.
So grete a pourchasour was nowher non.
All was fee simple to him in effect,
His pourchasing might not ben in suspect.
No wher so besy a man as he ther n'as,
And yet he semed besier than he was.
In termes hadde he cas and domes 3 alle,
That fro the time of king Will. weren falle.
Therto he coude endite, and make a thing,
Ther coude no wighte pinche 4 at his writing.
And every statute coude he plaine by rote.
He rode but homely in a medlee cote,

Girt with a seint 5 of silk, with barres smale.
Of his array tell I no lenger tale.”

What a vivid description! especially the touch, "seemed busier than he was."

1 Parvis, church portico. 2 Such. 3 Opinions, 4 Find flaw. 5 Girdle.

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