Sequence of Events
From The satires of Juvenal - Satire 3:
190 "Who at cool Praeneste, or at Volsinii amid its leafy hills, was
ever afraid of his house tumbling down? Who in modest Gabii, or on the
sloping heights of Tivoli? But here we inhabit a city supported for the
most part by slender props:[23] for that is how the bailiff holds up the
tottering house, patches up gaping cracks in the old wall, bidding the
inmates sleep at ease under a roof ready to tumble about their ears. No,
no, I must live where there are no fires, no nightly alarms.
Ucalegon[24] below is already shouting for water and shifting his
chattels; smoke is pouring out of your third-floor attic, but you know
nothing of it; for if the alarm begins in the ground-floor, the last man
to burn will be he who has nothing to shelter him from the rain but the
tiles, where the gentle doves lay their eggs. Codrus possessed a bed too
small for the dwarf Procula, a sideboard adorned by six pipkins, with a
small drinking cup, and a recumbent Chiron below, and an old chest
containing Greek books whose divine lays were being gnawed by unlettered
mice. Poor Codrus had nothing, it is true: but he lost that nothing,
which was his all; and the last straw in his heap of misery is this,
that though he is destitute and begging for a bite, no one will help him
with a meal, no one offer him lodging or shelter."
From: Fletch
To: "Lachlan Cranswick" [l.m.d.cranswick@dl.ac.uk]
Subject: Re: Juvenal
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 18:20:45 -0000
Yo,
... and a happy new year!
Thought this might amuse... from the tenth satire of Juvenal. Sound
familiar? But I can't find full english text online. Major cultural
omission?
We live in a city shored up, for the most part, with gimcrack
Stays and props: that's how our landlords arrest
The collapse of their property, papering over great cracks
In the ramshackle fabric, reassuring tenants
They can sleep secure, when all the time the building
Is poised like a house of cards. I prefer to live where
Fires and midnight panics are not quite such common events.
By the time the smoke's got up to your third floor apartment
(And you still asleep) your downstairs neighbour is roaring
For water, and shifting his bits and pieces to safety.
If the alarm goes at ground-level, the last to fry
Will be the attic tenant, way up among the nesting
Pigeons, with nothing but tiles between himself and the weather.
Image
Description
- Another leak in the ceiling
- Existing leaks
