XIII. To Mr. H. LAWES on the publishing his Airs.* Harry, whose tuneful and well measur'd fong 6 That with fmooth air could'ft humour best our tongue. Thou honour'st verse, and verse must lend her wing To honour thee, the priest of Phoebus quire, 10 That tun'ft their happiest lines in hymn, or story. * See PRELIM. N. to COMUS. 4.-Committing short and long.] COMMITTING is a Latinifm. II. Or ftory.] The ftory of Ariadne fet by him to mu "fic." This a note in the margin of this fonnet, as it ftands prefixed to " Choice Pfalms put into mufick by Henry and William "Lawes, Lond. for H. Mofeley 1648." The infcription is there, "To my friend Mr. HENRY LAWES." In the ninth line, is the true reading lend, as in .the manuscript, for "fend her wing," as in the edition 1673. See PRELIM. Notes on COMUS. 14. Than his Cafella, &c.] Dante, on his arrival in Purgatory fees a veffel approaching the fhore, freighted with fouls under the conduct of an angel, to be cleanfed from their fins and made fit for Paradise. When they are difembarked, the poet recognizes in the croud his old friend Cafella the musician. The interview is ftrikingly imagined, and in the course of an affectionate dialogue, the poet requests a foothing air; and Cafella fings, with the most ravishing sweetness, Dante's fecond CANZONE. CONVIT. p. 116. vol. iv. P. i. Ven. 1758. 4to. It begins, Amor, che nella mente mi ragiona. See Dante's PURGATOR. C. ii. v. 111. The Italian commentators on the paffage fay, that Cafella, Dante's friend, was a mufician of diftinguifhed excellence. He must have died a little before the Dante shall give fame leave to fet thee higher XIV. On the religious memory of Mrs. CATHARINE THOMSON,* my chriftian friend, deceased 16 Decemb. 1646. When faith and love, which parted from thee never, Had ripen'd thy just foul to dwell with God, Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load Of death, call'd life; which us from life doth fever. Thy works, and alms, and all thy good endevor, 5 Stay'd not behind, nor in the grave were trod; the year 1300. In the Vatican library is a Ballatella, or Madrigal, infcribed Lemmo da Pistoja, e Cafella diede il Suono. That is, Lemmo da Pistoja wrote the words, which were fet to mufic by Cafella. Num. 3214. f. 149. Crefcimbeni mentions an ancient manuscript Ballatella, with Dante's words and his friend Schochetti's mufic. Infcribed Parole di Dante, e Suono di Schochetti. IST. VOLG. POES. p. 409. From many parts of his writings, Dante appears to have been a judge and a lover of mufic. This is not the only circumftance in which Milton resembled Dante. By milder fhades, our author means, fhades comparatively much less horrible than those which Dante defcribes in the INFERNO. Peck fuppofes, that Milton, from his acquaintance with this Mrs. Thomson and Thomas Ellwood, was a quaker. Milton was certainly of that profeffion, or general principle, in which all fectarifts agree, a departure from establishment; and there was at leaft one common cause in which all concurred who deferted the church, whether quakers, anabaptifts, or Brownists. 6. Stay'd not behind, nor in the grave were trod.] "Nor in the grave were trod," is a beautiful periphrafis for " good deeds "forgotten, at her death," and a happy improvement of the original line in the manufcript, Strait follow'd thee the path that faints have trod. But, But, as Faith pointed with her golden rod, Follow'd thee up to joy and bliss for ever. Love led them on, and Faith who knew them best Thy hand-maids, clad them o'er with purple beams And azure wings, that up they flew fo dreft, And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes Before the Judge, who thenceforth bid thee rest And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams. 7. But, as Faith painted with her golden rod.] Perhaps from the golden reed in the Apocalypfe. Which he mentions in CHURCH GOVERNMENT, B. i. ch. i." The golden furveying reed [of the Saints] marks out and measures every quarter and circuit of the New Jerufalem." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 41. See also p. 44. And azure wings, that up they flew fo dreft, &c.] This is like the thought of the perfonification and afcent of the Prayers of Adam and Eve, a fiction from Ariosto and Taffo, PARAD. LOST, B. xi. 14. -To heaven their prayers Flew up, nor mifs'd their way, by envious winds In the REVELATION an angel offers incenfe with the prayers of the faints upon the golden altar. Ch. viii. 4. See also Spenfer, F. Qi. x. 51. Of Mercy." Thou doest praiers of the righteous feed Present before the maieftie divine. 14. And drink thy fill of pure immortal ftreams.] So in the EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 206. The allufion is to the waters of life, and more particularly to Ps. xxxvi. 8, 9. "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the well of life." On this fcriptural idea, which is enlarged with the decorations of Italian fancy, Milton feems to have founded his feaft of the angels, PARAD. LOST, B. v. 632. Where they "quaff immortality and Joy, &c." XV. To the Lord General FAIRFAX.* Fairfax, whofe name in arms through Europe rings, For obvious political reafons this Sonnet, the two following, and the two to Cyriac Skinner, were not inferted in the edition 1673. They were first printed at the end of Philips's life of Milton prefixed to the English verfion of his public Letters, 1694. They are quoted by Toland in his Life of Milton, 1698, p. 24, 34, 35. Tonfon omitted them in his editions of 1695, 1705. But, growing lefs offenfive by time, they appear in his edition of 1713. The Cambridge manufcript happily corrects many of their vitiated readings. They were the favourites of the republicans long after the restoration it was fome confolation to an extirminated party, to have fuch good poetry remaining on their fide of the question. Thefe five fonnets being frequently tranfcribed, or repeated from memory, became extremely incorrect: their faults were implicitly preserved by Tonson, and afterwards continued without examination by Tickell and Fenton. This Sonnet, as appears from Milton's Manufcript, was addressed to Fairfax at the fiege of Colchester, 1648. I. -Rings.] Milton is fond of ring, for violence of found; I mean in a good fenfe, and out of its appropriated, literal application. SONN. xxii. 12. "Of which all Europe RINGS from fide to fide." "Where fee the Note. HYMN. NATIV. v. RING out "ye crystal spheres." PARAD. LOST, ii. 495. “Hill and valley "RINGS." Ib. iii. 347. "Heaven RUNG with jubilee." Ib. vi. 204. "The faithful armies RUNG Hofanna." Ib. vii. 562. " All "the constellations RUNG." Ib. vii. 633. "The empyrean RUNG "with hallelujahs.” Ib. ix. 737. "The found yet RUNG of his perfuafive words." We may add, "No more with cymbals "RING." H. NATIV. V. 208. But this is, perhaps, a literal use. 4. Daunt remotest kings.] Who dreaded the example of England, that their monarchies would be turned into republics. Milton, under the EMMET, has admirably defcribed the fort of men of which a republic was to confift, PARAD. L. B. vii. 484. First crept The PARSIMONIOUS EMMET, Provident of Thy firm unfhaken virtue ever brings 66 66 5 Victory home, though new rebellions raife He has much the fame allufion in one of his lateft profe-pieces, The ready way to establish a FREE COMMONWEALTH. See PR. W. i. 591. "Go to the ant, thou fluggard, faith Solomon, which having no prince, ruler, nor lord, provides her meat in the fummer, &c. which evidently fhews us, that they who think the na"tion undone without a King, have not so much true spirit and understanding as a Pifmire: neither are thefe diligent creatures "hence concluded to live in lawless anarchy, or that commended, "but are fet the examples to imprudent and ungoverned men of a frugal and felf-governing democracy or commonwealth, fafer " and more thriving in the joint PROVIDENCE and counsel of many INDUSTRIOUS EQUALS, than under the fingle domina"tion of an imperious lord." 66 7. Their Hydra heads, and the false north difplays Her broken league to imp their ferpent-wings.] Euripides, Milton's favourite, is the only writer of antiquity that has given wings to the monfter Hydra. IoN, v. 198. « ΠΤΑΝΟΝ πυρίφλεκ The word IITANON is controverted. But here perhaps is Milton's authority for the common reading. του. כל Our author seems to have taken this idea from a paffage in the EIKON, which he quotes in his ARGUS, §. X. "He [the king] "calls the parliament a many-headed HYDRA of government, full "of factions, diftractions, &c." PR. W. i. 396. 8. Her broken league. -] Because the English Parliament held, that the Scotch had broken their Covenant, by Hamilton's march into England. H. Ib. To imp their ferpent-wings.] In falconry, to imp a feather in a hawk's wing, is to add a new piece to a mutilated ftump. From the Saxon impan, to ingraft. So Spenfer, of a headless trunk, F. Q. iv. ix. 4. And having YMPT the head to it agayne. To IMP wings is not uncommon in our old poetry. Spenfer, HYMNE OF HEAVENLY BEAUTIE. Thence gathering plumes of perfect speculation, TO IMPE the winges of thy high flying minde. VOL. I. Xx Fletcher, |