From haunted fpring, and dale

Edg'd with poplar pale,

P

....

The parting Genius is with fighing fent; With flowr-inwoven treffes torn

J

185

The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint;

In urns, and altars round,

A drear and dying found

Affrights the Flamens at their fervice quaint

And the chill marble feems to fweat,

While each peculiar Pow'r forgoes his wonted

With

Judg. XVI. and by the ark of.
God, 1 Sam. V. Our author is
larger in his account of thefe dei-
ties in the firft book of the Para-
dife Loft, and thither we must re-
fer our reader and to the notes

there.

With that twice batter'd God of Palestine; mo?

Now fits not girt with tapers holy shine;

The Lybic Hammon fhrinks his horn,

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz

mourn.

XXIII.

And fullen Moloch fled,

Hath left in fhadows dread

His burning idol all of blackest hue;

In vain with cymbals ring

They call the grilly king,

4205&

In difmal dance about the furnace blue; 210 A

The brutish Gods of Nile as faft,

Ifis and Orus, and the dog Anubis hafte.

201. Heav'n's 's queen and mother both,] She was called regina cali and mater Deum. See Selden. the dog Anubis] Virg. Æn. VIII. 698. latrator Anubis.

212.

215.-the

Trampling the unfhowr'd grafs with lowings loud: Nor can he be at reft

Within his facred cheft,

216

Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud;

In vain with timbrel'd anthems dark

The fable-ftoled forcerers bear his worshipt ark. 220

Not Typhon huge ending in fnaky twine:

Our babe to show his Godhead true,

1225

A

Can in his fwadling bands controll the damned crew.

but this pitiful jingle could not be
Milton's. He undoubtedly wrote
it bow. Calton.
244 Bright-barneft] Dreft,
arm'd, accoutred. Arnefe in Ita-

The flocking fhadows pale

Troop to th' infernal jail,

Each fetter'd ghoft flips to his feveral grave, 234 And the yellow-skirted Fayes

[maze. Fly after the night-fteeds, leaving their moon-lov'd

XXVII.

But fee the Virgin bleft

Hath laid her Babe to reft,

Time is our tedious fong fhould here have ending:

Heav'n's youngest teemed ftar

Hath fix'd her polish'd car,

240

Her fleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending:

And all about the courtly ftable

Bright-harnest Angels fit in order serviceable.

E

IV.

*The PASSION.

I.

Rewhile of mufic, and ethereal mirth,

Wherewith the stage of air and earth did ring,
And

lian is a general name for all kinds
of habits and ornaments.

Richardfon. Harness is ufed for armour in our tranflation of the Bible. 1 Kings XX. 11. Let not him that girdeth on bis harness, boaft himself, as he that

putteth it off. Exod. XIII. 18. The children of Ifrael went up harneffed out of the land of Egypt.

It appears from the beginning of this poem, that it was compofed after, and probably foon after, the ode on the Nativity.

22. These

And joyous news of heav'nly Infant's birth,
My Muse with Angels did divide to fing;
But headlong joy is ever on the wing,

5

In wintry folftice like the shorten'd light Soon swallow'd up in dark and long out-living night.

II.

For now to forrow muft I tune my fong,

And fet my harp to notes of faddeft woe,

Which on our dearest Lord did seise ere long,

10

Dangers, and fnares, and wrongs, and worse than fo, Which he for us did freely undergo:

Most perfect Hero, try'd in heaviest plight

Of labors huge and hard, too hard for human wight! III.

He fov'ran Priest stooping his regal head,

That dropt with odorous oil down his fair eyes,
Poor fleshly tabernacle entered,

His starry front low-rooft beneath the skies;
O what a mask was there, what a disguise!

22. Thefe lateft fcenes] So it is in the second edition of 1673; in the former of 1645 it is Thefe latter fcenes.

26. Loud o'er the reft Cremona's trump doth found;] He means Mar

15