Aura, per humentes corpora fusa rosas. Triste micant ferro tela corusca novo. Ipsa senescentem reparat Venus annua formam, Egrediturque frequens, ad amoni gaudia veris, Virgineos aura cincta puella sinus : 110 Votum est cuique suum, votum est tamen omnibus unum, Ut sibi quem cupiat, det Cytherea virum. Nunc quoque septena modulatur arundine pastor, Et sua quæ jungat carmina Phyllis habet. Navita nocturno placat sua sidera cantu, Delphinasque leves ad vada summa vocat. Jupiter ipse alto cum conjuge ludit Olympo, Convocat et famulos ad sua festa Deos. Nunc etiam Satyri, cum sera crepuscula surgunt, Pervolitant celeri florea rura choro, Sylvanusque sua cyparissi fronde revinctus, Semicaperque Deus, semideusque caper. Per sata luxuriat fruticetaque Mænalius Pan, 115 120 125 odora crocum.] So in L'Allegro. cypress from the boy Cyparissus. -A roabe unfit, In the next line, " Semicaperque "Deus" is from Ovid, Fast. iv. 752. See also Metam. xiv. 515. "Semicaper Pan." 127. -prædatur Oreada Faunus,] See what is said of the Till Hymen's saffron'd weede had mountain-nymph Liberty, in usher'd it. The text has a reference to Ovid's Hymen, who is "croceo "velatus amictu." Metam. x. 1. 121. Sylvanus is crowned with L'Allegro, v. 36. 65. 129. Virgil is obvious, Ecl. iii. Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante Et fugit, et fugiens pervelit ipsa capi. Nec vos arborea dii precor ite domo. ELEG. VI. Ad CAROLUM DEODATUM ruri commorantem, 130 135 140 Qui cum Idibus Decemb. scripsisset, et sua carmina excusari postulasset si solito minus essent bona, quod inter lautitias quibus erat ab amicis exceptus, haud satis felicem operam Musis dare se posse affirmabat, hoc habuit responsum, MITTO tibi sanam non pleno ventre salutem, At tua quid nostram prolectat Musa camœnam, Nam neque noster amor modulis includitur arctis, 134. Nec vos arborea dii precor ite domo.] Par. Lost, b. v. 137. "From under shady arborous "roof." 138. sensim tempora veris eant;] See El. i. 48. and the note. Festaque cœlifugam quæ coluere Deum, Haustaque per lepidos Gallica musta focos! Naso Corallæis mala carmina misit ab agris : Quid nisi vina, rosasque, racemiferumque Lyæum, 12. Haustaque per lepidos Gallica musta focos!] See Sonnet to Laurence, xx. iii. 10. Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire Help waste a sullen day? 10 15 20 Et carmen vena pauperiore fluit. What neat repast shall feast us, light 35. iii. i. 18. v. vii. 59. v. xii. 35. and choice Of Attic taste, with wine, &c. Deodate had sent Milton a copy of verses, in which he described the festivities of Christmas. 19. Naso Corallæis mala carmina misit ab agris:] Ovid's Tristia, and Epistles from Pontus, supposed to be far inferior to his other works. This I cannot allow. Few of his works have more nature. And where there is haste and negligence, there is often a beautiful careless elegance. The Corallai were the most savage of the Getes. Ovid calls them, "pelliti Corallæi," Epist. Pont. iv. viii. 83. And again, ibid. iv. ii. 37. Hic mihi cui recitem, nisi flavis scripta Corallis, And Epist. Pont. i. v. 3. iv. xiii. 4. 17. 20. Non illic epulæ, non sata vitis erat.] Ovid, Epist. Pont. i. x. 31. Non epulis oneror: quarum si tangar Pindaricosque inflat numeros Teumesius Euan, 23. -Teumesius Euan,] Teumesus, Tsvμnoos, is a mountain of Boeotia, the district in which Thebes was situated; and its inhabitants were called Tvno, Teumesii. The Grecian Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and Semele, is often denominated Thebanus. But Bacchus had a more immediate and particular connection with this mountain. Pausanias relates a fable, that Bacchus, in revenge for some insult which he had received from the Thebans, nourished a fox in this mountain for the destruction of the city of Thebes; and that a dog being sent from Diana to kill this fox, both fox and dog were turned into stones. The fox was called Tevμnoia й aλwä, Teumesia vulpes. Pausan. BO12 |