15

Æmathia jacuisset Oeta.
Nec fraude turpi Palladis invidæ
Vidisset occisum Ilion Hectora, aut
Quem larva Pelidis peremit

Ense Locro, Jove lacrymante.
Si triste fatum verba Hecateïa
Fugare possint, Telegoni parens
Vixisset infamis, potentique

Ægiali soror usa virga. Numenque trinum fallere si queant Artes medentum, ignotaque gramina, Non gnarus herbarum Machaon

Eurypyli cecidisset hasta : Læsisset et nec te, Philyreie,

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author grounds a comparison, 22. Artes medentur, ignotaque Par. Lost, ü. 543. “ Felt th' gramina,] Not so much the “envenom'd robe, &c."

power, as the skill, of medicine. 15. Quem larva Pelidis pere- This appears from the names mit, &c.] Sarpedon, who was which follow. slain by Patroclus, disguised in 23. Machaon, &c.] Mathe armour of Achilles. At his chaon, the son of Æsculapius, death his father wept a shower one of the Grecian leaders at the of blood. See the sixteenth Iliad. siege of Troy, and a physician,

17. Si triste fatum, &c.] “If in- was killed by Eurypylus. See “chantments could have stopped the Iliad. But the death of Ma“ death, Circe, the mother of chaon, by the spear of Eurypy“Telegonus by Ulysses, would lus, is not in the Iliad, but in “have still lived; and Medea, Quintus Calaber, where it is "the sister of Ægialus or Ab- circumstantially related, as Mr. “syrtus, with her magical rod." Steevens remarks, Paralip. vi. Telegonus killed his father Ulys. 406. I must add, that. Quintus ses, and is the same who is called Calaber is not an author at preparricida by Horace. Milton de. sent very familiar to boys of nominates Circe Telegoni parens, seventeen. According to Philips, from Ovid, Epist. Pont. iii. i. 123. he was one of the classics whom Telegonique parens vertendis nota Milton taught in his school. figuris.

“ Quintus Calaber his poem of 17. -verba Hecateïa] Ovid, “the Trojan War continued from Metam. xiv. 44.

“ Homer.” Life, p. xvii. Hecateia carmina miscet.

25. - Philyreie, &c.] Chiron,

30

Sagitta Echidnæ perlita sanguine,
Nec tela te fulmenque avitum,

Cæse puer genitricis alvo.
Tuque o alumno major Apolline,
Gentis togatæ cui regimen datum,
Frondosa quem nunc Cirrha luget,

Et mediis Helicon in undis,
Jam præfuisses Palladio gregi
Lætus, superstes, nec sine gloria;
Nec puppe lustrasses Charontis

Horribiles barathri recessus.

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the son of Philyra, a precep- It should be remembered, that tor in medicine, was incurably the word alumnus is more extenwounded by Hercules, with a sively, favourite, votary, &c. dart dipped in the poisonous

In Milton's Latin poems, it is blood of the serpent of Lerna. often difficult to ascertain the See above, El. iv. 27.

names of

persons and places. To 27. Nec tela te, &c.] Æscula- shew his learning, he frequently pius, who was cut out of his clouds his meaning by obscure mother's womb by his father or obsolete patronymics, and by Apollo. Jupiter struck him dead the substitution of appellations with lightning, for restoring formed from remote genealogical, Hippolytus to life.

historical, and even geographical 29. Tuque O] O is here open allusions. But this was one of in a situation in which it is never Ovid's affectations. found open in the Roman classics. Milton's habitual propensity to Symmons.

classical illustration, more parti29. Tuque 0 alumno major Apolscularly from the Grecian story, line,] Certainly we should read appearen in his State Letters Apollinis. But who was this pu-" written for Cromwell. In one of pil of Apollo in medicine? Had them," Cromwell congratulates it been #sculapius, the transition King Charles Gustavus on the would have been more easy. But birth of a son in the midst of Æsculapius was sent by Apollo other good news, 1655. In this, to Chiron, to be educated in that says he, you resemble Philip of art. I think therefore, although Macedon, whw. at one and the Milton's allusions in these pieces same time received the tidings are chiefly to established Gre- of Alexander's birth and the con. cian fable, we should here un- quest of the Illyrians. Prose W. derstand Virgil's lapis, who was ii. 445. Phoebo ante alios dilectus, and to 29. Admitting Warton's sense whom he imparted suas artes, of alumnus, it is evident that sua munera. n. xii. 391. seq. Æsculapius is here intended. E.

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45

At fila rupit Persephone tua,
Irata, cum te viderit, artibus,
Succoque pollenti, tot atris

Faucibus eripuisse mortis.
Colende Præses, membra precor tua
Molli quiescant cespite, et ex tuo
Crescant rosæ, calthæque busto,

Purpureoque hyacinthus ore. Sit mite de te judicium Æaci, Subrideatque Ætnæa Proserpina; Interque felices perennis

Elysio spatiere campo.

In Quintum Novembris.* Anno Ætatis 17.
JAM pius extrema veniens läcobus ab arcto,
Teucrigenas populos, lateque patentia regna
Albionum tenuit, jamque inviolabile fædus
Sceptra Caledoniis conjunxerat Anglica Scotis:
Pacificusque novo, felix divesque, sedebat
In solio, occultique doli securus et hostis :
Cum ferus ignifluo regnans Acheronte tyrannus,
Eumenidum pater, æthereo vagus exul Olympo,
Forte per immensum terrarum erraverat orbem,
Dinumerans sceleris socios, vernasque fideles,
Participes regni post funera mæsta futuros :
Hic tempestates medio ciet aëre diras,
Illic unanimes odium struit inter amicos,
Armat et invictas in mutua viscera gentes ;

48. The thought is in Juvenal expedition of Satan, may be conand Persius.

sidered as an early and promising

prolusion of Milton's genius to * This little poem, as contain the Paradise Lost. ing a council, conspiracy, and

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pace :

Regnaque olivifera vertit florentia
Et quoscunque videt puræ virtutis amantes,
Hos cupit adjicere imperio, fraudumque magister
Tentat inaccessum sceleri corrumpere pectus ;
Insidiasque locat tacitas, cassesque latentes
Tendit, ut incautos rapiat, ceu Caspia tigris
Insequitur trepidam deserta per avia prædam
Nocte sub illuni, et somno nictantibus astris.
Talibus infestat populos Summanus et urbes,
Cinctus cæruleæ fumanti turbine flammæ.
Jamque fluentisonis albentia rupibus arva
Apparent, et terra Deo dilecta marino,
Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia proles ;
Amphitryoniaden qui non dubitavit atrocem,
Æquore tranato, furiali poscere bello,
Ante expugnatæ crudelia sæcula Trojæ.

At simul hanc, opibusque et festa pace beatam,

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15. Regnaqué olivifera vertit occurs in Plautus, Cicero, Pliny, florentia pace :] Olivifer is an and other ancient critics. Ovidian epithet, Fast. iii. 151. 27. Cui nomen dederat quondam Primus oliviferis Romam deductus Neptunia proles ;]

“ Albion a ab arvis.

“ giant, son of Neptune, who And in the Ibis, “ Olivifera Si- “ called the [this] island after

cyone," v. 317. A great fault “ his own name, and ruled it of the versification of this poem forty-four years. Till at length is, that it is too monotonous, and “ passing over into Gaul, in aid that there is no intermixture of ~ of his brother Lestrygon, a variety of pauses. But it against whom Hercules was should be remembered, that hasting out of Spain into Italy, young writers are misled by “ he was there slain in fight, specious beauties.

“ &c." Milton's Hist. Engl. b. i. 23. - populos Summanus et Prose Works, ii. 2. Drayton urbes,] Súmmanus is an obso- has the same fable, Polyolb. s. lete and uncommon name for xviii. Pluto, or the god of ghosts and 31. At simul hanc, opibusque night, summus manium, which et festa pace beatam, &c.] The Milton most probably had from whole context is from Ovid's Ovid, Fast. vi. 731. The name Envy, Metam. ii. 794.

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Aspicit, et pingues donis Cerealibus agros,
Quodque magis doluit, venerantem numina veri
Sancta Dei populum, tandem suspiria rupit
Tartareos ignes et luridum olentia sulphur ;
Qualia Trinacria trux ab Jove clausus in Ætoa
Efflat tabifico monstrosus ob ore Tiphæus.
Ignescunt oculi, stridetque-adamantinus ordo
Dentis, ut armorum fragor, ictaque cuspide cuspis.
Atque pererrato solum hoc lacrymabile mundo
Inveni, dixit, gens hæc mihi sola rebellis,
Contemtrixque jugi, nostraque potentior arte.
Illa tamen, mea si quicquam tentamina possunt,
Non feret hoc impune diu, non ibit inulta.
Hactenus : et piceis liquido natat aëre pennis ;
Qua volat, adversi præcursant agmine venti,
Densantur nubes, et crebra tonitrua fulgent.

Jamque pruinosas velox superaverat Alpes,
Et tenet Ausoniæ fines : a parte sinistra
Nimbifer Appenninus erat, priscique Sabini,
Dextra veneficiis infamis Hetruria, nec non
Te furtiva, Tibris, Thetidi videt oscula dantem ;
Hinc Mavortigenæ consistit in arce Quirini.
Reddiderant dubiam jam sera crepuscula lucem,
Cum circumgreditur totam Tricoronifer urbem,
Panificosque Deos portat, scapulisque virorum

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Tandem Tritonida conspicit arcem, sera crepuscula lucem,] Ovid,
Ingeniisque, opibusque, et festa pace, Metam. i. 219.