Emathia jacuisset Oeta. Ense Locro, Jove lacrymante. author grounds a comparison, Par. Lost, ii. 543. "Felt th' "envenom'd robe, &c." 15. Quem larva Pelidis peremit, &c.] Sarpedon, who was slain by Patroclus, disguised in the armour of Achilles. At his death his father wept a shower of blood. See the sixteenth Iliad. 17. Si triste fatum, &c.] "Ifin"chantments could have stopped "death, Circe, the mother of "Telegonus by Ulysses, would "have still lived; and Medea, "the sister of Egialus or Ab66 syrtus, with her magical rod." Telegonus killed his father Ulysses, and is the same who is called parricida by Horace. Milton denominates Circe Telegoni parens, from Ovid, Epist. Pont. iii. i. 123. Telegonique parens vertendis nota figuris. 17. -verba Hecateïa] Ovid, Metam. xiv. 44. Hecateia carmina miscet. 15 20 25 22. Artes medentum, ignotaque gramina,] Not so much the power, as the skill, of medicine. This appears from the names which follow. 23. Machaon, &c.] Ma chaon, the son of Esculapius, one of the Grecian leaders at the siege of Troy, and a physician, was killed by Eurypylus. See the Iliad. But the death of Machaon, by the spear of Eurypylus, is not in the Iliad, but in Quintus Calaber, where it is circumstantially related, as Mr. Steevens remarks, Paralip. vi. 406. I must add, that Quintus Calaber is not an author at present very familiar to boys of seventeen. According to Philips, he was one of the classics whom Milton taught in his school. "Quintus Calaber his poem of "the Trojan War continued from "Homer." Life, p. xvii. 25.-Philyreie, &c.] Chiron, Sagitta Echidnæ perlita sanguine, Cæse puer genitricis alvo. the son of Philyra, a preceptor in medicine, was incurably wounded by Hercules, with a dart dipped in the poisonous blood of the serpent of Lerna. See above, El. iv. 27. 27. Nec tela te, &c.] Esculapius, who was cut out of his mother's womb by his father Apollo. Jupiter struck him dead with lightning, for restoring Hippolytus to life. 29. Tuque O] O is here open in a situation in which it is never found open in the Roman classics. Symmons. 29. Tuque O alumno major Apol line,] Certainly we should read Apollinis. But who was this pupil of Apollo in medicine? Had it been Esculapius, the transition would have been more easy. But Esculapius was sent by Apollo to Chiron, to be educated in that art. I think therefore, although Milton's allusions in these pieces are chiefly to established Grecian fable, we should here understand Virgil's Iapis, who was Phobo ante alios dilectus, and to whom he imparted suas artes, sua munera. En. xii. 391. seq. 30 35. At fila rupit Persephone tua, Elysio spatiere campo. In Quintum Novembris.* Anno Ætatis 17. 48. The thought is in Juvenal and Persius. * This little poem, as containing a council, conspiracy, and 40 45 5 10 expedition of Satan, may be considered as an early and promising prolusion of Milton's genius to the Paradise Lost, Regnaque olivifera vertit florentia pace: virtutis amantes, puræ Et At simul hanc, opibusque et festa pace beatam, occurs in Plautus, Cicero, Pliny, and other ancient critics. 27. Cui nomen dederat quondam Neptunia proles;] "Albion a giant, son of Neptune, who "called the [this] island after "his own name, and ruled it forty-four years. Till at length passing over into Gaul, in aid "of his brother Lestrygon, 66 86 "6 against whom Hercules was "hasting out of Spain into Italy, "he was there slain in fight, "&c." Milton's Hist. Engl. b. i. Prose Works, ii. 2. Drayton has the same fable, Polyolb. s. xviii. 31. At simul hanc, opibusque et festa pace beatam, &c.] The whole context is from Ovid's Envy, Metam. ii. 794. Aspicit, et pingues donis Cerealibus agros, Jamque pruinosas velox superaverat Alpes, 35 40 45 50 55 sera crepuscula lucem,] Ovid, -Traherent cum sera crepuscula 55. He describes the procession of the Pope to Saint Peter's church at Rome, on the eve of Saint Peter's day. |
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