25 I And now with fecond hope fhe goes, And with remorseless cruelty Spoil'd at once both fruit and tree: The hapless babe before his birth Had burial, yet not laid in earth, 30 So have I feen fome tender flip, Sav'd with care from winter's nip, 35 The pride of her carnation train, And those pearls of dew she wears, 4.0 41. But the fair bloffom bangs the bead, &c.] Mr. Bowle compares this and the five following verfes, with what Antonio Bruni fays of the rofe, LE TRE GRATIE, p. 221. Ma nata apena, o filli, Prove to be prefaging tears, Which the fad morn had let fall 45 On her haftening funeral. Gentle Lady, may thy grave Peace and quiet ever have; After this thy travel fore That to give the world increase, Wept for thee in Helicon, And fome flowers, and fome bays, 50 55 For thy herfe, to ftrow the ways, Sent thee from the banks of Came, Devoted to thy virtuous name; 60 Whilft thou, bright Saint, high fitst in glory, 47. Gentle Lady, may thy grave Peace and quiet ever have.] So in the obfequies of Fidele, in CYMBELINE, A. iv. S. ii. Quiet confummation have, And renowned be thy grave! 55. Here be tears of perfect moan Devoted to thy virtuous name.] I have been told, that there was a Cambridge-collection of verfes on her death, among which Milton's elegiac Next her, much like to thee in story, That fair Syrian shepherdess, Who after years of barrenness, The highly favour'd Joseph bore To him that ferv'd for her before, And at her next birth much like thee, Far within the bofom bright 65 Of blazing Majesty and Light: 70 There with thee, new welcome Saint, Like fortunes may her foul acquaint, With thee there clad in radiant fheen, elegiac ode first appeared. But I have never feen it, and I rather think this was not the cafe. Our marchionefs was the daughter of Thomas lord viscount Savage, of Rock Savage in Cheshire; and it is natural to fuppofe, that her family was well acquainted with the family of Lord Bridgewater, belonging to the fame county, for whom Milton wrote the Mafk of Coмus. It is therefore not improbable, that Milton wrote this elegy, another poetical favour, in confequence of his acquaintance with the Egerton family. And afterwards we find fome of that family intermarrying with this of the marquis of Winchester. Dugd. BARON. ii. 377. 445. The accomplished lady, here celebrated, died in child-bed of a fecond fon in her twentythird year, and was the mother of Charles the first Duke of Bolton. Mr. Bowle remarks, that her death was celebrated by fir John Beaumont, and fir W. Davenant. See Beaumont's POEMS, 1629. p.159. There is a pleasing vein of lyric fweetness and cafe in Milton's use of this metre, which is that of L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. He has ufed it with equal fuccefs in Comus's feftive fong, and the laft fpeech of the Spirit, in Comus, 93. 922. From these specimens, we may justly wish that he had wrote in it more frequently. Perhaps in Comus's Song it has a peculiar propriety: it has certainly a happy effect, SONG. SONG. On MAY MORNING. Now OW the bright morning ftar, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east,and leads with her The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws 1. Now the bright morning-ftar, day's barbinger.] So Shakespeare, MIDS. N. DR. A. iii. S. ult. And yonder shines AURORA'S HARBINGER. 2. Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flow'ry May, &c.] So Spenfer, in ASTROPHEL, ft. vi. And in the FAERIE QUEENE, i. v. 2. At length the golden ORIENTAL gate Of greatest heaven gan to open faire ; And Phebus, fresh as bridegroome to his mate, CAME DANCING FORTH, fhaking his deawy haire. And Peele, DAVID AND BETHSABE, Signat. E. edit. 1599. 4to. As when the fun, attir'd in glistring robe, COMES DANCING from his ORIENTAL gate, And bridegroom-like hurls through the gloomy air His radiant beams. And Niccols, a continuator of the MIRROUR of MAGISTRATES, in his poem called the CUCKOw, 1607. Of the east. From whence the daies bright king CAME DANCING OUT. And in the context he calls the cock, "Daies harbinger." And G. 3. The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowflip, &c.] So Niccols, in the defcription just cited, of May. And from her FRUITFUL LAP eche day fhe THREW Befide the inftance brought by Doctor Newton from K. RICHARD The FRESH GREEN LAP of fair king Richard's land. As ; The yellow cowflip, and the pale primrose. As in LYCIDAS, V. 138. On whofe FRESH LAP the swart-star sparely looks. So alfo R. Greene, of Aurora, as cited in ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS, 1600. p. 415. And fprinckling from the folding of her LAP White lillies, roses, and sweet violets. Mr. Bowle adds these illuftrations, Spenfer, F. Q. ii. vi. 15. Of flowers. Nature them forth THREW Out of her FRUITFULL LAP. Again, ibid. vii. vii. 34. Then came faire May, the fayreft mayde on ground, And THROWING flowres out of her LAP around. 4.The pale primrose.] In the WINTER'S TALE, A. iv. S. v. PALE PRIMROSES, That die unmarried. Again, in CYMBELINE, A. iv. S. ii. The flower that's like thy face, PALE-PRIMROSE. MISCEL |