L'ALLEGRO.

ENCE loathed Melancholy,

HEN

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,

In Stygian cave forlorn

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and fights unholy,

V. 1. Hence loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus and blacke Midnight born.] Erebus, not Cerberus, was the legitimate husband of Night. Milton was too univerfal a fcholar to be unacquainted with this mythology. In his Prolufions, or declamatory Preambles to philofophical queftions difcuffed in the schools at Cambridge, he says, "Cæterum nec defunt qui Æthera "et Diem itidem EREBO Noctem peperiffe tradunt." PROSE-WORKS, vol. ii. 585. Again, in the Latin Ode on the Death of Felton bishop of Ely. v. 31.

Non eft, ut arbitraris elufus mifer,

Mors atra Noctis filia,

EREBOVE PATRE creta.

Again, IN QUINTUM NOVEMBRIS, v. 69.

Nox fenis amplexus EREBI taciturna petivit.

But as Melancholy is here the creature of Milton's imagination, he had a right to give her what parentage he pleafed, and to marry Night the natural mother of Melancholy, to any ideal husband that would best ferve to heighten the allegory. See OBSERVAT. on Spenfer's F. Qi.73.

I have formerly remarked, that in this exordium Milton had an eye on fome elegant lines of Marfton, SCOURGE OF VILLANIE, B.iii. S. 10. edit. 1598.

Sleepe,

Find out fome uncouth cell,

5

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,

And the night-raven fings;

There under ebon fhades, and low-brow'd rocks,

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian defert ever dwell.

Sleepe, grim Reproof! My iocund Mufe doth fing
In other keyes to nimble fingering;
Dull-fprighted MELANCHOLIE, leave my braine,
To hell, Cimmerian Night. In liuely vaine
I ftriue to paint: then hence all darke intent,
And fullen frownes. Come fporting Merriment,
Cheeke-dimpling Laughter, crowne my uerie foule

With jouifance.

See OBSERVAT. on Spenfer's F. Q. i. 60. And the following Note.

10. In dark Cimmerian defert ever dwell.] It should be remembered, that CIMMERIE TENEBRE were antiently proverbial. But CIMMERIAN darkness and defolation were a common allufion in the poetry that was now written and ftudied. In Fletcher's FALSE ONE, A. v. S. iv. vol. iv. p. 165. edit. Theob. 1751.

O gyant-like Ambition, married to

CYMERIAN darkness!

In TITUS ANDRONICUS, Aaron the Moor is called "your fwarth "CYMMERIAN." A. ii. S. v. In Spenfer's TEARES OF THE MUSES we have,

Darkneffe more than CYMMERIANS daily night.

And in his VIRGIL'S GNAT, a Cimmerian defert is defcribed.
I carried am to a waste wilderneffe,

Waste wilderneffe among CYMMERIAN fhades,
Where endless paines and hideous heauineffe,
Is round about me heapt in darkfome glades.

But our author might perhaps have had an immediate allufion to the cave of fleep in Ovid, MET. xi. 592.

Eft prope CIMMER IOS longo fpelunca receffu

Mons cavus, &c.

But come thou Goddess fair and free,
In heav'n yclep'd Euphrofyne,
And by men, heart-eafing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth

Or from Homer, whom Ovid copies, ODYSS. xi. 14. And in Ovid's Uncouth cell, there is perpetual darkness; and, Sleep repofes on an ebon couch, here turned to EBON fhades. Dreams inhabit Ovid's cave, "Somnia vana," who in L'ALLEGRO are of the fickle train of Morpheus, or Sleep. See alfo Statius, THEB. X. 84. And Chaucer, H. FAME, V. 70. p. 458. Urr.

Mr. Bowle remarks, that this line of the text bears a near refemblance to a paffage in Sydney's ARCADIA, B. iii. p. 407. edit. 1725. "Let Cimmerian darknefs be my only habitation." See IN QUINT. NOVEMBR. V. 60.

The execration in the text is a tranflation of a passage in one of his ówn academic PROLUSSIONS, "Dignus qui CIMMERIIS Occlufus te"nebris LONGAM et perofam vitam tranfigat." vol. ii. 587.

11. But come thou goddess fair and free.] Compare Drayton, ECL. iv. vol. iv. p. 1401.

A daughter cleped Dowfabell,

A maiden FAIR AND FREE.

In the metrical romances, these two words thus paired together, are a common epithet for a lady. As in SYR EGLAMOUR, Bl. Let. Pr. by J. Allde, 4to. Signat. A. iii.

The erles daughter FAIR AND FREE.

We have FREE alone, ibid.

Cristabell your daughter FREE..

Another application may illuftrate its meaning, ibid.
He was curteys and FREE.

See alfo Chaucer, MARCH. T. v. 1655. Urr.

Rise up my wife, my love, my lady FRE.

So Jonfon makes his beautiful countess of Bedford to be "FAIR AND 66 FREE, and wife." EPIGRAM. lxxvi.

I know not how far these inftances, to which I could add more, will go to explain a line in TWELFTH NIGHT. A. ii. S. iv. Edit. Steev, Johnf. vol. iv. 204. Of an old Song.

And the FREE maids that weave their threads with bones,

Do use to chaunt it,

Compare Malone's SECOND APPEND. SHAKESP. p. 19.

With two fifter Graces more

To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore;

Or whether (as fome fager fing)

The frolick wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr with Aurora playing,

As he met her once a Maying,

There on beds of violets blue,

15

20

And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew,
Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,

So buxom, blithe, and debonair,

19. Zephyr with Aurora playing,

As he met her once a Maying.] The rhymes and imagery are from Jonfon, in the Maske at Sir William Cornwalleis's Houfe at Highgate, 1604. WORKS, edit. fol. 1616. p. 881.

See, who here is come a maying?

Why left we off our playing.

This fong is fung by ZEPHYRUS and AURORA, Milton's two para mours, and Flora. Jonfon's interlude is called "A Private Enter"tainment of the King and Queene on May-day in the Morning." p. 879. And hence we are to understand what went before,

Or whether, as fome fager fing,

The frolick wind that breathes the spring,
Zephyr, &c. --

What Milton means by the parenthefis," as fome SAGER fing," is to pay a compliment to Jonfon's fiction. I am perfuaded that Milton wrote SAGES, although SAGER appears in editions, 1645, and 1673. It was an eafy errour of the prefs. SAGES is in Tickell's edition, 1720. And thence copied by Fenton. See Ode on The NATIVITY, V. 5.

For fo the holy SAGES once did SING.

22. And fresh-blown roses wash'd in dew.] So Shakespeare, as Mr. Bowle obferves, TAM. SHR, A. ii. S. i.

She looks as clear

As morning rofes newly wafh'd with dew.

23. Fill'd thee, &c.] Mr. Bowle is of opinion, that this paffage is

formed

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
Jeft, and youthful Jollity,

25

Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles,

Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,

formed from GOWER'S SONG in the Play of PERICLES PRINCE of TYRE. A. i. S. i. See Malone's SUPPL. SH. ii. 7.

This king unto him took a phear,
Who died, and left a female heir

So BUCKSOME, BLITHE, and full of face,
As heaven had lent her all his grace.

See Note on IL PENS. V. 25.

25. Hafte thee Nymph, and bring with thee, &c.] Mr. Bowle thinke that this paffage is copied from Buchanan, OPP. edit. 1687. p. 337. Vos adefte,

Rifus, Blanditiæ, Procacitates',
Lufus, Nequitiæ, Facetiæque,
Joci, Deliciæque, et Illecebræ.

Peck, and after him Doctor Newton, have produced as plaufible a parallel from Statius's DECEMBER.

27. Quips, and cranks, and waxton wiles.] A QUIP is a fatirical joke, a fmart repartee. Jonfon's CYNTHIA'S REVELLS, A. ii. S. iv. “Phil. "How liked you my QUIPPE to Hedon about the garter: wast not "wittie ?" And Falstaffe says, "What in thy QUIPS and thy QUID

"DITIES?" FIRST P. of HENR. iv. A. i. S. ii. And in Two GENTL. VERON. A. iv. S. ii. Again, our author, APOL. SMECTYMN. "With QUIPS and snapping adagies to vapour them out." PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. 105.

By CRANKS, a word yet unexplained, I think we are here to underftand cross-PURPOSES, or fome other fimilar conceit of conversa tion, surprising the company by its intricacy, or embarrassing by its difficulty. Such were the festivities of our fimple ancestors! CRANKS, literally taken, in CORIOLANUS, fignify the ducts of the human body, A. i. S. i.

Through the CRANKS and offices of man.

In Spenfer, the sudden or frequent involutions of the planets. F. Q. vii. vii. 52.

So many turning CRANKES have they, fo many crookes. In Shakespeare's VENUS AND ADONIS, CRANK is a verb, to crefs, wind, double, &c. edit. 1596. Signat. C.

And when thou haft on foot the purblind hare,

Marke