And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light: 160 approve fir Chriftopher Wren's Grecian proportions. Truth and propriety gratify the judgment, but they do not affect the imagination. 159. And floried windows richly dight.] Storied, or painted with Stories, that is, hiftories. That this is precifely the meaning of the word STORIED, we may learn from Harrifon's DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, written about the year 1580, and prefixed to the first volume of Hollinfhead. "As for our churches, all images, fhrines, ta"bernacles, roodlofts, and monuments of idolatry, are removed, taken "downe, and defaced: onelie the STORIES in the glaff-windowes excepted, which for want of fufficient flore of newe ftuffe, and by "reafon of extreame charge that fhould grow by the alteration of the "fame into white panes throughout the realme, are not altogether "abolished in moft places at once, but by little and little fuffered to decaie, that white glaffe may be provided and fet up in their roomes." B. ii. C. i. p. 138. col. 2. 30. Thefe STORIES, from whence came Milton's epithet STORIED, Harrison, who appears to have been a puritan, ranks among the monuments of idolatry, as being representations or images. In CoмUS, we find the verb STORY, v. 516. 66 What the fage poets, taught by th' heavenly Mufe, In Chaucer, STORIAL Occurs for hiftorical. LEG. CLEOPATR, V. 123. And this is STORIAL fothe, it is no fable. Nathan Chytraeus a German, not an inelegant Latin poet, in his ITER ANGLICUM, defcribing the coftly furniture of the houses in London, fays that the walls of the rooms were hung with STOREÆ or hiftories, and painted tapestries. POEMATA, Roftoch.1579. p.171.a. 12mo. Totius eft urbis, quam fit pretiofa fupellex; Inducti. I have mentioned elsewhere the antient historical mummery at Coventry called "The old STORIALL fhew.” RIA. In barbarous latinity, STORIA is fometimes used for HISTO"Item volo et ordino, quod liber meus Chronicarum et Sro"RIARUM Franciæ, fcriptarum in Gallico, &c." Prolog. ad Chron. Franc. tom. iii. COLLECT. HISTORIC. Franc. p. 152. Again, of a benefactor to a monaftery, "Fecit aliam veftem cum STORIIS cruci"fixi Domini." S. Anaftaf. in S. Leon. iii. Apud Murator. p. 200. tom. iii. To this extract many others from monaftic records might be M 2 cafily There let the pealing organ blow, In fervice high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 165 Diffolve me into extafies, And bring all heav'n before mine eyes. And may at last my weary age And I with thee will choose to live*. 170 175 eafily added, which are particularly applicable to the text, as they prove the frequent ufe of the word STORIA for fcriptural history. One of the arguments ufed by the puritans for breaking the painted glass in church windows, was becaufe by darkening the church, it obfcured the new light of the gospel. 168. The peaceful kermitage, The hairy gown, and moffy cell.] In the manufcript of Milton's Mafque, the hermit's hairy gown is mentioned, v. 390. His bookes, or his HAIRE-GOWNE, or maple difh. 172. And every herb that fips the dew.] It feems probable that Milton was a student in botany. For he speaks with great pleasure of the hopes he had formed of being affifted in this ftudy by his friend Charles Deodate, who was a phyfician. EPITAPH. DAMON. V. 150. Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, fuccos, It will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and invention to remark, that he seems to have borrowed the fubject of L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO, together with fome particular thoughts, expreffions, and rhymes, more especially the idea of a contraft between these two difpofitions, from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition of Burton's ANATOMIE OF MELANCHOLY, entitled "The Author's ABSTRACT of Melancholy, or a Dialogue between "Pleasure and Pain." Here Pain is Melancholy. It was written, as I conjecture, about the year 1600. I will make no apology for abftracting and citing as much of this poem, as will be fufficient to prove to a difcerning reader, how far it had taken poffeffion of Milton's mind. The measure will appear to be the fame; and that our author was at leaft an attentive reader of Burton's book, may be already concluded from the traces of resemblance which I have incidentally noticed in paffing through the L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. When I goe mufing all alone, Thinking of diuerfe thinges foreknown; Nought fo damnde as Melancholy! &c. &c. As to the very elaborate work to which these vifionary verses are no unfuitable introduction, the writer's variety of learning, his quotations from scarce and curious books, his pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance, mifcellaneous matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illuftrations, and perhaps, above all, the fingula rities of his feelings cloathed in an uncommon quaintnefs of ftyle, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers, a valuable repofitory of amufement and information. But I am here tempted to add a part of Burton's profe, not so much for the purpose of exhibiting a fpecimen of his manner, as for the fake of fhewing, at one view, how nearly Milton has fometimes purfued his train of thought, and felection of objects, in various paffages of L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO. It is in the chapter entitled, Exercife rectified both of Body and Minde. "But the most pleafing of all "outward paftimes, is Deambulatio per amæna loca, to make a pretty "progreffe, to see citties, caftles, townes: as Fracaftorius, "Vifere fæpe amnes nitidos, peramanaque Tempe, "Et placidas fummis fe&tari in montibus auras. "To walke amongst orchards, gardens, bowres, and artificiall wilder"neffes, green thickets, arches, groves, rillets, fountains, and fuch "like pleasant places, like that Antiochian Daphne, pooles,- betwixt "wood and water, in a faire meadow by a riuer fide, to difport in "some pleasant plaine, to run vp a steepe hill, or fit in a fhadie feat, "muft needes be a delectable recreation.- To fee fome pageant or "fight go by, as at coronations, weddings and fuch like folemnities; "to fee an embaffadour, or prince, met, receiued, entertained with "Makes, fhewes, &c.-The country has its recreations, may-games, "feafts, wakes, and merry meetings. All feafons, almost all places, "haue their feuerall paftimes, fome in fommer, fome in winter, fome "abroad, fome within.-The ordinary recreations which we haue in "winter, and in moft folitary times bufy our mindes with, are cardes, "tables, muficke, Mafkes, vlegames, catches, purposes, queftions*, "merry tales of errant knights, kings, queenes, louers, lordes, ladies, "dwarfes, theeues, fayries, &c.-Dancing, finging, making, mum"ming, ftage-playes, howfoeuer they bee heauily cenfured by fome "feuere Catos, yet if opportunely and foberly vfed, may iuftly be "approved. To read, walke, and fee mappes and pictures, ftatues, "old coynes of feuerall fortes, in a fayre gallerie, artificiall workes, "&c. Whofocuer he is therefore, that is overrunne with Solitarineffe, or carried away with a PLEASING MELANCHOLY and vaine conceits, "I can prescribe him no better remedie than this of ftudy." He winds up his fyftem of ftudious recreation, with a recommendation of the fciences of morality, aftronomy, botany, &c. "To fee a well-cut "herball, all hearbs, trees, flowers, plants, expreffed in their proper "colours to the life, &c." P. ii. §. 2. p. 224–234. edit. 1624. 66 In Beaumont and Fletcher's NICE VALOUR OF PASSIONATE MADMAN, there is a beautiful Song on Melancholy, fome of the fentiments of which, as Sympfon long fince obferved, appear to have been dilated and heightened in the IL PENSEROSO. See A. iii. S. i. vol. x. p. 336. * Cross-purpofes, Queflions and commands, fuch as Milton calls "Quips, and Cranks, "and wanton Wiles," Milton has more frequently and openly copied the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, than of Shakespeare. One is therefore furprised, that in his panegyric on the ftage, he did not mention the twin-bards, when he celebrates the learned fock of Jonfon, and the wood-notes wild of Shakespeare. But he concealed his love. L'ALLEGRO and IL PENSEROSO may be called the two first descriptive poems in the English language. It is perhaps true, that the characters are not fufficiently kept apart. But this circumstance has been productive of greater excellencies. It has been remarked, "No mirth "can indeed be found in his melancholy, but I am afraid I always "meet fome melancholy in his mirth." Milton's is the dignity of mirth. His chearfulness is the chearfulness of gravity. The objects he felects in his L'ALLEGRO are fo far gay, as they do not naturally excite fadnefs. Laughter and jollity are named only as perfonifications, and never exemplified. Quips, and Cranks, and wanton wiles, are enumerated only in general terms. There is fpecifically no mirth in contemplating a fine landfchape. And even his landfchape, although it has flowery meadows and flocks, wears a fhade of penfiveness; and contains ruffet laws, fallows gray, and barren mountains, overhung with labouring clouds. Its old turretted manfion peeping from the trees, awakens only a train of folemn and romantic, perhaps melancholy, reflection. Many a penfive man liftens with delight to the milk-maid finging blith, to the mower whetting his fcythe, and to a diftant peal of village bells. He chofe fuch illuftrations as minifter matter for true poetry, and genuine defcription. Even his moft brilliant imagery is mellowed with the fober hues of philofophic meditation. It was impoffible for the author of IL PENSEROSO to be more chearful, or to paint mirth with levity; that is, otherwife than in the colours of the higher poetry. Both poems are the refult of the fame feelings, and the fame habits of thought. See Note on L'ALL. v. 146. No man was ever fo difqualified to turn puritan as Milton. In this and the preceding poem, he profeffes himself to be highly pleafed with the choral church-mufic, with Gothic cloyfters, the painted windows and vaulted iles of a venerable cathedral, with tilts and tourna ments, and with mafques and pageantries. What very repugnant and unpoetical principles did he afterwards adopt! He helped to fubvert monarchy, to deftroy fubordination, and to level all diftinctions of rank, But this fcheme was totally inconfiftent with the fplendours of fociety, with throngs of knights and barons bold, with ftore of ladies, and bigh triumphs, which belonged to a court. Pomp, and feast, and revelry, the fhow of Hymen, with mask and antique pageantry, were among the ftate and trappings of nobility, which he detefted as an advocate for republicanifm. His fyftem of worship, which renounced all outward folemnity, all that had ever any connection with popery, tended to overthrow the ftudious cloysters pale, and the high embowed roof; to remove the storied windows richly dight, and to filence the pealing organ and the full-voiced quire. The delights arifing from thefe objects were to be facrificed to the cold and philofophical spirit of calvinism, which furnished no pleasures to the imagination. |