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Et Tarteffiaco fubmerferat æquore currum
Phœbus, ab Eoo littore menfus iter:
Nec mora, membra cavo pofui refovenda cubili,
Condiderant oculos noxque foporque meos :
Cum mihi vifus eram lato fpatiarier agro,
Heu nequit ingenium vifa referre meum.
Illic punicea radiabant omnia luce,

Ut matutino cum juga fole rubent.

Ac veluti cum pandit opes Thaumantia proles,
Veftitu nituit multicolore folum.

Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos

Again, EPIST. EX PONT. ii. v. 50.

Qualis ab Eois Lucifer EXIT AQUIS.

See alfo METAM. XV. 189.

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40

33. Et Tartiffiaco, &c.] Ovid, METAM. xiv. 416. Prefferat occiduus TARTESSIA littora Phœbus. Tartefiacus occurs in Martial, EPIGR. ix. 46. See below, EL. vi. 83.

Quid cum TARTESSIDE lympha?

We are to understand the ftraits of Hercules, or the Atlantic ocean. See alfo Buchanan DE SPHÆR. L. i. p. 126. edit. ut fupr. "TARTESSIACIS, cum Taurus mergitur undis." And ib. p. 123. "TARTESSIACO, qui feffos excipit axes, limita." Buchanan was now a popular modern claffic.

41.

"The ground glittered, as when it reflects the manifold "hues of a ranbow in all its glory." We have THAUMANTIAS Iris, in Ovid, METAM. iv. 479. See also Virgil, ix. 6.

43. Non dea tam variis ornavit floribus hortos

Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi.] Eden is compared to the Homeric garden of Alcinous, PARAD. LOST, B. ix. 439. B. v. 341.

Chloris is Flora, who according to antient fable was beloved by Zephyr. Hence our author is to be explained. PARAD. L. B. v. 16.

Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes.

See Ovid, FAST. L. v. 195. feq. She is again called Chloris by our author, EL. iv. 35.

Bifque novo terram fparfifti, CHLORI, fenilem
Gramine, bifque tuas abftulit Auster opes.

Yet

Alcinoi, Zephyro Chloris amata levi.
Flumina vernantes lambunt argentea campos,
Ditior Hefperio flavet arena Tago.

Serpit odoriferas per opes levis aura Favoni,
Aura fub innumeris humida nata rofis,

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Yet there, and according to the true etymology of the word, she is more properly the power of vegetation. Chloris is Flora in Drummond's Sonnets, Signat. E. 2. ut fupr.

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Faire CHLORIS is, when the doth paint Aprile.

In Ariofto, Mercury fteals Vulcan's net made for Mars and Venus to captivate Chloris. ORL. FUR. C. xv. 57.

CHLORIDA bella, che per aria vola, &c.

45. In the garden of Eden," the crifped brooks roll on orient 66 pearl and SANDS OF GOLD." PARAD. L. B. iv. 237.

47. Serpit odoriferas per opes levis aura Favoni,

Aura fub innumeris humida nota rofis.] So in the fame garden, v. 156. But with a conceit.

-GENTLE GALES

Fanning their odoriferous wings, difpenfe

NATIVE perfumes, and whifper whence they stole
These balmy spoils.-

In the text, the AURA, or breath of Favonius, is born, or becomes humid, under innumerable rofes. Simply it contracts its fragrance from flowers. Compare CYMBELINE, A. iv. S. ii.

-They are as gentle

As zephyrs BLOWING BELOW the violet,
Not wagging his sweet head.

Perhaps, by the way, from Cutwoode's CALTHA POETARUM, 1599. ft. 22. Of the primrofe. [And fee ft. 23.]

WAGGING the wanton with each wind and blaft.

Jonfon fhould not here be forgot, MASQUES, vol. vi. 39.
As gentle as the ftroking wind

Runs o'er the the gentler flowers.

We have Favonius for Zephyr, Lucretius's genitabilis aura Favoni,

in SON N. XX.

-Till Favonins reinfpire

The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire

The lily and rose.

Where fee the Note.

Talis in extremis terræ Gangetidis oris
Luciferi regis fingitur effe domus.

49. Talis in extremis terræ Gangetidis oris

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Luciferi regis fingitur effe domus.] I know not where this fiction is to be found. But our author has given a glorious description of a palace of Lucifer, in the PARADISE LOST, B. v. 757. At length into the limits of the north

They came, and Satan to his ROYAL SEAT
High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount,
Rais'd on a mount, with pyramids and towers
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold,
The PALACE of GBEAT LUCIFER, fo call
That ftructure, in the dialect of men
Interpreted; which not long after, he
Affecting all equality with God,

In imitation of that mount, whereon

Meffiah was declar'd in fight of heaven,

The Mountain of the Congregation call'd, &c.

Here is a mixture of Ariofto and Ifaiah. Because Lucifer is fimply faid by the prophet, " to fit upon the mount of the Congregation "on the fides of the north," Milton builds him a palace on this mountain, equal in magnificence and brilliancy to the most fuperb romantic caftle. In the next, by the utmost parts of the Gangetic land, we are to understand the north; the river Ganges, which feparates India from Scythia, arifing from the mountain Taurus.

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Mr. Steevens gives another meaning to the text: "You fuppofe the Palace of Lucifer, that is Satan, to have been the object "intended. But I cannot help thinking, that the refidence of the "of the fun was what Milton meant to describe, as fituated in the "extreme point of the Eaft. I fhall countenance my opinion, by inftance not taken from a more inglorious author than our poet has fometimes deigned to copy.

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"For from his Pallace in the Eaft,
"The King of Light, in purple dreft,

"Set thicke with gold and precious stone,
"Which like a rocke of diamond fhonne.

"PYMLICO, or Runne Red Cappe, &c. 1609. It is obfervable, "that this paffage not only exhibits the Domus Luciferi Regis ter

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ræ Gangatidis oris, but alfo the rock of diamond, in which Milton "has armed one of his rebellious fpirits. This House, I suppose, "is intended for the Palace of the Sun, as described by Ovid. "You seem to have confidered Lucifer as a proper name instead "of a compound epithet." See "LUCIFERAS rotas," infr. EL, 46. And Note on Coмus, v. 880.

V.

Ipfe racemiferis dum denfas vitibus umbras,
Et pellucentes miror ubique locos,
Ecce mihi fubito Præful Wintonius aftat,
Sidereum nitido fulfit in ore jubar;

Veftis ad auratos defluxit candida talos,

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Infula divinum cinxerat alba caput.

Dumque fenex tali incedit venerandus amictu,
Intremuit læto florea terra fono.

Agmina gemmatis plaudunt cœleftia pennis,
Pura triumphali perfonat æthra tuba.

60

Quifque novum amplexu comitem cantuque falutat, Hofque aliquis placido mifit ab ore fonos; "Nate veni, et patrii felix cape gaudia regni,

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Semper abhinc duro, nate, labore vaca.”
Dixit, et aligera tetigerunt nablia turmæ,
At mihi cum tenebris aurea pulsa quies.
Flebam turbatos Cephaleia pellice fomnos,
Talia contingant fomnia fæpe mihi.*

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59. Agmina gemmatis plaudunt cæleftia pennis.] Not from the Italian poets, but from Ovid's Cupid, REMED. AMOR. V. · 39. Movit Amor GEMMATAS aureus ALAS.

Again, AMOR. i. ii. 41. Of the fame.

Tu PENNAS GEMMA, gemma variante capillos, &c.

In PARADISE LOST, Milton has been more fparing in decorating the plumage of his angels.

61. Quifque novum amplexu comitem cantuque falutat.] So in LYCIDAS, V. 178.

There entertain him all the faints above, &c.

68. Talia contingant somnia fæpe mihi.] Ovid concludes one of his most exceptionable Elegies in the AMORES, which I will not point out, with fuch a pentameter,

Milton, as he grew old in puritanitin, muft have looked back with difguft and remorfe on the panegyric of this performance, as on one of the fins of his youth, inexperience and orthodoxy : for he had here celebrated, not only a bishop, but a bishop who fupported the dignity and conftitution of the Church of England in

ELEG. IV. Anno tatis 18.

Ad Thomam Junium præceptorem fuum, apud mercatores Anglicos Hamburge agentes, Paftoris munere fungentem.*

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I, pete Teutonicos læve

Urre immenfum fubito, mea litera, pontum, Teutonicos læve per æquor agros; Segnes rumpe moras, et nil, precor, obftet eunti, Et feftinantis nil remoretur iter.

their most extensive latitude, the diftinguished favourite of Elizabeth and James, and the defender of regal prerogative. Clarendon fays, that if Andrewes," who loved and understood the Church," had fucceeded Bancroft in the fee of Canterbury, " that infection “would easily have been kept out, which could not afterwards be "fo eafily expelled." HIST. REBELL. B. i. p. 88. edit. 1721.

Thomas Young, now paftor of the church of English merchants at Hamburgh, was Milton's private preceptor, before he was fent to Saint Paul's fchool. Aubrey in his manufcript Life, calls him, "a puritan in Effex who cutt his haire fhort." Under fuch an instructor, Milton probably first imbibed the principles of puritanifin and as a puritan tutor was employed to educate the fon, we may fairly guefs at the perfuafions or inclinations of the father. Befides, it is faid that our author's grandfather, who lived at Halton, five miles east of Oxford, and was one of the rangers of Shotover-foreft difinherited his fon for being a proteftant: and, as converts are apt to go to excefs, I fufpect the fon embraced the oppofite extreme. The first and fourth of Milton's Familiar Epittles, both very respectful and affectionate, are to this Thomas Young. See PROSE-WORKS, ii. 565. 567. In the firft, dated, at London, inter urbana diverticula, Mar. 26, 1625, he fays he had refolved to fend Young an Epiftle in verfe: but thought proper at the fame time to fend one in profe. The Elegy now before us, is this Epistle in verfe. In the fecond, dated from Cambridge, Jul. 21, 1628, he says, "Rus tuum accerfitus, fimul ac ver adoverit, "libenter adveniam, ad capeffendas anni, tuique non minus col"loquii, delicias; et ab urbano ftrepitu fubducam me paulifper." Whatever were Young's religious inftructions, our author profeffes to have received from this learned mafter his first introduction to the ftudy of poetry, v. 29.

Primus ego Aonios,, illo præeunte, receffus
Luftrabam, et bifidi facra vireta jugi;

Pieriofque

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