Dum solus teneros claudebam cratibus hædos. 145 Heus bone numquid agis? nisi te quid forte retardat, 150 Quasque habet ista palus herbas, artesque medentum. Ah pereant herbæ, pereant artesque medentum, Gramina, postquam ipsi nil profecere magistro. Dum solus teneros claudebam cratibus hædos.] As in Lycidas, v. 29. Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night. The Crates are the wattled cotes in Comus, v. 345. 149. Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni?] The river Colne flows through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in Milton's neighbourhood. Our author's father's house and lands at Horton near Colnbrook, were held under the Earl of Bridgewater, before whom Comus was acted at Ludlow-Castle. Milton's mother is buried in the chancel of Horton church, with this Inscription on a flat stone over the grave." Heare lyeth "the body of Sara Milton the "wife of John Milton, who died "the 3d of April, 1637.” By jugera Cassibelauni, we are to understand Verulam or Saint Alban's, called the town of Cassibelan, an ancient British king. See Camd. Brit. i. 321. edit. Gibs. 1772. Milton's appellations are often conveyed by the poetry of ancient fable. 150. Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos,] Deodate is the shepherd lad in Comus, v. 619. A certain shepherd lad, Of small regard to see to, yet well skill'd In every virtuous plant, and healing herb, That spreads her verdant leaf to th Ipse etiam, nam nescio quid mihi grande sonabat 155 : 160 Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per æquora puppes: Dicam, et Pandrasidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ, Brennumque Arviragumque duces, priscumque Belinum, Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos; 165 155. He hints his design of quitting pastoral, and the lighter kinds of poetry, to write an epic poem. This, it appears by what follows, was to be on some part of the ancient British story. 162. Ipse ego Dardanias, &c.] The landing of the Trojans in England under Brutus. Rhutupium is a part of the Kentish coast. Brutus married Inogen, the eldest daughter of Pandrasus a Grecian king; from whose bondage Brutus had delivered his countrymen the Trojans. Brennus and Belinus were the sons of Molutius Dunwallo, by some writers called the first king of Britain. The two sons carried their victorious arms into Gaul and Italy. Arviragus, or Arvirage, the son of Cunobelin, conquered the Roman general. Claudius. He is said to have founded Dover castle. 165. Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos ;] Armorica, or Brittany in France, was peopled by the Britons when they fled from the Saxons. 166. Tum gravidam Arturo, &c.] Iogerne was the wife of Gorloise prince of Cornwall. Merlin transformed Uther Pendragon into Gorlois; by which artifice Uther had access to the bed of logerne, and begat King Arthur. This was in Tintagel castle in Cornwall. See Geffr. Monm. viii. 19. The story is told by Selden on the Polyolbion, s. i. vol. ii. 674. Perhaps it will be said, that I am retailing much idle history. But this is such idle history as Milton would have clothed in the richest poetry. 168. O mihi, &c.] I have corrected the pointing. "And O, "if I should have long life to "execute these designs, you, my Tu procul annosa pendebis fistula pinu, Multum oblita mihi; aut patriis mutata Camœnis 170 175 Si me flava comas legat Usa, et potor Alauni, Vorticibusque frequens Abra, et nemus omne Treantæ, "rural pipe, shall be hung up "forgotten on yonder ancient pine: you are now employed "in Latin strains, but you shall "soon be exchanged for English poetry. Will you then sound "in rude British tones?-Yes"We cannot excel in all things. "I shall be sufficiently contented "to be celebrated at home for English verse." Our author says in the Preface to Ch. Gov. b. ii. "Not caring to be once "named abroad, though perhaps "I could attain to that: but " content with these British "islands as my world." Prose Works, vol. i. 60. 171. Brittonicum] In lengthening the first syllable of this word, contrary to the usage of Virgil, Horace, &c. Milton is supported by Lucretius, vi. 1104. Symmons. 175. Si me flava comas legat Usa, et potor Alauni,] Usa is perhaps the Ouse in Buckinghamshire. But other rivers have that name, which signifies water in general. Alaunus is Alain in Dorsetshire, Alonde in Northumberland, and Camlan in Cornwall; and is also a Latin name for other rivers. 176. Vorticibusque frequens Abra,] So Ovid, of the river Evenus. Metam. ix. 106. And Tyber is "densus vortici“bus,” Fast. vi. 502. Abra has been used as a Latin name for the Tweed, the Humber, and the Severn, from the British Abren, or Aber, a river's mouth. Of the three, I think the Humber, vorticibus frequens, is intended. Leland proves from some old monkish lines, that the Severn was originally called Abren; a name, which afterwards the Welch bards pretended to be derived from King Locrine's daughter Abrine, not Sabrine, drowned in that river. Comm.' Cygn. Cant. vol. ix. p. 67. edit. 1744. In the Tragedy of Locrine, written about 1594, this lady is called Sabren. Suppl. Shakesp. vol. ii. p. 262. a. iv. s. 5. Yes, damsels, yes, Sabren shall surely die, &c. And it is added, that the river [Severn] into which she is thrown, was thence called Sabren. Sabren, through Safren, easily comes to Severn. See Comus, v. 826. seq. In the same play, Humber the Scythian king exclaims, p. 246. a. iv. s. 4. And gentle by take my troubled corse. Et Thamesis meus ante omnes, et fusca metallis Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. 180 Hæc, et plura simul; tum quæ mihi pocula Mansus, 185 In medio rubri maris unda, et odoriferum ver, That is, the river Aby, which just before is called Abis. Ptolemy, enumerating our rivers that fall into the eastern sea, mentions Abi; but probably the true reading is Abri, which came from Aber. Aber might soon be corrupted into Humber. The derivation of the Humber from Humber, king of the Huns, is as fabulous, as that the name Severn was from Abrine or Sabrine. But if Humber, a king of the Huns, has any concern in this name, the best way is to reconcile matters, and associate both etymologies in Hun-Aber, or Humber. 176. -nemus omne Treante,] The river Trent. In the next line, he calls Thamesis, meus, because he was born in London. 177. fusca metallis Tamara,] VOL. IV. Quis putet? hic quoque Amor, pictæque in nube pharetræ, Arma corusca faces, et spicula tincta pyropo; 195 Tu quoque in his, nec me fallit spes lubrica, Damon, Tu quoque in his certe es, nam quo tua dulcis abiret Sanctaque simplicitas, nam quo tua candida virtus? 200 Nec te Lethæo fas quæsivisse sub. orco, Nec tibi conveniunt lacrymæ, nec flebimus ultra, Ore sacro. Quin tu, cœli post jura recepta, 195. He aims his darts up wards, per orbes, among the stars. He wounds the gods. 198. Tu quoque in his, &c.] The transition is elegant. 201. Nec te Lethæo fas quasivisse sub orco, &c.] From this line to the last but one, the imagery is almost all from his own Lycidas, v. 165–185. 210. For the accommodation 205 210 |
